Andean bosque – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mountain forests of the Andes del Norte , better known with denominations such as Andean forest , Cloudy forest O Fog forest , are the forests, rainy mountain jungles, cloudy, temperate and cold, located in the northern Andes, which are typical of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and a part of Peru. The World Nature Fund (WWF) calls them Mountain forests of the Andes del Norte ; On the other hand in the central Andes, the Andean forest of Peru, Bolivia and Argentina are called Yungas.
They have a height from 1,000 to 4,000 m s. n. m. With high humidity and fog, depending on the altitude.
Ecoregions [ To edit ]
The WWF considers that the Andean forest is a bioregion and divides it into the following terrestrial ecoregions: [ first ]
Colombian Andean Forest [ To edit ]
They are located in the three mountain ranges, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the Sierra de la Macarena and the Serranía del Darién.
The Andean forest begins above the level of the tropical wet jungle and dry tropical forests, more or less between 1,000 and 1,200 m s. n. m .. from 1,800 or 2,000 m s. n. m. They are frequently covered with mist and are often called “cloud forests.” These are the kingdom par excellence of bromelia and orchids. Each tree is a botanical garden with dozens of associated species, all dedicated to the work of harvesting the tiny drops of water that form the mist. This water that drains through leaves, branches and trunks helps to increase the flow of the rivers and streams that were born in the moors, or gives rise to new springs.
Among the biodiversity of these forests are frogs and birds, two groups in which Colombia is the first in the world.
High Andean Forest [ To edit ]
The flora of hills and rural areas belongs to the levels that are defined by altitude as High Andean Forest and Páramo. Between 2,800 and 3,200 m s. n. m. The Andean Forest is developed that is distinguished by its wide biological diversity. Trees such as the racge, Encnillo, Mortiño, Canelo, Romero, Aliso and several relatives of the Sietecueros such as El Angelito, are predominant. A very colorful family of shrubs is formed by the relatives of the pegamosco that are easily distinguished by the colorful of its flowers. The ferns range from the tiny gateadera to the Palma fern, a species that exceeds 10 m high; Some of them behave as epiphytes in the High Andean forest and as rupees in the moor. Mosses and lichens just as orchids are an integral part of these ecosystems; They provide the color and textures of the native forest.
Prospera between 2,800 and 3,200 m s. n. m., limit that varies in one hundred or two hundred meters due to local conditions (winds, raviation). It is a supremely humid atmosphere that is appreciated at a distance as the characteristic mantle of clouds that surrounds the mountains of the mountains. Excess moisture allows an abundant variety of epiphytes such as quiches, orchids, mosses and lichens to cover them completely. Also called Andean jungle and high mountain forest , fulfills specific functions such as the regulation of the water flow that descends from the moors and the accumulation and administration of its nutrients. This is why trees grow up to 20 m high that protect and feed a wide and very important variety of animal and plant species.
It is a very different physiognomy forest from that of the common Andean forest, with a single stratum of small trees and nanophilic bushes (very small leaves), of usually crooked trunks and heights between 3 and 10 m, in which they predominate The elements of the old Asteraceae family. In addition, some high herbs such as Cerbatanas and Chusques and Bromeliaceae are part of this stratum. Mosses are very abundant and form thick mattresses on the forest floor. Many of them climb and cover the trunks and branches of the trees, along with other epiphytes and bromelia.
The Andean Forest has been destroyed mostly, to give way to the grazing of cattle and sheep and some potato crops. In its place there has been an advance of the vegetation of the moor, which is known as the forest paramization process, this characterizes the majority of landscapes above 3200 m. of altitude. Periodic burning bones carried out to favor the regrowth of pastures prevent the recolonization of the forest, which in itself is very slow given the very limiting conditions of temperature. For this reason, many authors have placed the forest limit – Páramo around 3,200 m s. n. m. Or sometimes less.
This degradation has produced in many sites a more or less open scrub type, based on elements of the Andean forest and the moor, which for some authors forms what is called “subparamo.” Actually and given that in some parts the passage of the forest to the herbaceous moor is relatively fast, the plant formation commonly known as a sub -ram could well correspond to the high Andean forest degraded, at least in part.
In spite of the above, relics of very different types of this ecosystem are preserved, from the paramunous forests of Rodamonte and Coloradito, through the extensive strip of Encenillal, to Andean forests with species of laurels and wax palms, which configures a range much broader than the one preserved in the rest of the rural area and an important biotic potential for the preservation of biodiversity and the extraction of restoration tools for other locations.
Benefits [ To edit ]
- They are habitat of a wide amount of plant species, both endemic and native (including many shrubs, lichens and mosses, organized vertically in at least four strata of vegetation), as well as many species of mammals, insects, amphibians, birds and reptiles .
- They provide a large amount of water to nearby tributaries, thanks to specializing in the collection of water from the environment.
- The woody coverage of the Andean slopes protects against erosion and prevents land landslides
See also [ To edit ]
Notes and references [ To edit ]
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