ecoregion
An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecological and geographic area that exists on multiple different levels, defined by type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and c ...
, found in the
Sierra de la Laguna
The Sierra de la Laguna is a mountain range at the southern end of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico, and is the southernmost range of the Peninsular Ranges System.
It is located in La Paz Municipality, Baja California Sur, La Paz Municipa ...
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
.
It is found within
Los Cabos Municipality
Los Cabos () is a municipalities of Mexico, municipality located at the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula, in the Mexican state, state of Baja California Sur. It encompasses the two towns of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cab ...
Baja California Sur
Baja California Sur, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California Sur, is a state in Mexico. It is the 31st and last state to be admitted, in 1974. It is also the second least populated Mexican state and the ninth-largest state by ...
state.
Setting
The ecoregion encompasses an area of . The pine–oak forests are found above in elevation, and are surrounded at lower elevations by the
Sierra de la Laguna dry forests
The Sierra de la Laguna dry forests are a tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, subtropical dry forest terrestrial ecoregion, ecoregion of the southern Baja California Peninsula in Mexico.
Geography
The dry forests cover the lower elev ...
. The pine–oak forests have a unique and diverse flora and fauna, including 694 plant species, of which approximately 85 are
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...
.
Climate
The higher elevation gives the ecoregion a subtropical to temperate climate, in contrast to the dry tropical climate of the lowlands. Rainfall is higher than the lower-elevation dry forests and deserts of the peninsula, averaging 760 mm annually. Rain falls mostly in the summer, with occasional winter rains.
Flora
The composition of the
pine
A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae.
''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...
–
oak
An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...
forests varies with elevation; oak
woodland
A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...
s predominate from in elevation, with oak-pine woodlands between in elevation, transitioning to pine–oak forests above in elevation.
Moss
Mosses are small, non-vascular plant, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic phylum, division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryo ...
es and
lichen
A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...
s are abundant throughout.
The oak woodlands from in elevation are warmer and drier, with evergreen oaks predominant (principally '' Quercus devia''; ''
Quercus arizonica
''Quercus arizonica'', the Arizona white oak, is a North American tree species in the beech family. It is found in Arizona, New Mexico, western Texas, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Sinaloa, and Durango.
Description
The Arizona white oak is o ...
'' and '' Quercus rugosa'' have a limited distribution), along with lower trees and shrubs such as ''
Dodonaea viscosa
''Dodonaea viscosa'', also known as the broadleaf hopbush, is a species of flowering plant in the ''Dodonaea'' (hopbush) genus that has a cosmopolitan distribution in Tropics, tropical, Subtropics, subtropical and warm temperate regions of Africa ...
Buddleia
''Buddleja'' (; ''Buddleia''; also historically given as ''Buddlea'') is a genus comprising over 140 species of flowering plants endemicity, endemic to Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The generic name bestowed by Carl Linnaeus, Linnaeus posthu ...
crotonoides.''
Above in elevation, the oak woodlands transition to oak-pine forests. The only pine is the local endemic species Laguna pinyon ''Pinus lagunae'', mixed with oaks, including '' Quercus devia'' and ''
Quercus tuberculata
''Quercus tuberculata'' is a species of oak tree which is native to mountains of northeastern and northwestern Mexico (Baja California Sur, Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Michoacán, Durango, and Nuevo León).Arbutus peninsularis'' and ''
Nolina beldingii
''Nolina beldingii'' is a species of perennial flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae known commonly as the Cape nolina or Belding's beargrass. It is an arborescent monocot growing up to high, with fissured bark on a trunk topped with leaf r ...
Muhlenbergia
''Muhlenbergia'' is a genus of plants in the grass family.
The genus is named in honor of the German-American amateur botanist Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg (1753-1815). Many of the species are known by the common name muhly.
The greatest ...
'' spp. and ''
Festuca
''Festuca'' (fescue) is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the grass family Poaceae (subfamily Pooideae). They are evergreen or herbaceous perennial tufted grasses with a height range of and a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on ...
'' spp.).
Fauna
30 mammal species, 77 birds, 27 reptiles, 2 amphibians, and 108 species of arthropods inhabit the ecoregion.
Larger mammals include
mule deer
The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer.
Unlike the related whit ...
coyote
The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the Wolf, gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the c ...
(''canis latrans''),
gray fox
The gray fox (''Urocyon cinereoargenteus''), or grey fox, is an omnivorous mammal of the family Canidae, widespread throughout North America and Central America. This species and its only congener (biology), congener, the diminutive island fox ...
(''Urocyon cinereoargenteus''),
bobcat
The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the wildcat, bay lynx, or red lynx, is one of the four extant species within the medium-sized wild cat genus '' Lynx''. Native to North America, it ranges from southern Canada through most of the c ...
(''Lynx rufus''),
raccoon
The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the North American, northern or common raccoon (also spelled racoon) to distinguish it from Procyonina, other species of raccoon, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest ...
(''Procyon lotor''),
ringtail
The ringtail (''Bassariscus astutus'') is a mammal of the raccoon family native to arid regions of North America. It is widely distributed and well-adapted to its distributed areas. It has been legally trapped for its fur. Globally, it is list ...
''(Bassariscus astutus''), and
western spotted skunk
The western spotted skunk (''Spilogale gracilis'') is a spotted skunk of western North America.
Description
With a total length of , the western spotted skunk is smaller than the striped skunk (''Mephitis mephitis''). Males, which weigh , are ...
(''Spilogale gracilis'').
Resident birds include the cape pygmy owl (''Glaucidium hoskinsii''), white-winged dove (''Zenaida asiatica''), acorn woodpecker (''Melanerpes formicivorus''), and
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 pr ...
Baird's junco
Baird's junco (''Junco bairdi'') is a species of junco, a group of small, grayish New World sparrows. It is endemic to the forests in the higher elevations of the Sierra de la Laguna mountain range of the southern Baja California peninsula in Ba ...
(''Junco bairdii''), the peninsular yellowthroat (''Geothlypis beldingi''), and the very distinct
American robin
The American robin (''Turdus migratorius'') is a migratory bird of the true thrush genus and Turdidae, the wider thrush family. It is named after the European robin because of its reddish-orange breast, though the two species are not clos ...
subspecies ''Turdus migratorius confinis'', by some authors considered a distinct species ''Turdus confinis'', are endemic to the southern Baja California Peninsula.
Conservation and threats
WWF has designated the ecoregion as 'vulnerable'.
A 2017 assessment found that 670 km2, or 63%, of the ecoregion is in protected areas.
In 2003,
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
designated a portion of the Sierra de la Laguna as 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, funga, or features of geologic ...
. The reserve covers an area of 112,522 ha, of which 32,519 ha is designated the core area, centered on the pine-oak forests. A larger buffer area (80,003 ha) also includes lower-elevation
dry forests
The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest is a habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature and is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive ...
and shrublands. The reserve is administered by Mexico's Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (CONANP)."Sierra La Laguna". UNESCO MAB Biosphere Reserves Directory. Accessed 8 April 2020 /ref>
See also
*
List of ecoregions in 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 ...