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Ecologically, a woodland is an area covered in trees, differentiated from a forest. In these terms, a forest has a largely closed canopy – the branches and foliage of trees interlock overhead to provide extensive and nearly continuous shade. A woodland, on the other hand, allows sunlight to penetrate between the trees, limiting shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs, herbs, or grasses. Woodlands may form a transition to shrublands under drier conditions.
Woodland is used in British woodland management to mean any smaller area covered in trees, however dense. (Forest is usually used only for more extensive wooded areas, again however dense). The term Ancient Woodland is used in British nature conservation to refer to any wooded land established for a very long period (equivalent to the American term old growth forest).
Woodlot is a closely-related American term, which refers to a stand of trees generally used for firewood. While woodlots often technically have closed canopies, they are so small that light penetration from the edge makes them ecologically closer to woodland than forest.
See also:
- Afrotropic ecozone
- Angolan Miombo woodlands (Angola)
- Angolan Mopane woodlands (Angola, Namibia)
- Central Zambezian Miombo woodlands (Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia)
- Eastern Miombo woodlands (Mozambique, Tanzania)
- Kalahari Acacia-Baikiaea woodlands (Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe)
- Zambezian and Mopane woodlands (Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe)
- Zambezian Baikiaea woodlands (Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe)
- Neotropic ecozone
- Afrotropic ecozone
- Palearctic ecozone
- Baluchistan xeric woodlands (Afghanistan, Pakistan)
- Central Afghan Mountains xeric woodlands (Afghanistan)
- Central Asian riparian woodlands (Kazakhstan)
- North Saharan steppe and woodlands (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco Tunisia, Western Sahara)
- Paropamisus xeric woodlands (Afghanistan)
- South Saharan steppe and woodlands (Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Sudan)
- Tibesti-Jebel Uweinat montane xeric woodlands (Chad, Egypt, Libya, Sudan)
- West Saharan montane xeric woodlands (Algeria, Mali, Mauritania, Niger)
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