Mexican dry forest describes a number of
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 ...
s of
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...
within the
dry broadleaf forest Biome
A biome () is a biogeographical unit consisting of a biological community that has formed in response to the physical environment in which they are found and a shared regional climate. Biomes may span more than one continent. Biome is a broader ...
.
Together they constitute a
World Wildlife Fund
The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the W ...
Global 200
The Global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by the World Wide Fund for Nature ( WWF), the global conservation organization, as priorities for conservation. According to WWF, an ecoregion is defined as a "relatively large unit of land or w ...
priority ecoregions area for conservation.
Ecoregions
The area includes the dry forest ecoregions of Mexico's
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...
Coast from
Sinaloa
Sinaloa (), officially the Estado Libre y Soberano de Sinaloa ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sinaloa), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 18 municipalities and ...
and the southern
Baja California peninsula south to
Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by Hon ...
.
North to south, they include:
*
Jalisco dry forests
The Jalisco dry forests is a tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion in southwestern Mexico.
Geography
The Jalisco dry forests occupy the coastal lowlands and foothills of Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, and Michoacán states. The ecoregion mostly l ...
*
Balsas dry forests
The Balsas dry forests is a tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion located in western and central Mexico.
Geography
The Balsas dry forests occupy the basin of the Balsas River. The ecoregion cove ...
*
Bajío dry forests
The Bajío dry forests is a tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion in western−central Mexico.
Geography
The Bajío dry forests lie in the southwestern portion of the Mexican Plateau. They are bounded on the southeast, south, and southwest by ...
*
Chiapas Depression dry forests
The Chiapas Depression dry forests form one of the ecoregions that belong to the tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests biome, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund, in northwestern Central America.
Geography
This ecoregion is located in ...
*
Sonoran-Sinaloan transition subtropical dry forest,
*
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 m ...
*
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 pla ...
*
Sierra de la Laguna dry forests
The Sierra de la Laguna dry forests are a subtropical dry forest ecoregion of the southern Baja California Peninsula in Mexico.
Geography
The dry forests cover the lower elevations of the Sierra de la Laguna, from elevation. They are surroun ...
.
See also
*
Ecoregions of Mexico
The following is a list of ecoregions in Mexico as identified by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). A different system of ecoregional analysis is used by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, a trilateral body linking Mexican, Canadian ...
References and external links
Mexican dry forests (National Geographic)* World Wildlife Fund & C.Michael Hogan. 2011
''Jalisco dry forests''. Encyclopedia of Earth, National Council for Science and the Environment, Washington DC. eds M.McGinley and C.J.cleveland
.
Forests of Mexico
Neotropical ecoregions
Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests