Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is an area covered in trees, usually at low density, forming an open habitat, allowing sunlight to penetrate between the trees, and limiting shade. Woodland may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of primary or secondary succession. Higher densities and areas of trees, with largely closed canopy provide extensive and nearly continuous shade are referred to as forest.

Woodland is used in British woodland management to mean any smaller area covered in trees, however dense. (Forest is usually used in the British Isles only for more extensive wooded areas, again however dense – and also including Royal forests, which may not be wooded at all). The term Ancient Woodland is used in British nature conservation to refer to any wooded land that has existed for a very long period (equivalent to the American term old growth forest).

Mediterranean eucalypt forest in Australia.

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.

Woodland ecoregions

Limber Pine woodland in the Toiyabe Range of central Nevada.

A woodland ecosystem at Morton Arboretum in Illinois.

Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands

• 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
  • Cerrado woodlands and savannas (Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay)

Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands

• Afrotropic ecozone
  • Al Hajar Al Gharbi montane woodlands (Oman)
• Palearctic ecozone
  • Gissaro-Alai open woodlands (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan)

Montane grasslands and shrublands

• Afrotropic ecozone
  • Angolan scarp savanna and woodlands (Angola)
  • Drakensberg alti-montane grasslands and woodlands (Lesotho, South Africa)
  • Drakensberg montane grasslands, woodlands and forests (Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland)
  • East African montane moorlands (Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda)
  • Ethiopian montane grasslands and woodlands (Ethiopia)
• Palearctic ecozone
  • Kopet Dag woodlands and forest steppe (Iran, Turkmenistan)

Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub

• Australasia ecozone
  • Coolgardie woodlands (Australia)
  • Mount Lofty woodlands (Australia)
  • Murray-Darling woodlands and mallee (Australia)
  • Naracoorte woodlands (Australia)
  • Southwest Australia woodlands (Australia)
• Nearctic ecozone
  • California chaparral and woodlands (United States)
• Palearctic ecozone
  • Canary Islands dry woodlands and forests (Spain)
  • Mediterranean acacia-argania dry woodlands and succulent thickets (Morocco, Canary Islands (Spain))
  • Mediterranean dry woodlands and steppe (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia)
  • Mediterranean woodlands and forests (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia)
  • Southeastern Iberian shrubs and woodlands (Spain)

Deserts and xeric shrublands

• Afrotropic ecozone
  • East Saharan montane xeric woodlands (Chad, Sudan)
  • Madagascar succulent woodlands (Madagascar)
  • Somali montane xeric woodlands (Somalia)
  • Southwestern Arabian montane woodlands (Saudi Arabia, Yemen)
• 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)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Woodland

• The UK Woodland Trust