A forest steppe is a temperate-climate ecotone and habitat type composed of grassland interspersed with areas of woodland or forest.

The East European forest steppe (ecoregion PA0419)
Forest steppe landscape on the Volga Upland near the city of Saratov, Russia
Devín forest steppe in Slovakia

Locations edit

Forest steppe primarily occurs in a belt of forest steppes across northern Eurasia from the eastern lowlands of Europe to eastern Siberia in northeast Asia. It forms transition ecoregions between the temperate grasslands and temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biomes. Much of Russia belongs to the forest steppe zone, stretches from Central Russia, across Volga, Ural, Siberian and Far East Russia.[1][2][3][4]

In upper North America another example of the forest steppe ecotone is the aspen parkland in the central Prairie Provinces, northeastern British Columbia, North Dakota, and Minnesota. It is the transition ecoregion from the Great Plains prairie and steppe temperate grasslands to the Taiga biome forests in the north.

In central Asia the forest steppe ecotone is found in ecoregions in the mountains of the Iranian Plateau, in Iran, Afghanistan, and Balochistan.

Forest steppe ecoregions edit

External links edit

References edit

  1. ^ Blinnikov, Mikhail (2011). A geography of Russia and its neighbors. Guilford Press. pp. 44. ISBN 9781606239339.
  2. ^ Martynenko, A. B. (2007-04-01). "The steppe insect fauna in the Russian Far East: Myth or reality?". Entomological Review. 87 (2): 148–155. doi:10.1134/S0013873807020030. ISSN 1555-6689. S2CID 44269225.
  3. ^ "South Siberian forest steppe | Ecoregions | WWF". World Wildlife Fund. Retrieved 2019-08-13.
  4. ^ "On the Southern Border of the Forest and Forest-Steppe Cultures in the Urals in the Ist Millennium BC". ResearchGate. Retrieved 2019-08-13.