This document discusses forest ecosystems and their components. It describes how forests are made up of interconnected living and nonliving things. Forests contain various layers from the canopy layer to the forest floor. The types of plants and animals in a forest are related, with many animals relying on specific plants for food and habitat. Forests are constantly changing over time from disturbances both natural and human-caused, which impacts the diversity of plants and animals. Forests provide important ecosystem services like regulating the climate, conserving water, and offering recreational activities.

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Name :-Padhiyar sanjaykumar nathalal
Roll no:-47
Div:-E
Subject:-ES
Bsc(it) sem-1
Forest ecosystem
Collage name:-L J Institute of management

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Forest ecosystem
What is forest
Forest ecology is the scientific study of the interrelated patterns,processes,flora,fauna and
ecosystem in forest .the management of forest is known as forestry ,silviculture ,and forest
management forest ecosystem are areas of the landscape that are dominated by trees and
consist of biologically integrated communities of plants,animla and microbes,together with
the local soils and atmospheres with which they interact
While trees sometimes stand alone,most often they are part of a community called a
forest.forests consist not only of living componets like trees,animals,plants ,and other living
things but also of nonliving componets such as soil together make a forest ecosystem
Systems
Forest are more than collection of living and nonliving things found in the same place their
many components are connected to each other as food chains of Interdependence food chains
move the basic requirements for life__energy,water,carbon,air,and nutrients in a series of
connections and processes transform the sun’s energy into dlucose consumer plants eating
animal eating predators such as coyotes,woodpecers ,and spiders get their energy from other
livings things.decomposers such as sowbugs fungi and bacteria get their energy from dead
plants and animals several food chains linked together are known as a food web every collection
of individuals connections or processes thet regularly interacts and depends on othe

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individuals connection or processes from a unified on all other system when change occurs the
web adapts and adjusts flexibly oxygen carbon dioxide water and nitrogen all move in nature
cycle through the forest along with carbon dioxide (from the air)and water (from the soil)energy
from the sun triggers photosynthesis in plants which produces oxygen .then plants and animals
use oxygen and respire carbon dioxide and water .water cycle from the sky to earth and back
again often after spending days months or years cycling through lakes rivers groundwater
reservoirs and living things nitrogen and other nutrients cycle among soil water air and living
as you can see,numberous cycles overlap and depend on each other to keep in balance
.everything in the forest in connected to everything else that means it is impossible to make a
change in justone part of the system any alteration whether intenrional or the entire ecosystem
Layerd
Many forest contain several different heights or layers of plants and as different animals
are often found within each layer the diversity of animals is often related to plants diversity in
the forest imagine for a monet,standing in a sun filtered stand of mature aspen interspersed
with a few white forest that once stretched across the brow of minnesota.some 60 feet (18
meters) above you,resides the top layer or canopy, of the forest.this soil in turn privides the
nutrients and moisture that trees and other plants need to thrive----and the cycle begins again
What lives in the forest?
The animals of minnesota’s forest come in many sizes and shapes,from tiny mites that inhabit
the soil to towering moose and or lichen or as large as giant oaks.they all have one thing in
common:they all rely on the forest setting or habitat,for food,water,shelter,and space some
animals and plants are adapted to very narrow ranges of condition in which they are able to live

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these animals are called specialists.the Canada lynx for instamce needs large tracts of relatively
undeveloped forest for hunting .it roads or development fragment a forest ,the reclusive lynx
may not be able to roam through all of the its territory ,limiting its ability to access food,water
shelter ,or a mate
About 75 percent of the diet of Canada lynxes is snowshoe hares.both live in forest
Different types of forest –and even different parts of the same forest ---provide differet
necessities the forest floor is by far the busiest part of the forest,with more kinds of plants life is
usually most varied where the habitat,for instance occurs between areas of different types of
forest and at forest where trees and open areas meet.
Forest succession
plants communities change depending on their environmental conditions.as
environmental condition change the types of plants that make up the community may also
change.this process is called succession. In a stable community plants are well suited to the
amount of the water nutrients and sunlight avaible to them.as the availability of resources
change,conditions may favor a different set of plants,and these will become more and
cherry,may repopulate the area as these trees mature,they shade the forest floor making it
difficult for their own seeds to grow shade-loving species such as maple and basswood find
themselves at a competitive advantage and the species composition of the forest slowly shifts
over time the older sunloving trees die out and the shade-tolerant species take over creating
climax community dominated by plants and animals that prefer condition.left undisturbed the
initial climax trees will eventually die,and the forest will evolve into a more stable plant
community dominated by maple and basswood until the next disturbance.and the cycle goes on
example 2:from fire to forest
fire can also trigger succession. The charred land become Friendly terrain for the first
pioneers----grasses and other nonwoody plants.Raspberry and other shade intermediate species

