Maria Dombrov reports for Glacier Hub: The  Andes  are the longest mountain range in the world, stretching 4,500 miles long and spanning seven South American countries: Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. Andean ecosystems include peatlands, grasslands, shrublands, salt flats, forests, and alpine regions. Mountain peatlands, or bofedales, play a particularly central role in the rearing…