Forests are really important, as we hear more and more these days. Forest Ecology is a field that helps us understand them better, by understanding certain patterns of how they live, interact with each other and their surrounding environment.
Forests are so important to life on earth because they represent a huge amount of biomass, and are have enormous amounts of water and potential energy. We say potential energy, because their kinetic energy is expressed mostly in their growth, which takes place over centuries or longer. But, they have the potential, when acted upon by outside forces, of sudden bursts of activity -- like when a tree falls, or gets burned in a forest fire. And their presence affects the weather, usually exerting a moderating influence on what otherwise would be extreme wind and percipitation -- this is also due to their being huge repositories of water, and their soaking up carbon dioxide and producing oxygen.
Aspen trees form in colonies that have linked roots, so they are really part of the same organism. The Pando colony in Utah may be the oldest (80,000 plus years), largest, and it certainly seems to be the heaviest living organism.
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