These mountains are recognised by biogeographers as the boundary between two of the Earth's great ecozones: the temperate Palearctic that covers most of Eurasia and the tropical and subtropical Indomalaya ecozone which includes the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Indonesia.

The ecozone also includes temperate southern South America.

The Neotropic includes more tropical rainforest ( tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests ) than any other ecozone, extending from southern Mexico through Central America and northern South America to southern Brazil, including the vast Amazon Rainforest.

The Palearctic ecozone includes mostly boreal and temperate climate ecoregions, which run across Eurasia from western Europe to the Bering Sea.

This scheme includes these desert ecoregions in the palearctic ecozone ; other biogeographers identify the ecozone boundary as the transition zone between the desert ecoregions and the Mediterranean basin ecoregions to the north, which places the deserts in the Afrotropic, while others place the boundary through the middle of the desert.

A broad belt of deserts, including the Atlantic and Sahara deserts of northern Africa and the Arabian Desert of the Arabian Peninsula, separate the Afrotropic from the Palearctic ecozone, which includes northern Africa and temperate Eurasia.

The ecozone includes Australia, the island of New Guinea ( including Papua New Guinea and the Indonesian province of Papua ), and the eastern part of the Indonesian archipelago, including the island of Sulawesi, the Moluccan islands ( the Indonesian provinces of Maluku and North Maluku ) and islands of Lombok, Sumbawa, Sumba, Flores, and Timor, often known as the Lesser Sundas.

The Australasian ecozone also includes several Pacific island groups, including the Bismarck Archipelago, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and New Caledonia.

The ecozone includes the Pacific Ocean islands of Micronesia, the Fijian Islands, and most of Polynesia ( with the exception of New Zealand ).

It is part of the Australasia ecozone, which includes neighboring New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands, as well as Australia, New Guinea, and New Zealand.

Both ecoregions are part of the Australasia ecozone, which also includes the neighboring Bismarck Archipelago and New Guinea, as well as New Caledonia, Australia and New Zealand.

The Tasmanian temperate rain forests are part of the Australasia ecozone, which includes Tasmania and Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, New Caledonia, and adjacent islands.

Its northern limit in Southern Ontario, Canada, in the fertile ecozone of the Mixedwood Plains and includes ecodistricts 7E-1 to 7E-6.

This hotspot includes a number of ecoregions that make up the northeastern portion of the Australasia ecozone.

Southern Mexico, southern Florida, Central America, and the Caribbean islands are part of the Neotropic ecozone, together with South America.

Dimocarpus longan, commonly known as the longan, is a tropical tree native to South and Southeast Asia, in the Indomalaya ecozone.

The Afrotropic ecozone, and in particular South Africa, have the greatest diversity of genera.

The Magellanic subpolar forests are a terrestrial ecoregion of southernmost South America, covering parts of southern Chile and Argentina, and are part of the Neotropic ecozone.

The temperate rain forests of South America are located on the Pacific coast of southern Chile, on the west-facing slopes of the southern Chilean coast range, and the Andes Mountains in both Chile and Argentina down to the southern tip of South America, and are part of the Neotropic ecozone.

All species of this genus are native to the Neotropic ecozone, occurring in several rivers and streams in northern South America.

Several Antarctic island groups are considered part of the Antarctica ecozone, including South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, South Orkney Islands, the South Shetland Islands, Bouvet Island, the Crozet Islands, Prince Edward Islands, Heard Island, the Kerguelen Islands, and the McDonald Islands.

Drimys is found in the Neotropic ecozone, from southern Mexico to the subarctic forests of southern South America.

The genus Poicephalus comprises nine species of parrots native to various regions of the Afrotropic ecozone, including Sub-Saharan Africa, ranging from Senegal in the west, Ethiopia in the east, and to South Africa in the south.

All species of this genus are native to the Neotropic ecozone in South America.

The Nearctic ecozone covers most of North America, including Greenland and the highlands of Mexico.

A former land bridge across the Bering Strait between Asia and North America allowed many plants and animals to move between these continents, and the Nearctic ecozone shares many plants and animals with the Palearctic.

A portion of the temperate rain forest region of North America, the largest area of temperate zone rain forests on the planet, is the Pacific temperate rain forests ecoregion which occur on west-facing coastal mountains along the Pacific coast of North America, from Kodiak Island in Alaska to northern California, and are part of the Nearctic ecozone.

The Pacific temperate rain forests lie along the western side of the Pacific Coast Ranges along the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America from the Prince William Sound in Alaska through the British Columbia Coast to Northern California, and are part of the Nearctic ecozone, as also defined by the World Wildlife Fund.

Although now found only in the Palearctic ecozone, fossils of a mid-Miocene species were also found in North America.

It is found throughout the southern Palaearctic ecozone, all of North America, parts of Africa and most of the Oriental and Indo-Australian region.

Madagascar and neighboring islands form a distinctive sub-region of the ecozone, with numerous endemic taxa like the lemurs.

New Zealand and its surrounding islands are a distinctive sub-region of the Australasian ecozone.

Being east of the Wallace line, the ecozone, and hence the flora and fauna, are quite different from those of the islands to the west, and so the food stuffs are, as well.

Madagascar and neighboring Indian Ocean islands form a distinctive sub-region of the Afrotropic ecozone in biogeography, which botanist Armen Takhtajan called the Madagascan Region.

The Ringlet Aphantopus hyperantus is a widely distributed species found throughout much of the Palearctic ecozone. In Europe it is common in most countries but absent from northern Scandinavia, peninsular Italy ( found in North Italy ), Portugal, Southern and central Spain ( found in Cantabrian Mountains and the eastern Pyrenees ), the Mediterranean islands and North Africa. In Greece it is found in Northern regions ( Macedonia, Thessaly ) Beyond Europe it is found across much of temperate Asia including Russia, Siberia, Mongolia, China and Korea.

James Bay represents the southern extent of the Arctic Archipelago Marine ecozone.

The Cape floristic region, at Africa's southern tip, is a Mediterranean climate region that is home to a significant number of endemic taxa, as well as to plant families like the proteas ( Proteaceae ) that are also found in the Australasia ecozone.

Also called the Oriental Realm by biogeographers, Indomalaya extends from Afghanistan through the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia to lowland southern China, and through Indonesia as far as Java, Bali, and Borneo, east of which lies the Wallace line, the ecozone boundary named after Alfred Russel Wallace which separates Indomalaya from Australasia.

Native to the Palearctic ecozone, the huchen occurred originally in the Danube basin in Europe but has been introduced elsewhere on the continent and also in Morocco where huchen doesn't reproduce because of high water temperature.

The continuity of these ecosystems results from the shared glacial history of this ecozone.

Today it is mainly these species which are found throughout the ecozone.