The Eastern Cordillera Real montane forests (NT0121) is an ecoregion in the eastern range of the Andes of southern Colombia, Ecuador and northern Peru. The ecoregion covers the eastern slopes of the Andes, and includes montane forest that rises from the Amazonian rain forest, with cloud forest and elfin forest at higher elevations. It is rich in species, including many endemics. It is threatened by logging and conversion for pasturage and subsistence agriculture.
The ecoregion is on the eastern slopes of the central Andes. The forests cover an almost continuous band about 1,500 kilometres (930mi) long but sometimes no more than 30 kilometres (19mi) wide due to the limited area of the slopes with suitable elevations.[1] They extend along the southern part of the Cordillera Oriental of Colombia, the eastern part of the Cordillera Real of Ecuador and the northern part of the Andes of Peru. The ecoregion has an area of 10,256,352 hectares (25,344,000 acres).[2][lower-alpha 1]
The ecoregion covers rugged premontane terrain on the eastern slopes of the Andes with elevations that range from 900 metres (3,000ft) to above 2,100 metres (6,900ft). In Peru part of the ecoregion extends west to the Pacific slope. The southern part of the Cordillera Real contains the Huancabamba Depression, the lowest pass in the Andes at about 2,000 metres (6,600ft) above sea level. The mountains south of the Huancabamba Depression were mostly formed in the Miocene (23–5.3 Ma[lower-alpha 2]) while the mountains to the north formed between the end of the Pliocene (5.3–2.6 Ma) and the Pleistocene (2.6 Ma to 11,700 years ago).[1]
The Pacific slope forests in Peru have a dry, seasonal climate and are mostly small patches of woods with relatively few species, but several endemic species. On the eastern, Amazon side of the Andes the montane forests start around 1,500 metres (4,900ft) and receive plentiful rainfall from moist air from the Amazon basin.
Climate
The ecoregion gets 1,500 to 2,000 millimetres (59 to 79in) of rain in a typical year, but in some years may get up to 4,500 millimetres (180in).[1] At a sample location at coordinates 2°45′S78°15′W / 2.75°S 78.25°W / -2.75; -78.25 the Köppen climate classification is Aw (equatorial; winter dry).[4] Mean temperatures vary from 19°C (66°F) in July to 20.2°C (68.4°F) in April. Yearly total precipitation is about 2,400 millimetres (94in). Monthly precipitation varies from 130.7 millimetres (5.15in) in August to 263.5 millimetres (10.37in) in March.[4]
Vegetation consists of evergreen broadleaf forest, with the composition varying considerably depending on elevation. In the lower areas (ceja de montaña) the forests is closed and exuberant. Higher up the trees are lower, and transition into cloud forest and then into elfin woodland. There are various species specialized to a given altitude, some of which are endemic due to physical barriers to mobility. The montane forests may once have held 30,000 to 40,000 species of flora, more than are found in the Amazon basin.[1]
↑ The World Wide Fund for Nature gives the area of the ecoregion as 39,600 square miles (103,000km2) and elsewhere as 84,442 square kilometres (32,603sqmi).[1]
WildFinder, WWF: World Wildlife Fund, retrieved 2017-04-26
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María Cristina Ardila-Robayo was a Colombian herpetologist. She was professor at the National University of Colombia, Bogotá, and worked closely with the Natural History Museum of the university. In 2010 she was credited as having described 28 new species of amphibians from Colombia; as of late 2018, the Amphibian Species of the World lists 31 valid species described by her. She also worked with caimans and crocodiles and lead biodiversity restoration projects.
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