CLIMATE AND VEGETATION REGIONS

A tropical rain forest climate and vegetation dominate southern Mexico, eastern Central America, some Caribbean islands, and parts of South America.

Wet tropical areas in Latin America have a dense cover of rain forest. The rain forests contain a variety of trees, including tropical hardwoods, palms, tree ferns, and bamboos. The Amazon rain forest shelters more species of plants and animals than anyother place on earth.

A tropical savanna climate is typical of the coast of southwestern Mexico, most Caribbean islands, and north-central South America. A humid subtropical climate prevails over much of southern South America.

Parts of northern Mexico, coastal Peru and Chile, and the southeastern coast of Argentina have desert climates and vegetation. In Chile the rain shadow effect of the Andes has produced the Atacama Desert, a region so arid that in some places no rainfall has been ever recorded.