The natural zone of the forest-steppe is a natural belt of vegetation in Eurasia, characterized by the alternation of forests (mainly deciduous) with steppe flora and fauna. It forms transitional ecoregions between temperate grasslands and temperate broadleaf as well as mixed forests.
As you move south, the forest-steppe has fewer trees and more steppe zones, a hotter climate and less rainfall. In the northern direction, the picture changes in the opposite direction, the forest-steppe smoothly turns into a forest, the climate is colder and the level of precipitation is higher.
natural conditions
The forest-steppe has a number of favorable natural conditions that allow it to be used for human needs. Huge areas of this natural zone were plowed for agricultural purposes. Below are the main factors that shape the natural conditions of the forest-steppe, ranging from geographical location and climate to the diversity of flora and fauna.
Geographical position
Map of natural areas of the world
Legend: - Forest-steppe and steppe.
On the territory of Europe and Asia, the natural forest-steppe zone extends as a continuous strip from the west from the Carpathian Mountains to the east, through Ukraine and part of Russia to the Altai Mountains.
Isolated islands of the forest-steppe are found in the expanses of the Tisso-Danube lowland, in the intermountain depressions of southern Siberia, Northern Kazakhstan, Mongolia, the Far East and some areas of the Manchurian Plain of Northeast China.
The forest-steppe of North America extends from southern Canada, across the Great Plains, to 38° north latitude in the USA.
Relief and soil
The relief of the forest-steppe is predominantly flat with slight elevation changes, a slight slope of the terrain and ravines.
The soil cover of the forest-steppe natural zone is very diverse. The main types are gray forest soils with signs of podzolization, leached and podzolized chernozems, meadow chernozems and prairie chernozems. Alkaline and alkaline soils are widespread in regions with a continental climate (in the west of Siberia, the Great Plains).
Forest-steppe soils are characterized by a high concentration of humus, slow mineralization of plant remains and a stable structure. They are very fertile and therefore can be intensively cultivated. Excessive plowing of land for agricultural purposes has caused soil degradation in many areas of the forest-steppe. Due to the high rate of evaporation, the forest-steppe soil is prone to drying out during the summer months, causing plants to wilt.
Climate
The forest-steppe is characterized by cold, snowy winters and relatively hot, humid summers. There are 100-130 kilocalories of solar radiation per 1 cm² of the earth's surface per year (about 70% of which are in warm months). Average temperatures in January range from -2 to -20°C. In some parts of Siberia, frost reaches -35°C. The average temperature in July varies between 18 and 25°C. some of which are in the summer.
Vegetable world
The natural vegetation of the natural zone of the forest-steppe consists of small forests, alternating with areas of steppe meadows. Oak and linden dominate in the European part of the forest-steppe. In the western regions, the main species are ash and hornbeam; in Siberia, birch, pine and larch mainly grow; in northeastern China, there are oaks and other broad-leaved tree species. The forest-steppe of North America is characterized by tree species such as birch, aspen, oak and hazel.
Natural grasses, as a rule, remained only in national parks. They have a significant species diversity of turf grasses and weeds (about 70-80 species of ground vegetation per m2). In North America, meadow grasses, fescue, reed grass and feather grass are common. The annual increase in plant biomass is about 20 tons per hectare in wooded areas and about 13 tons per hectare in grasslands.
Animals world
The typical forest fauna of the forest-steppe of Eurasia includes squirrels, European hares, and in some areas - moose. Large jerboa and spotted ground squirrel are steppe inhabitants found in the European part of the forest-steppe zone. Ground squirrels and hamsters are common in Siberia, and the North American forest steppe is home to prairie dogs, mice, hares, woodchucks, and rattlesnakes.
Natural resources of the forest-steppe
The forest-steppe is a rich ecoregion of the world. It is famous for its fertile soils, diversity, many rivers, lakes and underground water reserves, as well as significant deposits such as oil, gas, coal, peat, salt, etc.
Table of the natural zone of the forest-steppe
| Geographical position | Relief and soil |
Climate | Flora and fauna | Natural resources |
| On the territory of Eurasia, it extends as a continuous strip from the Carpathian to the Altai Mountains. In North America, it is located from southern Canada, across the Great Plains to 38 ° north latitude in the USA. |
The relief is predominantly flat with slight elevation changes, a slight slope of the terrain and ravines. The main soil types include gray forest and chernozem soils. |
Snowy cool winters and comparatively hot humid summers. Average January temperatures: -2 to -20°C; July: 18 to 25° C. Annual rainfall: 400-1000 mm. | Animals
squirrels, hares, moose, ground squirrels, hamsters, mice, prairie dogs, woodchucks, snakes and lizards. Plants oak, linden, birch, pine, larch, aspen, hazel, herbs and sedges. |
oil, gas, coal, peat, salt, fertile soils, fresh water reserves, as well as the biological diversity of flora and fauna. |
Significance for a person
The natural zone of the forest-steppe plays an important role for humans. Huge areas have been set aside for arable land, where various crops are grown. Some species of animals and plants of the forest-steppe are a valuable source of food. Important commercial fish species live in the rivers and lakes of the forest-steppe zone. Large reserves of minerals are used for industrial and national economic purposes.
It extends from the western borders of Europe to Altai, defining the features of the European and Siberian forest-steppe. The forest in the forest-steppe zone occupies limited areas.
The relief of the forest-steppe zone
In the east of Europe, the forest-steppe zone is dominated by oak forests with an admixture of maple, ash and linden, in the west of Asia - birch and aspen, in Central Asia - pine and larch. The oak groves of Western Europe are replaced in the east by small islands of birch and aspen forests (“pegs”). material from the site
Animals of the forest-steppe
In the forests of the forest-steppe live animals and birds common to them, in the steppes there are gophers, hare-hares and less often marmots, hamsters, even less often bustards. Both in the forests and in the steppes are found wolves and foxes.
Forest steppe and man
The treeless open spaces of previously forb, fescue-feather grass steppes are now almost completely plowed up. Widespread agricultural nature management. Grain and industrial crops, vegetables are grown on fertile soils. The once rich animal world has become impoverished. To preserve island forests and oak forests, protected areas. So in 1927, the Voronezh Reserve was created in Russia.
On this page, material on the topics:
The relief of the forest-steppe zone in brief
Forest-steppe zone ecology
People living in the forest-steppe report
Report on local history on the topic of the forest-steppe zone
What does a person do in the forest-steppe?
Questions about this item:
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The main factors that shape the climate of the forest-steppe are the axis of high atmospheric pressure passing here, the influence of the forest and steppe climates of neighboring zones, and the almost complete absence of marine influences.
The forest-steppe is characterized by: 1) a noticeable decrease in annual precipitation (from 600 mm in the forest zone to 400-450 mm in the forest-steppe of the European part of the USSR and up to 300 mm in Western Siberia); 2) a sharp increase in air temperature compared to the forest zone. The average July temperature in the forest-steppe ranges from 20° in the north to 21-22° in the south. Air heating in summer and cooling in winter, as well as a decrease in precipitation, are closely related to the major barometric axis, along which stable downward air currents determine the relative dryness of the climate. However, to the north of the high pressure axis, the climate is still relatively humid, with significant precipitation, with a predominance of moist winds with a southerly component; south of the axis, in the steppes, the climate is arid. "It happens that the meteorological conditions of the north - rainy and cold - cover the south and, conversely, prolonged droughts occur in the north, reminiscent of the autumn droughts of the southern region." L. S. Berg emphasizes that the forest climate passes into the steppe very gradually. The continentality of the forest-steppe increases from west to east, and in general it is much larger in comparison with the forest zone due to its remoteness from the ocean. Atlantic cyclones pass mostly to the north of the forest-steppe, but here they fade, and only southern cyclones pass through the “baric barrier” from time to time, bringing precipitation. Characteristic features of the climate of the forest-steppe are continentality, dryness of the warm half of the year, spring and summer minimums of relative humidity, dry winds, temperature inversions and frosts in microrelief conditions.
The continentality of the climate softens in the Cis-Urals, and then to the east of it increases again. Summer temperatures of about 21-22° are replaced in winter by frosts of -5°, -21°. The forest-steppe terrain, indented by ravines and valleys, is characterized by frequent frosts that occur due to sharp drops in temperatures at night in negative landforms. Average daily temperatures in summer can be 2°.5 - 4.5° lower in valleys than in river watersheds. In the depressions, frosts are more frequent and the frost-free period is shorter than in the uplands. Temperature inversion under microrelief conditions is quite common in the forest-steppe. Frosts are extremely rare only from June to August. In April and October there are 10 to 15 days with frost. In Voroshilovgrad there are slightly fewer days with frost (140) than in Pavlovsk (147).
The warm period in the forest-steppe lasts from May to October, that is, about 200 days. The temperature in spring increases from the northeast to the southwest, in autumn it falls from the south to. north. Interestingly, during the warm period, two minimums of relative humidity are observed in spring (May) and summer (August-September). This is typical for the climate of the forest-steppe. The spring minimum of humidity is explained by the insufficient inflow of water vapor from the oceans, which have not yet had time to warm up with the rapidly rising temperature on the continents. As for the summer minimum, it affects mainly in areas remote from the oceans, where the wind from the deserts of Central Asia prevails in summer. The average relative humidity at 1 pm in the forest-steppe ranges from 87 to 42%.
Despite the dryness of the air in summer, there are heavy showers in the forest-steppe. So, in the ship forestry of the Voronezh region in the very south of the forest-steppe on August 22, 1925, 126 mm of precipitation fell. Precipitation fluctuations in the forest-steppe are great. In some years, the excess of the average annual amounts by 25% or more is known, and the decrease from the norm is up to 27-30%.
