Magellanic moorland

Magellanic moorland at Herschel Island, Cabo de Hornos National Park.

The Magellanic moorland or Magellanic tundra (Spanish: Tundra magallánica) is an ecoregion on the Patagonian archipelagos south of latitude 48° S. It is characterized by high rainfall with a vegetation of scrubs, bogs and patches of forest in more protected areas. Cushion plants, grass-like plants and bryophytes are common.[1]

At present there are outliers of Magellanic moorland as far north as in the highlands of Cordillera del Piuchén (latitude 42° 22' S) in Chiloé Island.[2][3] During the Llanquihue glaciation Magellanic moorland extended to the non-glaciated lowlands of Chiloé Island[2] and further north to the lowlands of Chilean lake district (latitude 41° S).[4]

The classification of Magellanic moorland has proven problematic as substrate, low temperatures and exposure to the ocean influences the development of the Magallanic moorland. It thus may qualify either as polar tundra or heathland.[5]

  1. ^ "Magellanic subpolar forests". Terrestrial Ecoregions. World Wildlife Fund.
  2. ^ a b Villagrán, Carolina (1988). "Expansion of Magellanic Moorland during the Late Pleistocene: Palynological Evidence from Northern isla de Chiloé, Chile". Quaternary Research. 30 (3): 304–314. Bibcode:1988QuRes..30..304V. doi:10.1016/0033-5894(88)90006-3. S2CID 129510564.
  3. ^ Ramírez, Carlos; San Martin, Cristina; Vidal, Osvaldo; Pérez, Yéssica; Valenzuela, Jorge; Solís, José-Luís; Toledo, Gisela (2014). "Tundra Subantártica en la Isla Grande de Chiloé, Chile: Flora y vegetación turbosa de campañas" [Subantarctic Tundra in Chiloé Island, Chile: Flora and vegetation of "Campañas" peat bogs]. Anales del Instituto de la Patagonia (in Spanish). 42 (2): 17–37. doi:10.4067/S0718-686X2014000200002.
  4. ^ Moreno, Patricio I.; Denton, Geoge H.; Moreno, Hugo; Lowell, Thomas V.; Putnam, Aaron E.; Kaplan, Michael R. (2015). "Radiocarbon chronology of the last glacial maximum and its termination in northwestern Patagonia". Quaternary Science Reviews. 122: 233–249. Bibcode:2015QSRv..122..233M. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.05.027. hdl:10533/148448.
  5. ^ Longton, R.E. (1988). Biology of Polar Bryophytes and Lichen. Studies in Polar Research. Cambridge University Press. p. 20. ISBN 0-521-25015-3.