The San Félix-San Ambrosio Islands temperate forests cover Chile's tiny, volcanic Desventuradas Islands, San Félix and San Ambrosio, which sit roughly 850 kilometers off the South American mainland in the Pacific. Despite the "temperate forests" name, the islands carry no true forest: vegetation is sparse, arid scrubland of low cushion-forming bushes, with denser growth only where fog collects on San Ambrosio. The flagship plant, Thamnoseris lacerata, is an endemic shrub and the only species in its genus, found nowhere else on Earth and forming clusters and hedges along the bases of cliffs. The climate is Mediterranean, warm, moist and oceanic, with very low annual rainfall falling mainly in winter and no permanent freshwater, so the islands depend heavily on fog for moisture. Land vertebrates are limited to birds, including marine seabirds and a single land bird, and the surrounding waters gained protection in 2015 through the Nazca-Desventuradas Marine Park, one of the largest marine reserves in the Americas.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 26.4°S, 79.9°W.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
12b
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
13a
Plotwright
Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +1.5°F by mid-century. SSP3-7.0 (current trajectory) · CHELSA v2.1 bio06 sampled across 10 of 10 points within this ecoregion's bounding box.
At a glance
Dominant biome
Temperate Broadleaf & Mixed Forests
Realm
Neotropic
Approximate area
3 sq mi
Conservation tier
Half Protected (Dinerstein NNH 1)
About the temperate broadleaf & mixed forests biome
Four-season forests of deciduous hardwoods — oak, maple, beech — often mixed with conifers, shaped by warm summers and cold winters. Trees leaf out in spring and color in autumn; the generally fertile soils have made these forests heavily settled and farmed.
Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion
No catalog plants intersect this ecoregion's zone range. As the catalog grows to cover this region's climate band, suggestions will surface here.
Collections for this ecoregion
No curated collection's plants all fit this ecoregion's zone range. We surface a collection only when every member would grow here — partial fits get filtered out rather than mislead. As the catalog and the curated set both grow, this section will fill in.
Related ecoregions
Other temperate broadleaf & mixed forests ecoregions to explore: