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| Ecoregions of North America | |
|---|---|
| Name | Ecoregions of North America |
| Countries | United States, Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Bermuda, Saint Pierre and Miquelon |
| Biome | Taiga, Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests, Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests |
Ecoregions of North America The ecoregions of North America describe spatially distinct ecological units across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Bermuda, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon and are used by agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (United States), Natural Resources Canada, Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, World Wildlife Fund and the Commission for Environmental Cooperation to align conservation planning, land management, and international agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity. These classifications synthesize data from institutions including the U.S. Geological Survey, Canadian Wildlife Service, Smithsonian Institution, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Parks Canada and the United Nations Environment Programme to map patterns of climate, soil, flora and fauna across provinces such as the Great Plains, Appalachian Mountains, Sierra Madre Occidental, Yukon and the Caribbean Sea.
Ecoregions are geographically explicit units defined to reflect shared assemblages of species, communities and environmental conditions; practitioners from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NatureServe, Mexican National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change and the International Union for Conservation of Nature apply ecoregional frameworks to prioritize areas from the Boreal Forest to the Chihuahuan Desert, integrating datasets produced by the World Resources Institute, Montreal Process Working Group, Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar), International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Major classification schemes include the Commission for Environmental Cooperation ecoregions, the hierarchical ecological units of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the ecozone–ecoregion framework of Environment and Climate Change Canada, the biogeographic provinces used by the Smithsonian Institution, and the global ecoregion map of the World Wildlife Fund. These frameworks crosswalk with international systems such as the European Environment Agency’s biogeographic regions, the UNESCO World Heritage Convention site assessments, and the Ramsar Convention inventories to reconcile scales from local National Park Service units like Yellowstone National Park and Banff National Park to continental syntheses encompassing the Great Lakes, Mississippi River, Yukon River and the Gulf of Mexico.
North American biomes encompass Taiga in the Canadian Shield and Alaska, Temperate coniferous forests in the Pacific Northwest, Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in the Eastern United States and Appalachians, Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands across the Great Plains and Mexican Plateau, Deserts and xeric shrublands in the Sonoran Desert, Mojave Desert, and Chihuahuan Desert, and Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests in the Yucatán Peninsula and parts of Central America contiguous with southern Mexico. Coastal and marine ecoregions include the Arctic Ocean margins, Bering Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, and the North Atlantic Ocean shelves adjacent to the Eastern Seaboard.
Patterns of species richness and endemism concentrate in regions such as the California Floristic Province, the Madrean Pine–Oak Woodlands, the Sierra Madre del Sur, the Gulf Coast, and the Florida Everglades, with flagship taxa managed by organizations including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad, The Nature Conservancy, and the National Audubon Society. High endemism occurs in island systems like Baja California Peninsula, the Greater Antilles, and Greenland’s fjords, affecting conservation status assessments such as those by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and influencing protected area proposals under the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Aichi Targets.
Anthropogenic influences—urbanization in metropolises like New York City, Los Angeles, Mexico City, and Toronto; extractive industries in the Athabasca oil sands, Permian Basin, Yukon goldfields; and agriculture across the Midwest United States, Mexican Bajío, and Canadian Prairies—have transformed habitats monitored by agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Secretaría de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural, and NGOs like Greenpeace and World Wildlife Fund. Infrastructure projects including the Interstate Highway System, Trans-Canada Highway, Pan-American Highway, and major dams like Hoover Dam and Garrison Dam alter hydrology and connectivity, while policies under the North American Free Trade Agreement and regional land‑use planning shape land conversion, invasive species spread (e.g., Emerald ash borer, Asian carp) and climate-driven shifts reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Conservation tools span protected areas administered by National Park Service, Parks Canada, National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (Mexico), community conservancies, and transboundary initiatives such as the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, and the Commission for Environmental Cooperation. Management approaches include ecosystem-based management promoted by the U.S. Forest Service, restoration programs supported by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, payments for ecosystem services piloted by The Nature Conservancy, and species recovery plans under the Endangered Species Act and Mexico’s Ley General del Equilibrio Ecológico y la Protección al Ambiente.
- Pacific Northwest temperate rainforests: interventions by U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Parks Canada and litigation involving Sierra Club and Greenpeace address old-growth protection in landscapes from Olympic National Park to Great Bear Rainforest. - Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi Delta: restoration and spill response coordinated among NOAA, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and state agencies after events like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. - Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts: cross-border habitat connectivity projects link reserves managed by CONANP and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and involve stakeholders such as The Nature Conservancy and local indigenous groups like the Yuma and Yaqui. - Boreal Belt and Canadian Shield: policy debates involving Natural Resources Canada, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, World Wildlife Fund Canada and industry around forestry, mining and the Montreal Process criteria.
Category:Ecoregions