Eastern Cordillera Real montane forests


The Eastern Cordillera Real montane forests 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.

Geography

Location

The ecoregion is on the eastern slopes of the central Andes.
The forests cover an almost continuous band about long but sometimes no more than wide due to the limited area of the slopes with suitable elevations.
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.
In the extreme north the ecoregion transitions into the Magdalena Valley montane forests and Cordillera Oriental montane forests ecoregions.
The north and central parts of the ecoregion merge into the Napo moist forests to the east and the Northwestern Andean montane forests to the west.
The southern part transitions into the Ucayali moist forests to the east, Marañón dry forests to the south and Tumbes-Piura dry forests to the west.
The north and central parts of the ecoregion adjoin or surround regions of Northern Andean páramo at the upper levels, and the southern part surrounds regions of Cordillera Central páramo.

Terrain

The ecoregion covers rugged premontane terrain on the eastern slopes of the Andes with elevations that range from to above.
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 above sea level.
The mountains south of the Huancabamba Depression were mostly formed in the Miocene while the mountains to the north formed between the end of the Pliocene and the Pleistocene.
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 and receive plentiful rainfall from moist air from the Amazon basin.

Climate

The ecoregion gets of rain in a typical year, but in some years may get up to.
At a sample location at coordinates the Köppen climate classification is Aw.
Mean temperatures vary from in July to in April.
Yearly total precipitation is about.
Monthly precipitation varies from in August to in March.

Ecology

The ecoregion is in the neotropical realm, in the tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome.
The ecoregion is part of the Northern Andean Montane Forests global ecoregion, which includes the Magdalena Valley montane forests, Venezuelan Andes montane forests, Northwestern Andean montane forests, Cauca Valley montane forests, Cordillera Oriental montane forests, Santa Marta montane forests and Eastern Cordillera real montane forests terrestrial ecoregions.
The Huancabamba Depression allows movement of species between the Pacific lowlands and the Amazon region, and has great influence on the ecoregion's flora and fauna, which have elements from the Amazon rainforest, the Inter-Andean dry forests and the hills of southern Ecuador.
The ecoregion affects migration of species and formation of species, and has marked local endemism, notably in the Cajamarca Region of Peru.

Flora

Vegetation consists of evergreen broadleaf forest, with the composition varying considerably depending on elevation.
In the lower areas 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.

Fauna

Mammal species include Venezuelan red howler, white-fronted capuchin, yellow-tailed woolly monkey, spectacled bear, taruca, guanaco, kinkajou and perhaps mountain tapir.
A 1982 study of bats showed that 37% of the species found on the western slopes were endemic.
Endangered mammals include equatorial dog-faced bat, giant otter, mountain tapir and white-bellied spider monkey.
Bird species include masked mountain tanager, chestnut-bellied cotinga, cinnamon screech owl, neblina metaltail and Andean condor.
Endangered and endemic birds include white-breasted parakeet, coppery-chested jacamar, and bicolored antvireo.
Other endangered birds include royal sunangel and black-and-chestnut eagle.

Endangered reptiles include Catamayo Coral Snake, Lojan lancehead, Parker's Pholiodobolus, Parker's Ground Snake, Riama balneator and Riama petrorum.
Endangered amphibians include:
The World Wide Fund for Nature gives the region the status of "Vulnerable".
The forest are fairly accessible, and are increasingly threatened by logging of commercially valuable Podocarpus and Prumnopitys species.
Large areas of the original forest have been cleared for pasturage or subsistence agriculture, or replaced by thickets.
Protected areas include the Cayambe Coca Ecological Reserve, Podocarpus National Park and Noroeste Biosphere Reserve.