Andean Páramo grasslands
Andean Páramo grasslands are unique tropical ecosystems located primarily in the high altitudes of the Andes mountains, particularly in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. These grasslands, situated between 10,499 to 15,420 feet (3,200 to 4,700 meters) above sea level, are characterized by their cool, humid climate and remarkable biodiversity, featuring distinctive flora like tussock grasses, giant rosettes known as frailejones, and scarce tree species. The páramo ecosystem plays a crucial role in providing essential services, particularly water regulation and carbon sequestration, significantly benefiting both rural and urban populations in surrounding areas.
Human interaction with the páramo has a long history, with indigenous cultures using these lands for agriculture and livestock. However, increased activities such as grazing, deforestation, and mining have led to environmental degradation. Climate change is further exacerbating these issues, with rising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns threatening the delicate balance of this ecosystem. Despite these challenges, conservation efforts are underway, emphasizing sustainable management practices and the importance of páramos in addressing water scarcity and preserving biodiversity. The ongoing recognition of the páramo’s ecological and cultural significance underscores the need for continued research and protective measures to ensure their future sustainability.
Subject Terms
Andean Páramo grasslands
- Category: Grassland, Tundra, and Human Biomes.
- Geographic Location: Central and South America.
Summary: The Andean páramo grasslands is a highly biodiverse tropical Andean ecosystem and cultural landscape that provides essential, especially water-related, services to large rural and urban populations.
Typical páramos are tropical wet grasslands approximately 10,499 to 15,420 feet (3,200 to 4,700 meters) above sea level, although several natural factors influence the altitude of the lower limit, such as proximity to wetter or drier lowland areas, rain-shadow effects, and soil type, as well as human use of the land. The combination of high altitude and tropical location creates a unique environment with daily seasonality (“winter every night, summer every day”), a generally humid climate and cold temperatures, and a surprisingly high level of biodiversity. Páramos provide important ecosystem services, including water provision and carbon sequestration, and are also important cultural landscapes. As recognition of their value has increased, so have efforts to improve their management and conservation.
Páramos cover 13,514 square miles (35,000 square kilometers) in South America; Colombia has the largest extension, and Ecuador has the greatest extension as a percentage of the country's total area (6 percent). Although páramos are ecological units, much diversity exists between the northern limit in Colombia and Venezuela and the southern limit in Peru. Even within one country, variations are remarkable, including extremely wet and very dry páramos. Human use is also an important factor that influences this diversity; páramos form a complex mosaic from pristine to disturbed areas.
Biodiversity
The distribution of páramos is similar to a series of islands in the landscape, promoting the development of high levels of biodiversity and endemism. Plants and animals have adapted to extreme conditions such as high ultraviolet radiation, cold, wind, limited water uptake due to low temperatures, and wide daily temperature variations. Tussock grasses are the dominant life form in grasslands; trees of the genera Polylepis, Buddleja, and Weinmannia are generally scarce but can form extensive forests within the páramo. The vegetation also includes giant rosettes, especially of the genus Espeletia, which are unusual plants commonly known as frailejones that reach up to 33 feet (10 meters), as well as dwarf shrubs and cushion plants. Animal life includes several iconic species such as Andean condors and spectacled bears; a wide variety of birds, such as hummingbirds and buzzard eagles; and mammals such as rabbits, foxes, wildcats, and (occasionally) Andean tapirs.
Soil Characteristics
One of the most important characteristics of páramos are their soils, which function like sponges that can hold more water than their own dry weight. The combination of geological materials with organic matter that decomposes slowly in the cold, wet conditions is the basis for the principal ecosystem function of páramos. Water retained and released by this soil is used both by local communities and downstream for irrigation, drinking water, and hydropower. Large Andean cities such as Mérida, Bogotá, Quito, and Cajamarca, as well as many others, depend substantially on páramos for their water. These soils also have high carbon contents and thus play a role as a carbon sink that can help mitigate climate change. Other ecosystem services of páramos have to do with their at-times breathtaking landscapes and biodiversity, which are the basis for ecotourism activities.
Human Use of Páramos
People have used páramos since pre-Columbian times, and a “páramo culture” exists that includes cultivation of crops such as potatoes and other Andean tubers. Incas developed the use of llamas and alpacas, and established irrigation systems with páramo water. The European conquest decimated and subjugated the indigenous population, and began the extensive use of páramos for livestock, especially sheep and cattle, with large herds transforming certain páramos dramatically.
Some human activities—including burning for grazing, deforestation (clearing for pastures and firewood extraction), exotic-tree plantations (especially pine trees for timber), and the advance of agriculture into páramos—can affect páramo ecosystem functions, especially in less humid and more accessible areas. Other activities that have an effect are mining, uncontrolled tourism, hunting, and infrastructure related to water and roads. All these activities affect the soil, water, biodiversity, and landscape, and thus affect one or more ecosystem services. The effect of climate change, perceptible through the reduction of glaciers, is not yet well understood but could have severe consequences for páramo soil and water. The area is already seeing its unique climate heat up faster than the surrounding areas. Less precipitation is causing the páramos to dry out and species that live in the ecoregion are being forced to migrate to higher and higher altitudes in search of cooler temperatures.
Conservation Efforts
The contrast between conserved and disturbed páramos has prompted a reaction from communities, government agencies, and civil society. Several ongoing efforts are seeking to manage the cultural landscape with practices including intensification of agricultural activities in lowland zones, use of alpacas and llamas instead of cattle and sheep, eradication of exotic-tree plantations, ecotourism initiatives, as well as conflict management among actors with competing interests and political processes from local to regional scales. Some projects include the concept of compensation for ecosystem services, in which lowland users pay or otherwise compensate upland people's conservation and land management efforts that enhance production of water and other ecosystem services.
Once thought to be almost-useless places, páramos have acquired strategic status in the early twenty-first century. Much more is yet to be known, discussed, and implemented to guarantee their long-term sustainable management and conservation.
Bibliography
Balslev, Henrik and James L. Luteyn, eds. Páramo: An Andean Ecosystem Under Human Influence. London: Academic Press, 1992.
Camacho, Francisco. "Red List Vulnerability Assessment of the Paramo Vascular Flora in the Nevados Natural National Park." Tropical Conservation Science, 21 Apr. 2022, doi.org/10.1177%2F19400829221086958. Accessed 11 Nov. 2024.
Fecht, Sarah. “Unique Andean Ecosystem is Warming Almost as Fast as the Arctic.” Columbia Climate School, 15 Nov. 2018, news.climate.columbia.edu/2018/11/15/paramos-ecosystem-climate-change/. Accessed 11 Nov. 2024.
Hofstede, Robert, Pool Segarra, and Patricio Mena-Vásconez, eds. Los Páramos del Mundo. Quito, Ecuador: Global Peatland Initiative/NC-IUCN/EcoCiencia, 2003.
Mena-Vásconez, Patricio, Galo Medina, and Robert Hofstede, eds. Los Páramos del Ecuador: Particularidades, Problemas, y Perspectivas. Quito, Ecuador: Proyecto Páramo/Abya Yala, 2001.