Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as

well as all the nonliving, physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such
as air, soil, water, and sunlight. It is all the organisms in a given area, along with the nonliving (abiotic)
factors with which they interact; a biological community and its physical environment.

Overview
The entire array of organisms inhabiting a particular ecosystem is called a community. In a typical
ecosystem, plants and other photosynthetic organisms are the producers that provide the
food. Ecosystems can be permanent or temporary. Ecosystems usually form a number of food webs.

Ecosystems are functional units consisting of living things in a given area, non-living chemical and
physical factors of their environment, linked together through nutrient cycle and energy flow.

1. Natural
1. Terrestrial ecosystem
2. Aquatic ecosystem
1. Lentic, the ecosystem of a lake, pond or swamp.
2. Lotic, the ecosystem of a river, stream or spring.
2. Artificial, ecosystems created by humans.

Central to the ecosystem concept is the idea that living organisms interact with every other element in
their local environment. Eugene Odum, a founder of ecology, stated: "Any unit that includes all of the
organisms (ie: the "community") in a given area interacting with the physical environment so that a flow of
energy leads to clearly defined trophic structure, biotic diversity, and material cycles (i.e.: exchange of
materials between living and nonliving parts) within the system is an ecosystem."

Etymology
The term ecosystem was coined in 1930 by Roy Clapham to mean the combined physical and biological
components of an environment. British ecologist Arthur Tansley later refined the term, describing it as
"The whole system, … including not only the organism-complex, but also the whole complex of physical
factors forming what we call the environment". Tansley regarded ecosystems not simply as natural units,
but as mental isolates. Tansley later defined the spatial extent of ecosystems using the term ecotope.

Examples of ecosystems

 Agroecosystem
 Aquatic ecosystem
 Chaparral
 Coral reef
 Desert
 Forest
 Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
 Human ecosystem
 Large marine ecosystem
 Littoral zone
 Lotic
 Marine ecosystem
 Pond Ecosystem
 Prairie
 Rainforest
 Riparian zone
 Savanna
 Steppe
 Subsurface Lithoautotrophic Microbial Ecosystem
 Taiga
 Tundra
 Urban ecosystem

A freshwater ecosystem in Gran Canaria, an island of the Canary Islands.

Biomes

Map of Terrestrial biomes classified by vegetation.

Main article:  Biome

Biomes are a classification of globally similar areas, including ecosystems, such as ecological

communities ofplants and animals, soil organisms and climaticconditions.[citation needed] Biomes are in part
defined based on factors such as plant structures (such as trees, shrubs and grasses), leaf types (such
as broadleaf and needleleaf), plant spacing (forest, woodland, savanna) and climate.[citation
needed]
 Unlike ecozones, biomes are not defined by genetic, taxonomic or historical similarities. Biomes are
often identified with particular patterns ofecological succession and climax vegetation.

A fundamental classification of biomes is:

1. Terrestrial (land) biomes.

2. Freshwater biomes.
3. Marine biomes.
[edit]Classification

Summer field in Belgium (Hamois). The blue flower is Centaurea cyanus and the red one a Papaver rhoeas.

The High Peaks Wilderness Area in the 6,000,000-acre (2,400,000 ha) Adirondack Park is an example of a diverse
ecosystem.
Flora of Baja California Desert, Cataviñaregion, Mexico.

Ecosystems have become particularly importantpolitically, since the Convention on Biological

Diversity(CBD) - ratified by 192 countries - defines "the protection of ecosystems, natural habitats and the
maintenance of viable populations of species in natural surroundings"[6] as a commitment of ratifying
countries. This has created the political necessity to spatially identify ecosystems and somehow
distinguish among them. The CBD defines an "ecosystem" as a "dynamic complex of plant, animal and
micro-organism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit".

With the need of protecting ecosystems, the political need arose to describe and identify them efficiently.
Vreugdenhil et al. argued that this could be achieved most effectively by using a physiognomic-ecological
classification system, as ecosystems are easily recognizable in the field as well as on satellite images.
They argued that the structure and seasonality of the associated vegetation, or flora, complemented with
ecological data (such as elevation, humidity, and drainage), are each determining modifiers that separate
partially distinct sets of species. This is true not only for plant species, but also for species of animals,
fungi and bacteria. The degree of ecosystem distinction is subject to the physiognomic modifiers that can
be identified on an image and/or in the field. Where necessary, specific faunaelements can be added,
such as seasonal concentrations of animals and the distribution of coral reefs.

Several physiognomic-ecological classification systems are available:

 Physiognomic-Ecological Classification of Plant Formations of the Earth: a system based on the

1974 work of Mueller-Dombois and Heinz Ellenberg,[7] and developed by UNESCO. This classificatie
"describes the above-ground or underwater vegetation structures and cover as observed in the field,
described as plant life forms. This classification is fundamentally a species-independent
physiognomic, hierarchical vegetation classification system which also takes into account ecological
factors such as climate, elevation, human influences such as grazing, hydric regimes and survival
 strategies such as seasonality. The system was expanded with a basic classification for open water
formations".[8]
 Land Cover Classification System (LCCS), developed by the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO).[9]
 Forest-Range Environmental Study Ecosystems (FRES) developed by the United States Forest
Service for use in the United States.[10]

Several aquatic classification systems are available, and an effort is being made by the United States
Geological Survey (USGS) and theInter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN) to design a
complete ecosystem classification system that will cover both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

From a philosophy of science perspective, ecosystems are not discrete units of nature that simply can be
identified using the most "correct" type of classification approach.[citation needed] In agreement with the
definition by Tansley ("mental isolates"), any attempt to delineate or classify ecosystems should be
explicit about the observer/analyst input in the classification including its normative rationale.

Two Giant Sequoias, Sequoia National Park. Note the large fire scar at the base of the right-hand tree; fires do not kill the
trees but do remove competing thin-barked species, and aid Giant Sequoia regeneration.

[edit]Ecosystem services
Main article:  Ecosystem services

Ecosystem services are “fundamental life-support services upon which human civilization depends,”i and
can be direct or indirect. Examples of direct ecosystem services
are: pollination,wood and erosion prevention. Indirect services could be
considered climate moderation, nutrient cycles and detoxifying natural substances.

The services and goods an ecosystem provides are often undervalued as many of them are without
market value.[11] Broad examples include:
 regulating (climate, floods, nutrient balance, water filtration)
 provisioning (food, medicine, fur)
 cultural (science, spiritual, ceremonial, recreation, aesthetic)
 supporting (nutrient cycling, photosynthesis, soil formation).[12]
[edit]Ecosystem legal rights
Ecuador's new constitution of 2008 is the first in the world to recognize legally enforceable Rights of
Nature, or ecosystem rights.[13]

The borough of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania passed a law giving ecosystems legal rights. The ordinance
establishes that the municipal government or any Tamaqua resident can file a lawsuit on behalf of the
local ecosystem.[14] Other townships, such as Rush, followed suit and passed their own laws.[15]

This is part of a growing body of legal opinion proposing 'wild law'. Wild law, a term coined by Cormac
Cullinan (a lawyer based in South Africa), would cover birds and animals, rivers and deserts.[16][17]

[edit]Function and biodiversity

Savanna at Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania.

The side of a tide pool showing sea stars(Dermasterias), sea anemones(Anthopleura) and sea sponges in Santa Cruz,
California.

