Introduction

Tropical montane cloud forests are defined by their regular immersion in clouds, possible only along mountain peaks and narrow bands of altitude where orographic clouds tend to form. Consequently, these systems exist as highly isolated and fragmented strips, which some ecologists have compared to island archipelagoes (Foster, 2001). Such conditions encourage speciation as well as high levels of endemism, as is reflected in the biodiversity of these forest communities. Unfortunately, the same characteristics that uniquely define these systems also render them extremely sensitive to the potential impacts of global climate change. Evidence suggests that climate changes could potentially threaten the future viability of tropical cloud forests in a number of ways including ecotone altitude shifts, changes in cloud formation, and increases in severe disturbance events. Recent disappearances of several cloud forest anuran and anoline species implies that such impacts may already be influencing cloud forest communities.