* Ecosistemas

DEL MUNDO Y DEL ECUADOR

* Is natures most extravagant
garden. Beyond its tangled
edge, a rain forest opens into
a surprisingly spacious
interior, iluminated by dim,
greenish light shining through
a ceiling of leaves. Hight
above towers the forest
canopy, home to many rain
forest species and the aerial
laboratory of the few intrepid
rain forest ecologists..

*Tropical Rain Forest

* The architecture of rain forest,
with their vaulted ceilings and
spires, has invited comparisons to
cathedrals and mansions.
However, this cathedral is alive
form ceiling to floor, perhaps
more alive than anu other biome
on the planet.
* In the rain forest, the sounds of
evening and morning, the
brilliant flash of color, and rich
scents carried on most night air
speak of abundant life, in
seemingly endless variety

*Tropical Rain Forest

* During the dry season, the tropical dry forest is
all earth tones, in the rainy season, its an
emerald tangle. Life in the tropical dry forest
responds to the rhythms of the annual solar
cycle, which drives the oscillation between wet
and dry seasons.

*Tropical Dry Forest

* During the dry season, most
trees in the tropical dry
forest are dormant. Then,
as the rains approach, trees
flower and insects appear
to pollinate them. The pace
of life quickens. Eventually,
as the first storms of the
wet season arrive, the trees
produce their leaves and
transform the landscape.

*Tropical Dry Forest

* Stand in the middle of a Savanna, a tropical
grassland dotted with scattered trees, and your
eye will be drawn to the horizon for the
approach of thunderstorms or wandering herds
of wildlife.

*Tropical Savanna
* The tropical savanna is
the kingdom of the
farsighted, the stealthy,
and the swift and is the
birthplace of humankind.
It was from here that we
eventually moved out
into every biome. Though
most humans live away
from this first home, the
fascination continues.

*Tropical Savanna
* In the spare desert landscape, sculpted by wind
and water, the ecologist grows to appreciate
geology, hydrology, and climate as much as
organisms. In the desert, drought and flash
floods, and heat and bitter cold, often go hand
in hand. Yet, the often repeated description of
life in the desert as life on the edge betrays
an outsider`s view. Life in the desert is not
luxuriant, but it does not follow that living
conditions there are necessarily harsh..

*Desert
*BIOMAS DEL MUNDO
* For many species, the
desert is the center of their
world, not the edge. In
their own way, many desert
organism flourish on meager
rations of water, high
temperatures, and saline
soils. To understand life in
the desert, the ecologist
must see it from the
perspective of its natural
inhabitants

*Desert
*VIDA SILVESTRE
ECOSISTEMAS
COSTEROS
*CADENA ALIMENTICIA
* The Mediterranean woodland and shrubland climate was
the climate of the classical Greeks and the coastal
Native American tribes of Old California. The mild
temperate climate experienced by these cultures was
accompanied by high biological richness. The richness of
the Mediterranean woodland flora is captured by a folk
song from the Mediterranean region that begins:Spring
has already arrived. All the countryside will bloom a
feast of color! To this visual feast, Mediterranean
woodlands and shrublands add a chorus of bird song and
the smells of aromatic plants, including rosemary,
thyme, and laurel.

* Mediterranean Woodland and

Shrubland
* In their original state, temperate grassland extended
unbroken over vast areas. Standing in the middle of
unobstructed prairie under a dome of blue sky
evokes a feeling similar to that of being on a small
boat in the open ocean. It is no accident that early
visitors from forested Europe and eastern North
America often referred to the prairie in the American
Midwest as a sea of grass and to the wagons that
crossed them as prairie schooners. Prairies were
the home of the bison and pronghorn and of the
nomadic cultures of Eurasia and North America.

*Temperate Grassland
* La regin Occidental posee una cordillera de mas o
menos 350km, relativamente baja que se extiende
en forma paralela y cercana a la costa ubicada desde
la cuidad de Esmeraldas en el norte hasta Guayaquil
en el sur, las cimas de la cordillera costera varan
entre 300 a 820 m.s.n.m. Se la conoce de norte a sur
como cerros de Onzole, montaas de Muisne (300
m.), cordillera de Mache Chindul (600 800 m.),
cerros Convento, El Carmen, Coaque, Jama, Balzar,
montaas de Cojimies, cerros de Pajan y Puca,
cordillera de Colonche Chongon (100 820 m.).

