Southern Eurasia

Region | Realm

Southern Eurasia corresponds roughly with the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region and is the southernmost section of the Palearctic with two major subrealms —North Africa and the Greater Arabian Peninsula—and five bioregions in total as defined by the Bioregions 2023 framework. The North Africa subrealm consists almost entirely of desert dotted with oases of flooded grasslands and marshes, but it also includes a Mediterranean bioregion composed of dry coastal woodlands running along the north coast of Africa and the southern portion of Mediterranean Sea. To the far east of the Saharan bioregion is the Nile with its flooded delta and valley providing irrigation for most of the region’s croplands. The Greater Arabian Peninsula is one large desert bioregion with pockets of mangroves along the coast of the Persian Gulf.