Editing Cloud forest (section)

== Climate ==
[[File:Costa rica santa elena skywalk.jpg|thumb|One of the hanging bridges of the Sky walk at the [[Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve]] in [[Monteverde, Costa Rica]] disappearing into the clouds]]
The presence of cloud forests is dependent on local climate (which is affected by the distance to the sea), the exposition and the latitude (typically from 25°N to 25°S), and the elevation (which varies from 500 m to 4000 m above sea level). Typically, there is a relatively small band of elevation in which the atmospheric environment is suitable for cloud forest development. This is characterized by persistent fog at the vegetation level, resulting in the reduction of direct sunlight and thus of [[evapotranspiration]].{{sfn|Häger|2006|p={{pn|date=December 2017}}}}{{sfn|Hamilton|Juvik|Scatena|1995}} Within cloud forests, much of the moisture available to plants arrives in the form of [[fog drip]], where [[fog]] [[Condensation|condenses]] on tree leaves and then drips onto the ground below.

Annual rainfall can range from 500 to 10,000&nbsp;mm/year and mean temperature between 8 and 20 °C (46.4 and 68&nbsp;°F).{{sfn|Häger|2006|p={{pn|date=December 2017}}}}{{sfn|Hamilton|Juvik|Scatena|1995}}

While cloud forest today is the most widely used term, in some regions, these ecosystems or special types of cloud forests are called mossy forest, [[elfin forest]], montane thicket, and dwarf cloud forest.{{sfn|Hamilton|Juvik|Scatena|1995}}

The definition of cloud forest can be ambiguous, with many countries not using the term (preferring such terms as [[Afromontane]] forest and upper montane rain forest, montane [[laurel forest]], or more localised terms such as the Bolivian ''[[yungas]]'', and the ''[[laurisilva]]'' of the Atlantic Islands),{{sfn|García-Santos| Bruijnzeel|Dolman|2009}}{{sfn|García-Santos|2007|p={{pn|date=December 2017}}}} and occasionally subtropical and even temperate forests in which similar meteorological conditions occur are considered to be cloud forests.