Forest

Forest covers about 37% of Norway’s land area and is, after the mountains, the habitat we have most of (Kvammen et al. 2021). Looking at all the forest in Norway, it has a great diversity of species. More than half of the roughly 40,000 species known in Norway are found in the forest.

Forest is also of great importance for the climate locally, regionally and globally. Trees bind a lot of carbon dioxide and release oxygen. We often hear how important it is to preserve the Amazon rainforest for precisely this reason. But the northern coniferous forest in Norway and the rest of the world is absolutely just as important in this respect, since it binds more carbon than tropical rainforest. Forest cleans our air and soil, it holds the soil in place, and thereby protects us against floods and landslides. The forest also gives us important raw materials and jobs through forestry.

Contents

Types of forest

A forest is characterised by consisting of several layers of vegetation. Some plants in the upper layers receive plenty of light, while those growing on the forest floor often receive little light.

Forest can be divided into different types depending on which species dominate. Broadly speaking, we can divide it into coniferous forest and deciduous forest. Light conditions, wind, precipitation and soil all differ between the various forest types. That is also why different species live in the different forests. Some forests are mixed forests with both conifers and deciduous trees. In such forests there is great variation and great species richness.

Coniferous forest

Over 70% of all the forest in Norway is coniferous forest (Kvammen et al. 2021 p. 123). We have two main types of coniferous forest: spruce forest and pine forest. Whether a particular place is spruce forest or pine forest is mainly determined by the type of soil at the site. Pine has a root that can go deep and reach water far down in the ground. It can therefore grow on fairly dry and nutrient-poor ground. Spruce has a more shallow root system and therefore needs more water where it grows. Where it is wetter and more nutrient-rich, spruce will outcompete pine. Under such conditions spruce grows fastest and will in time shade out the pine so that it does not survive.

Spruce forest

is denser than pine forest. In dense spruce forest as little as 1% of the light may reach the ground (Bjerkely 2018). Not many plants can grow with so little light. The species richness on the forest floor is therefore relatively low.

Pine forest

is much more open than spruce forest. We often find lingonberry, bilberry, heather, bog bilberry, crowberry and many different species of lichen, species that, like pine, can manage in dry places with little nutrition.

Both spruce forest and pine forest can be divided further according to the type of plants growing beneath the trees.

Deciduous forest

Deciduous forests are found all over the country. In deciduous forest the amount of light on the forest floor varies a great deal through the year. In summer, when all the trees have leaves, there is little light. In spring, before the leaves come out, there is more light, and so some plants, such as wood anemone and blue anemone, have adapted to flower at this time so that they can make use of the sunlight.

We can divide deciduous forests into three types:

Broadleaf deciduous forest

is a common type further south in Europe. It consists of trees such as oak, ash, hazel, elm, black alder, lime, beech and maple. They grow only in Sørlandet and the warmest parts of Østlandet and Vestlandet along the coast. Broadleaf deciduous forests are often relatively rich in species.

Hardy deciduous forests

can be quite varied. Birch is the most common deciduous tree in Norway, but species such as aspen, rowan, goat willow and grey alder are also hardy deciduous trees found scattered across most of the country. Bilberry is common to find beneath birch, but especially on valley slopes with good soil there may be many other species of herbs and large ferns.

Mountain birch forest

is a special forest type high in the mountains. The mountain birch forest forms a belt between the coniferous forest and the bare mountain. Here grows mountain birch, which is a subspecies of common birch. It often grows very crooked and wind-bent when it grows high in the mountains. Many of the animal species that live in the mountains depend on the birch belt and move down to survive harsh periods.

Forestry and forest conservation

Over half of Norway’s species are found in the forests. But about half of the species that are threatened also live in the forest. One of the main reasons for this is the way we practise forestry, with clear-cutting. Clear-cutting means that we fell all the trees in an area at the same time. Large amounts of nutrients are then often added, and only one tree species (often spruce) is planted in rows. Spraying against unwanted plants is common. When all the spruce is big enough it is felled again, and the process starts over. We therefore get a very uniform forest in which few species thrive. Forest that has never, or only to a small degree, been affected by humans is called primeval forest or natural forest. These forests have a much greater diversity of species. Old-growth forest in particular (older than 120 years) has many species and many rare species that are found only there. In Norway only 2.4% of the forest is old-growth forest (Sabima, n.d.). There are various ways of conserving forest, but still only a small part of the Norwegian forest is protected.

Species in the forest

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Next steps

• Lakes, watercourses and bogs — another biotope
• The mountains — another biotope
• Cultural landscape — another biotope
• Learn more about plants — species knowledge and reference
• Plants — the hub

Learn more

• Artsdatabanken — species, status, red list
• SNL — Norwegian botany — encyclopaedic
• Sopp- og Nyttevekstforbundet — courses and inspection
• Botanisk forening — Norwegian botany community

Text Lærke Søndergaard Stewart, Snuitide (2022)

• Sources

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