The Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve ( es, Reserva de la Biósfera Sierra de Manantlán) (established 1988) is a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

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 area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or o ...

in the states of

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

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 ...

, Mexico. The reserve is located in the transition of 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 ...

and

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bioge ...

realms and encompasses parts 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 ...

, with a wide range of altitudes, climates and soils. The effects of tectonic and volcanic activities and erosion are notable within the reserve.

Geography

The reserve is in the Sierra de Manantlán, part of the western

. The reserve is mostly in

state, with a portion in

. The reserve is administered by the municipalities of

Autlán Autlán de Navarro is a city and its surrounding municipalities of Mexico, municipality of the same name in the Costa Sur region of the southwestern part of the state of Jalisco in Mexico. At the Mexican census of 2005, the city had a population ...

Cuautitlán Cuautitlán (), is a municipality in the State of Mexico, just north of the northern tip of the Federal District (Distrito Federal) within the Greater Mexico City urban area. The city of Cuautitlán is the municipal seat and makes up most of the ...

Casimiro Castillo Casimiro Castillo is a town and municipality, in Jalisco in central-western Mexico. The municipality covers an area of 455.13 km². As of 2005, the municipality had a total population of 18,913. Five police officers from Casimiro Castillo we ...

, Tolimán and

Tuxcacuesco Tuxcacuesco is a town and municipality, in Jalisco in central-western Mexico. The municipality covers an area of 257.46 km². As of 2005, the municipality had a total population of 3,770. Economy Tuxcacuesco is home to "Tuxca Corona", a factory st ...

in Jalisco and Minatitlán and

Comala Comala () is a town and municipality located in the Mexican state of Colima, near the state capital of Colima. It has been nicknamed the “White Village of America” as the facades of the buildings in town have all been painted white since the 1 ...

in Colima. Anthropologists know the region as ''Zona de Occidente'', an area notably different from the rest of

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. W ...

. Some ceramic remnants, figurines and graves have been found, but there is little other material evidence.

Flora and fauna

Different types of

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s are present in the reserve including

mesophytic Mesophytes are terrestrial plants which are neither adapted to particularly dry nor particularly wet environments. An example of a mesophytic habitat would be a rural temperate meadow, which might contain Solidago, goldenrod, Trifolium, clover, Leuc ...

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may co ...

, and dry

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

and semi-deciduous

tropical forest Tropical forests (a.k.a. jungle) are forested landscapes in tropical regions: ''i.e.'' land areas approximately bounded by the tropic of Cancer and Capricorn, but possibly affected by other factors such as prevailing winds. Some tropical fores ...

s. The Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve is located to the extreme north of the

Intertropical Convergence Zone The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ ), known by sailors as the doldrums or the calms because of its monotonous windless weather, is the area where the northeast and the southeast trade winds converge. It encircles Earth near the thermal e ...

. The climate in the region is influenced by various factors in addition to its

latitudinal In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

location, such as its proximity to the coast, the effect of its landform –

orographic Orography is the study of the topographic relief of mountains, and can more broadly include hills, and any part of a region's elevated terrain. Orography (also known as ''oreography'', ''orology'' or ''oreology'') falls within the broader discipl ...

shade – and the breadth of the altitudinal range, which partly explains the high regional biodiversity and the presence of numerous plant formations ranging from tropical forests to those of temperate-cold climates. The Sierra de Manantlán’s varied and complex plant cover harbours a great wealth of flora. There are over 2900 species of vascular plants belonging to 981 genera (see

Plants of the Reserva de la Biosfera Manantlan Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclu ...

) for a growing list. Wildlife is one of the important components of the high biodiversity in this reserve. Among the main values of the Sierra de Manantlán, in addition to its great wealth of species and its unique

biogeographical Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, i ...

characteristics, are the presence of endangered or useful

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 ...

species. So far 110 species of mammals have been reported, which include the

Mexican vole The Mexican vole (''Microtus mexicanus'') is a species of vole. The Hualapai Mexican vole (''M. m. hualapaiensis'') was formerly recognized as a subspecies and was a protected taxon under the United States Endangered Species Act until 2017. Sever ...