See also:  Biodiversity

From an anthropocentric point of view, some people perceive ecosystems as production units that
produce goods and services, such as wood by forest ecosystems and grass for cattle by natural
grasslands. Meat from wild animals, often referred to as bush meat in Africa, has proven to be extremely
successful under well-controlled management schemes in South Africa and Kenya. Much less successful
has been the discovery and commercialization of substances of wild organism for pharmaceutical
purposes. Services derived from ecosystems are referred to as ecosystem services. They may include

1. facilitating the enjoyment of nature, which may generate many forms of income and employment
in the tourism sector, often referred to as eco-tourisms,
2. water retention, thus facilitating a more evenly distributed release of water,
3. soil protection, open-air laboratory for scientific research, etc.

A greater degree of species or biological diversity - commonly referred to as Biodiversity - of an

ecosystem may contribute to greater resilience of an ecosystem, because there are more species present
at a location to respond to change and thus "absorb" or reduce its effects. This reduces the effect before
the ecosystem's structure is fundamentally changed to a different state. This is not universally the case
and there is no proven relationship between the species diversity of an ecosystem and its ability to
provide goods and services on a sustainable level: Humid tropical forests produce very few goods and
direct services and are extremely vulnerable to change, while many temperate forests readily grow back
to their previous state of development within a lifetime after felling or a forest fire. Some grasslands have
been sustainably exploited for thousands of years (Mongolia, Africa, European peat and mooreland
communities).

[edit]The study of ecosystems

Forest on San Juan Island

[edit]Ecosystem dynamics

Loch Lomond in Scotland forms a relatively isolated ecosystem. The fish community of this lake has remained unchanged
over a very long period of time.[18]

Introduction of new elements, whether biotic or abiotic, into an ecosystem tend to have a disruptive effect.
In some cases, this can lead to ecological collapse or "trophic cascading" and the death of many species
within the ecosystem. Under this deterministic vision, the abstract notion of ecological health attempts to
measure the robustness and recovery capacity for an ecosystem; i.e. how far the ecosystem is away from
its steady state.

Often, however, ecosystems have the ability to rebound from a disruptive agent. The difference between
collapse or a gentle rebound is determined by two factors—the toxicity of the introduced element and
the resiliency of the original ecosystem.

Ecosystems are primarily governed by stochastic (chance) events, the reactions these events provoke on
non-living materials and the responses by organisms to the conditions surrounding them. Thus, an
ecosystem results from the sum of individual responses of organisms to stimuli from elements in the
environment.The presence or absence of populations merely depends on reproductive and dispersal
success, and population levels fluctuate in response to stochastic events. As the number of species in an
ecosystem is higher, the number of stimuli is also higher. Since the beginning of life organisms have
survived continuous change through natural selection of successful feeding, reproductive and dispersal
behavior. Through natural selection the planet's species have continuously adapted to change through
variation in their biological composition and distribution. Mathematically it can be demonstrated that
greater numbers of different interacting factors tend to dampen fluctuations in each of the individual
factors.
Spiny forest at Ifaty, Madagascar, featuring various Adansonia (baobab) species, Alluaudia procera (Madagascar ocotillo)
and other vegetation.

Given the great diversity among organisms on earth, most ecosystems only changed very gradually, as
some species would disappear while others would move in. Locally, sub-populations continuously go
extinct, to be replaced later through dispersal of other sub-populations. Stochastists do recognize that
certain intrinsic regulating mechanisms occur in nature. Feedback and response mechanisms at the
species level regulate population levels, most notably through territorial behaviour. Andrewatha and
Birch[19] suggest that territorial behaviour tends to keep populations at levels where food supply is not a
limiting factor. Hence, stochastists see territorial behaviour as a regulatory mechanism at the species
level but not at the ecosystem level. Thus, in their vision, ecosystems are not regulated by feedback and
response mechanisms from the (eco)system itself and there is no such thing as a balance of nature.

If ecosystems are governed primarily by stochastic processes, through which its subsequent state would
be determined by both predictable and random actions, they may be more resilient to sudden change
than each species individually. In the absence of a balance of nature, the species composition of
ecosystems would undergo shifts that would depend on the nature of the change, but entire ecological
collapse would probably be infrequent events.

Arctic tundra on Wrangel Island, Russia.

The theoretical ecologist Robert Ulanowicz has used information theory tools to describe the structure of

ecosystems, emphasizing mutual information (correlations) in studied systems. Drawing on this
methodology and prior observations of complex ecosystems, Ulanowicz depicts approaches to
determining the stress levels on ecosystems and predicting system reactions to defined types of alteration
in their settings (such as increased or reduced energy flow, andeutrophication.[20]

In addition, Eric Sanderson has developed the Muir web, based on experience on the Mannahatta project.

This graphical schematic shows how different species are connected to each other, not only regarding
their position in the food chain, but also regarding other services, i.e. provisioning of shelter, ...[21][22]

See also:  Relational order theories, as to fundamentals of life organization

[edit]Ecosystem ecology
Ecosystem ecology is the integrated study of biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems and their
interactions within an ecosystem framework. This science examines how ecosystems work and
relates this to their components such as chemicals, bedrock, soil, plants, andanimals. Ecosystem
ecology examines physical and biological structure and examines how these ecosystem
characteristics interact.

Aquatic ecosystem
An aquatic ecosystem is an ecosystem located in a body of water. Communitiesof organisms that are
dependent on each other and on their environment live in aquatic ecosystems. The two main types of
aquatic ecosystems are marine ecosystems and freshwater ecosystems

Types
Marine
Main article:  Marine ecosystem

Marine ecosystems cover approximately 71% of the Earth's surface and contain approximately 97% of
the planet's water. They generate 32% of the world's net primary production They are distinguished from
freshwater ecosystems by the presence of dissolved compounds, especially salts, in the water.
Approximately 85% of the dissolved materials in seawater are sodium and chlorine. Seawater has an
average salinity of 35 parts per thousand (ppt) of water. Actual salinity varies among different marine
ecosystems.

Marine ecosystems can be divided into the following zones: oceanic (the relatively shallow part of the
ocean that lies over the continental shelf); profundal (bottom or deep water); benthic (bottom
substrates); intertidal (the area between high and low tides); estuaries; salt marshes; coral reefs;
and hydrothermal vents (where chemosynthetic sulfur bacteria form the food base).
Classes of organisms found in marine ecosystems include brown
algae, dinoflagellates, corals, cephalopods, echinoderms, and sharks. Fish caught in marine ecosystems
are the biggest source of commercial foods obtained from wild populations.

Environmental problems concerning marine ecosystems include unsustainable exploitation of marine

resources (for example overfishing of certain species), marine pollution, climate change, and building on
coastal areas.

Freshwater
Main article:  Freshwater ecosystem

Freshwater ecosystems cover 0.80% of the Earth's surface and inhabit 0.009% of its total water. They
generate nearly 3% of its net primary production. Freshwater ecosystems contain 41% of the world's
known fish species.

There are three basic types of freshwater ecosystems:

 Lentic: slow-moving water, including pools, ponds, and lakes.

 Lotic: rapidly-moving water, for example streams and rivers.
 Wetlands: areas where the soil is saturated or inundated for at least part of the time.

Lake ecosystems can be divided into zones: pelagic (open offshore waters); profundal; littoral (nearshore
shallow waters); and riparian (the area of land bordering a body of water). Two important subclasses of
lakes are ponds, which typically are small lakes that intergrade with wetlands, and water reservoirs. Many
lakes, or bays within them, gradually become enriched by nutrients and fill in with organic sediments, a
process called eutrophication. Eutrophication is accelerated by human activity within the water catchment
area of the lake.

