The Jalisco 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 southwestern

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 Jalisco dry forests occupy the coastal lowlands and foothills of

Nayarit Nayarit (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Nayarit ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Nayarit), is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 20 municipalities and its ...

Jalisco Jalisco (, , ; Nahuatl: Xalixco), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco ; Nahuatl: Tlahtohcayotl Xalixco), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal En ...

Colima Colima (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Colima ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Colima), is one of the 31 states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It shares its name with its capital and ...

, and

Michoacán Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo (; Purépecha: ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of ...

states. The ecoregion mostly lies close to the coast, from San Blas in Nayarit to the mouth of the

Balsas River The Balsas River (Spanish Río Balsas, also locally known as the Mezcala River, or Atoyac River) is a major river of south-central Mexico. The basin flows through the states of Guerrero, México, Morelos, and Puebla. Downstream of Ciudad Al ...

in Michoacán, however the dry forests follow the valleys of the Armería and

Tuxpan Tuxpan (or Túxpam, fully Túxpam de Rodríguez Cano) is both a municipality and city located in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The population of the city was 78,523 and of the municipality was 134,394 inhabitants, according to the INEGI census o ...

rivers far inland. The Pacific Ocean lies to the west and south, and the ecoregion includes the

Islas Marías The Islas Marías ("Mary Islands") are an archipelago of four islands that belong to Mexico. They are located in the Pacific Ocean, some off the coast of the mexican state, state of Nayarit and about southeast of the tip of Baja California. The ...

off the west coast of Nayarit. The higher-elevation pine-oak forests of the

Sierra Madre del Sur The Sierra Madre del Sur is a mountain range in southern Mexico, extending from southern Michoacán east through Guerrero, to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in eastern Oaxaca. Geography The Sierra Madre del Sur joins with the Eje Volcánico Transv ...

and

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 ...

lie inland. The

Sinaloan dry forests The Sinaloan dry forests is a tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion in western Mexico. It is the northernmost ecoregion of the Neotropical realm. Geography The ecoregion covers an area of approximately The dry forests lie in the coastal pl ...

lie to the north, and the

Southern Pacific dry forests The Southern Pacific dry forests is a tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion in southern Mexico. Geography The Southern Pacific dry forests occupy the coastal lowlands and foothills along the Pacific coast of Southern Mexico. The Balsas River ...

lie to the southeast across the

. Cities in the ecoregion include

Puerto Vallarta Puerto Vallarta ( or simply Vallarta) is a Mexican beach resort city situated on the Pacific Ocean's Bahía de Banderas in the Mexican state of Jalisco. Puerto Vallarta is the second largest urban agglomeration in the state after the Guadala ...

, Manzanillo, and

Climate

The climate is tropical and subhumid. Rainfall averages 730-1200 mm per year, falling mostly during the June through October rainy season.

Flora

The principal vegetation in the ecoregion is tropical dry forest. Many trees lose their leaves during the winter dry season. The mature forests have a multi-layered structure, with a middle layer of trees from 15-20 meters high, and an upper layer 20-30 meters high. The layers are characterized by different species, with ''

Astronium graveolens ''Astronium graveolens'' is a species of flowering tree in the cashew family, Anacardiaceae, that is native to the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Bolivia. Common names include glassywood, ronrón ...

, Bernoullia flammea, Sideroxylon cartilagineum, Bursera arborea, Calophyllum brasiliense,

Dendropanax arboreus ''Dendropanax'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family (biology), family Araliaceae, consisting of 92 species of evergreen trees and shrubs, first described by Joseph Decaisne & Jules Émile Planchon in 1854.Decaisne, J. & Planchon, J.E. (1 ...

, Ficus cotinifolia'', and ''

Swietenia humilis ''Swietenia humilis'' is a species of tree in the family Meliaceae. It is one of three species in the genus ''Swietenia'', all three of which are regarded as "genuine mahogany." At , it is one-fifth the height of ''S. mahagoni'' and one-sixth th ...

'' in the middle layer, and ''

Cordia alliodora ''Cordia alliodora'' is a species of flowering tree in the borage family, Boraginaceae, that is native to the American tropics. It is commonly known as Spanish elm, Ecuador laurel, cypre or salmwood. It can reach 35 m in height. Uses ''Cordia a ...

, Croton pseudoniveus, Lonchocarpus lanceolatus, Trichilia trifolia'', and '' Caesalpinia eriostachys'' in the upper layer. Columnar and arborescent

cacti A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek ...

are common, including '' Opuntia excelsa'' and species of ''

Pachycereus ''Pachycereus'' is a genus of 9–12 species of large cacti native to Mexico and just into southern Arizona, United States. They form large shrubs or small trees up to 15 m tall, with stout stems up to 1 m in diameter. ''Pachycereus'' comes fr ...

