User:Mark Marathon/sandbox
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A forest is a large area of land covered with trees or other woody vegetation.[1] Hundreds of more precise definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing and ecological function.[2][3][4] According to the widely-used[5][6] United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization definition, forests covered an area of four billion hectares (15 million square miles) or approximately 30 percent of the world's land area in 2006.[4]
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Forests are the dominant terrestrial ecosystem on Earth, and are distributed across the globe.[7] Forests account for 75% of the gross primary productivity of the Earth's biosphere, and contain 80% of the Earth's plant biomass.[7]
Forests at different latitudes form distinctly different ecozones: boreal forests near the poles tend to consist of evergreens, while tropical forests near the equator tend to be distinct from the temperate forests at mid-latitude. The amount of precipitation and the elevation of the forest also affects forest composition.
Human society and forests influence each other in both positive and negative ways.[8] Forests provide ecosystem services to humans, but also impose economic, environmental, health and aesthetic costs. Human interactions with the forest, including harvesting forest resources, affect the forest ecosystem.