thumb|right|Páramos in yellow
Páramo () may refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountains in South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". It is a "Neotropical high mountain biome with a vegetation composed mainly of giant rosette plants, shrubs and grasses".
Location
thumb|left|[[Sumapaz Paramo|Sumapaz Páramo]]
The Northern Andean Páramo global ecoregion includes the Cordillera Central páramo (Ecuador, Peru), Santa Marta páramo (Colombia), Cordillera de Merida páramo (Venezuela) and Northern Andean páramo (Colombia, Ecuador) terrestrial ecoregions.
The Costa Rican páramo in Costa Rica and Panama is another páramo ecoregion.
In the strictest sense of the term, all páramo ecosystems are in the Neotropics, specifically South and Central America. Scattered throughout the regions between 11°N and 8°S latitudes, these ecosystems are mainly in the northwest corner of South America, in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
In Venezuela, the páramo occurs in the Cordillera de Mérida. Páramo ecosystems are also found in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia, and in the regions of Huehuetenango and El Quiché of Guatemala in the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes. The Cordillera de Talamanca of Costa Rica and the westernmost part of Panama has páramo. In northern Ecuador, the Guandera Biological Station is a fairly undisturbed páramo ecosystem.
The majority of the páramo ecosystems occur in the Colombian Andes. The Sumapaz Páramo, south of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes (about south of Bogotá), is the largest páramo in the world. This region was declared a National Park of Colombia in 1977 because of its importance as a biodiversity hotspot and main source of water for the most densely populated area of the country, the Bogotá Savannah. The Páramo Wildlife Refuge Park in the San José Province of Costa Rica "protects tropical forest areas in the high elevations of the Talamanca Mountains".
Cotopaxi National Park contains of protected land in the Cotopaxi Province of Ecuador. Much of this park is páramo. Its flora includes gentians, clubmosses, valerians, and asters such as Loricaria and Chuquiraga species.
Climate
thumb|right|[[Culcitium sp. in Páramo de Chiles, Carchi, Ecuador.]]
Páramo climates differ slightly depending on the specific location. In Colombia and northern Ecuador, air masses from the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) have a substantial effect on the climate, and these regions tend to be consistently humid (approx. 70–85%) throughout the year. The Andes also play a key role in the climate of these regions as they cause an orographic uplift in which moist air rises. This creates continuous moisture via rain, clouds, and fog, with many of them receiving over of rain annually.
Soils
thumb|left|Páramo de Rabanal, [[Boyacá Department|Boyacá, Colombia]]
Soils in páramo ecosystems vary, but most are young and partially weathered. The soil has a relatively low pH because of an abundance of moisture and organic content. Organic content, even within disturbed sites averages very high which contributes to water retention in the soil. During cold and wet weather, there are few nutrients available and productivity is very low in páramo soils. Soils in páramo ecosystems have changed because of human activity, especially due to burning vegetation to clear land for grazing.
Soils in the south Ecuadorian páramo are characterized broadly into Andisols, Inceptisols, Histosols, Entisols, and Mollisols. These soils have a very high water retention rate, which contributes to the rise in cultivation and differential land use. This water supply stored in the soil in the higher elevation páramo in the Andes becomes the water supply for Andean settlements in lower altitudes.
Vegetation zones
Páramos are divided into separate zones based on elevation and vegetative structure, with the three main types of páramo vegetation unequally distributed throughout different zones. , more than 3,000 plant species have been discovered in the páramo. The term páramo is sometimes used to refer to this specific type. It has continuous vegetation and plant cover with a "yellowish to olive–brown" look due to the combination of dead and living grasses. while foliose and fruticose lichens are associated with less extreme conditions and mid altitudes. The atmospheric factors such as humidity and temperature positively favour taller lichens, due to an increase in locally available water.
Fauna
thumb|Tremarctos ornatus, the [[spectacled bear or Andean bear is the only surviving species of bear native to South America.]]
The vegetation of the páramo provides shelter and habitat for a variety of mammals, birds, insects, amphibians, and reptiles. Some animals commonly found in páramo ecosystems include the Culpeo (sometimes called the páramo wolf), the white-tailed deer, and the spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus) which occasionally forages in the high páramo for its favored food, Puya bromeliads. Some hummingbirds tolerate the cold climate by going into "a kind of nightly hibernation."
thumb|left|[[Erosion in a páramo, caused by wind and overgrazing]]
Climate change is becoming an increasingly pressing issue for páramo ecosystems. Growing populations in Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador have forced settlements in higher elevations covering more páramo. Recent developments such as construction of aqueducts, drainage systems, and roads, mining, and afforestation have been a huge additional páramo disturbance.
Increases in temperature extremes are forcing many fauna and flora species to higher grounds, and eventually they could face extinction. The flora of páramos is adapted to specific conditions and is thus vulnerable to even small climate changes. Climate change in the Andes is causing glaciers in the páramo to disappear and a drop in rainfall, virtually drying up páramo and in turn, drying up the water supply for cities such as Quito, Ecuador and Bogotá, Colombia.
On 8 February 2016, the Constitutional Court of Colombia banned all mining operations in the paramos, prioritising the protection of the environment, and terminating 347 mining licenses that had operational rights in the ecosystem.
Cultural references
The 2018 film "Sacred Water" was made in the paramo region of Chingaza in Colombia.
The 2023 short documentary, "Sun and Thunder" about Nasa indigenous activist Nora Taquines, was filmed in the paramo region.
The feature film, "A Vanishing Fog" was filmed in the páramo.