A Preliminary Description of the Mogollon Highlands Ecoregion

In this paper, we describe and present the results of our effort to establish a spatial delineation of the Mogollon Highlands region—an ecologically fascinating North American transition zone of continental importance. is dramatic landscape of escarpments, canyons, mesas, deserts, and high conifer forests—where the Sonoran Desert of the Basin and Range Province meets the redrock country of the Colorado Plateau and the Southern Rocky Mountains, where the northern limits of some species coexist with the southern limits of others—is a land of high biological, ecological, and cultural diversity. is area of dramatic elevational gradients, at a continental-scale biogeographic crossroads, is especially well-suited for studies that can provide understanding of global climate change and the capacity of species and ecological communities to adapt.