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Pretty solid list. From those im only would taken out Venezuela and maybe Russia. In LA, both Chile, Colombia and Bolivia are more diverse than Venezuela. And i think Russia isn't really more diverse than Australia or Iran. Heck, even France can match Russia if you count overseas territories. The other 8 on the list seems very legit choices to me.
I would agree with your revision. Chile and Colombia sound more reasonable. I'm really on the fence about Russia though.
I think the top 4 are fairly conclusive in my opinion. US and China seem to universally accepted. I would also argue that Mexico is a given since it is the most biodiverse country in the world has comparable geography to the US, except for a few. Is India a given?
colombia is actually one of the most diverse geographically nations on the planet, like on the top 3
it's a tropical country but since it has gigantic andean mountains, on different elevations on these mountains you can find any microclimate and climate imaginable
from tundra over 4 meters highs, to deserts near the coasts, to tropical jungles, to humid swamps, to perpetual snow over 5 meters high.
Nonsense. Diverse for its size? Yes. Top 3? No way. Not even close. It's simply not possible for a country its size to compete.
Hi everybody. I come to fullfill the stereotype and write my chauvinistic post suggesting Argentina among the contenders. Throughout 33º of latitude from tropics (22ºS) to Subantarctic (55ºS), plus a mountain range that runs latitudinally and gets to 6,960, it is something to take into account.
Anyway, I have no idea on how quantify geographic diversity, but I guess USA is likely to be on top (at least in terms of climate diversity it definitely is).
I'd say Argentina, Chile and Brazil should also enter this list. Argentina has tropical in the north and polar(maybe as cold as Alaska) in the south, with subtropical and temperate in the middle. Same for Chile, although this one also has desertic climate.
Brazil has equatorial and tropical in the north, subtropical in the south and temperate in a few cities also in the south.
what? Colombia top 3? isn't even top 3 among Latinamerican countries. No way that Colombia could be more diverse than Argentina, Chile or Mexico.
What are you on about. In terms of iconic ecological systems name me one other country that has Andes (including Tundra), Amazon, Caribbean, Pacific, coastal desert and Llanos (South America's Serengeti)?
You can stand on a Caribbean beach at 100ºF and be staring at snow only 25 miles away as the crow flies for goodness sake. These are the highest coastal mountains in the world reaching 19,000 feet high.
Bogota, due to its altitude has similar autumnal conditions to London and Paris and is even categorized as an oceanic-type climate (Cfb) by Köppen (Same as London-Paris-Frankfurt) based on annual averages of sunlight, temperature, precipitation and humidity.
The only thing lacking in Colombia is large glaciers (it only has minute ones in the Andes).
I definitely would rate China first however. The Himalayas practically equals anything found in Alaska aside from the ocean.
What are you on about. In terms of iconic ecological systems name me one other country that has Andes (including Tundra), Amazon, Caribbean, Pacific, coastal desert and Llanos (South America's Serengeti)?
You can stand on a Caribbean beach at 100ºF and be staring at snow only 25 miles away as the crow flies for goodness sake. These are the highest coastal mountains in the world reaching 19,000 feet high.
Bogota, due to its altitude has similar autumnal conditions to London and Paris and is even categorized as an oceanic-type climate (Cfb) by Köppen (Same as London-Paris-Frankfurt) based on annual averages of sunlight, temperature, precipitation and humidity.
The only thing lacking in Colombia is large glaciers (it only has minute ones in the Andes).
I definitely would rate China first however. The Himalayas practically equals anything found in Alaska aside from the ocean.
The features you describe are typical from tropical latitudes with high elevations, and whereas in such regions you can find a procession of ecosystems from tropical rainforests to glaciers due to the decrease of temperature with height, in terms of climate and geography there is very little 'depth' within each thermal range. Only tropical lowlands have actually a wide diversity, including the Amazon rainforest, semi-arid areas in the Caribbean, savannah, mangroves, per-humid areas in the western slopes of the Andes, etc.
Colombia lacks subtropical/temperate plains with grasslands, temperate forests, true deserts (the ones it has are semi-arid and very warm, rather marginal, nothing compared with the ones of Peru, Chile and Argentina), naked elevations with yardangs and features like that, etc. I suspect that many coastal features are absent too, being fjords the most obvious. I don't know very much about its lakes, but it doesn't seem very diverse in this aspects. Are there salt pans, salt lakes, glacier lakes, hyper-saline lakes, naturally coloured lakes due to chemicals, etc.?
The features you describe are typical from tropical latitudes with high elevations, and whereas in such regions you can find a procession of ecosystems from tropical rainforests to glaciers due to the decrease of temperature with height, in terms of climate and geography there is very little 'depth' within each thermal range.
1. Really? You still haven't named me a country that has all these five iconic ecological bodies. Andes, Amazon, Carribbean, Pacific and Savannah.
2. Please tell me a place where you can be standing on a tropical beach and see snow only 25 miles away?
3. Really, little depth? Let's move on to your next point shall we.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mhc1985
Colombia lacks subtropical/temperate plains with grasslands, temperate forests, true deserts (the ones it has are semi-arid and very warm, rather marginal, nothing compared with the ones of Peru, Chile and Argentina), naked elevations with yardangs and features like that, etc. I suspect that many coastal features are absent too, being fjords the most obvious. I don't know very much about its lakes, but it doesn't seem very diverse in this aspects. Are there salt pans, salt lakes, glacier lakes, hyper-saline lakes, naturally coloured lakes due to chemicals, etc.?