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such as aspen paper birch and jack pine follow.some of the canopy contains literally millons of
leaves busily photosynthesizing sunlight carbon dioxde and water to create oxygen and sugar in
turn all organisms depend on oxygen and sugar for survival.some of the animals that dwell in
the canopy include eagles,bats and insects in the understory where the tops of smaller trees
absorb whatever sunlight reaches them a variety of birds and smaller mammals such as
warblers and red squirrels eat their supperes and make their nests
Beneath that in the head high shrub layer made up of saplings and smaller woody plants
such as alder and chokecherry,berries and berry eaters such as white tailed deer black flies and
mosquitoes ven lower in the harb layer seedlings food and habitat in the process for mice
insects the forest though not their exclusive home is the kingdom of the decomposers such as
insects bacteria and fungi decome posers break down the bodies of plants and animals into
nutrients which combine rock to eroded
Animals population
The number and diversity of animals species depends on the amount of avible food
predators access to clean water shelter or space some animals such as deer mose rabbits and
insects use a broad number of plants species for example insects such as mosquitoes feed on a
broad range of animals so removing one species of mammal won’t affect the mosquito
population other animals subsist only on a narrow range of food sources If predators like
kanada lynxes are reduced because of over trapping or human development then the population
of hares may rise along with a rise in damang to trees and plants from browsing .in the same
way monarch caterpilllars feed almost exclusively on milkweed plants;if milkweeds are removed
,so too go the caterpillars

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If confined to too-small habitats, animals (wild or domestic) can overgraze tasty trees and plants
and limit those plants’ ability to regenerate. Consequently, thorny and less nutritious plants
such as the black locust tree and burdock may increase in number. Plants that tend to increase
when grazing rises are called increasers. Plants that tend to decrease as grazing increases are
called decreasers. While many consider increasers “weeds,” some increasers do pro-vide
benefits. For example, goldfinches prefer to live and nest near large populations of prickly
thistles, a plant that increases with grazing and disturbance.Trout, which prefer clean, cool
streams, depend on large, mature trees to shade and cool the water and the gravel streambeds
trout lay their eggs in. Trout rely on roots from plants and trees to hold soil in place, preventing
streams from filling with silt. Finally, insects can cause environmental changes. Invasive gypsy
moth caterpillars defoliate and weaken certain species of trees, which can change the of
composition of the forest. Invasive emerald ash borer beetles bore through bark and kill forests
closely growing ash trees. abundant. This causes a shift in the makeup of the plant community.
In effect, the new plants succeed the old, creating a slightly different community. Environmental
conditions that trigger succession may include any natural or human-caused distur-bance that
reduces the number of living trees from an area. Some examples are: timber harvesting,
urbanization, farming, fire, and windstorms
example1:from fram to forest
A forest growing on abandoned farmland that was once a maple–basswood forest is a good
example of succession. After the farmers leave the area, the cleared spaces become friendly
terrain for sun-loving, hardy pioneer species such as grasses, ragweed, and other nonwoody
plants. As pioneer species grow and thrive, they often create conditions that favor a second set
of plants and animals called intermediate species. Seeds drifting in from trees that do well in full
sun, such as box elder, ash, asp
these trees have special adaptations that make it possible for them move into a new
clearing. Aspen, for instance, can grow on relatively poor soil and use their root-sprouting
capabilities to recolonize a burned forest in a matter of a few years. Jack pine cones are
serotinous, meaning that the seeds stay trapped within the cones until released by heat
(120°F/49°C or higher). When a fire burns through an area littered with these cones, they open,
scat-tering seeds on the land. As intermediate species mature, other, more shade-tolerant
species—white pine, balsam fir, white spruce, and the like—then find themselves at a
competitive advantage, and the species composition of the forest slowly shifts. As the older
shade-intolerant trees die out, their more shade-tolerant successors take over, until the next
disturbance. And the cycle goes on.
Native plant communities
Because certain trees have similar requirements for light, water, temperature, soil type,
and the like, trees tend to appear in predictable combinations. For example, conditions that
favor sugar maples also favor the American basswood, so where you find one, you’ll likely find
the other, along with other plants that thrive in those conditions. Such groups of plants thathave
evolved and adapted in an area together are called native plant communities. Native plant
communities interact naturally with each other and with their environment and do not contain
introduced, or nonnative, plants and communities.