*Ecosistemas del
ecuador
*La cordillera Chongon Colonche, se orienta en
direccion noroeste, desde el sureste de Guayaquil
hasta la costa del Pacifico al norte de Manglaralto,
presenta elevaciones con alturas de hasta 820
m.s.n.m. (cerro Chimborazo), comprende 309.030ha.,
declarada como bosque protector, mediante acuerdo
Ministerial R.O. No. 710 del 18 de junio de 1987,
circunstancias especiales relacionadas con las
actividades del desarrollo, como la extraccion del cal
en el sector de Chongon, han dejado sin efecto, en la
practica, el manejo como Area Protegida.

*Ecosistemas del
ecuador
* Las cordillera de Chongon Colonche como rea
geogrfica se inicia con los cerros e Cabra (Duran),
continua de manera subfluvial en la nica isla del Rio
Guayas, denominada El Cerrito (Wolf. 1992), despus se
eleva a los cerros situados en Guayaquil, Santa Ana y del
Carmen. Una interrupcin de mas de un kilometro de
ancho separa los cerros de Guayaquil del Estero Salado.
Los cerros se levantan a mayor altura formando un amplio
macizo con los cerros Blanco, Azul, Cereceras. Las Calizas
San Eduardo forman el borde suroeste de Cerro Azul,
severamente impactadas por la extraccin de cal para la
fabricacin de cemento.

*Ecosistemas del
ecuador
* Los cerros de la Estancia se elevan
aproximadamente hasta 200 m.s.n.m. al sur de
la cordillera de Chongon Colonche separados
por una zona de tierras bajas interiores,
angostas y agrestes, surcadas por corrientes
intermitentes que desembocan en los llanos
costeros del sur y las tierras bajas interiores
del norte.

*Ecosistemas del
ecuador
* Los cerros de Chanduy constituyen una
prolongacin de los cerros de la
Estancia. Al noreste de Chanduy en una
extensin de 3.2 km., se levan los cerros hasta
alrededor de 120 m. llegando en su punto
mximo a un ancho de 1.6 km.

*Ecosistemas del
ecuador
* Entre Taura y el rios de Suya se encuentran en
forma independiente los cerros de Taura o de
Churute, forman una pequea cordillera que
emerge de una amplia llanura, compuesta de 6
cerros conicos aislados e irregularmente
agrupados, los mas altos son de Nia,
Perequete Grande, Perequete Chico, Cimalon y
el Batan y entre los aislados el Guabito con
alturas de 200 400 m.

*Ecosistemas del
ecuador
* Las llanuras de inundacin se encuentran entre el
rio Churute y la carretera km. 26 Puerto Inca,
estas son drenadas por el estero el Espinel hacia el
rio Ruidoso.
* Las tierras bajas interiores compuestas por
sedimentos marinos, con elevaciones menores a 100
m., se extienden desde las proximidades de
Guayaquil, donde se caracterizan por una ondulante
topogrfica hasta la parte occidental de la Pennsula
de Santa Elena, poseen una topografa mas
accidentada y de menor vegetacin.

*Ecosistemas del
ecuador
* El relieve de la cuenca del rio Guayas es
variado. La zona septentrional esta separada de
la cuenca del rio Esmeraldas por una derivacin
de poca altura de la cordillera de los Andes,
presenta un relieve muy ondulado con
elevaciones que fluctan entre 54 m. y 650 m.
sobre el nivel del mar de sur a norte.
* La zona meridional o planicie aluvial, varia de la
costa de 469 m. en Balzar hasta la de 4 m. en
Guayaquil.

*Ecosistemas del
ecuador
* Following are the six major primary natural habitats
found in the lowlands of western Ecuador. Bear in mind
that a continuum exists from on habitat to the next and
that the distinctions drawn are generalizations, useful
for organization and sorting purposes but not absolutes.
Further note that each, as defined, is a primary habitat,
meaning it is more or less free from human interference.
As discussed above, such areas are now quite rare in
overpopulated western Ecuador, and thus in practice
most areas are at least to some degree secondary;
i.e., they are at some stage of regrowth back toward a
primary state.

*Major Habitats
* Often the term secondary woodland is used
to denote such situations. Note further that
various anthropogenic habitats are not
included here; some of these such as
plantations, gardens, and pastures- are often
surprisingly good for a variety of common
birds. All of the habitats below are important
bird habitats.

