steppe

Steppe can be classified by climate:{{cite web|url=http://www.fs.usda.gov/land/pubs/ecoregions/ecoregions.html|title=Ecoregions of the United States-Ecological Subregions of the United States|publisher= U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture|website= fs.usda.gov| access-date=25 October 2016}}

• Temperate steppe: the true steppe, found in continental climates{{fv|date=October 2023}} can be further subdivided, as in the Rocky Mountains Steppes
• Subtropical steppe: a similar association of plants occurring in the driest areas with a Mediterranean climate;{{fv|date=October 2023}} it usually has a short wet period

It can also be classified by vegetation type, e.g. shrub-steppe and alpine-steppe.

The world's largest steppe region, often referred to as "the Great Steppe", is found in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and neighbouring countries stretching from Ukraine in the west through Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to the Altai, Koppet Dag and Tian Shan ranges in China. The Eurasian Steppe had a significant role in the spread of the horse, the wheel and Indo-European languages.{{cite book

|last1 = Anthony

|first1 = David W.

|author-link1 = David W. Anthony

|orig-date = 2007

|title = The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World

|date = 15 August 2010

|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=nLIufwC4szwC

|edition = reprint

|location = Princeton

|publisher = Princeton University Press

|publication-date = 2010

|isbn = 978-0-691-14818-2

|access-date = 12 June 2022

|page = 240

|quote = [...] the critical era when innovative Proto-Indo-European dialects began to spread across the steppes.

}} In the Eurasian steppe, soils often consist of chernozem.

The inner parts of Anatolia in Turkey, Central Anatolia and East Anatolia in particular and also some parts of Southeast Anatolia, as well as much of Armenia and Iran are largely dominated by cold steppe.

The Pannonian Plain is another steppe region in Central Europe, centered in Hungary but also including portions of Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, and Austria. Another large steppe area (prairie) is located in the central United States, western Canada and the northern part of Mexico. The shortgrass prairie steppe is the westernmost part of the Great Plains region. The Columbia Plateau in southern British Columbia, Oregon, Idaho, and Washington state, is an example of a steppe region in North America outside of the Great Plains.

In South America, cold steppe can be found in Patagonia and much of the high elevation regions east of the southern Andes.

Relatively small steppe areas can be found in the interior of the South Island of New Zealand.

In Australia, a moderately sized temperate steppe region exists in the northern and northwest regions of Victoria, extending to the southern and mid regions of New South Wales. This area borders the semi-arid and arid Australian Outback which is found farther inland on the continent.

In Europe, some Mediterranean areas have a steppe-like vegetation, such as central Sicily in Italy, southern Portugal, parts of Greece in the southern Athens area,{{cite web |publisher=Hellenic National Meteorological Service |location=Greece |url=http://www.hnms.gr/hnms/english/climatology/climatology_region_diagrams_html?dr_city=Athens_Hellinikon&dr_region=ClimAttiki |title=Hellinikon |website=HNMS.gr |access-date=2013-09-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312064300/http://www.hnms.gr/hnms/english/climatology/climatology_region_diagrams_html?dr_city=Athens_Hellinikon&dr_region=ClimAttiki |archive-date=2007-03-12 |url-status=dead }} and central-eastern Spain, especially the southeastern coast (around Murcia), and places cut off from adequate moisture due to rain shadow effects such as Zaragoza.

In northern Africa, the Mediterranean area also hosts the same steppe-like vegetation, such as the Algerian-Moroccan Hautes Plaines and by extension the North Saharan steppe and woodlands.

In Asia, a subtropical steppe can be found in semi-arid lands that fringe the Thar Desert of the Indian subcontinent as well as much of the Deccan Plateau in the rain shadow of the Western Ghats, and the Badia of the Levant.

In Australia, subtropical steppe can be found in a belt surrounding the most severe deserts of the continent and around the Musgrave Ranges.

In North America this environment is typical of transition areas between zones with a Mediterranean climate and true deserts, such as Reno, Nevada, the inner part of California, and much of western Texas and adjacent areas in Mexico.

Humans have severe impacts on their environments. Among many examples the following two give only an impression.

• The formation of the forest steppe of Eastern Europe in the fourth millennium BC appeared in the context of the Trypillia culture and very probably, the economy of this culture with its large settlements contributed to the process.{{Cite journal |last=Kirleis |first=Wiebke |last2=Corso |first2=Marta Dal |last3=Pashkevych |first3=Galyna |last4=Schlütz |first4=Frank |last5=Hofmann |first5=Robert |last6=Terna |first6=Andreea |last7=Dreibrodt |first7=Stefan |last8=Rud |first8=Vitalii |last9=Videiko |first9=Mykhailo Y. |last10=Müller |first10=Johannes |date=2024-01-01 |title=A complex subsistence regime revealed for Cucuteni–Trypillia sites in Chalcolithic eastern Europe based on new and old macrobotanical data |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00334-023-00936-y |journal=Vegetation History and Archaeobotany |language=en |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=75–90 |doi=10.1007/s00334-023-00936-y |issn=1617-6278}}
• The formation of the Błędów Desert in Poland in the Middle Ages was certainly man-made.{{Cite web |title=Ecology of a Mining Town: Evolution of Environment, Society and Economy from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period |url=https://www.roots-compass.org/welcome?project=23 |access-date=2025-01-29 |website=www.roots-compass.org}}

Naadam rider 2.jpg| Steppe in Mongolia

Steppe of western Kazakhstan in the early spring.jpg| Steppe in Kazakhstan

Чубовская степь.JPG|Steppe in Russia

Hortobágy.jpg|Steppe in Hungary

Patagonian plains argentina.jpg|Cold Patagonian steppe near Fitz Roy, Argentina

Prairie Alberta.jpg|Prairie in Alberta, Canada

2013-07-04 15 37 14 Sagebrush-steppe along U.S. Route 93 in central Elko County in Nevada.jpg|Sagebrush steppe in northeastern Nevada (U.S. Route 93)

West Texas Hwy 302 west of NoTrees.jpg| Steppe in West Texas

• Grassland
• Plain
• Prairie
• Tugay
• Tundra

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.hbw.com/lynx/en/lynx-edicions/monografias-naturaleza/MON0009-ecology-conservation-steppe-land-birds.html Ecology and Conservation of Steppe-land Birds] by Manuel B.Morales, Santi Mañosa, Jordi Camprodón, Gerard Bota. International Symposium on Ecology and Conservation of steppe-land birds. Lleida, Spain. December 2004.{{ISBN|978-84-87334-99-3}}

{{wikt | steppe}}

{{Commons category|Steppes}}

• {{cite web|title=The Steppes|url=http://www.barrameda.com.ar/ecology/the-steppes.htm|publisher=barramedasoft.com.ar|date=1998–2008|access-date=2008-04-04}}

{{Vegetation}}

{{Earth's landforms}}

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Category:Grasslands

Category:Montane grasslands and shrublands

Category:Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands

Category:Ecoregions

Category:Plains

Category:Prairies