Freshwater ecosystem.

The major zones in river ecosystems are determined by the river bed's gradient or by the velocity of the
current. Faster moving turbulent water typically contains greater concentrations of dissolved oxygen,
which supports greater biodiversity than the slow moving water of pools. These distinctions forms the
basis for the division of rivers into upland and lowland rivers. The food base of streams within riparian
forests is mostly derived from the trees, but wider streams and those that lack a canopy derive the
majority of their food base from algae. Anadromous fish are also an important source of nutrients.
Environmental threats to rivers include loss of water, dams, chemical pollution and introduced species.

Wetlands are dominated by vascular plants that have adapted to saturated soil. Wetlands are the most
productive natural ecosystems because of the proximity of water and soil. Due to their productivity,
wetlands are often converted into dry land with dykes and drains and used for agricultural purposes. Their
closeness to lakes and rivers means that they are often developed for human settlement.

Ponds

These are a specific type of freshwater ecosystems that are largely based on the autotroph algae which
provide the base trophic level for all life in the area. The largest predator in a pond ecosystem will
normally be a fish and in-between range smaller insects and microorganisms. It may have a scale of
organisms from small bacteria to big creatures like water snakes, beetles, water bugs, frogs, tadpoles,
and turtles. This is important for the environment.

Functions
Aquatic ecosystems perform many important environmental functions. For example, they recycle
nutrients, purify water, attenuate floods, recharge ground water and provide habitats for wildlife. Aquatic
ecosystems are also used for human recreation, and are very important to the tourism industry, especially
in coastal regions.

The health of an aquatic ecosystem is degraded when the ecosystem's ability to absorb a stress has
been exceeded. A stress on an aquatic ecosystem can be a result of physical, chemical or biological
alterations of the environment. Physical alterations include changes in water temperature, water flow and
light availability. Chemical alterations include changes in the loading rates of biostimulatory nutrients,
oxygen consuming materials, and toxins. Biological alterations include the introduction of exotic species.
Human populations can impose excessive stresses on aquatic ecosystems.

Abiotic characteristics
An ecosystem is composed of biotic communities and abiotic environmental factors, which form a self-
regulating and self-sustaining unit. Abiotic environmental factors of aquatic ecosystems include
temperature, salinity, and flow.
The amount of dissolved oxygen in a water body is frequently the key substance in determining the extent
and kinds of organic life in the water body. Fish need dissolved oxygen to survive. Conversely, oxygen is
fatal to many kinds of anaerobic bacteria.

The salinity of the water body is also a determining factor in the kinds of species found in the water body.
Organisms in marine ecosystems tolerate salinity, while many freshwater organisms are intolerant of salt.
Freshwater used for irrigation purposes often absorb levels of salt that are harmful to freshwater
organisms. Though some salt can be good for organisms.

Biotic characteristics
The organisms (also called biota) found in aquatic ecosystems are either autotrophic or heterotrophic.

Autotrophic organisms
Autotrophic organisms are producers that generate organic compounds from inorganic material. Algae
use solar energy to generate biomass from carbon dioxide and are the most important autotrophic
organisms in aquatic environments. Chemosynthetic bacteria are found in benthic marine ecosystems.
These organisms are able to feed on hydrogen sulfide in water that comes from volcanic vents. Great
concentrations of animals that feed on this bacteria are found around volcanic vents. For example, there
are giant tube worms (Riftia pachyptila) 1.5m in length and clams (Calyptogena magnifica) 30cm long.

Heterotrophic organisms
Heterotrophic organisms consume autotrophic organisms and use the organic compounds in their bodies
as energy sources and as raw materials to create their own biomass. Euryhaline organisms are salt
tolerant and can survive in marine ecosystems, while stenohaline or salt intolerant species can only live in
freshwater environments.

Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than
enough to support growth of most plants. Deserts are defined as areas with an average annual
precipitation of less than 250 millimetres (10 in) per year, or as areas where more water is lost
by evapotranspiration than falls as precipitation. In the Köppen climate classification system, deserts are
classed as BWh (hot desert) or BWk (temperate desert). In the Thornthwaite climate classification
system, deserts would be classified as arid megathermalclimates.
Geography

A satellite image of the Sahara, the world's largest hot desert.

The snow surface at Dome C Station in Antarctica is representative of the majority of the continent's surface.

Deserts are part of a wide classification of regions that, on an average annual basis, have a moisture
deficit (i.e. they can potentially lose more than is received). Deserts are located where vegetation cover is
sparse to almost nonexistent. Deserts take up about one fifth (20%) of the Earth's land surface. Hot
deserts usually have a large diurnal and seasonal temperature range, with high daytime temperatures,
and low nighttime temperatures (due to extremely low humidity). In hot deserts the temperature in the
daytime can reach 45 °C/113 °F or higher in the summer, and dip to 0 °C/32 °F or lower at nighttime in
the winter. Water vapor in the atmosphere acts to trap infrared radiation from both the sun and the
ground, and dry desert air is incapable of blockingsunlight during the day or trapping heat during the
night. Thus, during daylight most of the sun's heat reaches the ground, and as soon as the sun sets the
desert cools quickly by radiating its heat into space. Urban areas in deserts lack large (more than 14
°C/25 °F) daily temperature variations, partially due to the urban heat island effect.

Many deserts are formed by rain shadows; mountains blocking the path of precipitation to the desert (on
the lee side of the mountain). Deserts are often composed of sand and rocky surfaces.Sand
dunes called ergs and stony surfaces called hamada surfaces compose a minority of desert surfaces.
Exposures of rocky terrain are typical, and reflect minimal soil development and sparseness of vegetation.
The soil is rocky because of the low chemical weathering.

Bottomlands may be salt-covered flats. Eolian processes are major factors in shaping desert

landscapes. Polar deserts (also seen as "cold deserts") have similar features, except the main form of
precipitation is snow rather than rain. Antarctica is the world's largest cold desert (composed of about
98% thick continental ice sheet and 2% barren rock). Some of the barren rock is to be found in the so-
called Dry Valleys of Antarctica that almost never get snow, which can have ice-encrusted saline
lakes that suggest evaporation far greater than the rare snowfall due to the strong katabatic winds that
evaporate even ice.

The largest hot desert is the Sahara in northern Africa, covering 9 million square kilometres and 12
countries.

Deserts sometimes contain valuable mineral deposits that were formed in the arid environment or that
were exposed by erosion. Due to extreme and consistent dryness, some deserts are ideal places for
natural preservation of artifacts and fossils.

The largest deserts

Rank Desert Area (km²) Area (mi²)

1 Antarctic Desert (Antarctica) 13,829,430 5,339,573

2 Sahara (Africa) 9,100,000+ 3,320,000+

3 Arabian Desert (Middle East) 2,330,000 900,000

4 Gobi Desert (Asia) 1,300,000 500,000

5 Kalahari Desert (Africa) 900,000 360,000

6 Patagonian Desert (South America) 670,000 260,000

7 Great Victoria Desert (Australia) 647,000 250,000

8 Syrian Desert (Middle East) 520,000 200,000

Great Basin Desert (North

9 492,000 190,000
America)
Etymology

The Thar Desert near Jaisalmer, India.