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Because certain trees have similar requirements for light, water, temperature, soil type, and the
like, trees tend to appear in predictable combinations. For example, conditions that favor sugar
maples also favor the American basswood, so where you find one, you’ll likely find the other,
along with other plants that thrive in those conditions. Such groups of plants that have evolved
and adapted in an area together are called native plant communities. Native plant communities
interact naturally with each other and with their environment and do not contain introduced, or
nonnative, plants and communities.
Top sum up
 Forest are complex ecosystem that support r range of plants and animal
 Forest are made up several layers
 The kinds of animals in a forest are related to the kinds of plants in the forest plus
other factors such as climate,soil and landforms
 Forest are always changing due to disurbaces which may be natural or human
caused
 When forest change so do the number and types of plants and animals in them
 Minnesota forest face thrests from invasive plants and animals

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Native plants community Examples of Locations
Central dry mesic pine hardwood forest Itasca Wilderness Scientific Natural
Area (SNA) Afton State Park
Southern wet ash swamp King’s and Queen’s Bluff (SNA)
Nerstrand Big Woods State Park
Northern terrace forest Kettle River SNASt. Croix State Park
Southern dry savanna Helen Allison Savanna SNAMinnesota
Valley State Park
Northern wet mesic boreal hardwood
conifer forest
Lake Bemidji State ParkScenic State
ParkZippel Bay State Park
Climate Regulation
Forests play a key role within the global carbon cycle, removing carbon dioxide (CO2)
from the atmosphere and converting it to wood as they grow, and releasing carbon dioxide back
into the atmosphere when trees are burned or decay. The forest and land-use sector is thus
unique in that it can act as either a source or a sink for carbon, with the potential to sequester
carbon and thus reduce net CO2emissions.Deforestation contributes 10% of global greenhouse
gas fuel emissions,10 and represents the second-largest source of annual CO2 emissions after
fossil fuel combustion.11 If tropical deforestation was a country, its emissions would be the
third-largest in the world—behind only China and the US.12
Halting this deforestation and encouraging replanting or sustainable forestry management
practices could potentially contribute over one-third of the total emissions reductions that
scientists say are needed by 2030.13 Policymakers around the world recognize the potential for
forests and natural land area to combat climate change; a total of 97 countries mentioned
specific plans to reduce emissions from deforestation or increase forest cover in their Paris
Agreement commitments. Forests and the timber they produce sequester and store more carbon
than other terrestrial ecosystems and, in line with the emphasis made in Paris, must play an
important role in mitigating climate change.
Water regulation and conservation
Forests also offer important ecosystem or ‘watershed’ services related to water provision
and regulation. Healthy forest ecosystems can filter out water pollution, regulate stream flows,
recharge aquifers, and absorb flooding. The ability of forests to provide these green
infrastructure services can complement or substitute for ‘gray’ (i.e., built) infrastructure, in many
cases providing these critical services for a fraction of the cost of installing and maintaining
comparable ‘gray’ infrastructure. For example, reforesting hillsides can limit sedimentation in a
hydropower station’s reservoir — protecting the turbines from damage and prolonging the life of
the reservoir — and also provide immediate, direct benefits for rural communities nearby in
terms of soil retention, reduced flood risk, or enhanced groundwater recharge.
Other examples of watershed services provide by healthy forest landscapes include

