List of ecoregions in North America (CEC)

This list of ecoregions of North America provides an overview of North American ecoregions designated by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) in its North American Environmental Atlas. It should not be confused with Wikipedia articles based on the classification system developed by the World Wildlife Fund, such as List of ecoregions (WWF) and Lists of ecoregions by country.

The commission was established in 1994 by the member states of Canada, Mexico, and the United States to address regional environmental concerns under the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), the environmental side accord to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The commission's 1997 report, Ecological Regions of North America, provides a framework that may be used by government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and academic researchers as a basis for risk analysis, resource management, and environmental study of the continent's ecosystems. Ecoregions may be identified by similarities in geology, physiography, vegetation, climate soils, land use, wildlife distributions, and hydrology.

The classification system has four levels. Only the first three levels are shown on this list. "Level I" divides North America into 15 broad ecoregions. "Level II" subdivides the continent into 52 smaller ecoregions. "Level III" subdivides those regions again into 182 ecoregions. "Level IV" is a further subdivision of Level III ecoregions. Level IV mapping is still underway but is complete across most of the United States. For an example of Level IV data, see List of ecoregions in Oregon and the associated articles.

List Level I Level II Level III Code Name Code Name Code Name 1 Arctic Cordillera 1.1 Arctic Cordillera 1.1.1 Ellesmere and Devon Islands Ice Caps 1.1.2 Baffin and Torngat Mountains 2 Tundra 2.1 Northern Arctic 2.1.1 Sverdrup Islands Lowland 2.1.2 Ellesmere Mountains and Eureka Hills 2.1.3 Parry Islands Plateau 2.1.4 Lancaster and Borden Peninsula Plateaus 2.1.5 Foxe Uplands 2.1.6 Baffin Uplands 2.1.7 Gulf of Boothia and Foxe Basin Plains 2.1.8 Victoria Island Lowlands 2.1.9 Banks Island and Amundsen Gulf Lowlands 2.2 Alaska Tundra 2.2.1 Arctic Coastal Plain 2.2.2 Arctic Foothills 2.2.3 Subarctic Coastal Plains 2.2.4 Seward Peninsula 2.2.5 Bristol Bay-Nushagak Lowlands 2.2.6 Aleutian Islands 2.3 Brooks Range Tundra 2.3.1 Brooks Range/Richardson Mountains2.4 Southern Arctic 2.4.1 Amundsen Plains 2.4.2 Aberdeen Plains 2.4.3 Central Angava Peninsula and Ottawa and Belcher Islands 2.4.4 Queen Maud Gulf and Chantrey Inlet Lowlands 3 Taiga 3.1 Alaska Boreal Interior 3.1.1 Interior Forested Lowlands and Uplands 3.1.2 Interior Bottomlands 3.1.3 Yukon Flats 3.2 Taiga Cordillera 3.2.1 Oglivie Mountains 3.2.2 Mackenzie and Selwyn Mountains 3.2.3 Peel River and Nahanni Plateaus 3.3 Taiga Plains 3.3.1 Great Bear Plains 3.3.2 Hay and Slave River Lowlands 3.4 Taiga Shield 3.4.1 Kazan River and Selwyn Lake Uplands 3.4.2 La Grande Hills and New Quebec Central Plateau 3.4.3 Smallwood Uplands 3.4.4 Ungava Bay Basin and George Plateau 3.4.5 Coppermine River and Tazin Lake Uplands 4 Hudson Plain 4.1 Hudson Plain 4.1.1 Coastal Hudson Bay Lowland 4.1.2 Hudson Bay and Hames Lowlands 5 Northern Forests 5.1 Softwood Shield 5.1.1 Athabasca Plain and Churchill River Upland 5.1.2 Lake Nipigon and Lac Seul Upland 5.1.3 Central Laurentians and Mecatina Plateau 5.1.4 Newfoundland Island 5.1.5 Hayes River Upland and Big Trout Lake 5.1.6 Abitibi Plains and Riviere Rupert Plateau 5.2 Mixed Wood Shield 5.2.1 Northern Lakes and Forests 5.2.2 Northern Minnesota Wetlands 5.2.3 Algonquin/Southern