A forest is an area with a high density of trees (or, historically, a wooded area set aside for hunting).
These plant communities cover large areas of the globe and function as animal habitats, hydrologic flow modulators, and soil conservers, constituting one of the most important aspects of the Earth's biosphere.
Although often thought of as as carbon dioxide sinks, mature forests are approximately carbon neutral with only disturbed and young forests acting as carbon sinks.
Nonetheless mature forests do play an important role in the global carbon cycle as stable carbon pools, and clearance of forests leads to an increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.
For more information about the topic Forest, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:
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Coast Douglas-fir The Coast Douglas-fir is an evergreen conifer native to the coastal regions of western North America. Coast Douglas-fir is a very large tree, the ... >
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Controlled burn Prescribed or controlled burning is a technique sometimes used in forest management, farming, or prairie restoration. Fire is a natural part of both ... >
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Note: This page refers to an article that is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the article Forest at Wikipedia.org. See the Wikipedia copyright page for more details.
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