Tropical Andes
The Páramo
Páramo refers to a number of neotropical high altitude grassland ecosystems that occur from Costa Rica to Bolivia. Páramo ecosystems are found only in high elevations (typically over 5000 m) primarily in the upper parts of the Northern Andes. Colombia alone contains 57% of all the páramo by area in the world. One of the largest areas is found at Sumapaz, not far from the capital city of Bogota.
Vegetation in the páramo consists of tussock grasses, dwarf shrubs, cushion plants, and other forms of vegetation adapted to high elevation cold, wind, and intense ultra-violet radiation at high altitudes. The lower limits of these grasslands are bounded by natural forest, which in the absence of human burning, slowly encroaches on páramo vegetation altering the grasslands into forest with time.
