An unprecedented threat to Peru's cloud forests

Cloud forest can't migrate fast enough to keep up with warming

October 2013. Peru's cloud forests are some of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the world. A profusion of tree and plant species as well as one third of Peru's mammal, bird and frog species make their home in these perennially wet regions, located along the eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains. The high elevation (6,500-11,000 feet), and remote location of these areas makes them some of the hardest to reach and therefore hardest to study ecosystems in the world. To date, scientists only believe a fraction of cloud forest tree and plant species have been discovered.

This massive array of underexplored biodiversity will face an unprecedented threat before the end of the century.

Now, researchers at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. have pieced together startling new evidence that shows rapid 21st century warming may spell doom for tree species in Peruvian cloud forests, with species losing 53-96 percent of their populations.

Stuck in a hot place

The habitats of most Andean plants-and therefore the habitats of the organisms that use them for food and shelter- are determined largely by temperature. Temperatures change quickly on the slopes of the Andes due to the region's steep terrain. This means the vast majority of trees and plants only can live in a range that extends a few hundred meters.

Continued