The Bajío dry forests is a tropical dry broadleaf forest

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...

in western−central

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Geography

The Bajío dry forests lie in the southwestern portion of the

Mexican Plateau The Central Mexican Plateau, also known as the Mexican Altiplano ( es, Altiplanicie Mexicana), is a large arid-to-semiarid plateau that occupies much of northern and central Mexico. Averaging above sea level, it extends from the US-Mexico border ...

. They are bounded on the southeast, south, and southwest by the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt pine-oak forests, which occupy the folded mountains and volcanoes of the

Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt ( es, Eje Volcánico Transversal), also known as the Transvolcanic Belt and locally as the (''Snowy Mountain Range''), is an active volcanic belt that covers central-southern Mexico. Several of its highest peaks h ...

that form the southern edge of the Mexican Plateau. The

Sierra Madre Occidental pine-oak forests Sierra (Spanish for "mountain range" and "saw", from Latin '' serra'') may refer to the following: Places Mountains and mountain ranges * Sierra de Juárez, a mountain range in Baja California, Mexico * Sierra de las Nieves, a mountain range i ...

of the

Sierra Madre Occidental The Sierra Madre Occidental is a major mountain range system of the North American Cordillera, that runs northwest–southeast through northwestern and western Mexico, and along the Gulf of California. The Sierra Madre is part of the American C ...

bound the ecoregion on the northwest. The numerous mountains of the plateau which rise above the dry forests are occupied by

sky island Sky islands are topographic isolation, isolated mountains surrounded by radically different lowland environments. The term originally referred to those found on the Mexican Plateau, and has extended to similarly isolated montane ecosystems, hi ...

s of pine-oak forest. To the north, the Bajío dry forests transition to the drier, more temperate

Central Mexican matorral The Central Mexican matorral is an ecoregion of the deserts and xeric shrublands biome of central Mexico. It is the southernmost ecoregion of the Nearctic realm. Geography The Central Mexican matorral covers an area of on the southern portion o ...

. Most of the ecoregion lies within the basin of the

Lerma River The Lerma River ( es, Río Lerma) is Mexico's second longest river. It is a river in west-central Mexico that begins in Mexican Plateau at an altitude over above sea level, and ends where it empties into Lake Chapala, Mexico's largest lake, near ...

, and the dry forests extend around

Lake Chapala Lake Chapala ( es, Lago de Chapala, ) is Mexico's largest freshwater lake. It lies in the municipalities of Ocotlán, Jalisco, Ocotlán, Chapala, Mexico, Chapala, Jocotepec, Poncitlán, and Jamay (municipality), Jamay, in Jalisco, and in Venu ...

at the eastern end of the region, and into the

endorheic basin An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but drainage converges instead into lakes ...

s of

Lake Cuitzeo Lake Cuitzeo () is a lake in the central part of Mexico, in the state of Michoacán. It has an area of . The lake is astatic, meaning the volume and level of water in the lake fluctuates frequently. It is the second-largest freshwater lake in Me ...

and

Lake Pátzcuaro Lake Pátzcuaro (Spanish: ''Lago de Pátzcuaro'') is a lake in the municipality of Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, Mexico. Lake Pátzcuaro lies in an endorheic basin, which does not drain to the sea. A watershed area of 929 square kilometres drains into ...

in the south. The cities of

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( , ) is a metropolis in western Mexico and the capital of the list of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 1,385,629 people, making it the 7th largest city by population in Me ...

Morelia Morelia (; from 1545 to 1828 known as Valladolid) is a city and municipal seat of the municipality of Morelia in the north-central part of the state of Michoacán in central Mexico. The city is in the Guayangareo Valley and is the capital and larg ...

, and

Querétaro Querétaro (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Querétaro ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Querétaro, links=no; Otomi language, Otomi: ''Hyodi Ndämxei''), is one of the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. I ...

lie within the ecoregion.

Fauna

Native mammals include

Mexican wolf The Mexican wolf (''Canis lupus baileyi''), also known as the lobo,; nah, Cuetlāchcoyōtl is a subspecies of gray wolf native to southeastern Arizona and southern New Mexico in the United States, and northern Mexico; it also previously range ...

''(Canus lupus baileyi)'' and pocketed free-tailed bat ''(Nyctinomops femorosaccus).'' Birds include the

black-throated magpie-jay The black-throated magpie-jay (''Calocitta colliei'') is a strikingly long-tailed magpie-jay of northwestern Mexico. Taxonomy The black-throated magpie-jay was formally described in 1829 by the Irish zoologist Nicholas Aylward Vigors from a sp ...

''(Calocitta colliei),'' thick-billed kingbird ''(Tyrannus crassirostris),''

whiskered screech owl The whiskered screech owl (''Megascops trichopsis'') is a small screech owl found in North and Central America. Description Adults occur in 2 color morphs, in either brown or dark grey plumage. They have a round head with ear tufts, yellow eyes ...

''(Otus trichopsus),''

orange-fronted parakeet The orange-fronted parakeet or orange-fronted conure (''Eupsittula canicularis''), also known as the half-moon conure, is a medium-sized parrot that is resident from western Mexico to Costa Rica. Taxonomy The orange-fronted parakeet was Species ...

''(Aratinga caniculanis),''

dwarf vireo The dwarf vireo (''Vireo nelsoni'') is a species of bird in the family Vireonidae. It is endemic to Mexico. Its natural habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present ...

''(Vireo nelsoni)'', and

black-polled yellowthroat The black-polled yellowthroat (''Geothlypis speciosa'') is a species of bird in the family Parulidae. Distribution It is endemic to central Mexico and the southwestern Mexican Plateau, in Guanajuato, Michoacán, and México State. Its natural h ...

''(Geothlypis speciosa).''

Development

The ecoregion is densely populated, and centuries of human use have reduced the dry forests to small pockets. Dry deciduous forest used to be the dominant vegetation, but thorn scrub and subtropical matorral are now more common, interspersed with agricultural and pasture lands.

Protected areas

7.52% of the ecoregion is in protected areas. Protected areas include Cerro de Las Campanas National Park, El Cimatario National Park, Lago de Camécuaro National Park,

La Primavera Flora and Fauna Protection Area La Primavera Biosphere Reserve, also known as La Primavera Flora and Fauna Protection Area, is a protected natural area in western Mexico. It is located in the state of Jalisco, immediately west of the city of Guadalajara. Geography La Primave ...

, Siete Luminarias Natural Monument, and Sierra del Águila Protected Area.

External links

References