For Mexican temperate forests (MTFs), understood as mountain forest ecosystems formed by pine, oak and fir forests, the water-forest-nexus is unknown. Because of their range of climatic, topographic, and overall ecological particularities, estimates for other temperate forests may not be transferred. A systematic literature review has been carried out to compile information on hydrologic variables in MTFs. Existing knowledge specific for MTFs remains scarce, as the limited amount of studies (20) shows, but suggests a water-forestnexus (higher infiltration offsets evapotranspiration losses, compared to other ecosystems), in central Mexico and some evidence exists for such a nexus in the transition zones to semi-arid environments, for which it is generally assumed that they spend more water in evapotranspiration than they capture. For MTFs, infiltration is statistically significantly larger and faster than in other vegetation types and is associated with the presence of litter in the upper soil layers. The water-forest nexus cannot be expected in tropical dry forests and shrubs, as interception and evapotranspiration are much higher in semi-arid climates and don't leave enough water for deep infiltration. MTFs play a special role compared to other vegetation types because of their structure (especially the presence of litter), composition and function and their geographic setting. MTFs are located in high elevation areas so that they receive larger amounts of precipitation, but at the same time show a decreased potential evapotranspiration because of a decrease in temperature with elevation. (c) 2021 European Regional Centre for Ecohydrology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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