Bosque Andino Patagónico
The climate here is influenced by humid air masses moving in from the Pacific Ocean which lose most of their moisture as they rise over the Andes.
[4] It is a narrow strip of land, with a maximum width of 75 km (47 mi), dwindling to zero in places near the Chubut River and Santa Cruz Province.
More frontal systems cross the coast during the winter and that is the season when most precipitation occurs on the western slopes of the mountains.
Some places suffer prolonged droughts in summer, and further east, on the Patagonian plateau, the air is no longer moist and little rain falls at any time of year.
Generally speaking soils in the northern Argentine area are arranged in the following pattern by decreasing longitude and altitude lithosols, andosols, cambisols and regosols.
Underneath these large trees there is usually a lower layer which includes such shrubs and small trees as boxleaf azara (Azara microphylla), Chilean wineberry (Aristotelia chilensis), Darwin's barberry (Berberis darwinii, box-leaved barberry (Berberis microphylla) and the bamboo coligüe cane (Chusquea culeou), as well as a wide range of herbs.
[3] The southern end of the forest is characterised by a colder, dry climate and the number of species growing here are more limited.
The predominant tree is the evergreen Magellan's beech (Nothofagus betuloides), sometimes accompanied by the canelo (Drimys winteri).
Some parts, such as at Puerto Blest near the Rio Negro (Argentina), have an average rainfall of 4,000 mm (157 in) per year, and the impression is of jungle.
Here the most common trees are the coihue (Nothofagus dombeyi), the Patagonian cypress (Fitzroya cupressoides), the Chilean hazel (Gevuina avellana), the ulmo (Eucryphia cordifolia), the Guaitecas cypress (Pilgerodendron uviferum), the podocarp (Podocarpus nubigenus) and the female maniu (Saxegothaea conspicua).
[3] Mammals present in the Valdivian forest include an arboreal marsupial, the monito del monte (Dromiciops gliroides), the world's smallest deer, the southern pudú (Pudu puda), and South America's smallest cat, the kodkod (Leopardus guigna).
The understorey is scanty and consists of such shrubs as the bamboo caña coligüe (Chusquea culeou) and the box-leaved barberry (Berberis buxifolia).
Other mammals include Humboldt's hog-nosed skunk (Conepatus humboldtii), the Patagonian mara (Dolichotis patagonum), the guanaco (Lama guanicoe), the south Andean deer (Hippocamelus bisulcus) and numerous species of rodents.
