Montane ecology

thumb|upright=1.2|Glacier of the Geikie Plateau in Greenland thumb|upright=1.2|The Taschachferner in the Ötztal Alps in [[Austria. The mountain to the left is the Wildspitze (3.768 m), second highest in Austria]] thumb|upright=1.2|With 7,253 known glaciers, Pakistan contains more glaciers than any other country on Earth outside the polar regions. At in length, the pictured [[Baltoro Glacier is the fifth longest alpine glacier in the world.]] A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of natural ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulat

navigable route, typically through a saddle or its vicinity, to cross a mountain range or a ridge

plateau in Central Asia

Permafrost () is soil or underwater sediment which continuously remains below for two years or more; the oldest permafrost has been continuously frozen for around 700,000 years. Whilst the shallowest permafrost has a vertical extent of below a meter (3 ft), the deepest is greater than . Similarly, the area of individual permafrost zones may be limited to narrow mountain summits or extend across vast Arctic regions. The ground beneath glaciers and ice sheets is not usually defined as permafrost, so on land, permafrost is generally located beneath a so-called active layer of soil which free

thumb|right|270px|A map of the Endorheic basin|endorheic river basins that characterize the altiplano. In the north is [[Lake Titicaca and the Desaguadero River system; in the south is the Salar de Uyuni salt flat. The non-endorheic altiplano extends southward into Argentina and Chile.]]

thumb|The southern ridge of the Xueshan Range|Mt Sylvia Range, a ridge composed of several peaks, viewed from the Lishan area of [[Taiwan]]

average weather (climate) for the regions above the tree line

point above which snow and ice cover the ground throughout the year

__NOTOC__ thumb|right|Sampling the surface of a glacier. There is increasingly dense firn between surface snow and blue glacier ice. thumb|right|Firn field on the top of Säuleck, [[Hohe Tauern, in the Central Alps]] Firn (; from Swiss German "last year's", cognate with before) is partially compacted névé, a type of snow that has been left over from past seasons and has been recrystallized into a substance denser than névé. It is ice that is at an intermediate stage between snow and glacial ice. Firn has the appearance of wet sugar, but has a hardness that makes it extremely resistant to shovel

edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing

thumb|right|upright|Talus at the bottom of Mount Yamnuska, [[Alberta, Canada]]

thumb|right|Páramos in yellow Páramo () may refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountains in South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrower term classifies the páramo according to its regional placement in the northern Andes of South America and adjacent southern Central America. The páramo is the ecosystem of the regions above the continuous forest line, yet below the permanent snowline. It is a "Neotropical high mountain biome with a vegetation composed mainly o

climatic zones

Shortening of glaciers by melting of their ice in warmer locations

biome defined by the World Wildlife Fund

ecosystem found in mountainous region

plants that grow at high elevation

isolated mountains surrounded by radically different lowland environments

The Yungas (Aymara yunka; 'warm or temperate Andes or earth', Quechua yunka; 'warm area on the slopes of the Andes') is a bioregion of a narrow band of forest along the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains from Peru and Bolivia, and extends into Northwest Argentina at the slope of the Andes pre-cordillera. It is a transitional zone between the Andean highlands and the eastern forests. Like the surrounding areas, the Yungas belong to the Neotropical realm; the climate is rainy, humid, and warm.

thumb|Krummholz Pinus albicaulis in [[Wenatchee National Forest in north-central Washington, United States]] thumb|Wind-sculpted krummholz trees, Brian Booth State Park|Ona Beach, [[Oregon, United States]]

International biosphere reserve of India

drainage divide that separates the major drainage systems of a continent, such as the Great Divide in North America

thumb|The Steinerne Rinne (Kaiser)|Steinerne Rinne couloir from the north with the peaks of Predigtstuhl (l) and [[Fleischbank (r) in the Austrian Kaiser Mountains]]

geographic region of Peru

organization

geographic region in Peru

diverse climates of this large South American country

altitude in which the temperature is at 0 °C

thumb|310px|Hot springs in the Rupa-Rupa Region, Amazonas, Peru.

Body of liquid water that flows down a channel formed by a glacier

people living on hills or mountains

term used in Latin America

mountain locations where high elevation results in a markedly cooler climate