Bofedales

Bofedales absorb the limited amount of water derived from snow, glacier meltwater and rain showers, storing it in ground and slowly releasing it.

[2] Bofedales are wetlands featuring cushion plants[3] in the Andes between Colombia and Venezuela in the north to Patagonia in the south.

[14] The climate conditions are often extreme, featuring high insolation and strong winds, lack of precipitation and oxygen due to the thin atmosphere at these elevations, low temperatures with daily frosts and a short growing season.

[10] Where bofedales have been dated, such as in Chile, they began development during the Holocene after deglaciation and often only during the last few millennia (including the Little Ice Age), when conditions became wetter.

[20] In Chile large swathes of the Altiplano in the regions of Arica y Parinacota and Tarapacá are covered by bofedales.

[21] The southernmost bofedales of the Central Andes are found at the latitude of the Nevado Tres Cruces National Park in Chile.

The species composition may vary due to grazing pressure and seed dispersal by animals, water availability and temperature, the presence of nutrients and toxic elements, and different stages of the ecological succession.

[25] At their elevations climatic conditions make agriculture unfeasible, while the high quality of the forage in bofedales invites animal husbandry.

The Aymara, Quechua and Colla[29] peoples have maintained traditional knowledge about the bofedales including irrigation techniques, animal rotation and the use of fire to remove dry plants.

[30] The water supply of Chilean cities in Atacama Desert such as Antofagasta and Calama has been, in part, historically derived from rivers tapped near bofedales.

[31] However studies show that in the early 1990s 62% of bofedales and bofedal-like vegas in northern Chile yielded water of questionable quality for human consumption.

[32] Issues related to the water quality of bofedales include the ocurrence of fecal and non-fecal coliform bacteria as well as fly eggs.

[33][31] A limited number of bofedales that function as water sources have had their drainage improved by channels due to sanitary reasons.

[37] Climate change is a further threat to these ecosystems[38] as decreased precipitation[39] and glacier retreat reduces the flow of water into bofedales, which is necessary to sustain them.