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Ecotones Between Forest and Grassland pp 229–246Cite as

The Dynamic History of the Upper Forest Line Ecotone in the Northern Andes

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Abstract

In the Andean cordilleras very conspicuous ecotones can be found. The transition from continuous upper montane forest to treeless herbaceous vegetation, regionally known as “páramo” (Cleef 1981; Luteyn 1999) is known as the “upper forest line” (UFL) or “timber line” (Holtmeier 2009). Above the UFL trees may occur forming small patches with diameters of ten to several hundreds of metres. The elevation where individual trees find their altitudinal limits is at significantly higher altitudes and this limit reflects the “upper tree line”. In the Colombian Andes the upper tree line, most formed by dwarf trees of Polylepis, may be up to 800 m above the UFL. Therefore, it is relevant to differentiate between both ecotones. Across the Andes the altitudinal position of the UFL varies much depending latitude (Schmithüsen 1976) but in the area under consideration located between 0 and 11°N the altitudinal position of the UFL mostly varies between 3,000 and 3,800 m. In this paper we focus on the tropical Andes of northern Ecuador and Colombia. The spatial and temporal dynamics of the UFL ecotone, which has scientific and economic relevance is explored and discussed.

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Acknowledgements

Results presented in this paper were developed in several projects financially supported by NWO-ALW (J.C. Berrio: ALW 854.00.007; M. Vriend †: ALW 854.00.007), WOTRO (J.C. Berrio: WB 84-552; M. Vriend †: WB 84-552; Z. González-Carranza; WB 84-636; M.C. Moscol-Olivera: WAN 84-572), AlBan (R.G. Bogota-A.: E04D0388907CO) and IBED (M. Groot). HH wrote the manuscript with additional comments from JCB and RGBA. A.M. Cleef supported Fig. 10.3 and ZGC prepared Fig. 10.4. Data from the Ecoandes project were used and we thank the main coordinators of this project T. van der Hammen †, A.M. Cleef and O. Rangel.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Paleoecology and Landscape Ecology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Henry Hooghiemstra

  2. Department of Geography, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK

    Juan Carlos Berrio

  3. Department Paleoecology and Landscape Ecology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Mirella H. M. Groot, Raul G. Bogotá-A, Marcela Moscol Olivera & Zaire González-Carranza

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  1. Henry Hooghiemstra
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  2. Juan Carlos Berrio
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  3. Mirella H. M. Groot
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  4. Raul G. Bogotá-A
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  5. Marcela Moscol Olivera
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  6. Zaire González-Carranza
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Correspondence to Henry Hooghiemstra .

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  1. , Biology Department, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, 74078, Oklahoma, USA

    Randall W. Myster

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Hooghiemstra, H., Berrio, J.C., Groot, M.H.M., Bogotá-A, R.G., Olivera, M.M., González-Carranza, Z. (2012). The Dynamic History of the Upper Forest Line Ecotone in the Northern Andes. In: Myster, R. (eds) Ecotones Between Forest and Grassland. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3797-0_10

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