English desert and its Romance cognates
(including Italian and Portuguese deserto, Frenchdésert and Spanish desierto) all come from
the ecclesiastical Latin dēsertum (originally "an abandoned place"), a participle of dēserere, "to abandon."
(See desertion.) The correlation between aridity and sparse population is complex and dynamic, varying
by culture, era, and technologies; thus the use of the word desert can cause confusion. In English prior to
the 20th century, desert was often used in the sense of "unpopulated area", without specific reference to
aridity; but today the word is most often used in its climate-science sense (an area of low precipitation)—
and a desert may be quite heavily populated, with millions of inhabitants. Phrases such as "desert island"
and "Great American Desert" in previous centuries did not necessarily imply sand or aridity; their focus
was the sparse population. However, the connotation of a hot, parched, and sandy place often influences
today's popular interpretation of those phrases.

Tadrart Acacus desert in western Libya, part of the Sahara.

Classification
In 1961, Peveril Meigs divided desert regions on Earth into three categories according to the amount of
precipitation they received. In this now widely accepted system, extremely arid lands have at least 12
consecutive months without rainfall, arid lands have less than 250 mm (10 in) of annual rainfall, and
semiarid lands have a mean annual precipitation of between 250 and 500 mm (10–20 in). Arid and
extremely arid lands are deserts, and semiarid areas are generally referred to as steppes.

Definition
Measurement of rainfall alone cannot provide an accurate definition of what a desert is because being
arid also depends on evaporation, which depends in part on temperature. For example, Phoenix,
Arizona receives less than 250 millimeters (10 in) of precipitation per year, and is immediately recognized
as being located in a desert due to its arid adapted plants. TheNorth Slope of Alaska's Brooks Range also
receives less than 250 millimeters (10 in) of precipitation per year and is often classified as a cold desert.
Other regions of the world have cold deserts, including areas of the Himalayas and other high altitude
areas in other parts of the world. Polar deserts cover much of the ice free areas of the arctic and
Antarctic.

Potential evapotranspiration supplements the measurement of rainfall in providing a scientific

measurement-based definition of a desert. The water budget of an area can be calculated using the
formula P − PE ± S, wherein P is precipitation, PE is potential evapotranspiration rates and S is amount of
surface storage of water. Evapotranspiration is the combination of water loss through
atmospheric evaporation and through the life processes of plants. Potential evapotranspiration, then, is
the amount of water that could evaporate in any given region. As an example, Tucson, Arizona receives
about 300 millimeters (12 in) of rain per year, however about 2500 millimeters (100 in) of water could
evaporate over the course of a year.[citation needed] In other words, about 8 times more water could evaporate
from the region than actually falls. Rates of evapotranspiration in cold regions such as Alaska are much
lower because of the lack of heat to aid in the evaporation process.

There are different forms of deserts. Cold deserts can be covered in snow or ice; frozen water unavailable
to plant life. These are more commonly referred to as tundra if a short season of above-freezing
temperatures is experienced, or as an ice cap if the temperature remains below freezing year-round,
rendering the land almost completely lifeless.

Most non-polar deserts are hot in the day and chilly at night (for the latitude) because of the lack of the
moderating effect of water. In some parts of the world, deserts are created by a rain shadow effect in
which air masses lose much of their moisture as they move over a mountain range; other areas are arid
by virtue of being very far from the nearest available sources of moisture.
The Agasthiyamalai hills cut off Tirunelveliin India from the monsoons, creating arainshadow region.

Deserts are also classified by their geographical location and dominant weather pattern as trade wind,
mid-latitude, rain shadow, coastal, monsoon, or polar deserts. Former desert areas presently in non-arid
environments are paleodeserts.

Montane deserts are arid places with a very high altitude; the most prominent example is found north of
the Himalayas, especially in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, in parts of the Kunlun Mountains and
the Tibetan Plateau. Many locations within this category have elevations exceeding 3,000 meters
(10,000 ft) and the thermal regime can be hemiboreal. These places owe their profound aridity (the
average annual precipitation is often less than 40 mm or 1.5 in) to being very far from the nearest
available sources of moisture. Montane deserts are normally cold.

Rain shadow deserts form when tall mountain ranges block clouds from reaching areas in the direction
the wind is going. As the air moves over the mountains, it cools and moisture condenses,
causing precipitation on the windward side. When that air reaches the leeward side, it is dry because it
has lost the majority of its moisture, resulting in a desert. The air then warms, expands, and blows across
the desert. The warm, desiccated air takes with it any remaining moisture in the desert.
Desert features

Satellite view of Al-Dahna desert in Saudi Arabia showing different depositional features

Sand covers only about 20% of Earth's deserts. Most of the sand is in sand sheets and sand seas—vast
regions of undulating dunes resembling ocean waves "frozen" in an instant of time. In general, there are
five forms of deserts:

 Mountain and basin deserts

 Hamada deserts, which consist of plateau landforms
 Regs, which consist of rock pavements
 Ergs, which are formed by sand seas
 Intermontane Basins

Nearly all desert surfaces are plains where eolian deflation—removal of fine-grained material by the wind
—has exposed loose gravels consisting predominantly of pebbles but with occasionalcobbles.

The remaining surfaces of arid lands are composed of exposed bedrock outcrops, desert soils,

and fluvial deposits including alluvial fans, playas, desert lakes, and oases. Bedrock outcrops occur as
small mountains surrounded by extensive erosional plains.

Several different types of dunes exist. Barchan dunes are produced by strong winds blowing across a
level surface and are crescent-shaped. Longitudinal or seif dunes are dunes that are parallel to a strong
wind that blows in one general direction. Transverse dunes run at a right angle to the constant wind
direction. Star dunes are star-shaped and have several ridges that spread out around a point.

Oases are vegetated areas moistened by springs, wells, or by irrigation. Many are artificial. Oases are
often the only places in deserts that support crops and permanent habitation.

Fauna and flora

Prickly pear flower

Organ Pipe cactus in Arizona

Saguaro cactuses in the Sonoran Desertof Arizona.

Flora of Baja California Desert, Cataviña region, Mexico

Deserts have a reputation for supporting very little life, but in reality deserts often have high biodiversity,
including animals that remain hidden during daylight hours to control body temperature or to limit moisture
needs. Some fauna includes the kangaroo rat, coyote,jack rabbit, and many lizards. These animals
adapted to live in deserts are called xerocoles. Many desert animals (and plants) show especially clear
evolutionary adaptations for water conservation or heat tolerance, and so are often studied in comparative
physiology,ecophysiology, and evolutionary physiology. One well-studied example is the specializations
of mammalian kidneys shown by desert-inhabiting species. Many examples of convergent evolution have
been identified in desert organisms, including between cacti andEuphorbia, kangaroo
rats and jerboas, Phrynosoma andMoloch lizards.

Some flora includes shrubs, Prickly Pears, Desert Holly, and the Brittlebush. Most desert plants are
drought- or salt-tolerant, such as xerophytes. Some store water in their leaves, roots, and stems. Other
desert plants have long taproots that penetrate to the water table if present, or have adapted to the
weather by having wide-spreading roots to absorb water from a greater area of the ground. Another
adaptation is the development of small, spiny leaves which shed less moisture than deciduous leaves
with greater surface areas. The stems and leaves of some plants lower the surface velocity of sand-
carrying winds and protect the ground from erosion. Even small fungi and microscopic plant organisms
found on the soil surface (so-called cryptobiotic soil) can be a vital link in preventing erosion and providing
support for other living organisms.

