What Is Forest

A forest can also be called a wood, woodland, wold, weald or holt is an area with a high density of trees. There are many definitions of a forest, based on the various criteria. These plant communities cover approximately 9.4% of the Earth’s surface or 30% of total land area, though they once covered much more about 50% of the total land area, in many different regions and function as habitats for organisms, hydrologic flow modulators, and soil conservers, constituting one of the most important aspects of the Earth’s biosphere. Although a forest is classified primarily by trees a forest ecosystemis defined intrinsically with additional species such as fungi. Woodland with more open space between trees is ecologically distinct from a forest.
Forest can be found in all regions capable of sustaining tree growth, at altitudes up to the tree line, except where natural fire frequency or other disturbance is too high, or where the environment has been altered by human activity. Forest sometimes contains many tree species within a small area as in tropical rain and temperate deciduous forests, or relatively few species over large areas. Forest often home to animal and plant species, and biomass per unit area is high compared to other vegetation communities. Much of this biomass occurs below ground in the root systems and as partially decomposed plant detritus. The woody component of a forest contains lignin, which is relatively slow to decompose compared with other organic materials such as cellulose or carbohydrate.
Forest are differentiated from woodlands by the extent of canopy coverage in a forest, the branches and the foliage of separate trees often meet or interlock, although there can be gaps of varying sizes within an area referred to as forest. A woodland has a more continuously open canopy, with trees spaced further apart, which allows more sunlight to penetrate to the ground between them.