Life zones of Peru explained

When the Spanish arrived, they divided Peru into three main regions: the coastal region (11.6% of Peru), that is bounded by the Pacific Ocean; the highlands (28.1% of Peru), that is located on the Andean Heights, and the jungle, that is located on the Amazonian Jungle (Climate of Peru). But Javier Pulgar Vidal (es), a geographer who studied the biogeographic reality of the Peruvian territory for a long time, proposed the creation of eight Natural Regions.^{[1] [2]} In 1941, he presented his thesis "Las Ocho Regiones Naturales del Perú" at the III General Assembly of the Pan-American Institute of Geography and History.

These eight Peruvian regions are:

• Chala or Coast (subtropical dry and tropical savanna)
• Yungas
  • Fluvial Yunga
  • Loma-Vegetation
• Quechua
• Suni or Jalca
• Puna
• Janca
• Rupa - Rupa or Highland Jungle
• Omagua or Lowland Jungle

Example: Andes 10°S

See also Altitudinal zonation

Classic version, Amazonic side

• Sea level
  • Estimated 22 - 24°C (75°F), but the cold Humboldt Current generates fog on the coast side
• Tierra caliente (Hot land, tropical) up to 2,500 ft (about 750 m - 1,000 m).
  • Crops: Cacao, Banana, Sugarcane, Manioc, Sweet Potatoes, Yams.
• Tierra templada (Temperate land, subtropical) up to 6,000 ft (about 1,850 m – 2,000 m)
  • The warmest month has an average temperature of below 22°C or 72°F.
  • Crops: Coffee, Tobacco, Maize, Coca, Peruvian Pepper (Schinus molle), Avocado, Guave (Psidium guajava), Cherimoya, Plum, Citrus fruits.
• Tierra fría (Cool land, temperate) below 12,000 ft (about 3,600 m, treeline)
  • The warmest month has an average temperature of below 18°C or 64°F.
  • Crops: Potato, Maize, Squash, Passionfruit, Papaya, Peach, Wheat, Rye, and Barley. Farming of cattle.
• Tierra helada (Cold land) above 12,000 ft (about 3,600 m)
  • The definition of treeline of Coniferae: the warmest month has an average temperature of below 10°C or 50°F).
  • Crops above tree line: Quinoa, Cañigua, Mashua, Oca, Tarhui, Broad beans and Ulluco. Farming of Sheep, Llamas and Alpacas.
  • Terrestrial Biome Type 10: Montane grasslands and shrublands
• Tierra Nevada (Janca), above the snow line, 15,000 ft (about 4,500 m - 5,000 m)
  • Just warmer than -1°C over rocks or just warmer than -3°C over snow, annual mean temperature).^{[3] [4] [5] [6] [7]}

Javier Pulgar Vidal's version

The Peruvian geographer Javier Pulgar Vidal divided Peru in 8 regions (traditionally, it was costa, sierra and selva):

Map from República del Perú - Instituto Geográfico Nacional

• Chala (West, Pacific Coast) 0– 500 m
• Omagua (Lowland jungle or Selva baja, Amazonic rainforest) 80– 400 m
• Rupa-Rupa (Highland jungle, Selva alta) 400– 1,000 m
• Yungas (Aymaran for "Warm Lands", Cloud forest)
  • Loma-Vegetation (West, "Yunga coastal" at the north of Peru) 450– 600 m
  • Fluvial Yungas (East, "Yunga fluvial") 1,000- 2,300 m
• Quechua (East, High valleys) 2,300– 3,500 m
• Suni (or Jalca or Sallqa too, high plateaus and cliffs) 3,500– 4,100 m
• Puna (means "mountain top") 4,100– 4,800 m
• Janca (means white) above 4,800 m, permafrost, rocks, snow and ice^[1]

Notes

• Biomes & Ecoregions nearby:^[8]

Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests

• Bolivian Yungas
• Peruvian Yungas
• Southwest Amazon moist forests

Montane grasslands and shrublands

• Central Andean dry puna
• Central Andean puna
• Central Andean wet puna

Deserts and xeric shrublands

• Atacama Desert
• Sechura Desert

Overview - Amazonic side

• Mouth of the Amazon River, Atlantic Ocean
  • Belém, Brazil, 24 m, annual mean temperature 26.0°C
  • Gurupa várzea (NT0126)
  • Manaus, Brazil, 72 m, annual mean temperature 26.6°C
  • Monte Alegre várzea (NT0141)
  • Purus várzea (NT0156)
• Colombia - Peru - Brazil border
  • Leticia, Colombia, 84 m, annual mean temperature 25.8°C
  • Tierra Caliente or Tropical rainforest
    • Omagua or Selva baja (Southwest Amazon moist forests - NT0166)
    • Iquitos, Peru, 126 m, annual mean temperature 26.2°C
    • Rupa-Rupa or Selva alta (Iquitos várzea - NT0128)
  • Yunga fluvial (more than 5°C colder than the Peruan Tropics)
    • Peruvian Yungas (NT0153)
  • Quechua (High valleys, more than 10°C colder than the Peruan Tropics)
• Tree line
  • Tierra Helada
    • Suni (plateau)
• Mountain pass
  • Puna (mountain slope)
    • Central Andean wet puna (NT1003)
    • Central Andean puna (NT1002)
  • "Andean-Alpine desert"
• Snow line
  • Tierra Nevada or Janca
• Peak

Estimated temperatures - Continental Divide

Explanations:

• Region, elevation (m); avg annual precipitation (mm); avg annual temperature (°C);
• Peruvian Highland Rainforest (Tropical climate), Cloud forest (Subtropical climate) and Temperate forest (Temperate climate);
• Cusco reference, estimated avg annual temperature (°C, Lowland Rainforest or Selva baja gets more rain, so it is more cloudy, so it is cooler);
• Snow line reference, Humboldt cold current/ Pacific climate influence, estimated avg annual temperature (°C).^[9]
  • Cuzco, Peru; 3,249 m; avg annual temperature 12.5 °C; avg annual precipitation 736 mm.
  • Lima, Peru; 30 m; avg annual temperature 19.2 °C (fog influence); avg annual precipitation 15 mm.

	Elevation	West - Pacific side	East - Amazonian side
Highland Rainforest or Selva alta	400 m	-	26.5 °C
Loma-Vegetation	500 m	about 21.1 °C	-
Cloud forest or Fluvial Yunga	1,000 m	-	23.5 °C
Quechua - Montane Valleys	2,300 m	-	17.2 °C
Amazonian Tree line of Coniferae: 10 °C	about 3,500 m	-	about 10 °C
Mountain pass influence	4,100 m	about 3.4 °C	(about 7.1 °C)
Vegetation end	about 4,800 m	about 0.0 °C	-
	about 5,000 m	about -1.0 °C	-

Example: Kallawaya Region, Bolivia

Altitudinal zonation: Kallawaya Region, around Charazani, Bolivia (border to Peru).

• Glacier
  • Elevation: 5,900- 5,200 m, Annual mean temperature: below 0 °C, Agriculture: none
• High Mountain Desert, Werneria ciliolata on scree
  • Elevation: 5,200- 5,000 m, Annual mean temperature: below 0 °C - 0 °C, Agriculture: none.
• Grass Zone
  • Calamagrostis minima Steppe,
    • Elevation: 5,000- 4,600 m, Annual mean temperature: 0- 3.5 °C, Farming: alpacas, lamas.
  • Pycnophyllum Steppe,
    • Elevation: 4,600- 4,300 m, Annual mean temperature: 3.5- 7.5 °C, Farming: alpacas, lamas.
  • Aciachne Humid Grassland,
    • Elevation: 4,300- 3,900 m, Annual mean temperature: 7.5- 10.0 °C, Farming: alpacas, lamas, pigs; Agriculture: bitter potatoes, (oca), (oat); Fallow land: more than 8 years.
• Shrub Zone
  • Satureja Shrub (westslope), Baccharis pentandii Shrub, with Berberis (eastslope),
    • Elevation: 3,900- 3,600 m, Annual mean temperature: 10.0- 11.5 °C, Farming: sheep; Agriculture: potatoes, oca, ulluco, barley; Fallow land: 3 to 4 years.
  • Mutisia Shrub (westslope), Baccharis pentlandii Shrub, with Siphocampylus (eastslope),
    • Elevation: 3,600- 2,700 m, Annual mean temperature: 11.5- 16.5 °C, Farming: sheep, cattle; Agriculture: wheat, (barley), peas, beans, maize up to 3,500 m with crop rotation.
  • Kaunia longipetiolata Shrub,
    • Elevation: 3,200- 2,700 m, Annual mean temperature: 13.5- 16.5 °C, Farming: cattle; Agriculture: maize, wheat, beans, spring potatoes, use of fertilizers, no crop rotation.
  • Highland Rainforest,
    • Elevation: below 2,700 m, Annual mean temperature: over 17.0 °C, Farming: cattle; Agriculture: tropical fruits, oranges, coffee, coca at around 2,000 m.^[10]

