Chile: Major Landscapes and Ecosystems
Submitted by The Catt-Trax2 Team on Mon, 2007/01/08 - 3:02pm.
Report prepared by Ricardo de la Garza Garcia and Jessica Banning, students in BCIT's Fish, Wildlife and Recreation Program.
Chile's landscapes range from desert to forest from valleys to mountains, and comprise nine different ecosystems. Chile is home to the driest desert in the world, the Atacama Desert. The desert is located in a rain shadow, which is responsible for its lack of precipitation. The world's second largest stretch of temperate rainforest is located in southern Chile including the Valdivian Rainforest dominated by the siempre verde, a forest type that is unique to southern Chile and Argentina. The Andes run along the Argentina-Chile border. The second largest peak in the Andes in found in Chile and reaches highest of 6,870 m above sea level.
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