page_title: Coropuna
section_title: Vegetation, fauna and agriculture
hierarchical_section_title: Coropuna / Vegetation, fauna and agriculture
caption_attribution_description: Azorella compacta Photo taken by Professor Bikey Bike, May 2002, on the slopes of Nevado Coropuna, Peru.
context_page_description: Coropuna is a dormant compound volcano located in the Andes mountains of southeast-central Peru. The upper reaches of Coropuna consist of several perennially snowbound conical summits, lending it the name Nevado Coropuna in Spanish. The complex extends over an area of 240 square kilometres and its highest summit reaches an altitude of 6,377 metres above sea level. This makes the Coropuna complex the third-highest of Peru. Its thick ice cap is the most extensive in Earth's tropical zone, with several outlet glaciers stretching out to lower altitudes. Below an elevation of 5,000 metres, there are various vegetation belts which include trees, peat bogs, grasses and also agricultural areas and pastures.
  The Coropuna complex consists of several stratovolcanos. These are composed chiefly of ignimbrites and lava flows on a basement formed by Middle Miocene ignimbrites and lava flows. The Coropuna complex has been active for at least five million years, with the bulk of the current cone having been formed during the Quaternary.
context_section_description: Most of the region is covered by puna grassland, with the exception of isolated Polylepis woods to the southwest of the volcano, plus other different vegetation types to the west and southeast. Peat bogs are present on the southern and southwestern sides of Coropuna, and some of these have been drilled to obtain sediment cores. Elsewhere, agriculture is widespread around Coropuna. Insects such as beetles and hymenopterans, birds such as the Andean condor, fish and mammals such as the alpaca, llama and vicuña occur in the region. Several new species of butterfly have been discovered there.
  The mountain has several distinct vegetation belts:
  Between 800 and 2,500 m (2,600 and 8,200 ft) lies steppe vegetation with Ambrosia shrubs and cacti. Irrigation permits the cultivation of garlic, olive, onion, potato, rice, sugar cane and wheat. Pastures are also present.
  The steppe vegetation is also present between 2,500 and 3,500 m (8,200 and 11,500 ft) in the "pre-Puna", but it is denser here and includes shrubs of the family Asteraceae, such as Ambrosia, Diplostephium and Senecio. Crops grown here include alfalfa, but there is also some dairy farming and  the planting of eucalyptus and pine trees  as a wood supply for the local population.
  Between 3,000 and 4,000 m (9,800 and 13,100 ft) lies a so-called "supra-tropical facies" on soils overlying lava flows. It includes shrubs and thorny vegetation in very wet and very dry areas, respectively. Agriculture is practised here, including the growing of kiwicha, maize, quinoa and vegetables on anthropogenic soils and terraced fields. Dominant natural plants between 3,500 and 4,000 m (11,500 and 13,100 ft) include herbaceous plants of the families Fabaceae and Solanaceae, as well as shrubs of the Asteraceae.
  Between 4,000 and 4,800 m (13,100 and 15,700 ft) vegetation is found in marshes and peat bogs where sufficient water is available, in the form of relic Polylepis woodlands as well as herbaceous puna vegetation which is particularly prolific during the wet season. These areas are used for pasture of alpacas and llamas, and for fishing in wetlands and Polylepis woods; hamlets are found close to wetlands and forests. Plant genera found here include Baccharis, Calamagrostis, Chuquiraga, Festuca, Parastrephia, Senecio and Stipa.
  Above 4,800 m (15,700 ft) lies the so-called "Puna brava", with herbs and deep-rooted plants that have all adapted to withstand permafrost conditions. The cushion plant, yareta, which is used as a fuel source, is the dominant plant in this belt. Other plants from the Apiaceae and Asteraceae also occur. Vegetation, including ichu grass and yareta, exist up to about five km (3.1 mi) elevation; higher elevations are unvegetated.
caption: Yareta on Coropuna
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