<P> However, regions within the tropics may well not have a tropical climate . Under the Köppen climate classification, much of the area within the geographical tropics is classed not as "tropical" but as "dry" (arid or semi-arid), including the Sahara Desert, the Atacama Desert and Australian Outback . Also, there are alpine tundra and snow - capped peaks, including Mauna Kea, Mount Kilimanjaro, and the Andes as far south as the northernmost parts of Chile and Argentina . </P> <P> Tropical plants and animals are those species native to the tropics . Tropical ecosystems may consist of tropical rainforests, seasonal tropical forests, dry (often deciduous) forests, spiny forests, desert and other habitat types . There are often significant areas of biodiversity, and species endemism present, particularly in rainforests and seasonal forests . Some examples of important biodiversity and high endemism ecosystems are El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico, Costa Rican and Nicaraguan rainforests, Amazon Rainforest territories of several South American countries, Madagascar dry deciduous forests, the Waterberg Biosphere of South Africa, and eastern Madagascar rainforests . Often the soils of tropical forests are low in nutrient content, making them quite vulnerable to slash - and - burn deforestation techniques, which are sometimes an element of shifting cultivation agricultural systems . </P> <P> In biogeography, the tropics are divided into Paleotropics (Africa, Asia and Australia) and Neotropics (Caribbean, Central America, and South America). Together, they are sometimes referred to as the Pantropic . The Neotropical region should not be confused with the ecozone of the same name; in the Old World, there is no such ambiguity, as the Paleotropics correspond to the Afrotropical, Indomalayan, and partly the Australasian and Oceanic ecozones . </P> <P> "Tropicality" refers to the geographic imagery that many people outside the tropics have of that region . The idea of tropicality gained renewed interest in modern geographical discourse when French geographer Pierre Gourou published Les Pays Tropicaux (The Tropical World, in English), in the late 1940s . </P>

What kinds of animals live in the blue areas on a map