Gallery

Image:Peru_veg_1970.png|Vegetation of PeruImage:Amazonriverbasin basemap.png|Amazon basinImage:Lake-Titicaca-Jacques-Nicolas-Bellin-1758.jpg|Watershed around Lake Titicaca, Arequipa, Puno and CuscoImage:Peru Provinces Costa Sierra Selva.png|Costa - Sierra - Selva

Image:Peru - HotSprings.jpg|Rupa-Rupa - High Rain forestImage:Yungas03.jpg|Mist forest (2,500 m)Image:ValleColca lou.jpg|QuechuaImage:Urubamba_valley1.jpg|Sacred Valley of the Incas between Písac and Ollantaytambo (2002)Image:Yungas01.jpg|Mountain slope (4,000 m)Image:Laguna Conococha.jpg|Lake Quñuqqucha (4,050 m)Image:Lama guanicoe in Parque Nacional Torres del Paine in Patagonia, Chile.jpg|Puna with shrubsImage:Parinacota volcano.jpg|Lauca National Park - Parinacota volcanoImage:Peru - Altiplano1.jpg|Region of Ayacucho, Peru, 1986 - PunaImage:Peru - Altiplano2.jpg|Region of Ayacucho, Peru, 1986 - PunaImage:Qoyllur Rit'i dancers.jpg|Quyllur Rit'i, glacier and alpine desert - 2007Image:Taulliraju.JPG|Huáscarán National Park; Cordillera Blanca; Tawllirahu (5,830 m); North of Lima

See also

• Climate of Peru
  • Geography of Peru
• Altitudinal zonation

Notes and References

1. Pulgar Vidal, Javier: Geografía del Perú; Las Ocho Regiones Naturales del Perú. Edit. Universo S.A., Lima 1979. First Edition (his dissertation of 1940): Las ocho regiones naturales del Perú, Boletín del Museo de Historia Natural „Javier Prado“, n° especial, Lima, 1941, 17, pp. 145-161.
2. Benavides Estrada, Juan (1999); Geografía del Perú 2do año de Secuandaria. Lima: Escuela Nueva.
3. https://web.archive.org/web/20090327182826/http://www.geog.fu-berlin.de/~phygeo/studium/diplom/ws_0405/ms_24505_boden/boeden_azonal_hochgebirge.pdf Brigitta Schütt (2005); Azonale Böden und Hochgebirgsböden
4. Zech, W. and Hintermaier-Erhard, G. (2002); Böden der Welt – Ein Bildatlas, Heidelberg, p. 98.
5. Christopher Salter, Joseph Hobbs, Jesse Wheeler and J. Trenton Kostbade (2005); Essentials of World Regional Geography 2nd Edition. NY: Harcourt Brace. p.464-465.
6. http://www.harpercollege.edu/mhealy/g101ilec/midamer/mmd/mmphys/mmaltzon/mmaltfr.htm Middle America: Altitudinal Zonation
7. Web site: Cordillera Blanca, Peru (Huaraz, Caraz) . 2013-10-25 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120312010809/http://www.andix.com/huaraz_maps/huaraz.html . 2012-03-12 . Maps of the Cordillera Blanca - Peru
8. [WWF Global 200]
9. http://www.klimadiagramme.de/ Klimadiagramme weltweit - Europa
10. Seibert, Paul; Farbatlas Südamerika, Verlag Eugen Ulmer, 1996.