The diagram illustrates how vegetation, cultivation, and land use change with increasing altitude in two types of mountains: tropical and temperate. The heights are measured in both meters and feet.
Overall, both mountains exhibit a vertical zonation of land use, but the tropical mountain extends to a much higher elevation than the temperate one. As altitude increases, the type of vegetation shifts from agricultural zones to forests, alpine meadows, and eventually permanent snow. Notably, the tropical mountain offers more diverse cultivation zones due to its broader altitude range.
In the tropical mountain, the base (up to 1000 meters) is known as the warm zone and is ideal for growing many tropical crops. Above this lies the temperature zone (1000–2000 meters), commonly used for coffee and cocoa plantations. From 2000 to 3000 meters is the cool zone, which supports grain cultivation. Vegetation changes further beyond this altitude, where broad-leaf trees dominate up to around 3200 meters, followed by pine and fir trees extending to approximately 4000 meters.
In contrast, the temperate mountain begins with a cool zone at the base, which is used for the general cultivation of grains, potatoes, and flax. Between roughly 1000 and 2500 meters, forests grow, starting with broad-leaf species and transitioning to spruce trees. Above this, alpine meadows occupy the zone up to about 3000 meters, just below the permanent snow line. Compared to the tropical mountain, the temperate mountain reaches lower altitudes and has fewer zones suitable for diverse crops.