Stenocereus ''Stenocereus'' ( Gk. ''stenos'', narrow, L. ''cereus'', candle) is a genus of columnar or tree-like cacti from the Baja California Peninsula and other parts of Mexico, Arizona in the United States, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Venezuela an ...

'', and ''

Cephalocereus ''Cephalocereus'' is a genus of slow-growing, columnar-shaped, blue-green cacti. The genus is native to Mexico. Description These cacti show a columnar and upright growth habit, and may be branched or unbranched reaching heights of 10 to 12 met ...

''. Creepers are common in the understory, and there are few epiphytes. Palm forests of '' Attalea guacuyule'' occur along the coast. The forests are among the most diverse in the

Neotropics The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropics, tropical Ecoregion#Terrestrial, terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperat ...

, with about 1200 species of plants, of which 16% are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

. '' Magnolia vallartensis'' is a Critically Endangered endemic tree which inhabits humid streamside gallery forests around

Fauna

Of the ecoregion's 724 species of

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, ...

s, 233, or 29%, are endemic. 20% of the mammal species are endemic to the ecoregion, and 27% are endangered. Endemic species include Mexican shrew (''Megasorex gigas''), trumpet-nosed bat (''Musonycteris harrisoni''), Michoacan deer mouse (''Osgoodomys banderanus''), Chamela rat (''Hodomys alleni''), and

Magdalena rat The Magdalena rat (''Xenomys nelsoni'') is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae which is found only in a small region of western Mexico. It is the only species in the genus ''Xenomys''. The common name comes from the village where the ...

(''Xenomys nelsoni''). The ecoregion in home to 300 bird species. There are several near-endemic species, including the

Mexican parrotlet The Mexican parrotlet (''Forpus cyanopygius''), also known as the turquoise-rumped parrotlet or the Mexican blue-rumped parrotlet, is a species of parrot in the family Psittacidae. There are two subspecies: Grayson's parrotlet or the Tres Maria ...

(''Forpus cyanopygius''), rufous-bellied chachalaca (''Ortalis wagleri''), and San Blas jay (''Cyanocorax sanblasianus''). 55% of the bird species are year-round residents, and 45% are winter migrants from the

Nearctic The Nearctic realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting the Earth's land surface. The Nearctic realm covers most of North America, including Greenland, Central Florida, and the highlands of Mexico. The parts of North America t ...

. 51% of

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

species and 58% of amphibians are endemic.

Protected areas

Currently 9% of the ecoregion is in protected areas. A 2017 assessment found that 1,713 km², or 7%, of the ecoregion was in protected areas, and approximately 29% of the unprotected area is still forested.Eric Dinerstein, David Olson, et al. (2017). An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm, BioScience, Volume 67, Issue 6, June 2017, Pages 534–545; Supplemental material 2 table S1b

/ref> Protected areas include

Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve The Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve is a biosphere reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected ar ...

, Islas Marías Biosphere Reserve,

Sierra de San Juan Biosphere Reserve The Sierra de San Juan Biosphere Reserve is a protected area in Nayarit state of western Mexico. It was established in 2003, and has an area of 198.01 km2.UNEP-WCMC (2021). "Protected Area Profile for Sierra de San Juan from the World Databas ...

Sierra de Vallejo Biosphere Reserve Sierra de Vallejo Biosphere Reserve is a protected natural area of western Mexico. It protects the Sierra de Vallejo, a Pacific coastal mountain range in southern Nayarit Nayarit (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Nayarit ( es, Es ...

Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve The Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve ( es, Reserva de la Biósfera Sierra de Manantlán) (established 1988) is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in the states of Colima and Jalisco, Mexico. The reserve is located in the transition of the Nearcti ...

, Sierra de Quila Flora and Fauna Protection Area, and

Cuenca Alimentadora del Distrito Nacional de Riego 043 Estado de Nayarit The Cuenca Alimentadora del Distrito Nacional de Riego 043 Estado de Nayarit is a protected natural areas of Mexico, protected natural area in west-central Mexico. It extends across portions of southern Sierra Madre Occidental and the westernmost ...

natural resources protection area.

External links

References

{{coord missing, Jalisco Ecoregions of Mexico Forests of Mexico Natural history of Colima Natural history of Jalisco Natural history of Michoacán Natural history of Nayarit Neotropical dry broadleaf forests