Deserts typically have a plant cover that is sparse but enormously diverse. The giant saguaro cacti of
the Sonoran Desert provide nests for desert birds and serve as "trees" of the desert. Saguaro grow slowly
but may live up to 200 years. When 9 years old, they are about 15 centimeters (6 in) high. After about 75
years, the cacti develop their first branches. When fully grown, saguaro cacti are 15 meters (50 ft) tall and
weigh as much as 10 tons. They dot the Sonoran and reinforce the general impression of deserts as
cactus-rich land.

Although cacti are often thought of as characteristic desert plants, other types of plants have adapted well
to the arid environment. They include the pea and sunflower families. Cold deserts have grasses and
shrubs as dominant vegetation.

Water

Atacama, the world's driest desert

Atacama is the driest place on Earth and is virtually sterile because it is blocked from moisture on both
sides by the Andes mountains and by the Chilean Coast Range. The coldHumboldt Current and
the anticyclone of the Pacific are essential to keep the dry climate of the Atacama. The average rainfall in
the Chilean region of Antofagasta is just 1 mm per year. Some weather stations in the Atacama have
never received rain. Evidence suggests that the Atacama may not have had any significant rainfall from
1570 to 1971. It is so arid that mountains that reach as high as 6,885 meters (22,590 feet) are completely
free of glaciers and, in the southern part from 25°S to 27°S, may have been glacier-free throughout
the Quaternary, though permafrost extends down to an altitude of 4,400 meters and is continuous above
5,600 meters.

A thunderstorm hits Wah Wah Valley,Utah

Rain does fall occasionally in deserts, and desert storms are often violent. A record 44 millimeters (1.7 in)
of rain once fell within 3 hours in the Sahara. Large Saharan storms may deliver up to 1 millimeter per
minute. Normally dry stream channels, called arroyos or wadis, can quickly fill after heavy rains, and flash
floods make these channels dangerous.

A flash flood in the Gobi

Though little rain falls in deserts, deserts receive runoff from ephemeral, or short-lived, streams fed
considerable quantities of sediment for a day or two. Although most deserts are in basins with closed or
interior drainage, a few deserts are crossed by 'exotic' rivers that derive their water from outside the
desert. Such rivers infiltrate soils and evaporate large amounts of water on their journeys through the
deserts, but their volumes are such that they maintain their continuity. The Nile River, the Colorado River,
and the Yellow River are exotic rivers that flow through deserts to deliver their sediments to the sea.
Deserts may also have underground springs, rivers, or reservoirs that lie close to the surface, or deep
underground. Plants that have not completely adapted to sporadic rainfalls in a desert environment may
tap into underground water sources that do not exceed the reach of their root systems.

While deserts are well-known for their lack of water, some groups have adapted ways to find water in this
harsh environment. The Bedouin, for example, turn over half-buried stones just before dawn so dew
forms on them.

Lakes form where rainfall or meltwater in interior drainage basins is sufficient. Desert lakes are generally
shallow, temporary, and salty. Because these lakes are shallow and have a low bottom gradient, wind
stress may cause the lake waters to move over many square kilometers. When small lakes dry up, they
leave a salt crust or hardpan. The flat area of clay, silt, or sand encrusted with salt that forms is known as
a playa or a sink. There are more than a hundred playas in North American deserts. Most are relics of
large lakes that existed during the last ice age about 12,000 years ago. Lake Bonneville was a 52,000-
square-kilometer (20,000 mi²) lake almost 300 meters (1000 ft) deep in Utah, Nevada, and Idaho during
the Ice Age. Today the remnants of Lake Bonneville include Utah's Great Salt Lake, Utah Lake,
andSevier Lake. Because playas are arid landforms from a wetter past, they contain useful clues to
climatic change.

When the occasional precipitation does occur, it erodes the desert rocks quickly.

The flat terrains of hardpans and playas make them excellent racetracks and natural runways for
airplanes and spacecraft. Ground-vehicle speed records have been established on the flat lakebeds of
the Black Rock Desert in Nevada and Bonneville Speedway in Utah. Space shuttles and flight-test aircraft
land on Rogers Lake Playa at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Formation of hot deserts

There are four main, interlinked causes of hot deserts:[citation needed]

 The formation of the subtropical high-pressure cell.

 The rain shadow effect in the belt of easterly trade winds.
 The effect of the cold currents off the west coast of the continents at these latitudes.
 The depositing sands of a desert along its border into the fertile land

It must be noted that also hot deserts (like cold deserts) may result in average temperature
cooling because they reflect more of the incoming light (their albedo is higher than that of water or
forests).

Mineral resources

A mining plant near Jodhpur, India

Deserts may contain great amounts of mineral resources over their entire surface. This occurrence in
minerals also determines the color. For example, the red color of many sand deserts is a result of the
occurrence of laterite.
Some mineral deposits are formed, improved, or preserved by geologic processes that occur in arid lands
as a consequence of climate. Ground water leaches ore minerals and redeposits them in zones near
the water table. This leaching process concentrates these minerals as ore that can be mined.

Evaporation in arid lands enriches mineral accumulation in their lakes. Lake beds known as playasmay be
sources of mineral deposits formed by evaporation. Water evaporating in closed basins precipitates
minerals such as gypsum, salts (including sodium nitrate and sodium chloride), andborates. The minerals
formed in these evaporite deposits depend on the composition and temperature of the saline waters at
the time of deposition.

Significant evaporite resources occur in the Great Basin Desert of the United States, mineral deposits
made famous by the "20-mule teams" that once hauled borax-laden wagons from Death Valley to
the railroad. Boron, from borax and borate evaporites, is an essential ingredient in the manufacture of
glass, enamel, agricultural chemicals, water softeners, and pharmaceuticals. Borates are mined from
evaporite deposits at Searles Lake, California, and other desert locations. The total value of chemicals
that have been produced from Searles Lake substantially exceeds US$1 billion.

The Atacama Desert of Chile is unique among the deserts of the world in its great abundance of saline
minerals. Sodium nitrate has been mined for explosives and fertilizer in the Atacama since the middle of
the 19th century. Nearly 3 million metric tons were mined during World War I.

Valuable minerals located in arid lands include copper in the United States, Chile, Peru,
and Iran; iron and lead-zinc ore in Australia; andgold, silver, and uranium deposits in Australia and the
United States. Nonmetallic mineral resources and rocks such as beryllium, mica,lithium, clays, pumice,
and scoria also occur in arid regions. Sodium carbonate, sulfate, borate, nitrate,
lithium, bromine, iodine, calcium, andstrontium compounds come from sediments and near-surface brines
formed by evaporation of inland bodies of water, often during geologically recent times.

The Green River Formation of Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah contains alluvial fan deposits and playa

evaporites created in a huge lake whose level fluctuated for millions of years. Economically significant
deposits of trona, a major source of sodium compounds, and thick layers of oil shale were created in the
arid environment.

Some of the more productive petroleum areas on Earth are found in arid and semiarid regions of Africa
and the Mideast, although the oil fieldswere originally formed in shallow marine environments. Recent
climate change has placed these reservoirs in an arid environment. It's noteworthy that Ghawar, the
world's largest and most productive oilfield is mostly under the Empty Quarter and Al-Dahna deserts.

Other oil reservoirs, however, are presumed to be eolian in origin and are presently found in humid
environments. The Rotliegendes, ahydrocarbon reservoir in the North Sea, is associated with extensive
evaporite deposits. Many of the major U.S. hydrocarbon resources may come from eolian sands.
Ancient alluvial fan sequences may also be hydrocarbon reservoirs.

