The Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve () (established 1988) is a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

Biosphere Reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

in the states of

Colima Colima, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Colima, is among the 31 states that make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It shares its name with its capital and main city, Colima. Colima is a small state of western Mexico on the cen ...

and

Jalisco Jalisco, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in western Mexico and is bordered by s ...

, Mexico. The reserve is located in the transition of the

Nearctic The Nearctic realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting the Earth's land surface. The Nearctic realm covers most of North America, including Greenland, Central Florida, and the highlands of Mexico. The parts of North America ...

and

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In biogeogra ...

realms and encompasses parts of the

Sierra Madre del Sur The Sierra Madre del Sur is a mountain range in southern Mexico, extending from southern Michoacán east through Guerrero, to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in eastern Oaxaca. Geography The Sierra Madre del Sur joins with the Eje Volcánico Transv ...

, with a wide range of altitudes, climates and soils. The effects of tectonic and volcanic activities and erosion are notable within the reserve.

Geography

The reserve is in the Sierra de Manantlán, part of the western

. The Cerro Grande mountain ridge is located within the biosphere. The reserve is mostly in

state, with a portion in

. The reserve is administered by the municipalities of

Autlán Autlán de Navarro is a city and its surrounding municipality of the same name in the Costa Sur region of the southwestern part of the state of Jalisco in Mexico. At the Mexican census of 2005, the municipality had a population of 53,269. In 20 ...

Cuautitlán Cuautitlán (, Otomi: ), is a municipality in the State of Mexico, just north of the northern tip of the Federal District (Distrito Federal) within the Greater Mexico City urban area. The city of Cuautitlán is the municipal seat and makes up ...

, Casimiro Castillo, Tolimán and Tuxcacuesco in Jalisco and Minatitlán and Comala in Colima. Anthropologists know the region as ''Zona de Occidente'', an area notably different from the rest of

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

. Some ceramic remnants, figurines and graves have been found, but there is little other material evidence.

Flora and fauna

Different types of

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

s are present in the reserve including

mesophytic Mesophytes are terrestrial plants which are adapted to neither particularly dry nor particularly wet environments. An example of a mesophytic habitat would be a rural temperate meadow, which might contain goldenrod, clover, oxeye daisy, and '' Ros ...

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles, suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...

, and dry

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

and semi-deciduous

tropical forest Tropical forests are forested ecoregions with tropical climates – that is, land areas approximately bounded by the Tropic of Cancer, tropics of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, Capricorn, but possibly affected by other factors such as prevailing ...

s. The Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve is located to the extreme north of the

Intertropical Convergence Zone The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ , or ICZ), known by sailors as the doldrums or the calms because of its monotonous windless weather, is the area where the northeast and the southeast trade winds converge. It encircles Earth near the t ...

. The climate in the region is influenced by various factors in addition to its latitudinal location, such as its proximity to the coast, the effect of its landform –

orographic Orography is the study of the topographic relief of mountains, and can more broadly include hills, and any part of a region's elevated terrain. Orography (also known as ''oreography'', ''orology,'' or ''oreology'') falls within the broader disc ...

shade – and the breadth of the altitudinal range, which partly explains the high regional biodiversity and the presence of numerous plant formations ranging from tropical forests to those of temperate-cold climates. The Sierra de Manantlán’s varied and complex plant cover harbours a great wealth of flora. There are over 2900 species of vascular plants belonging to 981 genera (see

Plants of the Reserva de la Biosfera Manantlan Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

) for a growing list. Wildlife is one of the important components of the high biodiversity in this reserve. Among the main values of the Sierra de Manantlán, in addition to its great wealth of species and its unique biogeographical characteristics, are the presence of endangered or useful

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

species. So far 110 species of mammals have been reported, which include the Mexican vole (''Microtus mexicanus neveriae'') and the smoky pocket gopher (''Cratogeomys fumosus''), in addition to other mammals such as the

oncilla The oncilla (''Leopardus tigrinus''), also known as the northern tiger cat, little spotted cat, and tigrillo, is a small spotted cat ranging from Central America to central Brazil. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and the popul ...

, the jaguarandi, the

ocelot The ocelot (''Leopardus pardalis'') is a medium-sized spotted Felidae, wild cat that reaches at the shoulders and weighs between on average. It is native to the southwestern United States, Mexico, Central America, Central and South America, ...

, the puma, the

bobcat The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the wildcat, bay lynx, or red lynx, is one of the four extant species within the medium-sized wild cat genus '' Lynx''. Native to North America, it ranges from southern Canada through most of the c ...

, the

jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large felidae, cat species and the only extant taxon, living member of the genus ''Panthera'' that is native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the biggest cat spe ...

and four species of nectarivorous bats. Three hundred and thirty-six species of birds have been reported, among them 36 which are endemic to Mexico, such as the charismatic species: the crested guan (''Penelope purpurascens''), the military macaw (''Ara militaris''), the

red-lored amazon The red-lored amazon or red-lored parrot (''Amazona autumnalis'') is a species of amazon parrot, native to tropical regions of the Americas, from eastern Mexico south to Ecuador where it occurs in humid evergreen to semi-deciduous forests up to ...

(''Amazona autumnalis''), and the Mexican national symbol, the

golden eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known bird of pr ...

. Eighty-five species of

amphibian Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excl ...

s and

reptile Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

s have been recorded; of these it is known that 13 are endemic to the western and central region of Mexico: the

rattlesnake Rattlesnakes are venomous snakes that form the genus, genera ''Crotalus'' and ''Sistrurus'' of the subfamily Crotalinae (the pit vipers). All rattlesnakes are vipers. Rattlesnakes are predators that live in a wide array of habitats, hunting sm ...

, the black iguana, the frog ''Shyrrhopus modestus'', the

beaded lizard The Mexican beaded lizard (''Heloderma horridum'') or beaded lizard is a species of lizard in the family Helodermatidae, one of the two species of venomous beaded lizards found principally in Mexico and southern Guatemala. It and the other membe ...

(''Heloderma horridum'') and the Autlan rattlesnake (''Crotalus lannomi''), an endemic species only reported for the area of Puerto de Los Mazos. Of the 16 species of fish identified, 13 are native and four of these are endemic to the region.

Conservation

The area was designated a

biosphere reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

by the Mexican government in 1987, with an area of 976.76 km². The next year it was designated an international UNESCO-MAB Biosphere Reserve by

, including the national reserve and a buffer zone. , more than 40,000 people lived in the Sierra de Manantlán, engaged mainly in agriculture (corn, beans, tomatoes, sugarcane, watermelon, mangoes), livestock grazing, timber production, and extraction of wood for fuel and mining of coal or minerals. Their living conditions are poor and marginal.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sierra de Manantlan Biosphere Reserve Biosphere reserves of Mexico Protected areas of Colima Protected areas of Jalisco Protected areas of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt Important Bird Areas of Mexico Sierra Madre del Sur Jalisco dry forests Cloud forests of Mexico

Geography

Flora and fauna

Conservation

See also

References