Forest Ecosystems

Forests cover less than a third of the land yet hold most of its living things, store huge amounts of carbon and quietly regulate water and climate for everyone. Tropical rainforests alone are home to more than half of all known plant and animal species. When a forest is cleared the loss is rarely just trees: soils wash away, rivers silt up, rainfall patterns shift and species vanish before we have even named them.

In this lesson you will learn how a rainforest is structured into layers, what drives deforestation, and the chain of impacts that follows when the trees go. You will then examine why forests must be managed sustainably, from their role as carbon sinks to flood control and medicine, and study real examples of clearance and of forests being managed for the future.