Ecology of California

The ecology of California can be understood by dividing the state into a number of ecoregions, which contain distinct ecological communities of plants and animals in a contiguous region. The ecoregions of California can be grouped into four major groups: desert ecoregions (such as the Mojave Desert), Mediterranean ecoregions (such as the Central Valley), forested mountains (such as the Sierra Nevada), and coastal forests.^[1]

Different authorities define the boundaries of ecoregions somewhat differently: this article follows the definitions of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)