Laurentians 5.3 Atlantic Highlands 5.3.1 Northern Appalachians and Atlantic Maritime Highlands 5.3.2 North Central Appalachians 5.4 Boreal Plain 5.4.1 Mid-Boreal Uplands and Peac-Wabaska Lowlands 5.4.2 Clear Hills and Western Alberta Uplands 5.4.3 Mid-Boreal Lowland and Interlake Plains 6 Northwestern Forested Mountains 6.1 Boreal Cordillera 6.1.1 Interior Highlands and Klondike Plateau 6.1.2 Alaska Range 6.1.3 Copper Plateau 6.1.4 Wrangell and St. Elias Mountains 6.1.5 Watson Highlands 6.1.6 Yukon-Stikine Highlands/Boreal Mountains and Plateaus 6.1 Western Cordillera 6.2.1 Skeena-Omineca-Central Canadian Rocky Mountains 6.2.2 Chilcotin Ranges and Fraser Plateau 6.2.3 Columbia Mountains/Northern Rockies 6.2.4 Canadian Rockies 6.2.5 North Cascades 6.2.6 Cypress Upland 6.2.7 Cascades 6.2.8 Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills 6.2.9 Blue Mountains 6.2.10 Middle Rockies 6.2.11 Klamath Mountains 6.2.12 Sierra Nevada 6.2.13 Wasatch and Uinta Mountains 6.2.14 Southern Rockies 6.2.15 Idaho Batholith 7 Marine West Coast Forest 7.1 Marine West Coast Forest 7.1.1 Ahklun and Kilbuck Mountains 7.1.2 Alaska Peninsula Mountains 7.1.3 Cook Inlet 7.1.4 Pacific Coastal Mountains 7.1.5 Coastal Western Hemlock-Sitka Spruce Forests 7.1.6 Pacific and Nass Ranges 7.1.7 Strait of Georgia/Puget Lowland 7.1.8 Coast Range 7.1.9 Willamette Valley 8 Eastern Temperate Forests 8.1 Mixed Wood Plains 8.1.1 Eastern Great Lakes and Hudson Lowlands 8.1.2 Lake Erie Lowland 8.1.3 Northern Appalachian Plateau and Uplands 8.1.4 North Central Hardwood Forests 8.1.5 Driftless Area 8.1.6 S. Michigan/N. Indiana Drift Plains 8.1.7 Northeastern Coastal Zone 8.1.8 Maine/New Brunswick Plains and Hills 8.1.9 Maritime Lowlands 8.1.10 Erie Drift Plain 8.2 Central USA Plains 8.2.1 Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains 8.2.2 Huron/Erie Lake Plains 8.2.3 Central Corn Belt Plains 8.2.4 Eastern Corn Belt Plains 8.3 Southeastern USA Plains 8.3.1 Northern Piedmont 8.3.2 Interior River Valleys and Hills 8.3.3 Interior Plateau 8.3.4 Piedmont 8.3.5 Southeastern Plains 8.3.6 Mississippi Valley Loess Plains 8.3.7 South Central Plains 8.3.8 East Central Texas Plains 8.4 Ozark, Ouachita-Appalachian Forests 8.4.1 Ridge and Valley 8.4.2 Central Appalachians 8.4.3 Western Allegheny Plateau 8.4.4 Blue Ridge 8.4.5 Ozark Highlands 8.4.6 Boston Mountains 8.4.7 Arkansas Valley 8.4.8 Ouachita Mountains 8.4.9 Southwestern Appalachians 8.5 Mississippi Alluvial and Southeast USA Coastal Plains 8.5.1 Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain 8.5.2 Mississippi Alluvial Plain 8.5.3 Southern Coastal Plain 8.5.4 Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens 9 Great Plains 9.2 Temperate Prairies 9.2.1 Aspen Parkland/Northern Glaciated Plains 9.2.2 Lake Manitoba and Lake Agassiz Plain 9.2.3 Western Corn Belt Plains 9.2.4 Central Irregular Plains 9.3 West-Central Semi-Arid Prairies 9.3.1 Northwestern Glaciated Plains 9.3.3 Northwestern Great Plains 9.3.4 Nebraska Sand Hills 9.4 South Central Semi-Arid Prairies 9.4.1 High Plains 9.4.2 Central Great Plains 9.4.3 Southwestern Tablelands 9.4.4 Flint Hills 9.4.5 Cross Timbers 9.4.6 Edwards Plateau 9.4.7 Texas Blackland Prairies 9.5 Texas-Louisiana Coastal Plain 9.5.1 Western Gulf Coastal Plain 9.6 Tamaulipas-Texas Semi-Arid Plain 9.6.1 Southern Texas Plains/Interior Plains and Hills with Xerophytic Shrub and Oak Forest 10 North American Deserts 10.1 Cold Deserts 10.1.1 Thompson-Okanogan Plateau 10.1.2 Columbia Plateau 10.1.3 Northern Basin and Range 10.1.4 Wyoming Basin 10.1.5 Central Basin and Range 10.1.6 Colorado Plateaus 10.1.7 Arizona/New Mexico Plateau 10.1.8 Snake River Plain 