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a) Water for consumptive and non-consumptive human use: Healthy forest ecosystems help
ensure clean, reliable water for drinking, agriculture, hydropower generation navigation,
and other uses.
b) Aquatic productivity: Healthy aquatic habitats and the species that live in them are an
important source of food and medicine. Yet water quality in coastal fisheries can be
strongly affected by the condition of adjacent upstream watersheds and their forests,
meaning that what happens on the mountain ridges — for better or worse —
impacts the reefs.
c) Flow regulation and storm/flood buffering: Healthy forests, wetlands, grasslands, and
mangroves in some cases act as natural “sponges” that absorb water — recharging
groundwater supplies, reducing flood risk, and/or maintaining stream flows
during dry periods.
d) Filtration of nutrients and contaminants: Ecosystems, including forests and wetlands,
improve water quality by trapping and filtering sediments and pollutants before they
enter surface waters.
These watershed services provided by forests are particularly important in the context of
growing freshwater scarcity worldwide. According to some estimates, by 2025 1.8 billion
people will be living in regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world’s
population could experience water-stress conditions.16 Already, about one-third of the
world’s largest cities obtain a significant portion of their drinking-water directly from forested
protected areas, and this proportion increases to about 44% when including water sources
originating in distant protected forested watersheds and other forests managed in a way that
prioritizes their water-provisioning functions.17 These linkages need to be better integrated
into economic policy and planning, as the water storage services of forests can in many
cases be significantly higher than the potential timber value of those forests.18
Recreation
For untold millennia, human societies have valued the aesthetic, recreational, and
spiritual offerings of forest ecosystems. In many traditional cultures, stories of human origins
are tied to specific forested areas, and forests are understood to have a unique life-force or
creative power. While not all human communities frame this understanding within explicitly
metaphysical language, virtually all societies with access to forests value their recreational
services in some capacity—whether it be hiking, birdwatching, hunting, or simply taking in the
scenic beauty offered by forests. These services provide a wealth of recreational enjoyment that
is not easily quantified, but should nonetheless be valued. In formal economic terms, forests
can generate recreational revenue through use- or entry-fees—in the case of parks or managed
natural areas—and through the growing ecotourism sector.
A wealth of research has demonstrated that empowering forest-based communities to
exercise management control over their forest resources can generate significant social,
economic, and environmental benefits for the communities themselves and for society as a
whole.29 Yet in many countries—particularly in the developing world—national governments
hold title to the vast majority of
forest lands, and the local communities best positioned to sustainably manage, protect,
and conserve these forests are not given the legal authority to carry out this role. Formalizing
land tenure and forest management rights for communities in the Global South represents a
powerful opportunity for synergy in securing the continued provision of forest environmental
services while also promoting the ability of communities to sustainably manage and use forests
to promote their own economic development.

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How ecosystem markets work:
Another approach to safeguarding forest ecosystem services is through incentive
mechanisms for conservation, including voluntary and compliance markets. Ecosystem market
mechanisms and payments for ecosystem services range from simple contracts between a
buyer and seller to sophisticated markets for environmental credits or other assets representing
delivery of an ecosystem service. Market mechanisms to restore, enhance, or maintain
ecosystem services transact an estimated US$15.9 billion globally each year, according to
tracking of biodiversity, water, and forest carbon markets by Forest Trends’ Ecosystem
Marketplace. A significant share of this value flows to projects that protect and/or enhance
ecosystem services from forested lands: ecosystem markets support management and
conservation of at least 29.8 million ha of forests annually worldwide.
While the term ‘market’ suggests a global exchange with common trading rules, units of
exchange, and pricing responsive to the forces of supply and demand, in reality some segments
are more ‘market-like’ than others. Carbon offset markets for example have developed common
trading infrastructure (such as registries), a standard currency (offsets representing one tCO2e),
widely-accepted standards for developing offsets, market-determined pricing, and a thriving
secondary market of brokers and retailers intermediating between project developers and end-
buyers of offsets. Market mechanisms for watershed protection, in contrast, are typically small-
scale, ad-hoc deals between a small number of parties exchanging funding for often poorly-
defined and un-verified ecosystem services
Yet all of these mechanisms share a common framework, in that they focus on one or
more parties restoring or maintaining valuable ecosystems and the services they deliver to
society in exchange for financial compensation. Variety in sophistication of infrastructure,
methodologies for defining and certifying outcomes, market participants, and their motivations
arises from the still-nascent nature of these mechanisms. With every new policy or regulatory
driver (e.g., the Paris climate agreement), advance in technology (e.g., remote sensing), and
larger societal trend (e.g., water stewardship), ecosystem markets respond with new innovations
and offerings. This means new opportunities for market share or influence are continually
emerging, as participants try to devise new and innovative ways to harness the power of
markets to value forest ecosystem services.

