page_title: Santa Marta páramo
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Santa Marta páramo / Ecology / Origins
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Physische Positionskarte von Kolumbien Quadratische Plattkarte. Geographische Begrenzung der Karte: English: Physical Location map of Colombia Equirectangular projection. Geographic limits of the map: Français&#160;: Carte physique de la Colombie et des pays avoisinants. Projection équirectangulaire. Limites de la carte&#160;:
context_page_description: The Santa Marta páramo is an ecoregion containing páramo vegetation above the treeline in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. The isolated position of the range has allowed unique species to evolve. Some are related to those found in Central America and the Caribbean coastal areas, and some to species from the Andes. The habitat is relatively stable, but has been drastically changed from the original by long-term human activity.
context_section_description: The Andes began to rise in the Miocene epoch, but in the north did not reach their present height until the Pliocene during a period of strong volcanic activity between four and five million years ago.
  This was the period when land rose above the tree line and the protopáramo vegetation was formed with new species of the Poaceae, Cyperaceae, Asteraceae, Ericaceae and other families. 
  During the later parts of the Quaternary epoch there were alternating glacial and interglacial periods, with short, cold and dry periods alternating with warmer and more humid periods.
  The páramo belts moved lower and joined together in the cold periods, and moved higher into unconnected enclaves when the temperatures rose.
  The result is a mix of species of tropical and boreal origin with genera that are found in most páramos, but many endemic species in the individual páramos.
  The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta páramo is isolated and has a unique composition of flora and fauna.
  The isolation has given time for endemic species to evolve including the genera Castenedia and Raouliopsis.
  The species evolved from warm tropical species adapted to moist conditions and from Andean species that migrated along the eastern cordillera of Colombia.
  The flora is closer to the flora of the Cordillera de Merida páramo and the Cordillera de la Costa montane forests than to the Northern Andean páramo.
  It is descended from flora growing on land that was lifted to intermediate elevations in the early and middle Cenozoic, and that differentiated when the land was lifted to high elevations during the Pliocene and Pleistocene.
  A 2013 analysis of the páramo units in Colombia evaluated similarities between their endemic flora.
  It found that the units naturally formed into five biogeographical provinces:
  The definition of the Páramos del Norte province differs from the traditional grouping, where the Santa Marta páramo is treated as a separate ecoregion and the Perijá páramo is included in the Cordillera Oriental province. The flora of these two is closer to the Páramos de Chirripó of Central America than to the rest of the Northern Andean páramo, despite their being separated by the Cesar River valley.
caption: Location in Colombia, isolated from the Andes cordillera
exif: {"Image Software": "www.inkscape.org", "Image Tag 0x0301": "20000/9091", "Image Tag 0x0303": "0", "Image Tag 0x5110": "1", "Image Tag 0x5111": "3780", "Image Tag 0x5112": "3780"}