Páramo () can refer to a variety of

alpine tundra Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high elevation, with an associated harsh climate. As the latitude of a location approaches the poles, the threshold elevation for alpine tundra gets ...

ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrower term classifies the páramo according to its regional placement in the northern Andes of South America and adjacent southern Central America. The páramo is the ecosystem of the regions above the continuous forest line, yet below the permanent snowline. It is a " Neotropical high mountain biome with a vegetation composed mainly of giant rosette plants, shrubs and grasses". According to scientists, páramos may be "

evolutionary Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variati ...

hot spots", that meaning that it's among the fastest evolving regions on Earth.

Location

The Northern Andean Páramo global ecoregion includes the

Cordillera Central páramo The Cordillera Central páramo (NT1004) is an ecoregion containing páramo (high moorland) vegetation above the treeline in the Andes mountain range of northern Peru and southern Ecuador. Due to its isolation there are high levels of endemism. De ...

(Ecuador, Peru),

Santa Marta páramo The Santa Marta páramo (NT1007) is an ecoregion containing páramo (high moorland) vegetation above the treeline in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. The isolated position of the range has allowed ...

(Colombia),

Cordillera de Merida páramo The Cordillera de Merida páramo (NT1004) is an ecoregion containing páramo (high moorland) vegetation above the treeline in the Andes mountain range of Venezuela. The isolated habitat has many endemic species. It is relatively stable and intact. ...

(Venezuela) and

Northern Andean páramo The Northern Andean páramo (NT1006) is an ecoregion containing páramo vegetation above the treeline in the Andes of Colombia and Ecuador. In the past, when the climate was cooler, the treeline and the páramo units were lower and the units were c ...

(Colombia, Ecuador) terrestrial ecoregions. The

Costa Rican páramo The Costa Rican páramo, also known as the Talamanca páramo, is a natural region of montane grassland and shrubland of Costa Rica and western Panama. Setting The Costa Rican páramo includes several enclaves on the highest peaks of the Cordil ...

in Costa Rica and Panama is another páramo ecoregion. In the strictest sense of the term, all páramo ecosystems are in the

Neotropics The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In biog ...

, specifically South and Central America. Scattered throughout the regions between 11°N and 8°S latitudes, these ecosystems are mainly in the northwest corner of South America, in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. In Venezuela, the páramo occurs in the

Cordillera de Mérida The Cordillera de Mérida is a series of mountain ranges, or massif, in northwestern Venezuela. The Cordillera de Mérida is a northeastern extension of the Andes Mountains and the most important branch of the Venezuelan Andes. The ranges run sout ...

. Páramo ecosystems are also found in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia, and in the regions of

Huehuetenango Huehuetenango () is a city and municipality in the highlands of western Guatemala. It is also the capital of the department of Huehuetenango. The city is situated from Guatemala City, and is the last departmental capital on the Pan-American High ...

and El Quiché of Guatemala in the

Sierra de los Cuchumatanes The Sierra de los Cuchumatanes is the highest non-volcanic mountain range in Central America. Its elevations range from to over , and it covers a total area of .Lovell 2005:11 With an area of situated above , it is also the most extensive hig ...

. The

Cordillera de Talamanca The Cordillera de Talamanca is a mountain range that lies in the southeast half of Costa Rica and the far west of Panama. Much of the range and the area around it is included in La Amistad International Park, which also is shared between the tw ...

of Costa Rica and the westernmost part of Panama has páramo. In northern Ecuador, the

Guandera Biological Station The Guandera Biological Station is a biological station established in 1994 and situated in the northern inter-Andean valley of Ecuador. The station is managed by the Jatun Sacha Foundation and is located in Ecuador's Carchi Province.. A verdant ...

is a fairly undisturbed páramo ecosystem. The majority of the páramo ecosystems occur in the

Colombian Andes The Andean region, located in central Colombia, is the most populated natural region of Colombia. With many mountains, the Andes contain most of the country's urban centers.Sumapaz Páramo, south of the

Altiplano Cundiboyacense The Altiplano Cundiboyacense () is a high plateau located in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes covering parts of the departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá. The altiplano corresponds to the ancient territory of the Muisca. The Al ...

in the

Eastern Ranges The Eastern Ranges is an Australian rules football team in the NAB League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition. The club is a founding member of the competition (1992) and has produced several players for the Australian Football Leagu ...

of the Colombian Andes (about south of Bogotá), is the largest páramo in the world. This region was declared a National Park of Colombia in 1977 because of its importance as a

biodiversity hotspot A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with significant levels of biodiversity that is threatened by human habitation. Norman Myers wrote about the concept in two articles in ''The Environmentalist'' in 1988 and 1990, after which the ...

and main source of water for the most densely populated area of the country, the Bogotá Savannah. The Páramo Wildlife Refuge Park in the San José Province of Costa Rica "protects tropical forest areas in the high elevations of the Talamanca Mountains".

