The world's forests. The word forest may conjure up images of endless stands of pine trees or the majestic redwoods of the west coast, but thousands of different species of trees populate environments as harsh as the subarctic region and as lush as the tropics. We value the forests for many reasons.
Forests also play a crucial role in the chemistry of our atmosphere and climate.
Without forests, our atmosphere and climate would be very different. The world's forests provide food, shelter, recreation, and the raw materials for medicines, as well as a home for thousands of species of animals, insects, and plants. These crucial habitats are also important contributors to earth's atmospheric chemistry. One important role of the forests is their ability to store carbon. Some portion of the carbon turns back into CO2 and is returned to the atmosphere through a process knows as respiration.