Water resources management in Chile
Much of Chile is dominated by the Andes Mountain range and many high altitude glaciers. With rising temperatures, the IPCC warns of increased melting for many of these glaciers, with some of them disappearing as early as 2020–2030. The Third Assessment Report from the IPCC indicate a critical situation for glaciers in neighboring countries such as Bolivia and Peru. The IPCC report goes on to say that glaciers in Chile are drastically reducing their volume at an increasing rate and that changes in temperature and humidity are the primary cause. In an article from Science Daily in March 2008, the news agency reports that, "if the inter-tropical glaciers of Chile, Argentina, and Colombia disappear, water availability and hydropower generation will be affected." Of the thirty test glaciers monitored in the Andes by the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) only Chile's Echaurren Norte glacier thickened between 2005 and 2006.
Wildlife of Chile
The country's flora is composed of "56 orders, 181 families, 837 genera, and about 4,295 species" with large numbers in terms of genera and species from the families Asteraceae, Poaceae, Fabaceae, and Solanaceae. The land is divided into latitudes sections which dictate the country's vegetation; the soil conditions of the lands and the climatic conditions are key factors in this respect. In the northern desert region (Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth) which is the desert region of sand there is no precipitation at all but it still sustains not only vegetation but also fauna; the coastal fogs moving up sustain them. The desert vegetation consists of a spiny acacia tree, varieties of cacti as well as shrubs and spiny brambles. In the high plateau area of northern Chile, the common species of flora are llareta and grasses of ichu and tola varieties. The semiarid region of central Chile, cacti, espino and algarrobo hardwood, and "Adesmia" shrubs are the notable flora. In the humid and temperate region of central Chile, vegetation is defined by the term "matorral" which consists of thick growth of hardwoods, shrubs, cacti, and green grass; however the vegetation is thinning due to heavy anthropogenic pressure on land. South of the Biobío River, mixed deciduous forest and evergreen trees are the common vegetation types; the species reported are rauli or southern cedar, the roble beech, the "ulmo"(an evergreen shrub), and the evergreen laurel. The vegetation types in the western slopes of the Andes are formed of thick forests of monkey puzzle tree (Chile pine). The Lake District of Chile has dense rain forests of timber species. To the south of the lake, the dominant vegetation consists of Antarctic beech, the Chilean cedar, and the giant alerce (this tree in southern Chile is reported to be 3000 years old and is the "second largest living organism in the world"). In the Chilean Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego island, due to weather conditions only dwarf variety of southern beech and hard grasses are noted.