Biomes of the World

Forests cover 65% of the total land surface, ranging from the high latitude, cold boreal forests located primarily in Canada, Russia, and Scandinavia, temperate forests located in the mid-latitudes of North America, Eurasia, New Zealand and most of Australia, and southern South America, and tropical forests in Central and South America, Africa and Asia.

Land use and human-modified rates of natural disturbance have directly and indirectly altered the exchange of carbon dioxide (CO2) between forests and the atmosphere. Many different ecosystem process models are utilized to model C cycles in these biomes.