Maracaibo dry forests
| Maracaibo dry forests (NT0222) | |
|---|---|
Landscape in Zulia state
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| Ecology | |
| Realm | Neotropical |
| Biome | Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests |
| Geography | |
| Area | 45,066 km2 (17,400 sq mi) |
| Countries | Venezuela |
| Coordinates | 10°25′30″N 71°04′41″W / 10.425°N 71.078°WCoordinates: 10°25′30″N 71°04′41″W / 10.425°N 71.078°W |
| Climate type | Aw: equatorial, winter dry |
The Maracaibo dry forests (NT0222) is an ecoregion in Venezuela around Lake Maracaibo. It contains the country's main oil fields. The habitat is criss-crossed by roads and is severely degraded by farming and livestock grazing.
The Maracaibo dry forests surround Lake Maracaibo in northwest Venezuela. The ecoregion has an area of 4,506,579 hectares (11,136,000 acres). Most of the ecoregion is in Zulia state, with some in Trujillo state.
In many areas the lake is fringed with Amazon-Orinoco-Southern Caribbean mangroves. To the north of the lake the western part of the ecoregion merges into Guajira-Barranquilla xeric scrub, while the eastern part merges into Paraguana xeric scrub to the north and east. To the southeast the dry forests are replaced by Venezuelan Andes montane forests. The ecoregion is bounded by the Catatumbo moist forests to the south and southwest, and Cordillera Oriental montane forests to the west. There are large patches of Catatumbo moist forests on high land within the Maracaibo dry forests.
The Maracaibo dry forests are in the coluvio-alluvial coastal plains around Lake Maracaibo, bordering the Serranía del Perijá to the west, the Cordillera de Mérida to the south and the Sierra de Baragua to the northeast. The terrain of the ecoregion is flat and gives way to transitional moist forests higher in the mountains. Elevations are 0 to 500 metres (0 to 1,640 ft) above sea level. Several rivers flow from the surrounding mountains through the ecoregion to Lake Maracaibo. They include the Palmar, Negro, Lora and Catatumbo rivers from the Serranía del Perijá, the Escalante River from the Venezuelan Andes and the Motatán, Misoa and Pachango rivers in the east of the basin.
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Wikipedia