Biome / Ecosystem

The Pampas is a natural region of vast fertile lowland plains in South America that extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Andes. This flat, fertile grassland biome can be divided into three distinct ecoregions: the Uruguayan Savanna, the Humid Pampas and the Semiarid Pampas.

The Pantanal is a natural region encompassing the world's largest tropical wetland. This gigantic seasonal floodplain lies mainly within Mato Grosso, and Mato Grosso do Sul in the Center-West Region of Brazil. However, small portions extend into northeastern Paraguay and southeastern Bolivia.

Páramo is a neotropical high mountain biome. Also referred to as Andean Moorland, this grassland ecosystem is found mainly in the northwest corner of South America: in the upper Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.

The Patagonian Desert, also known as the Magellanic Steppe, is a semiarid scrub plateau covering nearly all of the southern portion of mainland Argentina. It is the largest desert in Argentina and is bounded by the Patagonian Andes and the country of Chile to the west.

Peruvian Amazonia (La Selva), is the area between the eastern foothills of the Peruvian Andes and the rainforests of the Amazon Basin. It is here that the lower slopes of the western Andes merge with the heavily forested tropical lowlands. 

The Petén Basin is a geographical subregion of Mesoamerica and was a center of Maya civilizations. It is primarily located in northern Guatemala and southeastern Mexico. The Maya Forest is the second-largest remaining tropical rainforest in the Americas.

Puna is a cold, high-elevation grassland region of the montane grasslands and shrublands biome. It is prevalent in the central Andes from northern Peru through western Bolivia into northern Chile and Argentina. Much of the region lies on the Altiplano Plateau.

The Sonoran Desert, also called Desierto de Altar, is an arid region covering 120,000 sq mi. This North American desert ecoregion covers large parts of northwestern Mexico in Sonora, Baja California and Baja California Sur, as well as parts of the southwestern United States.

Sumapaz Páramo is considered the largest moorland in the world. The Sumapaz National Natural Park protects this high mountain grassland ecosystem, located in the Altiplano Cundibohyacense mountain range, within the Colombian Andes.

The Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena hotspot includes the tropical forests of the Pacific coast of northwestern South America as well as the Galápagos Islands. Stretching from southern Panama to northern Peru, this biodiversity hotspot includes a large variety of endemic species and habitats.