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Sierra Madre Oriental pine-oak forests
Sierra Madre Oriental pine-oak forests
RESOLVE 327
The Sierra Madre Oriental pine-oak forests run along rugged mountain ranges from isolated highlands in southwestern Texas (Davis and Chisos Mountains) and southern New Mexico south through northeastern Mexico to near Mexico City. Pine-oak forest dominates between roughly 1,000 and 3,500 m elevation, with pines including Mexican pinyon, Arizona pine, and the locally endemic Nelson's pinyon and Gregg's pine, alongside oaks such as Quercus castanea and Q. affinis. Climate ranges from dry in the north (about 200-300 mm annual rainfall near Big Bend) to far wetter in the south (900-1,500 mm), spanning humid to subhumid slopes. The region is part of the Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands Biodiversity Hotspot and an Endemic Bird Area; only about a quarter is protected, with logging, grazing, and road-building among ongoing threats.
Sierra Madre Oriental pine-oak forests location on world map
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 23.8°N, 99.6°W.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
Current zone range (2011–2040)
10a-13b
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CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
10a-13b
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Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +3.1°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
Tropical & Subtropical Coniferous Forests
Realm
Nearctic
Approximate area
25,252 sq mi
Conservation tier
Nature Could Recover (Dinerstein NNH 3)
About the tropical & subtropical coniferous forests biome
Subtropical and tropical forests dominated by conifers such as pines, typically in semi-arid climates with seasonal rainfall. They often occupy higher elevations and carry fire-adapted understories.
Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion
Computed from each plant's stated USDA zone range against this ecoregion's CHELSA-derived current zone range, with the CHELSA mid-century warming delta applied for the projection. Plants whose stated range falls outside both the current and projected zone end up dropped; the rest land in one of the three buckets below.
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.
Sources
Summary drawn from One Earth, Wikipedia.
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