*Major Habitats
* An evergreen forest with a canopy level of 30
to 40 m growing in areas with very high annual
precipitation (300-400 mm, locally even more
in foothill areas) in the northwestern lowlands,
primarily in Esmeraldas where a good deal still
persists. Sometimes called pluvial forest.

*Wet forest
* A predominantly evergreen forest, similar to wet
forest but growing in areas with lower annual
precipitation (ca. 1500-3000mm). This forest once
grew across wide areas in the western lowland
region south into central Manab and northern Los
Rios but has been almost entirely eliminated.
* Southward, as annual rainfall gradually
diminishes, humid forest grades into semihumid
forest, it too is much diminished in extent.

*Humind forest
* A predominantly deciduous forest or woodland,
fairly tall (20-25m), in which many or most
trees lose their leaves during the dry season.
Rainfall totals about 500 to 1500mm annually
and is strongly seasonal.

*Deciduous
forest/woodland
* This forest originally grew in many areas of
southwestern Ecuador from southern Manab
and southern Los Rios south through El Oro and
Loja, and it persists in some places, especially
in hilly situations. In many areas this type of
forest is quite disturbed, as evidenced by
heavy viny growth and often a lack of much
understory.

*Deciduous
forest/woodland
* An open shrubby woodland with scattered and
shorter trees and much lower diversity than
the preceding habitats. It grows in areas with
less than 500mm annual precipitation,
primarily in western Guayas ( where on the
western tip of the Santa Elena Peninsula
precipitation levels are so low that barren,
desertlike conditions previal unless there have
been recent El Nio rains), southern coastal El
Oro, and southwestern Loja.

*Desert woodland and

arid scrub
* Atabout 700 to 1100m above sea level, cloud
banks in southwestern Ecuador are so
persistent that nearly continuous damp
conditions previal, despite such areas
relatively low annual precipitation levels of
1000 to 1500mm. This habitat occurs primarily
near the cerst of the coastal cordillera and in
southern Azuay and El Oro.

*Cloud forest
* A depauperate but interesting forest of only a
few tree species that are adapted to growing in
salt or brackish, muddy water. Formerly much
more extensive, mangrove forests now exist
mainly in northern Esmeraldas, around the Rios
Guayas estuary, and in El Oro; all much
threatened by a still expanding shrimp- farming
industry. An important habitat not only for
certain specialized species but also for wading
birds and shorebirds.

*Mangroves
* Mainland Ecuador has three general regions,
Amazon, Sierra and Pacific Coast. If we took a
journey, lets say, starting at 0 meters
elevation from Coastal Ecuador along the
Pacific Ocean eastward, up and over the Andes,
toward the Amazon Basin we would traverse
through some of the most important life zones
in Ecuador.!

*ECUADOR
* First we would travel through Coastal Lowland
Rainforest, then to Foothill forest and then as
we climb we would reach Cloud Forest (or Pre
Montane Forest). Above this lies Paramo and
the Volcanic Peaks. Now on our descent on the
Eastern slope of the Andes we first find
Paramo, then Cloud forest, Foothill Forest and
finally the Amazon Basin

*ECUADOR
*. So Ecuador has two Rainforests (Coastal and
Amazonian), two Foothill Forests (Western and
Eastern), two Cloud Forests (Western and Eastern)
and Paramo. Of course Ive not mentioned Dry
Coastal Forest to the south and Coastal Mangrove. If
we were driving on our imaginary journey it would
have taken about 15 hours. Anyway, geographic
diversity leads to biological diversity and Ecuador is
definitely the proof with over 1,600 bird species,
more frog and orchid species than any other
country overall amazing biodiversity

*ECUADOR
* Cloud Forests are very green and lush. This unique
climate allows loads of epiphytes, plants that live
on other plants, to grow almost out of control!
There are mosses on the trunks of trees, orchids
between the mosses, ferns growing on branches,
algae covering leaves much mores so than in Rain
Forests. In Mindo there is a distinct dry season for
about 7 months (June through December) when rain
is scarce and sporadic, but moisture levels are still
maintained by mists that condense on the side of
mountains.

*ECUADOR
* BIOLOGY GUTTMAN ,MAC-GRAW-HILL., 2002
* ECOLOGY MANUEL C. MOLLES JR.MAC-GRAW-
HILL.2013
* THE BIRDS OF ECUAOR, RIGELY AND
GREENFIELD,2001
* FAUNA DE VERTEBRADOS DEL ECUADOR ,2013

*BIBLIOGRAFIA