1. Heard of the Andean Plateau Cundi-Boyacense? It's the size of Switzerland with plenty of temperate forests and grasslands there.
2. It may not have a true desert like the Atacama, but it's a desert, with zero grassland apart from the oasis of Macuira and is washed by the Caribbean sea giving it another dynamic. Chile and Argentina lack "true" rainforest, tropical beaches or any mangrove - you don't see me touting Argentina's lack of diversity.
3. There are actually salt pans in the Guajira and yardangs in the Tatacoa desert, its smaller than in Argentina but they're there.
4. That's the point you don't seem to know much at all but you talk as if you know everything. Colombia may not have out of this world naturally coloured lakes (only lime green) but it does have entire rivers that are naturally coloured like Caño Cristales and the purple mangrove water of Providencia and Salamanca (seasonal).
5. I said Colombia only had minute glacial bodies (lakes included), why are you asking this?
What about your table mountains rising out of the Amazon floor? What about your Paramo forest? What about your coral reefs? What about bio-luminescent lagoons? What about biodiversity?
You can cut the cake many ways and Argentina is also lacking in several things that Colombia has.
Last edited by Pueblofuerte; 08-05-2015 at 02:48 AM..
1. Heard of the Andean Plateau Cundi-Boyacense? It's the size of Switzerland with plenty of temperate forests and grasslands there.
2. It may not have a true desert like the Atacama, but it's a desert, with zero grassland apart from the oasis of Macuira and is washed by the Caribbean sea giving it another dynamic. Chile and Argentina lack "true" rainforest, tropical beaches or any mangrove - you don't see me touting Argentina's lack of diversity.
3. There are actually salt pans in the Guajira and yardangs in the Tatacoa desert, its smaller than in Argentina but they're there.
4. That's the point you don't seem to know much at all but you talk as if you know everything. Colombia may not have out of this world naturally coloured lakes (only lime green) but it does have entire rivers that are naturally coloured like Caño Cristales and the purple mangrove water of Providencia and Salamanca (seasonal).
5. I said Colombia only had minute glacial bodies (lakes included), why are you asking this?
What about your table mountains rising out of the Amazon floor? What about your Paramo forest? What about your coral reefs? What about bio-luminescent lagoons? What about biodiversity?
You can cut the cake many ways and Argentina is also lacking in several things that Colombia has.
1. Its subtropical highland, not temperate.
2. Its a semi-arid desert. The Misiones rainforest in Argentina is much more close to the amazon rainforest than the Guajira is to a fully deserts like Atacama, Sonora or Sahara. Mangrove is a very marginal ecosystem, I never understood why is often mentioned in the same group of basics and quintaessential ecosystems such as deserts, tundra, rainforest, temperate forests and plains, etc. Yeah, Argentina lacks tropical forest, i think that is the only quintaessential landscape we miss.
3. C'mon. Is a thread about landscapes. Don't sell us some salt as a true and recognizable salt pan. No.
Biodiversity is out of the question, it has nothing to do with the thread. A bunch of square kilometres of rainforest in Suriname has much more biodiversity than Canada, but it's just a single geographic trait. Tundra + Ice cap make instantly more geographic diversity. Then, if we make a thread about biodiversity, I will support Brazil, Colombia and Indonesia as the biggest contenders for the title.
In case of which geographic features 'qualify', well, it's a bit subjective. Obviously the big general ecosystems form a group of its own, but then we can talk about any minor natural area or landform imaginable.
Talking about Colombia -which I think it is geographically very diverse, but far from the first positions where USA, China, Argentina, India and Mexico are- most if not all general environments and geographic features of the country located over 1000 metres are already present in a narrow area of Northeastern Argentina (around the Yungas forests). They are also present in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador.
On lowland tropical areas, they don't exist in Argentina but pretty much equivalent areas with its own features are found throughout the North (Paranaense rainforest, Dry Chaco, Paranaense and Chaco grasslands and savannah, Ibera marsh, etc.). There is still the Andean Plateau, shared with Bolivia, Chile and Peru, whose traits are absolutely unique in South America. Then, there is still the Centre and the South of the country...
Finally, true temperate forests, the ones usually located towards the west coast at middle latitudes, have nothing to do with the tropical montane forests. They are very different. Places like the Andean Plateau Cundi-Boyacense may be equivalent to the Pampa de Achala and surrounding areas of Córdoba, but they are nothing like the Andean Plateau (being the Andean Plateau a world of itself with tons of lesser environments). In case of the semi-arid places of the North of Colombia, they can't be placed as the same entity as the whole dry areas of Argentina. I think the lava camps of Malargüe alone are already more diverse. Well, I might continue for hours...
Instead of telling the other 'ignorants' you better get some books first and learn about climate if you think the altitude variation of tropical gives you the same diversity as the latitude. This is what you meant when I talked about the lack of depth in the thermal range in the tropical Andes. (Look into the climate of places like La Quiaca and RÃo Gallegos and you will learn).
Last edited by Mhc1985; 08-05-2015 at 11:01 AM..
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