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Madrean pine-oak woodlands


The Madrean pine-oak woodlands is an ecoregion of the Tropical and subtropical coniferous forests biome, located in North America. They are subtropical woodlands found in the mountains of Mexico and the southwestern United States.

Conservation International estimates the woodlands' original area at 461,265 km². The woodlands are surrounded at lower elevations by other ecoregions, mostly tropical and subtropical deserts and xeric shrublands, forests, and grasslands. Woodland areas were isolated from one another and from the pine-oak woodlands of the Sierra Madre Occidental to the south by the warming and drying of the climate since the 1st century CE.

The Madrean pine-oak woodlands are found at higher elevations in Mexico's major mountain ranges, the Sierra Madre Occidental, the Sierra Madre Oriental, the Trans-Mexican volcanic belt, the Sierra Madre del Sur, the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca, the Peninsular Ranges of the Baja California Peninsula.

There are also approximately 27 enclaves in southern Arizona and New Mexico and in western Texas, where they are known as the "Madrean sky islands". The major Madrean "sky island" ranges in Arizona are the Dragoon Mountains, Chiricahua Mountains, Pinaleño Mountains, Santa Catalina Mountains, Rincon Mountains, Santa Rita Mountains, and Tumacacori Highlands. In New Mexico, the Sacramento Mountains and Guadalupe Mountains, which extend into Texas, as well as the Davis Mountains and Chisos Mountains, are also forested Madrean sky islands.


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