Forest steppe


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

Locations

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.
In upper North America another example of the forest steppe ecotone is the aspen parkland, in the central Prairie Provinces, northeastern British Columbia, and North Dakota. 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