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privet investment
In addition to public finance and finance provided through ecosystem markets, private
sector investments in sustainable forest management and forest ecosystem services represent
an important source of capital. Much of this investment in the developing world is in the form of
forestry plantations, often targeted for lands that have been degraded or previously deforested.
By 2011, an estimated US$1.8 billion in large-scale private investments in forest plantations had
been made in developing countries—with the majority of these in Latin America.66 While these
private investments are focused primarily on plantation timber production, in cases where
sustainable production is prioritized—demonstrated by certification standards such as FSC—
these plantation forests can nonetheless provide a range of forest ecosystem services that may
not have existed on the degraded or deforested lands that existed prior to plantation
establishment. Recent research by Forest Trends documents a significant increase in recent
years in private sector sustainable forest management investments. A survey of private
investors identified US$8.2 billion in private investments made between 2004 and 2015 that seek
measurable environmental outcomes, with the largest segment of these (US$ 6.5 billion) in the
category of sustainable food and fiber, most of which is in sustainableforest management.67
The katoomba group
Forest Trends’ Katoomba Group is an international network of individuals working to
promote and improve capacity related to markets and payments for ecosystem services (PES).
With its first gathering in 2000, the Katoomba Group was launched as an international working
group focused on advancing markets for the ecosystem services—including watershed
protection, biodiversity habitat, and carbon storage. The Group serves as a source of ideas for
and strategic information about ecosystem service markets. It is known for its international
convenings, which have provided a forum for exchanging ideas, influencing policy-makers, and
catalyzing new initiatives. Since 2006, regional Katoomba networks have formed to provide
contextual responses to PES capacity-building needs. To date, regional Katoomba
networks exist in Tropical America, Eastern & Southern Africa, and West Africa.

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The Katoomba Group serves as a platform for the exchange of ideas and strategic
information about ecosystem service transactions and markets, as well as a means for
collaboration between practitioners of PES projects and programs. It has held 16 major global
conferences, published and contributed to numerous publications, and supported the
development of a range of new PES schemes including theBioCarbon Fund at the World Bank
and the Mexican PES Fund. The Katoomba Group has also advised national policy discussions
on financial incentives for conservation in numerous countries including China, Brazil,
India, and Colombia.
Forest goods and services
As further measures of condition, we compile data on thecurrent “yield” of forest goods
and services, whether mea-sured as stocks (the amount of carbon stored), or annual pro-duction
(the quantity of timber harvested). We present avail-able data on trends over the past 30 to 40
years and assessforest capacity to continue to provide goods and services in woodfuela but
forests will remain the dominant source of supply of these commodities for the foreseeable
future
The spiritual and aesthetic qualities of forests constituteperhaps the most important
omissions from this study. Peoplecommonly respond to forests with a sense of awe, exhilara-
tion, and reverence. Human values conferred on nature, how-ever, cannot readily be captured by
the kind of quantitativeanalysis presented here. Scattered data exist on tourism rev-enues and
visitor numbers to forest reserves, which someanalysts have used as proxy measures of human
apprecia-tion. A number of economists have attempted to monetizeforest “existence” or

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“intrinsic” values. Such exercises havenot been considered here. The very concept
of analyzing for
a working definition of forest ecosystem
Within terrestrial ecosystems, the largest subdivision is thebiome, a total assemblage of
plant and animal life. Biomes aregenerally defined and mapped according to the structure
orphysiognomy of the vegetation, in particular the recognizeddominant vegetation type. There is
a fairly close correlationbetween biome boundaries and climate and soil types. Forestsare found
predominantly in moist climates that enjoy at leastone moderately warm season. Trees that form
a closed, or par-tially closed, canopy are the dominant vegetation type withinthe forest biome.
Within this biome, ecologists define anywherebetween five and twelve major forest types. Table
1 summarizesthe location and vegetation characteristics of the world’s majorforest types, and
the principal goods and services they provide
Land cover maps define forest areas according to minimumthresholds of area, tree height,
and percentage of land area cov-ered by the tree canopy (percent canopy cover). These thresh-
olds are a necessary, but essentially arbitrary, means of distin-guishing forests from
neighboring ecosystems, such as wood-lands or savanna. Sometimes forest boundaries are
naturallydistinct, as in the tree line that marks the upper limit of treegrowth on mountain slopes.
Human modification often createsclear and abrupt transitions in vegetation cover, for example,
where agricultural land abuts closed canopy forest. In manyother areas, forests shade gradually
into other ecosystems, in acomplex mosaic of vegetation types. Under such circumstances,
land cover maps impose artificial, discrete boundaries wherenone exist on the ground.