Sierra del Abra Tanchipa Biosphere Reserve is a protected natural area in northeastern

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 ...

. It is located in the Huasteca Potosina region of

San Luis Potosí San Luis Potosí (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of San Luis Potosí ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de San Luis Potosí), is one of the 32 states which compose the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and i ...

state, in the eastern foothills of the

Sierra Madre Oriental The Sierra Madre Oriental () is a mountain range in northeastern Mexico. The Sierra Madre Oriental is part of the American Cordillera, a chain of mountain ranges (cordillera) that consists of an almost continuous sequence of mountain ranges that f ...

Geography

The reserve protects an area of 167.58 km² in the Sierra del Abra Tanchipa. The Sierra extends north–south, the easternmost of the

ranges. The

Gulf Coastal Plain The Gulf Coastal Plain extends around the Gulf of Mexico in the Southern United States and eastern Mexico. This coastal plain reaches from the Florida Panhandle, southwest Georgia, the southern two-thirds of Alabama, over most of Mississippi, wes ...

lies to the east, between the Sierra and the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

. Elevations in the reserve range from 300 to 850 meters. The Sierra presents a steep escarpment on the east, facing the coastal plain, and descends gradually to the west. The Sierra is composed mostly of sedimentary limestone, a porous rock that facilitates rainwater infiltration into groundwater basins and sub-surface drainage. The Sierra is drained by tributaries of the Río Verde, which is part of the

Pánuco River The Pánuco River ( es, Río Pánuco, ), also known as the ''Río de Canoas'', is a river in Mexico fed by several tributaries including the Moctezuma River and emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. The river is approximately long and passes throug ...

system.

Climate

The climate is tropical, and includes warm humid (Aw1) and warm subhumid (Aw2) Köppen climates. Average annual temperature is 24 °C. Mean annual rainfall in the reserve ranges from 1,200 mm to 1,500 mm, and is greatest in the summer months.

Flora and fauna

The reserve is in the

Veracruz moist forests The Veracruz moist forests ( es, Bosques húmedos de Veracruz) is a tropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregion in eastern Mexico. Geography The Veracruz moist forests cover an area of , occupying a portion of Mexico's Gulf Coastal Plain between ...

ecoregion, which extends across the Gulf coastal plain and foothills of southern Tamaulipas, eastern San Luis Potosí, and northern Veracruz states. The reserve is in the transition zone between the tropical (

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 ...

) and temperate (

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 ...

)

biogeographic realm A biogeographic realm or ecozone is the broadest biogeographic division of Earth's land surface, based on distributional patterns of terrestrial organisms. They are subdivided into bioregions, which are further subdivided into ecoregions. De ...

s of the Americas, and is home to animals and plants characteristic of both realms and some specific to the transition zone. Plant communities vary with elevation, rainfall, exposure, soil, and disturbance by human activities. Typical plant communities include low deciduous forest, the low semi-deciduous forest, medium semi-deciduous forest, and medium semi-evergreen forest. Deciduous trees typically lose their leaves during the winter dry season to reduce water loss. 420 species of

vascular plant Vascular plants (), also called tracheophytes () or collectively Tracheophyta (), form a large group of land plants ( accepted known species) that have lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They al ...

s have been recorded in the reserve. 279 species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

s have been recorded in the reserve, representing 54 families in 23 orders. 64% are permanent resident species, and the rest are migratory species. 37 species are classified in some at-risk category, and 22% of the recorded species have a medium or high sensitivity to habitat disturbance. 54.12% of bird species have a

affinity, 26.88% a Nearctic affinity, and 19% are transitional or general to both.

Conservation

The reserve was established in 1994 by the Mexican government. It is managed as a strict nature reserve (

IUCN protected area category IUCN protected area categories, or IUCN protected area management categories, are categories used to classify protected areas in a system developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The enlisting of such areas is part ...

Ia).

References

{{reflist Biosphere reserves of Mexico Protected areas of San Luis Potosí Protected areas of the Sierra Madre Oriental Important Bird Areas of Mexico