La zona transicional páramo-bosque nublado: un elemento paisajístico móvil en el espacio tiempo

Abstract

The Andean bleak plateau and the cloud forest are typically Andean mountain vegetal formations. Both of them have modified their altitudinal arrangement repeatedly in the past as an answer to natural global climatic changes and could do likewise as an answer to future climatic changes, either of natural or anthropogenic character. Accordingly, these formations can be considered mobile landscape elements in space-time which can modify their location and extension in different scenarios produced by the above mentioned climatic changes. The present article describes some characteristics of the bleak plateau, the cloud forest and the transition area between them, including possible answers of these structures and their species to four probable scenarios in the future: the natural ascending of the Andean Cordillera and the chains thereof, a relatively long interglacial period, the development of a glacial period, and last but not least the greenhouse effect.