Habitats - Forests [antikvár]

1. FORESTS OF THE WORLDF1 rom the steamy rain forests of the tropics, to the windswept woodlands of the far north, forests play a very important part in all our lives. They help to control the climate by absorbing the gas, carbon dioxide, that contributes to global warming. They also help to bind the soil together with their roots and prevent the soil from being washed away, or eroded. Forests are full of natural resources such as timber, food, and plants that can be used to treat life-threatening diseases.Forests are also important to the plants and animals that they contain. They support millions of different types, or species, of plants and animalsmore than any other habitat.Trees are not the only forest plants. Beautiful orchids decorate the branches of many rain forest trees, while the floor of a temperate woodland is transformed into a carpet of flowers in the spring.The tropical rain forests are by far the richest habitats on earththey cover less than 7 percent of the earth's surface, yet they contain at least half