Cotopaxi National Park Cotopaxi National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Cotopaxi) is a protected area in Ecuador situated in the Cotopaxi Province, Napo Province and Pichincha Province Pichincha () is a province of Ecuador located in the northern Sierra region; its cap ...

contains of protected land in the

Cotopaxi Province Cotopaxi () is one of the provinces of Ecuador. The capital is Latacunga. The province contains the Cotopaxi Volcano, an intermittent volcano with a height of . Cantons The province is divided into 7 cantons. The following table lists each ca ...

of Ecuador. Much of this park is páramo. Its flora includes gentians,

clubmosses Lycopodiopsida is a class of vascular plants known as lycopods, lycophytes or other terms including the component lyco-. Members of the class are also called clubmosses, firmosses, spikemosses and quillworts. They have dichotomously branching ...

, valerians, and asters such as ''

Loricaria ''Loricaria'' is a genus of armored catfish native to South America. Taxonomy ''Loricaria'' was the first genus of the family Loricariidae described. Thus, it is the nominal genus of the family Loricariidae. Phylogenetic relationships within ...

'' and ''

Chuquiraga ''Chuquiraga'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae.''Chuquirag ...

'' species.

Climate

Páramo climates differ slightly depending on the specific location. In Colombia and northern Ecuador, air masses from the

Intertropical Convergence Zone The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ ), known by sailors as the doldrums or the calms because of its monotonous windless weather, is the area where the northeast and the southeast trade winds converge. It encircles Earth near the thermal e ...

(ITCZ) have a substantial effect on the climate, and these regions tend to be consistently humid (approx. 70-85%) throughout the year. The Andes also play a key role in the climate of these regions as they cause an orographic uplift in which moist air rises. This creates continuous moisture via rain, clouds, and fog, with many of them receiving over of rain annually. The páramos of the northernmost Andes of Venezuela, northern Colombia, and Costa Rica experience a different climate due to the dry season, which is caused by northeasterly trade winds. Southern Ecuador and northern Peru experience the most severe dryness as they are influenced by an air mass from the Amazon Basin, which releases its moisture on the eastern slopes, as well as another air mass from the west that is influenced by the

Humboldt Current The Humboldt Current, also called the Peru Current, is a cold, low-salinity ocean current that flows north along the western coast of South America.Montecino, Vivian, and Carina B. Lange. "The Humboldt Current System: Ecosystem components and pr ...

. Overall, páramo climates are known for their daily fluctuations in temperature and humidity. While they are generally cold and humid ecosystems, they often undergo a sudden and drastic change in weather in which they fluctuate between temperatures from below freezing to . This oscillation often results in a daily freeze-and-thaw cycle. Mean annual temperatures of páramo ecosystems range from , with increasingly colder temperatures at higher latitudes.

Soils

Soils in páramo ecosystems vary, but most are young and partially weathered. The soil has a relatively low pH because of an abundance of moisture and organic content. Organic content, even within disturbed sites averages very high which contributes to water retention in the soil. During cold and wet weather, there are few nutrients available and productivity is very low in páramo soils. Soils in páramo ecosystems have changed because of human activity, especially due to burning vegetation to clear land for grazing. Soils in the south Ecuadorian páramo are characterized broadly into

Andisols In USDA soil taxonomy, Andisols are soils formed in volcanic ash and defined as soils containing high proportions of glass and amorphous colloidal materials, including allophane, imogolite and ferrihydrite. In the World Reference Base for Soil Re ...

Inceptisols Inceptisols are a soil order in USDA soil taxonomy. They form quickly through alteration of parent material. They are more developed than Entisols. They have no accumulation of clays, iron oxide, aluminium oxide or organic matter. They have an ...

Histosols In both the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) and the USDA soil taxonomy, a Histosol is a soil consisting primarily of organic materials. They are defined as having or more of organic soil material in the upper . Organic soil materia ...

Entisols Entisols are soils defined in USDA soil taxonomy that do not show any profile development other than an A horizon. An entisol has no diagnostic horizons, and most are basically unaltered from their parent material, which can be unconsolidated sed ...

, and Mollisols. Recently, there has been an increase in Andisol soils, largely due to more volcanic activity These soils have a very high water retention rate, which contributes to the rise in cultivation and differential land use. This water supply stored in the soil in the higher elevation páramo in the Andes becomes the water supply for Andean settlements in lower altitudes.

