Fish forests: What are and characteristics

The Fog forestsalso called Tropical cloudy foreststhey are habitats found in the Interropical mountainous areas and that are characterized by high levels of rainfall, humidity, mist, mists and high temperatures throughout the year.

These ecosystems are actually very vulnerable and are formed by a dense community of trees, constituted by plants of temperate and tropical origin, with a predominance of the tropical flora. A type of plant that is very abundant in these ecosystems are orchids and ferns.

Since these forests are developed in areas loaded with dew or clouds at the level of the flora, the degree of exposure to the sun and therefore the evaporation of water is reduced. In general, trees that grow in these forests have more superficial, more short and heavy roots than trees that grow in areas of lower altitude and environmental humidity favors the development of vascular epiphytes.

The fact of requiring high humidity and large amounts of rainfall make this ecosystem into highly vulnerable to climatic changes Regional that cause, among other factors, deforestation and mass felling without control. The areas where these forests are found do not have a dry season, although the amount of rainfall can decrease during part of the year, but maintaining a high level of moisture.

In these forests the soils are covered with a great diversity of mosses and ferns and are usually swampy, with predominance of peat and humus. Flowers of the type of orchids also abound. The clouds are those that provide mist and fog, humidity and rains, which condenses the leaves and fall to the ground in the form of drops. Therefore, sometimes they are called Mushroom forests, Yunga, mesophilic or laurisilva forests.

They have one High Biodiversity and a high amount of endemisms, among which are approximately 150 species of plants, 120 species of birds, 40 species of orchids, 15 species of mammals, 50 species of butterflies and 5 of mammals, in addition to native fruit and medicinal species.

We can find Cloudy or fog forests In large part of the Interopical areas:

Central America

In this continent are most of the fog forests in the world. They are natural in mountainous areas of more than 1000 meters of altitude in much of the Central American countries. Thus, the most northern cloud forest and of greater extension in Central America is located in the Sierra de las Mines in Guatemala. There are also cloud forests in Honduran territory, being the greatest ones that are located in the border with Nicaragua. In Nicaragua, most of these forests have been carved to house coffee plantations, only some remain in northern hills of the country and in the Mombacho volcano. In Costa Rica there are fog forests in the Tilarán mountain range and in El Salvador, we can find them in the Montecristo mountain, the El Impossas Impossible National Park. In addition, fog forests in Mexico are distributed throughout various areas of the country.

South America

In South America, we can find fog forests in Ecuador and Peru, where they are known as cloud forests. There are also some in Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela and in the provinces of Tucumán, Salta or Jujuy in Argentina. For example, some of the best -known Colombian fog forests are those in the Cundinamarca region.

Africa

The most important fog forests are found in the hills and mountains of the Congo basin in Central Africa. There are also some on the island of Madagascar and in low jungles of Santo Tomé, Annobón and Príncipe.

Asia

In Asia, we can find fog forests in the mountains and hills of different regions of China, in Indonesia and in Indochina.

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