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It has been observed that increased elevation brings climatic conditions approximately equivalent to those encountered by increase in latitude. Consequently there exist distinct zones of natural vegetation, which, in a general way, recapitulate the vegetation types of increasingly high latitudes.
Effects of increasing altitude on vegetation in wet equatorial land are marked. Two other important regions besides the Andes of South America are the Ruwenzori Range of central Africa and the central mountain range of New Guinea. Where exposed to prevailing winds (trades) or to seasonal winds (wet monsoon) which bring moisture of maritime air masses (mT, ME) precipitation increases greatly with elevation. As a result, rainforest extends high up the mountain slopes. Between 4000 and 6000 ft (1200 and 1800 m) the rainforest gradually changes into montane forest, which resembles the temperate rainforest found at low elevations farther poleward. Tree ferns and bamboos are conspicuous.
2. Main article
Epiphytes (air plants) are abundant. Mosses increase with altitude, giving what is termed mossy forest in the zone of persistent mists and high relative humidities. Near its upper limit the montane forest trees become dwarfed, constituting elfin forest, and are densely festooned with mosses. Above the forest limit, which occurs about at 12,000 ft (3600 m), there sets in treeless vegetation, which may be alpine tundra, scrub, grassland, or heath. Still higher, the alpine zone gives way to the zone of perpetual snow. The snow line lies at about 16,000 ft (5000 m) in central Peru; about at 15,000 ft (4600 m) in the Ruwenzori Range.
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In middle latitudes, where steppe or desert exists at low elevations, the zontation is particularly striking. Ecologists have set up a series of life zones, whose names suggest the similarities of these zones with latitude zones encountered in poleward travel on a meridian. The Hunsonian zone, 9500 to 11,500 ft (2900 to 3500 m), bears a needleleaf forest essentially similar to sub arctic needleleaf (boreal) forest. Soils are similarly of podzolic type. As the limit of forest, or tree line, is approached the coniferous trees take on a stunted appearance and decrease in height to low shrublike forms.
A vegetation zone of alpine meadows (alpine tundra) lies above tree line and resembles in many ways the arctic tundra. The snow line is encountered at about 9000 to 10,000 ft (2750 to 3000 m) in these middle latitudes, which is of course much lower than at the equator. Poleward the snow line decreases in altitude, eventually reaching sea level in the vicinity of the Arctic Circle.
