Home » Regions » North America » Temperate Sierras » Eastern Sierra Madre

Eastern Sierra Madre

To check where a specific point lies, you can look it up in our Ecoregion Locator.

↑Map Legend & Subregion List

This list will help you navigate the regions in case you have problems with viewing or clicking the interactive map above.

Name	†	Color on Map	CEC Code‡
Sierra Madre Oriental with Conifer, Oak, and Mixed Forests	○		13.3.1

† Status: ✓ = Complete ○ = Needs Image … = Incomplete ∅ = Stub Only

‡ This code refers to the CEC's Level 3 ecoregion codes for North America, see here.

↑Progress

↑About the Eastern Sierra Madre

The Eastern Sierra Madre mountains, known in Spanish as Sierra Madre Oriental are a level II ecoregion located entirely within central Mexico.

The elevations in this region range from about 1,000 to over 12,000 feet. These mountains are mostly composed of sedimentary rock, particularly limestone.

The climate here ranges from semi-arid to humid subtropical. The warmer temperatures, and the fact that this area is inland, separated from moisture sources, and surrounded by desert and semiarid areas on most sides, make the rainfall here lower than in most mountainous regions. Precipitation is strongly seasonal, following the pattern of the North American monsoon, with most rainfall falling in summer.

The unbroken north-south shape of these mountains, combined with the continuity with biodiverse regions to the south, has allowed plants and animals to move along regions of similar climate and ecosystem. Accordingly, this area tends to have high biodiversity, but a low portion of endemic species.

The northern part of this region is bordered to the west by the much drier Warm Deserts and to the northeast by the Tamaulipas-Texas Semiarid Plain. Progressively farther south, it is bordered to the east by the Dry Gulf of Mexico Coastal Plains and Hills, and the Humid Gulf of Mexico Coastal Plain and Hills. The southernmost portion is bordered to the southwest by the Mexican High Plateau and to the southeast by the Transversal Neo-Volcanic System.