''Tierra caliente'' is an informal term used in Latin America to refer to places with a distinctly
tropical climate
Tropical climate is the first of the five major climate groups in the Köppen climate classification identified with the letter A. Tropical climates are defined by a monthly average temperature of 18 °C (64.4 °F) or higher in the cool ...
. These are usually regions from sea level from 0–3,000 feet.
[Zech, W. and Hintermaier-Erhard, G. (2002); Böden der Welt – Ein Bildatlas, Heidelberg, p. 98.]
The Peruvian geographer Javier Pulgar Vidal used the altitude of 1,000 m as the border between the tropical rain forest and the subtropical cloud forest (''
Yunga fluvial'').
[Pulgar Vidal, Javier: Geografía del Perú; Las Ocho Regiones Naturales del Perú. Edit. Universo S.A., Lima 1979. First Edition (his dissertation of 1940): Las ocho regiones naturales del Perú, ''Boletín del Museo de historia natural "Javier Prado"'', n° especial, Lima, 1941, 17, pp. 145-161.]
Most tierra caliente regions are along coastal plains, but some interior basin regions also fit the label.
Agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...
in those areas is dominated tropical crops, such as
bananas and
sugar cane
Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus '' Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalk ...
.
See also
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Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
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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 r ...
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Tierra templada Tierra templada (Spanish for ''temperate land'') is a pseudo-climatological term used in Latin America to refer to places which are either located in the tropics at a moderately high elevation or are marginally outside the astronomical tropics, prod ...
, ecoregion border: 2,500 ft or 1,000 m (Javier Pulgar Vidal)
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Tierra fría
In Latin America, tierra fría ( Spanish for ''cold land'') are mountain locations where high elevation results in a markedly cooler climate than that encountered in the lowlands at a comparable latitude. The combination of low latitude and high a ...
, ecoregion border, 6,000 ft or 2,300 m (Javier Pulgar Vidal)
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Tierra helada Tierra Helada (Spanish for "frozen land"), also known as Tierra Nevada (Spanish for "snowy land"), is a term used in Latin America to refer to the highest places found within the Andes mountains.
The ''Tierra Helada'' comprises the montane grasslan ...
, ecoregion border, treeline: 12,000 ft or 3,500 m (Javier Pulgar Vidal)
Literature
Altitudinal life zones of Peru
Climate of South America
Geography of Mesoamerica
Spanish words and phrases
Geography of South America
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