Sierra Madre Occidental pine-oak forests

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The Sierra Madre Occidental pine-oak forests are a subtropical coniferous forest ecoregion of the Sierra Madre Occidental range of Mexico and the southwestern United States.

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[edit] Setting

The forests are surrounded by deserts and xeric shrublands and tropical dry forests at lower elevations, including the Sonoran Desert to the northwest, the Chihuahuan Desert to the northeast and east, the Meseta Central matorral and Central Mexican matorral to the southeast, and the Sinaloan dry forests to the west and southwest. The Madrean sky islands of Arizona and New Mexico and the Mexican state of Sonora, a complex of high elevation pine-oak forest enclaves surrounded at lower elevations by the Sonoran Desert, are a northern extension of the ecoregion. These forests are one of the Madrean pine-oak forests ecoregions, which are found throughout the Sierra Madre ranges of Mexico and the US Southwest.

[edit] Flora

Predominant conifers include pines (Pinus), cypresses (Cupressus), and Douglas-firs (Pseudotsuga), including the species Apache Pine (Pinus engelmannii), Chihuahua Pine (Pinus leiophylla), Mexican Pinyon (Pinus cembroides), Lumholtz's Pine Pinus lumholtzii, Yécora Pine (Pinus yecorensis), Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii subsp. glauca), and Mexican Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga lindleyana). Oaks (Quercus) are the dominant broadleaf trees, including the species Quercus albocincta, Arizona oak (Q. arizonica) Q. carmenensis, Q. chihuahuensis, Q. cordifolia, Q. deliquescens, Q. durifolia, Emory Oak (Q. emoryi), Q. grisea, Mexican blue oak (Q. longifolia), Q. santaclarensis, and Q. tarahumara. Madroño (Arbutus xalapensis and A. arizonica) is found in association with oaks at lower elevations.

[edit] Conservation and threats

[edit] External links


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