The forest ecosystems is the combination of forest organisms, from trees, shrubs, fungi, and generally all green and non-green plants, animals and insects together with the environmental components of air, water and soil, organic and inorganic matter including stones and rocks. These components are all within the forest boundary and interact to fully sustain life within it. Different kinds of forest ecosystems are primarily dependent on the kind of ecological factors that are present. Thus there are different variations of ecosystems, like the cold humid kinds of the tropical rainforests to the deciduous forests in midland areas that are warmer and less humid during the warmer months of the year.
When discussing an ecosystem in detail, there upper boundary is often described as that created by the canopy of the tall varieties of forest trees, while the lower boundary is that created by the deep rooting systems of said trees. The horizontal boundary is created by the shrubs, herbs, ferns and fungi which are located on ground level. Usually, these plants are rarely dependent on full exposure to sunlight as they are able to access very little of it.
A forest ecosystem is usually self sustaining. The nutrient and water levels in the soil vary greatly when in comparison to the other terrestrial ecosystems and that explains why there is such a great diversity in the kind of life supported in these environments. Biomass of forest ecosystems is usually heaviest with the kind of raw energy contained being very great. But commercial attempts have been witnessed, where trees are harvested for several purposes which undermine the total biomass levels. When deforestation is carried out extensively, the forest ecosystems falls from self-sustainability and slowly starts to die.
These ecosystems, when rightly conserved, play a vital role in managing of the levels of carbon dioxide in the environment. Since all green plants carry out the process of photosynthesis, oxygen is released into the environment as a by product which is the desired. Thus destruction of forests leads to global warming which if unmanaged may lead to disastrous effects over the course of time. Besides this, forest ecosystems are great generators of pure water which comes from the regular rainfall observed in these environments. When undisturbed the ecosystem remains pure and rich in life, which is basically why the ‘going green’ attempts are focused on retaining the integrity of related ecosystems and ensuring longevity.
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