10.2 Warm Deserts 10.2.1 Mojave Basin and Range 10.2.2 Sonoran Desert 10.2.3 Baja Californian Desert 10.2.4 Chihuahuan Desert 11 Mediterranean California 11.1 Mediterranean California 11.1.1 Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains 11.1.2 Central California Valley 11.1.3 Southern and Baja California Pine-Oak Mountains 11.1.4 Southern California/Northern Baja California Coast 12 Southern Semi-Arid Highlands 12.1 Western Sierra Madre Piedmont 12.1.1 Madrean Archipelago 12.1.2 Piedmonts and Plains with Grasslands, Xeric Shrub, and Oak and Conifer Forests 12.2 Mexican High Plateau 12.2.1 Hills and Interior Plains with Xeric Shrub and Mesquite Low Forest 13 Temperate Sierras 13.1 Upper Gila Mountains 13.1.1 Arizona/New Mexico Mountains 13.2 Western Sierra Madre 13.2.1 Sierra Madre Occidental with Conifer, Oak, and Mixed Forests 13.3 Eastern Sierra Madre 13.3.1 Sierra Madre Oriental with Conifer, Oak, and Mixed Forests 13.4 Transversal Neo-Volcanic System 13.4.1 Interior Plains and Piedmonts with Grasslands and Xeric Shrub 13.4.2 Hills and Sierras with Conifer, Oak, and Mixed Forests 13.5 Southern Sierra Madre 13.5.1 Sierras of Jalisco and Michoacán with Conifer, Oak, and Mixed Forests 13.5.2 Sierras of Guerrero and Oaxaca with Conifer, Oak, and Mixed Forests 13.6 Central American Sierra Madre and Chipas Highlands 13.6.1 Central American Sierra Madre with Conifer, Oak, and Mixed Forests 13.6.2 Chiapas Highlands with Conifer, Oak, and Mixed Forest 14 Tropical Dry Forests 14.1 Dry Gulf of Mexico Coastal Plains and Hills 14.1.1 Coastal Plain with Low Tropical Deciduous Forest 14.1.2 Hills and Sierra with Low Tropical Deciduous Forest and Oak Forest 14.2 Northwestern Plain of the Yucatan Peninsula 14.2.1 Northwestern Yucatan Plain with Low Tropical Deciduous Forest 14.3 Western Pacific Coastal Plain, Hills and Canyons 14.3.1 Sinaloa Coastal Plain with Low Thorn Tropical Forest and Wetlands 14.3.2 Sinaloa and Sonora Hills and Canyons with Xeric Shrub and Low Tropical Deciduous Forest 14.4 Interior Depressions 14.4.1 Balsas Depression with Low Tropical Deciduous Forest and Xerophytic Shrub 14.4.2 Chiapas Depression with Low Deciduous and Medium Semi-Deciduous Tropical Forest 14.4.3 Valleys and Depressions with Xeric Shrub and Low Deciduous Forest 14.5 Southern Pacific Coastal Plain and Hills 14.5.1 Tehuantepec Canyon and Plain with Low Tropical Deciduous Forest and Low Thorn Forest 14.5.2 South Pacific Hills and Piedmonts with Low Tropical Deciduous Forest 14.6 Sierra and Plains of El Cabo 14.6.1 Los Cabos Plains and Hills with Low Tropical Deciduous Forest and Xeric Shrub 14.6.2 La Laguna Mountains with Oak and Conifer Forests 15 Tropical Wet Forests 15.1 Humid Gulf of Mexico Coastal Plains and Hills 15.1.1 Gulf of Mexico Coastal Plain with Wetlands and High Tropical Rain Forest 15.1.2 Hills with Medium and High Evergreen Tropical Forest 15.2 Plain and Hills of the Yucatan Peninsula 15.2.1 Plain with Low and Medium Deciduous Tropical Forest 15.2.2 Plain with Medium and High Semi-Evergreen Tropical Forest 15.2.3 Hills with High and Medium Semi-Evergreen Tropical Forest 15.3 Sierra Los Tuxtlas 15.3.1 Los Tuxtlas Sierra with High Evergreen Tropical Forest 15.4 Everglades 15.4.1 Southern Florida Coastal Plain 15.5 Western Pacific Plain and Hills 15.5.1 Nayarit and Sinaloa Plain with Low Thorn Tropical Forest 15.5.2 Jalisco/Nayarit Hills and Plains with Medium Semi-Evergreen Tropical Forest 15.6 Coastal Plain and Hills of Soconusco 15.6.1 Coastal Plain and Hills with High and Medium-High Evergreen Tropical Forest and Wetlands

List of ecoregions in North America (CEC)

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