Vegetation zones

Páramos are divided into separate zones based on elevation and vegetative structure, with the three main types of páramo vegetation unequally distributed throughout different zones. , more than 3,000 plant species have been discovered in the páramo. Azorella peduculata (14401587732)

''Superpáramo'' is at the highest elevation and is usually considered to be the transition zone between the higher, permanent snow region and the lower grass páramo zone. The superpáramo zone is generally narrow and exists atop loose stones and sandy soils at about . It has the lowest air temperature, precipitation level, soil water-holding capacity, and nutrient content of all the zones. Being the highest in elevation, it also has the highest levels of solar radiation and night frost. For this reason, vegetation in the superpáramo must be highly resistant to such severe fluctuations in weather. Air temperatures are low—cold at night and cool during the day—with daily oscillations greater than the oscillations of monthly averages. Due to its localization on high mountains, this area is the least disturbed by humans and contains the most endemic species of all the zones. Flora includes '' Azorella pedunculata'' of the family

Apiaceae Apiaceae or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus '' Apium'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering plant ...

and species from the families

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

, Fabaceae, and

Ericaceae The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c.4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it th ...

The most broadly described zone is the ''grass páramo''. Grass páramos cover large areas of mountain ranges, while others are limited to small areas on slopes and summits of very high mountains. The term ''páramo'' is sometimes used to refer to this specific type. It has continuous vegetation and plant cover with a "yellowish to olive–brown" look due to the combination of dead and living grasses. The grass páramo extends from approximately , and is composed of mostly tussock grasses. ''

Calamagrostis intermedia ''Calamagrostis intermedia'' is a species of grass in the family Poaceae. It is native to South America, growing in high elevation grasslands and forest clearings. Its range extends from Colombia to Argentina. Description ''Calamagrostis interm ...

'' and other grasses of the genera ''

Calamagrostis ''Calamagrostis'' (reed grass or smallweed) is a genus of flowering plants in the grass family Poaceae, with about 260 species that occur mainly in temperate regions of the globe. Towards equatorial latitudes, species of ''Calamagrostis'' general ...

'' and '' Festuca'' tend to dominate this zone. Other common vegetation includes large and small shrubs, stunted trees, cushion plants, herbs, and rosette plants. While these are the dominant species, grass páramos can also contain tall- and short-grass communities, including herbaceous and woody vegetation. Due to its easier access and high levels of grass, this zone is more impacted by humans and suffers from both burning and grazing activities. ''Subpáramo'' is the lowest and most diverse zone. At , it is a shrub-dominated zone that combines aspects of both the grass páramo above and the forest below. Along with shrubs, this zone also contains small, scattered trees which gradually transition into the grasses and herbs of the grass páramo above. Plant communities in this vegetation zone are also known to include thickets that are mainly composed of shrubby or woody vegetation, including species from the genera '' Ilex'', ''

Ageratina ''Ageratina'' (snakeroot) is a genus of more than 330 perennials and rounded shrubs in the family Asteraceae. These plants grow mainly in the warmer regions of the Americas and West Indies. Over 150 species are native to Mexico. Some flourish i ...

'', and ''

Baccharis ''Baccharis'' is a genus of perennials and shrubs in the aster family (Asteraceae). They are commonly known as baccharises but sometimes referred to as "brooms", because many members have small thin leaves resembling the true brooms. They are ...

''. Fragmented forests can appear in the subpáramo due to microclimatic or

edaphic Edaphology (from Greek , ''edaphos'', "ground",, ''-logia'') is concerned with the influence of soils on living beings, particularly plants. It is one of two main divisions of soil science, the other being pedology. Edaphology includes the study ...

conditions, yet the more abrupt changes are generally due to anthropogenic disruption such as cutting, burning, and grazing activities. Because of these high levels of disruption, it is believed that subpáramos are made up of largely secondary-growth communities. The high levels of disruption also make this zone particularly difficult to define, as humans typically extend and expand the zone for their own purposes, sometimes over hundreds or thousands of years. This has altered forest lines, often lowering them by several hundred meters, which has also affected the

altitudinal zonation Altitudinal zonation (or elevational zonation) in mountainous regions describes the natural layering of ecosystems that occurs at distinct elevations due to varying environmental conditions. Temperature, humidity, soil composition, and solar radi ...

for many animals. Lichens are widely distributed in all types of paramos, however different growth forms may be favoured by environmental conditions. For example, extreme conditions associated with rocky substrates and high elevations favour crustose lichens, while foliose and fruticose lichens are associated with less extreme conditions and mid altitudes. The atmospheric factors such as humidity and temperature positively favour taller lichens, due to an increase in locally available water.

Fauna

The vegetation of the páramo provides shelter and habitat for a variety of mammals, birds, insects, amphibians, and reptiles. Some animals commonly found in páramo ecosystems include the Culpeo (sometimes called the páramo wolf), the

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

, and the spectacled bear (''Tremarctos ornatus'') which occasionally forages in the high páramo for its favored food, ''

Puya Puya may refer to: * ''Puya'' (plant), in the family Bromeliaceae * Puya (river), in Russia * Puya, a variety of Guajillo chili * ''Puya'' (Meitei texts), traditional or mythological texts of the Meetei people * '' Culoepuya'' or ''Culo'e Puya'' ...