(''Microtus mexicanus neveriae'') and the

smoky pocket gopher The smoky pocket gopher (''Cratogeomys fumosus'') is a species of rodent in the family Geomyidae. It is endemic to Mexico (Querétaro). Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland. Molecular phylogenetics Molecular phy ...

(''Cratogeomys fumosus''), in addition to other mammals such as the

oncilla The oncilla (''Leopardus tigrinus''), also known as the northern tiger cat, little spotted cat, and tigrillo, is a small spotted cat ranging from Central America to central Brazil. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and the popul ...

, the jaguarandi, the

ocelot The ocelot (''Leopardus pardalis'') is a medium-sized spotted wild cat that reaches at the shoulders and weighs between on average. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Two subspecies are recognized. It is native to the southwes ...

, the puma, the

bobcat The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the red lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to North America. It ranges from southern Canada through most of the contiguous United States to Oaxaca in Mexico. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUC ...

, the

jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...

and four species of

nectarivorous In zoology, a nectarivore is an animal which derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of the sugar-rich nectar produced by flowering plants. Nectar as a food source presents a number of benefits a ...

bats. Three hundred and thirty-six species of birds have been reported, among them 36 which are endemic to Mexico, such as the charismatic species: the

crested guan The crested guan (''Penelope purpurascens'') is a member of an ancient group of birds of the family Cracidae, which are related to the Australasian megapodes or mound builders (Megapodiidae). It is found in the Neotropics, in lowlands forests ran ...

(''Penelope purpurascens''), the

military macaw The military macaw (''Ara militaris'') is a large parrot and a medium-sized macaw that gets its name from its predominantly green plumage resembling a military parade uniform. It is native to forests of Mexico and South America and though conside ...

(''Ara militaris''), the

red-lored amazon The red-lored amazon or red-lored parrot (''Amazona autumnalis'') is a species of amazon parrot, native to tropical regions of the Americas, from eastern Mexico south to Ecuador where it occurs in humid evergreen to semi-deciduous forests up to ...

(''Amazona autumnalis''), and the Mexican national symbol, the

golden eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known bird of p ...

. Eighty-five species of

amphibian Amphibians are tetrapod, four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the Class (biology), class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terres ...

s and

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 ( ...

s have been recorded; of these it is known that 13 are endemic to the western and central region of Mexico: the

rattlesnake Rattlesnakes are venomous snakes that form the genera ''Crotalus'' and ''Sistrurus'' of the subfamily Crotalinae (the pit vipers). All rattlesnakes are vipers. Rattlesnakes are predators that live in a wide array of habitats, hunting small anim ...

, the

black iguana ''Ctenosaura similis'', commonly known as the black iguanaLiner, Ernest A. and Gustavo Cass-Andreu. (2008). ''Standard Spanish, English and Scientific Names of the Amphibians and Reptiles of Mexico (2nd. ed.).'' Herpetological Circular No. 38. So ...

, the frog ''Shyrrhopus modestus'', the

beaded lizard The Mexican beaded lizard (''Heloderma horridum'') is a species of lizard in the Family (biology), family Helodermatidae, one of the two species of venomous beaded lizards found principally in Mexico and southern Guatemala. It and congener (biolo ...

(''Heloderma horridum'') and the Autlan rattlesnake (''Crotalus lannomi''), an endemic species only reported for the area of Puerto de Los Mazos. Of the 16 species of fish identified, 13 are native and four of these are endemic to the region.

Conservation

The area was designated 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 area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or o ...

by the Mexican government in 1987, with an area of 976.76 km². The next year it was designated an international UNESCO-MAB Biosphere Reserve by

, including the national reserve and a buffer zone. , more than 40,000 people lived in the Sierra de Manantlán, engaged mainly in agriculture (corn, beans, tomatoes, sugarcane, watermelon, mangoes), livestock grazing, timber production, and extraction of wood for fuel and mining of coal or minerals. Their living conditions are poor and marginal.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sierra de Manantlan Biosphere Reserve Biosphere reserves of Mexico Protected areas of Colima Protected areas of Jalisco Protected areas of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt Important Bird Areas of Mexico Sierra Madre del Sur Jalisco dry forests Cloud forests of Mexico

Geography

Flora and fauna

Conservation

See also

References