Solar energy resources

Deserts are increasingly seen as sources for solar energy. The Negev Desert and the surrounding area,
including the Arava Valley, are the sunniest parts of Israel and little of this land is arable, which is why it
has become the center of the Israeli solar industry. David Faiman, a world expert on solar energy, feels
the energy needs of a country like Israel could be met by building solar energy plants in the Negev.
Faiman also feels the technology now exists to supply all of the world's electricity needs with 10% of
the Sahara. Solel has nine fields of solar collectors in the Mojave Desert of California. It recently signed a
contract to build the Mojave Solar Park, which will be the world's largest solar generating plant.

Human life in deserts

Mahktesh Gadol, an erosional basin in theNegev Desert of southern Israel

Cooking in a desert

A desert is a hostile, potentially deadly environment for unprepared humans. In hot deserts, high
temperatures cause rapid loss of water due to sweating, and the absence of water sources with which to
replenish it can result in dehydration and death within a few days. In addition, unprotected humans are
also at risk from heatstroke.

Humans may also have to adapt to sandstorms in some deserts, not just in their adverse effects
on respiratory systems and eyes, but also in their potentially harmful effects on equipment such as filters,
vehicles and communication equipment. Sandstorms can last for hours, sometimes even days. This
makes surviving in the desert quite difficult for humans.

Despite this, some cultures have made hot deserts their home for thousands of years, including
the Bedouin, Tuareg and Pueblo people. Modern technology, including
advanced irrigationsystems, desalinization and air conditioning have made deserts much more
hospitable. In theUnited States and Australia for example, desert farming has found extensive use.

In cold deserts, hypothermia and frostbite are the chief hazards, as well as dehydration in the absence of

a source of heat to melt ice for drinking. Falling through pack-ice or surface ice layers into freezing water
is a particular danger requiring emergency action to prevent rapid hypothermia. Starvation is also a
hazard; in low temperatures the body requires much more food energy to maintain body heat and to
move. As with hot deserts, some people such as the Inuit have adapted to the harsh conditions of cold
deserts.

Most traditional human life in deserts is nomadic. It depends in hot deserts on finding water, and on
following infrequent rains to obtain grazing for livestock. In cold deserts, it depends on finding good
hunting and fishing grounds, on sheltering from blizzards and winter extremes, and on storing enough
food for winter. Permanent settlement in both kinds of deserts requires permanent water and food
sources and adequate shelter, or the technology and energy sources to provide it.

Kolob Canyon, part of Zion National Park,Utah, United States is part of the larger desert the Colorado Plateau.

Many deserts are flat and featureless, lacking landmarks, or composed of repeating landforms such as
sand dunes or the jumbled ice-fields of glaciers. Advanced skills or devices are required to navigate
through such landscapes and inexperienced travellers may perish when supplies run out after becoming
lost. In addition sandstorms or blizzards may cause disorientation in severely reduced visibility.

The danger represented by wild animals in deserts has been featured in explorers' accounts but does not
cause higher rates of death than in other environments such as rain forests or savanna woodland, and
generally does not by itself affect human distribution. Defense against polar bearsmay be advisable in
some areas of the Arctic, as may precautions against venomous snakes andscorpions in choosing sites
at which to camp in some hot deserts.

Forest
A forest (also called a wood, woodland, wold, weald, holt, frith, or firth) is an area with a high density
of trees. There are many definitions of a forest, based on the various criteria.[1] 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 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 ecosystem is
defined intrinsically with additional species such asfungi

Etymology
The word "forest" comes from Middle English forest, from Old French forest (also forès) "forest, vast
expanse covered by trees", believed to be a borrowing (probably via Frankish or Old High German) of
the Medieval Latin word foresta "open wood". Foresta was first used byCarolingian scribes in the
Capitularies of Charlemagne to refer specifically to the king's royal hunting grounds. The term was not
endemic to Romance languages (e.g. native words for "forest" in the Romance languages evolved out of
the Latin word silva "forest, wood"; cf. Italian, Spanish, Portuguese selva; Romanian silvă; Old
French selve); and cognates in Romance languages, such as Italian foresta, Spanish and
Portuguese floresta, etc. are all ultimately borrowings of the French word. The exact origin of Medieval
Latin foresta is obscure. Some authorities claim the word derives from the Late Latin phrase forestam
silvam, meaning "the outer wood"; others claim the term is a latinisation of the Frankish word
*forhist "forest, wooded country", assimilated to forestam silvam (a common practise among Frankish
scribes). Frankish *forhist is attested by Old High German forst "forest", Middle Low
German vorst "forest", Old English fyrhþ "forest, woodland, game preserve, hunting ground", and Old
Norse fýri "coniferous forest", all of which derive from Proto-Germanic *furχísa-, *furχíþja-"a fir-wood,
coniferous forest", from Proto-Indo-European *perkwu- "a coniferous or mountain forest, wooded height".
Uses of the word "forest" in English to denote any uninhabited area of non-enclosure are now considered
archaic.[3] The word was introduced by the Norman rulers of England as a legal term (appearing in Latin
texts like the Magna Carta) denoting an uncultivated area legally set aside
for hunting by feudalnobility (see Royal Forest).[3][4] These hunting forests were not necessarily wooded
much, if at all. However, as hunting forests did often include considerable areas of woodland, the word
"forest" eventually came to mean wooded land more generally.[citation needed] By the start of the fourteenth
century the word appeared in English texts, indicating all three senses: the most common one, the legal
term and the archaic usage.[3]

Forest near Rajgir, Bihar, India

Other terms used to mean "an area with a high density of trees" are wood, woodland, wold, weald, holt,
frith and firth. Unlike forest, these are all derived from Old English and were not borrowed from another
language. Some classifications now reserve the term woodland for an area with more open space
between trees and distinguish among woodlands, open forests, and closed forestsbased on crown
cover. [5]

[edit]Distribution

Amazon Rainforest in Brazil.
Rainforest in Tasmania's Hellyer Gorge.

Forests 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.

The latitudes 10° north and south of the Equator are mostly covered in tropical rainforest, and the
latitudes between 53°N and 67°N have boreal forest. As a general rule, forests dominated
by angiosperms(broadleaf forests) are more species-rich than those dominated
by gymnosperms (conifer, montane, or needleleaf forests), although exceptions exist.

Forests sometimes contain many tree species only within a small area (as in tropical rain and temperate
deciduous forests), or relatively few species over large areas (e.g., taiga and aridmontane coniferous
forests). Forests are often home to many animal and plant species, andbiomass 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.

Forests 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 (also see: savanna).

Among the major forested biomes are:

 rain forest (tropical and temperate)

 taiga
 temperate hardwood forest
 tropical dry forest
[edit]Classification

Biogradska forest in Montenegro

Spiny forest at Ifaty, Madagascar, featuring various Adansonia (baobab) species, Alluaudia procera (Madagascar ocotillo)

and other vegetation.

Even, dense old-growth stand of beech trees (Fagus sylvatica) prepared to be regenerated by their saplings in
theunderstory, in the Brussels part of theSonian Forest.
Trees on a mountain in northern Utahduring early autumn.

Forests can be classified in different ways and to different degrees of specificity. One such way is in terms
of the "biome" in which they exist, combined with leaf longevity of the dominant species (whether they
are evergreen or deciduous). Another distinction is whether the forests composed predominantly of
broadleaf trees, coniferous (needle-leaved) trees, or mixed.

 Boreal forests occupy the subarctic zone and are generally evergreen and coniferous.

