20 Examples of Forests - encyclopedia

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Forest types
Forest examples
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The woods They are ecosystems abundant in tall vegetation, generally trees and leafy, wide-crowned plants, which also serve as habitats for a significant number of animal species.

The woods They are widely distributed on the planet, adapted to various climates and humidity and altitude conditions, which is why they play an important role in the global carbon cycle.

A forest can be made up of a large group of plant species, or have a majority presence of the same type of tree. There are no fixed criteria to distinguish a forest from other zonal agglomerations of trees, although the term is often preferred jungle for very lush and abundant tropical rain forests, as well as grove for smaller and less dense areas or forest Y Park for the more controlled ones, generally intervened by the hand of man.

Forest types

According to the type of vegetation, they are classified as:

Broadleaf forest (hardwood). Much richer in species, often similar to or close to forests.
Needle-leaf forest (conifers). Typical of cold areas, they are usually characterized by a predominance of quality wood trees and vegetation gymnosperm.
Mixed forests. Where the previous two are combined.

According to its foliage seasonality, there are two types:

Evergreen forests. Those always green, without loss (or with a minimum) of leaves.
Deciduous forests. Those that lose their foliage in certain seasons and then turn green.

According to latitude and climate, they are classified into:

Tropical forests. Known as "jungles", they are abundant and lush, with a warm and very humid climate, located in the belt of the equator.
Subtropical forests. Usually abundant, either wet or dry and of wide variability
Temperate forests. They populate the warm and cold temperate zones with abundant coniferous vegetation.
Boreal forests. Located in the areas near the poles, they resist the subpolar climate.

According to the altitude in which they grow, they can be:

Lowland forests. They can be basal, plain or flood.
Mountain forests. Divided in turn into premontane, montane or subalpine.

Forest examples

Sequoias forests. In its two most famous varieties, the Sequoiadendron giganteum and the Sequoia sempervirens, these trees They are considered the largest and tallest in the world, respectively. They are characteristic of the United States, especially in the Yosemite and Redwood National Parks, both of historical and forest importance.

Andean Patagonian forest. Also known as the Valdivian cold forest, is located in the south of Chile and west of Argentina, in a humid, temperate and mountainous area near the Andes Mountains.

Boulogne forest. With an area of 846 hectares, equivalent to twice the size of Central Park in New York, is a Parisian public park and one of the main in Europe. It contains an abundant vegetation of wide woods, controlled and domesticated to achieve an area of recreation or urban recreation.

Hayedo de Montejo. Beech forest (Fagus sylvatica) of 250 hectares of surface, located to the north of the Madrid province, bordering the Jarama river, in Spain. It is one of the southernmost beech forests on the continent and a site of national interest since 1974.

The Russian taiga. The taigas or boreal forests typical of the Siberian region are abundant despite their extreme temperatures (19 ° C in summer and -30 ° C in winter), with annual rainfall of 450mm. That means that the plants have a favorable period of four months a year, despite which evergreen conifers often exceed 40m in height.

Bavarian forest. Located in Bavaria, in southern Germany, it extends to Austria and Czechoslovakia, where it acquires other names (Sauwald and Selva de Bohemia, respectively). It is an important European nature reserve and source of abundant tourism, since within it is the Bavarian Forest National Park.

Magellan subpolar forest. Located in the southern sections of the Andes Mountains, as well as in Tierra del Fuego, It shares many of its plant species with other southern forests in Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand, although it also has endemic species such as a certain type of beech. Their climates range between 6 and 3 ° C depending on how close they are to Antarctica.

Forest ofSainte Baume. Known as the "forest of Mary Magdalene" and close to Marseille, France, It is considered a mystical forest because it contains the cave in which the biblical character supposedly died after his expulsion from Palestine. The forest is almost 12 kilometers long along a rocky cliff and is today a pilgrimage center of French Provence.

Conguillío National Park. Located in the Chilean Araucanía, it has an area of 60,832 hectares of a varied and unique flora of the region, whose predominance of araucarias and coigües reminds of prehistoric times. The relative humidity in the area is low, but the cold weather during winter usually brings severe frosts.

National park Canaima. Located in the Bolívar state, Venezuela, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1994 and the sixth largest national park in the world. It spans an area of 30,000 km², up to the border with Guyana and Brazil, and has more than 300 endemic plant species.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is a forest-covered mountain range between the states of North Carolina and Tennessee, known as the Great Smoky Mountains. It is the most visited national park in the United States, given its lush vegetation of humid and temperate climate, as well as the remains of the southern Appalachian culture that it contains.

Fontainebleau Forest. 60 km from Paris, this forest, formerly known as the Beer Forest, covers an area of 25,000 hectares, in the middle of which are the cities of Fontainebleau and Avon. Impressionist painters of the 19th century were often inspired by its rich fabric of colors for your masterpieces.

The Black Forest. More a dense mountain forest than a proper tropical rainforest, this region of southwestern Germany has been immortalized in numerous artistic forms and is today an important natural tourist destination. It is a strip of vegetation 160 km long and between 30 and 60 km wide., depending on the region, in which fir trees predominate.

Styx Valley Forest. Temperate Eucalyptus Forest where the tallest flowering plants in the world are found (the Eucalyptus regnans), is located in a valley in Tasmania, South Australia, crossed by the Styx River. Its total area is unknown.

Los Haitises National Park. To the northwest of the Dominican Republic there is an area of mogotes close to each other, populated by dense tropical vegetation for a total area of 3600 km. Its name comes from the aboriginal word to designate these sudden rocky elevations that can reach 40m in height.

Clayoquot Sound. Populated by the indigenous Nuu-Chah-Nulth peoples, this forest on the west coast of Vancouver Island has been ravaged by the logging industry, given its rich plant life of cold-climate conifers. The defense of the forest by the ethnic groups and Green Peace activists set an important precedent in this type of initiatives which led to the signing of an ecological treaty in 2001.

Plitvice Lakes National Park. The best known of Croatia's national parks and a UNESCO world heritage site since 1979, It has an area of 30 thousand hectares, of which 22,000 are covered with forest, its 90% of beech. This park was a candidate to be one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World in 2011.

Couvet Communal Forest. One third of the Swiss area is made up of forests. In this case, the one located in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, is one of the most visited by tourism and part of the very modest plant reserves that Europe has protected.

Mountains of Southwest China. One of the temperate climate habitats with the largest number of endemic species in Greater Asia, it is home to the currently endangered giant panda. Only 8% of the forest is preserved in its ideal stateas the rest are at the mercy of indiscriminate logging and urbanization.

Forest of the Constituents. Located in the city of Rosario, Argentina, It is the largest green area in the city with 260 hectares of extension. It is an area highly intervened by man, to recreate artificial lagoons and abundant roads, as well as numerous initiatives for sustainable ecological research.