'' bromeliads. Invertebrates such as grasshoppers, cockroaches, beetles, and flies are found in the subpáramo. Amphibians have been well documented in páramo ecosystems, including salamanders such as ''

Bolitoglossa ''Bolitoglossa'' is a genus of lungless salamanders, also called mushroom-tongued salamanders, tropical climbing salamanders, or web-footed salamanders, in the family Plethodontidae. Their range is between northern Mexico through Central Ameri ...

'' species and frogs such as ''

Pristimantis ''Pristimantis'' is a very large genus of frogs distributed in the southern Caribbean islands ( Lesser Antilles) and in Central and South America from Honduras to northern Argentina and southern Brazil. With 596 described species (as of October ...

'' and ''

Atelopus ''Atelopus'' is a large genus of Bufonidae, commonly known as harlequin frogs or toads, from Central and South America, ranging as far north as Costa Rica and as far south as Bolivia. ''Atelopus'' species are small, generally brightly colored, ...

'' species. Reptiles include lizards of the genera ''

Stenocercus ''Stenocercus'' is a genus of South American lizards, commonly called whorltail iguanas, of the family Tropiduridae. This genus has 80 valid described species. Geographic range The greatest species richness is in Ecuador and Peru, but members o ...

'', '' Phenacosaurus'', and '' Proctoporus''. Sixty-nine species of birds are considered to be "total users" of páramo habitats, with "41 species making it their primary habitat and 16 as indicator species". The

Andean condor The Andean condor (''Vultur gryphus'') is a giant South American Cathartid vulture and is the only member of the genus ''Vultur''. Found in the Andes mountains and adjacent Pacific coasts of western South America, the Andean condor is the lar ...

(''Vultur gryphus''), also called "king of the Andes", is known for its wide wingspan, but is no longer frequently seen. The most numerous bird families in the páramo include eagles, hummingbirds,

ovenbirds Ovenbirds or furnariids are a large family of small suboscine passerine birds found from Mexico and Central to southern South America. They form the family Furnariidae. This is a large family containing around 315 species and 70 genera. The ove ...

, thraupid "finches", and

tyrant flycatcher The tyrant flycatchers (Tyrannidae) are a family of passerine birds which occur throughout North and South America. They are considered the largest family of birds known to exist in the world, with more than 400 species. They are the most di ...

s. Some hummingbirds tolerate the cold climate by going into "a kind of nightly hibernation." Hummingbirds, bees and flies are all important pollinators in the páramo, while birds and smaller mammals such as rabbits and guinea pigs are important seed dispersers. Many of the larger mammals of the páramo are rare due to hunting. Echinopyrrhosia

Human impact and climate change

Humans have inhabited the páramo of the Andes for approximately the past 15,000 years. Deforestation has been extensive and in some cases, like the northern Andes, 90-95% of forests have been cleared. Other sites in Venezuela and Colombia show evidence that humans settled there at least 800 years ago and used the land for agriculture and hunting. When Europeans came to the Americas they introduced exotic plants and animals that greatly affected the land, especially cattle, which were introduced to the páramos in the early 18th century. By the 20th century the growing population of settlers led to an increased demand for land, and páramo ecosystems suffered accordingly. As more land was needed for cattle, fire was used to clear land, and eventually páramos became excessively burned and overgrazed. Both burning and grazing have damaged vegetation, soils, species diversity, and water storage capacity of the páramos. In burned and disturbed sites that were studied in the Andes the pH and phosphorus concentration in the soil are higher than in non-burned sites. Erosioenparamo

Climate change is becoming an increasingly pressing issue for páramo ecosystems. Growing populations in Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador have forced settlements in higher elevations covering more páramo. Recent developments such as construction of aqueducts, drainage systems, and roads, mining, and afforestation have been a huge additional páramo disturbance. Increases in temperature extremes are forcing many fauna and flora species to higher grounds, and eventually they could face extinction. The flora of páramos is adapted to specific conditions and is thus vulnerable to even small climate changes. Climate change in the Andes is causing glaciers in the páramo to disappear and a drop in rainfall, virtually drying up páramo and in turn, drying up the water supply for cities such as Quito, Ecuador and Bogotá, Colombia. On 8 February 2016, the

Constitutional Court of Colombia The Constitutional Court of Colombia ( es, Corte Constitucional de Colombia) is the supreme constitutional court of Colombia. Part of the Judiciary, it is the final appellate court for matters involving interpretation of the Constitution with ...

banned all mining operations in the paramos, prioritising the protection of the environment, and terminating 347 mining licenses that had operational rights in the ecosystem.