 Temperate zones support both broadleaf deciduous forests (e.g., temperate deciduous forest)
and evergreen coniferous forests (e.g., Temperate coniferous forests and Temperate rainforests).
Warm temperate zones support broadleaf evergreen forests, including laurel forests.
 Tropical and subtropical forests include tropical and subtropical moist forests, tropical and
subtropical dry forests, and tropical and subtropical coniferous forests.
 Physiognomy classifies forests based on their overall physical structure or developmental stage
(e.g. old growth vs. second growth).
 Forests can also be classified more specifically based on the climate and the dominant tree
species present, resulting in numerous different forest types (e.g., ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir forest).

A number of global forest classification systems have been proposed, but none has gained universal
acceptance.[6] UNEP-WCMC's forest category classification system is a simplification of other more
complex systems (e.g. UNESCO's forest and woodland 'subformations'). This system divides the world's
forests into 26 major types, which reflect climatic zones as well as the principal types of trees. These 26
major types can be reclassified into 6 broader categories: temperate needleleaf; temperate broadleaf and
mixed; tropical moist; tropical dry; sparse trees and parkland; and forest plantations. Each category is
described as a separate section below.

[edit]Temperate needleleaf
Temperate needleleaf forests mostly occupy the higher latitude regions of the northern hemisphere, as
well as high altitude zones and some warm temperate areas, especially on nutrient-poor or otherwise
unfavourable soils. These forests are composed entirely, or nearly so, of coniferous species
(Coniferophyta). In the Northern Hemisphere pines Pinus, spruces Picea, larches Larix, silver firs Abies,
Douglas firs Pseudotsuga and hemlocks Tsuga, make up the canopy, but other taxa are also important. In
the Southern Hemisphere most coniferous trees, members of the Araucariaceae and Podocarpaceae,
occur in mixtures with broadleaf species that are classed as broadleaf and mixed forests.

[edit]Temperate broadleaf and mixed

Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests include a substantial component of trees in theAnthophyta. They
are generally characteristic of the warmer temperate latitudes, but extend to cool temperate ones,
particularly in the southern hemisphere. They include such forest types as the mixed deciduous forests of
the USA and their counterparts in China and Japan, the broadleaf evergreen rain forests of Japan, Chile
and Tasmania, the sclerophyllous forests of Australia, Central Chile, the Mediterranean and California,
and the southern beech Nothofagusforests of Chile and New Zealand.

[edit]Tropical moist
Tropical moist forests include many different forest types. The best known and most extensive are the
lowland evergreen broadleaf rainforests include, for example: the seasonally inundated várzeaand igapó
forests and the terra firma forests of the Amazon Basin; the peat swamp forests and
moist dipterocarp forests of Southeast Asia; and the high forests of the Congo Basin. The forests of
tropical mountains are also included in this broad category, generally divided into upper and
lower montane formations on the basis of their physiognomy, which varies with altitude. The montane
forests include cloud forest, those forests at middle to high altitude, which derive a significant part of their
water budget from cloud, and support a rich abundance of vascular and
nonvascular epiphytes. Mangrove forests also fall within this broad category, as do most of the tropical
coniferous forests of Central America.

[edit]Tropical dry
Tropical dry forests are characteristic of areas in the tropics affected by seasonal drought. The
seasonality of rainfall is usually reflected in the deciduousness of the forest canopy, with most trees being
leafless for several months of the year. However, under some conditions, e.g. less fertile soils or less
predictable drought regimes, the proportion of evergreen species increases and the forests are
characterised as "sclerophyllous". Thorn forest, a dense forest of low stature with a high frequency of
thorny or spiny species, is found where drought is prolonged, and especially where grazing animals are
plentiful. On very poor soils, and especially where fire is a recurrent phenomenon,
woodysavannas develop (see 'sparse trees and parkland').
[edit]Sparse trees and parkland

Taiga forest near Saranpaul in the northeast Ural mountains, Khanty-MansiyskAutonomous Okrug, Russia. Trees

includePicea obovata (dominant on right bank),Larix sibirica, Pinus sibirica, and Betula pendula.

Sparse trees and parkland are forests with open canopies of 10-30% crown cover. They occur principally
in areas of transition from forested to non-forested landscapes. The two major zones in which
these ecosystems occur are in the boreal region and in the seasonally dry tropics. At high latitudes, north
of the main zone of boreal forest or taiga, growing conditions are not adequate to maintain a continuous
closed forest cover, so tree cover is both sparse and discontinuous. This vegetation is variously called
open taiga, open lichen woodland, and forest tundra. It is species-poor, has high bryophyte cover, and is
frequently affected by fire.

[edit]Forest plantations
Forest plantations, generally intended for the production of timber and pulpwood increase the total area of
forest worldwide. Commonly mono-specific and/or composed of introduced tree species, these
ecosystems are not generally important as habitat for native biodiversity. However, they can be managed
in ways that enhance their biodiversity protection functions and they are important providers of ecosystem
services such as maintaining nutrient capital, protecting watersheds and soil structure as well as storing
carbon. They may also play an important role in alleviating pressure on natural forests for timber and
fuelwood production.[citation needed]
[edit]Forest categories

A temperate deciduous broadleaf forest, the Hasenholz, southeast ofKirchheim unter Teck, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Redwoods in old growth forest in Muir Woods National Monument,Marin County, California.

28 forest categories are used to enable the translation of forest types from national and regional
classification systems to a harmonised global one:
[edit]Temperate and boreal forest types

1. Evergreen needleleaf forest - Natural forest with > 30% canopy cover, in which the canopy is
predominantly (> 75%) needleleaf and evergreen.
 2. Deciduous needleleaf forests - Natural forests with > 30% canopy cover, in which the canopy is
predominantly (> 75%) needleleaf and deciduous.
3. Mixed broadleaf/needleleaf forest - Natural forest with > 30% canopy cover, in which the canopy
is composed of a more or less even mixture of needleleaf and broadleaf crowns (between
50:50% and 25:75%).
4. Broadleaf evergreen forest - Natural forests with > 30% canopy cover, the canopy being > 75%
evergreen and broadleaf.
5. Deciduous broadleaf forest - Natural forests with > 30% canopy cover, in which > 75% of the
canopy is deciduous and broadleaves predominate (> 75% of canopy cover).
6. Freshwater swamp forest - Natural forests with > 30% canopy cover, composed of trees with any
mixture of leaf type and seasonality, but in which the predominant environmental characteristic is
a waterlogged soil.
7. Sclerophyllous dry forest - Natural forest with > 30% canopy cover, in which the canopy is mainly
composed of sclerophyllous broadleaves and is > 75% evergreen.
8. Disturbed natural forest - Any forest type above that has in its interior significant areas of
disturbance by people, including clearing, felling for wood extraction, anthropogenic fires, road
construction, etc.
9. Sparse trees and parkland - Natural forests in which the tree canopy cover is between 10-30%,
such as in the steppe regions of the world. Trees of any type (e.g., needleleaf, broadleaf, palms).
10. Exotic species plantation - Intensively managed forests with > 30% canopy cover, which have
been planted by people with species not naturally occurring in that country.
11. Native species plantation - Intensively managed forests with > 30% canopy cover, which have
been planted by people with species that occur naturally in that country.
12. *Unspecified forest plantation - Forest plantations showing extent only with no further information
about their type, This data currently only refers to the Ukraine.
13. *Unclassified forest data - Forest data showing forest extent only with no further information about
their type.

Those marked * have been created as a result of data holdings which do not specify the forest type,
hence 26 categories are quoted, not 28 shown here.[7]
[edit]Tropical forest types

The Fatu Hiva rainforest in Polynesia.

