Impact of Climate Change on Water Resources in Agriculture 7 Forests , Land Use Change , and Water

A forest is a biotic community predominated by trees and woody vegetation that are signifi cantly taller, greater, thicker, and deeper than other vegetation types and generally covers a large area (Chang, 2003). Forests cover approximately 26.2% of the world, with 45.7% of Latin America and the Caribbean being covered, 35% of East Asia and the Pacifi c, and 35% of the European Union. Canada and the United States (U.S.) combined account only for 6.8% of the world’s forests while Africa has even less 5.7% (Forest Types of the World, 2013). In the U.S., forests cover about one-third of its land (Sedell et al., 2000; Jones et al., 2009), totaling about 300 million ha (USDA, 2001). Forested areas in the temperate zone have not changed much in