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forest

File:Aerial_view_of_the_Amazon_Rainforest.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

EntityQ4421· pop 231· linked from 9,293 articles

Also known as wood, woods, forests

thumb|upright=1.4|The Amazon rainforest alongside the [[Solimões River, a tropical rainforest. These forests are the most biodiverse and productive ecosystems in the world.]] thumb|upright=1.4|Proportion and distribution of global forest area by climatic domain, 2020

OverviewAI-generated

A forest is a vegetational formation and a subclass of biome, biocoenosis, geographical feature, and ecosystem. It is part of the natural environment and biosphere. The subject is studied by forestry science. It has characteristics including geographic location and contains parts such as stand, vegetation, high forest, selection cutting, tree, shrub, liana, and plant.

Forests are distinct from woodland. They are categorized under Commons category "Forests" and topic categories Category:Forests and Category:Forest. OpenStreetMap tags include natural=wood and landuse=forest. Model items include Białowieża Forest, Tongass National Forest, and Amazon rainforest. The topic is maintained by WikiProject Plants, WikiProject Ecology, and WikiProject Climate change. It appears on the focus list of Wikipedia:List of articles all languages should have and Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4.

The subject is described by sources including Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, Bible Encyclopedia of Archimandrite Nicephorus, Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition, and New International Encyclopedia. A PubMed query for forest yields a count of 250451. In the Vinony graph, it is referenced by 9,293 other encyclopedia articles.

Synthesized by Vinony from 21 facts across 3 sources: Wikidata, PubMed, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Part of
biome
Image
Hutan Tangkahan.jpg
Has parts of class
plant
Show 13 more facts
Commons category
Forests
Commons gallery
Forest
topic's main category
Category:Forest
OpenStreetMap tag
landuse=forest
topic has template
Template:Infobox forest
different from
Forest
on focus list of Wikimedia project
Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4
has characteristic
geographic location
maintained by WikiProject
WikiProject Climate change
Sources (7)

via Wikidata · CC0

~38 min read

Encyclopedic overview

27 sections
Contents
  • Definitions
  • Etymology
  • Evolutionary history
  • Ecology<span class="anchor" id="Distribution"></span>
  • Components
  • Layers
  • Types
  • Temperate needleleaf<span class="anchor" id="Coniferous forests"></span>
  • Temperate broadleaf and mixed
  • Tropical moist
  • Tropical dry
  • Sparse trees and savanna
  • Plantations
  • Area
  • Societal significance
  • Ecosystem services
  • Forest-dependent people
  • Indigenous peoples
  • Management
  • The forest transition
  • Canada
  • Latvia
  • United States
  • See also
  • Sources
  • References
  • External links

thumb|upright=1.4|The Amazon rainforest alongside the [[Solimões River, a tropical rainforest. These forests are the most biodiverse and productive ecosystems in the world.]] thumb|upright=1.4|Proportion and distribution of global forest area by climatic domain, 2020

A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defines a forest as, "Land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 meters and a canopy cover of more than 10 percent, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ. It does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban use." Using this definition, Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 found that forests covered , or approximately 31 percent of the world's land area in 2020.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “forest” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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