1. Lowland evergreen broadleaf rain forest - Natural forests with > 30% canopy cover, below
1,200 m (3,937 ft) altitude that display little or no seasonality, the canopy being >75% evergreen
broadleaf.
2. Lower montane forest - Natural forests with > 30% canopy cover, between 1200–1800 m altitude,
with any seasonality regime and leaf type mixture.
3. Upper montane forest - Natural forests with > 30% canopy cover, above 1,800 m (5,906 ft)
altitude, with any seasonality regime and leaf type mixture.
4. Freshwater swamp forest - Natural forests with > 30% canopy cover, below 1,200 m (3,937 ft)
altitude, composed of trees with any mixture of leaf type and seasonality, but in which the
predominant environmental characteristic is a waterlogged soil.
5. Semi-evergreen moist broadleaf forest - Natural forests with > 30% canopy cover, below 1,200 m
(3,937 ft) altitude in which between 50-75% of the canopy is evergreen, > 75% are broadleaves,
and the trees display seasonality of flowering and fruiting.
6. Mixed broadleaf/needleleaf forest - Natural forests with > 30% canopy cover, below 1,200 m
(3,937 ft) altitude, in which the canopy is composed of a more or less even mixture of needleleaf
and broadleaf crowns (between 50:50% and 25:75%).
7. Needleleaf forest - Natural forest with > 30% canopy cover, below 1,200 m (3,937 ft) altitude, in
which the canopy is predominantly (> 75%) needleleaf.
8. Mangroves - Natural forests with > 30% canopy cover, composed of species of mangrove tree,
generally along coasts in or nearbrackish or seawater.
9. Disturbed natural forest - Any forest type above that has in its interior significant areas of
disturbance by people, including clearing, felling for wood extraction, anthropogenic fires, road
construction, etc.
 10. Deciduous/semi-deciduous broadleaf forest - Natural forests with > 30% canopy cover, below
1,200 m (3,937 ft) altitude in which between 50-100% of the canopy is deciduous and
broadleaves predominate (> 75% of canopy cover).
11. Sclerophyllous dry forest - Natural forests with > 30% canopy cover, below 1,200 m (3,937 ft)
altitude, in which the canopy is mainly composed of sclerophyllous broadleaves and is > 75%
evergreen.
12. Thorn forest - Natural forests with > 30% canopy cover, below 1,200 m (3,937 ft) altitude, in
which the canopy is mainly composed of deciduous trees with thorns and succulent
phanerophytes with thorns may be frequent.
13. Sparse trees and parkland - Natural forests in which the tree canopy cover is between 10-30%,
such as in the savannah regions of the world. Trees of any type (e.g., needleleaf, broadleaf,
palms).
14. Exotic species plantation - Intensively managed forests with > 30% canopy cover, which have
been planted by people with species not naturally occurring in that country.
15. Native species plantation - Intensively managed forests with > 30% canopy cover, which have
been planted by people with species that occur naturally in that country.
[edit]Forest loss and management
Main articles:  Forestry,  Logging and  Deforestation

Coastal Douglas fir woodland in northwest Oregon.

Redwood tree in northern California redwood forest, where many redwood trees are managed for preservation and
longevity, rather than being harvested for wood production.

The scientific study of forest species and their interaction with the environment is referred to as forest
ecology, while the management of forests is often referred to as forestry.Forest management has
changed considerably over the last few centuries, with rapid changes from the 1980s onwards
culminating in a practice now referred to as sustainable forest management. Forest ecologists
concentrate on forest patterns and processes, usually with the aim of elucidating cause and effect
relationships. Foresters who practice sustainable forest management focus on the integration of
ecological, social and economic values, often in consultation with local communities and other
stakeholders.

Anthropogenic factors that can affect forests include logging, urban sprawl, human-caused forest

fires, acid rain, invasive species, and theslash and burn practices of swidden agriculture or shifting
cultivation. The loss and re-growth of forest leads to a distinction between two broad types of forest,
primary or old-growth forest and secondary forest. There are also many natural factors that can cause
changes in forests over time including forest fires, insects, diseases, weather, competition between
species, etc. In 1997, the World Resources Institute recorded that only 20% of the world's original forests
remained in large intact tracts of undisturbed forest.[8] More than 75% of these intact forests lie in three
countries - the Boreal forests of Russia and Canada and the rainforest of Brazil. In 2006 this information
on intact forestswas updated using latest available satellite imagery.

Canada has about 4,020,000 square kilometres (1,550,000 sq mi) of forest land. More than 90% of forest
land is publicly owned and about 50% of the total forest area is allocated for harvesting. These allocated
areas are managed using the principles of sustainable forest management, which includes extensive
consultation with local stakeholders. About eight percent of Canada’s forest is legally protected from
resource development (Global Forest Watch Canada)(Natural Resources Canada). Much more forest
land — about 40 percent of the total forest land base — is subject to varying degrees of protection
through processes such as integrated land use planning or defined management areas such as certified
forests (Natural Resources Canada).

Loss of old growth forest in the United States; 1620, 1850, and 1920 maps:
These maps represent only virgin forest lost. Some regrowth has occurred but not to the age, size or extent of 1620 due to
population increases and food cultivation. From William B. Greeley's, The Relation of Geography to Timber Supply,
Economic Geography, 1925, vol. 1, p. 1-11. Source of "Today" map: compiled by George Draffan from roadless area map in
The Big Outside: A Descriptive Inventory of the Big Wilderness Areas of the United States, by Dave Foreman and Howie
Wolke (Harmony Books, 1992).

By December 2006, over 1,237,000 square kilometers of forest land in Canada (about half the global
total) had been certified as being sustainably managed (Canadian Sustainable Forestry Certification
Coalition). Clearcutting, first used in the latter half of the 20th century, is less expensive, but devastating
to the environment and companies are required by law to ensure that harvested areas are adequately
regenerated. Most Canadian provinces have regulations limiting the size of clearcuts, although some
older clearcuts can range upwards of 110 square kilometres (27,000 acres) in size which were cut over
several years. China instituted a ban on logging, beginning in 1998, due to the destruction caused by
clearcutting. Selective cutting avoids the erosion, and flooding, that result from clearcutting.[9]

In the United States, most forests have historically been affected by humans to some degree, though in
recent years improved forestry practices has helped regulate or moderate large scale or severe impacts.
However, the United States Forest Service estimates a net loss of about 2 million hectares (4,942,000
acres) between 1997 and 2020; this estimate includes conversion of forest land to other uses, including
urban and suburban development, as well as afforestation and natural reversion of abandoned crop and
pasture land to forest. However, in many areas of the United States, the area of forest is stable or
increasing, particularly in many northern states. The opposite problem from flooding has plagued national
forests, with loggers complaining that a lack of thinning and proper forest management has resulted in
large forest fires.[10]

Old-growth forest contains mainly natural patterns of biodiversity in established seral patterns, and they
contain mainly species native to the region and habitat. The natural formations and processes have not
been affected by humans with a frequency or intensity to change the natural structure and components of
the habitat. Secondary forest contains significant elements of species which were originally from other
regions or habitats.

Smaller areas of woodland in cities may be managed as Urban forestry, sometimes within public parks.
These are often created for human benefits; Attention Restoration Theory argues that spending time in
nature reduces stress and improves health, while forest schools andkindergartens help young people to
develop social as well as scientific skills in forests. These typically need to be close to where the children
live, for practical logistics.

Human ecosystem