The forest-steppe of the central region is characterized by moderately cold winters and hot summers, significant precipitation, snowstorms, dry fogs and dry winds. In winter, the pressure here decreases from east to west, in summer the pressure decreases from west to east.
The lowest wind speed occurs in July. During anticyclones, dry winds occur, capturing the forest-steppe with their outskirts. “Apparently, the downward movement of air in anticyclones,” Kaminsky says, “reaches the earth’s surface mainly at their outskirts.” They blow more often from the southeast. Most days with dry winds are in August, then in May.
Summer is gradually replaced by a long autumn. At the end of November, winter sets in, snow falls, the height of which reaches a maximum in December or January. With a general low snow height (30-40 cm), snow retention plays an important role: with an increase in snow thickness, the soil warms up, which makes it possible for seeds sown before winter to begin to germinate a little earlier. With less soil freezing, melt water is absorbed more intensively, providing sufficient moisture. Blizzards, typical for this region, are observed with southeast and southwest winds. The greatest number of snowstorms occurs at wind speeds within 4-9 m/s. At high speeds, starting from 12 m/s and more, the number of snowstorms decreases, but at speeds of 20 m/s, an increase in the number of snowstorms is again noticeable. The temperature during snowstorms in the Voronezh region ranges from 0 to -10°.
In the forest-steppe of the West Siberian region, which occupies a small area here, the climate is continental: winters are colder, summers are hotter. There are very cold regions here, as, for example, in the Usinsk forest-steppe, where the average annual temperature is -4°.5, i.e., almost the same as at 60° N. sh. This is due to very low winter temperatures (December-February -27°.2). In winter, cold air accumulates in depressions in the forest-steppe and cools down. The growing season here lasts from 130 days to 160, from May to September. It decreases towards the southeast. Precipitation everywhere is less than 400 mm, with a sharp predominance of summer (65%). The snow cover has a height of 44-56 cm, which is almost twice the height of snow in the forest-steppe of the central region.
The forest-steppe zone is a transitional zone from forest to steppe. The ratio of heat and moisture in the forest-steppe is close to optimal, but moisture is unstable, which led to the formation of various types of vegetation. In the forest-steppe zone, broad-leaved (oak) and small-leaved forests on gray forest soils alternate with forb steppes on chernozems. The soils of the forest-steppe zone are fertile. The main enemies of these soils are water and wind erosion. Droughts are frequent, and dry winds blow out the top fertile soil layer. With the shower character of precipitation and the friendly melting of snow, the humus horizon is also washed away and ravines form in the fields. To preserve arable land, it is necessary to combat water and wind erosion, one of the types of such struggle is the planting of forest belts. Therefore, the modern appearance of the forest-steppe is a combination of agricultural landscapes with artificial forest plantations.
The steppe zone of Russia is small in area. It occupies the south of the European part of the country and Western Siberia. The example of the steppes shows especially well that it is impossible to judge moisture content only by the amount of precipitation. There is little precipitation here - from 300 to 450 mm, about the same as in the tundra zone. But the tundra is swampy and characterized by excessive moisture. In the steppes, there is a lack of moisture. The moisture coefficient in the steppe zone varies from 0.6-0.8 at the northern border to 0.3 in the south.
High summer temperatures (average temperature in July is + 21-23 CC) and strong winds cause significant evaporation from the surface. Therefore, droughts, dry winds, and dust storms periodically occur here, causing great damage to vegetation. Since there is little precipitation, and evaporation is 2 times higher than the amount of precipitation, there are no conditions for leaching of humus into the depth of soil horizons. In the steppe, chernozems with a very dark color and a granular structure are common. The thickness of the humus horizon in them is 50-100 cm. Chernozems are the most fertile soils in our country. In the southern strip of the steppes, dark chestnut soils are common, they are less fertile and often saline.
What did the steppe look like before development began? Nowadays, parts of the virgin steppe can only be seen in the reserve. But the name of the zone remained unchanged, since the steppe is not only vegetation, but the entire landscape with a relatively dry climate, a special water regime, and its own set of soils. The main sign of the steppe - both primordial and cultivated - is treelessness, the boundlessness of open spaces.
The most typical steppe landscapes are flat plains, often dissected by a network of ravines and gullies. Prior to their intensive agricultural development, they were covered with grassy steppe vegetation with a predominance of feather grass. The feather grass agitated by the winds really resembles sea waves, therefore the steppe is often called the sea of grassy vegetation. Even in small areas, one can observe how the color of the steppe changes from month to month, depending on the flowering of the lumbago, cinquefoil or primrose. Steppe grasses die off every year, forming a litter that replenishes the layer of humus.
Various small rodents predominate in the steppe - ground squirrels, marmots, jerboas, hamsters, and voles. Back in the 19th century herds of wild horses - tarpans and wild bulls - tours, later completely destroyed, grazed in the steppes. In modern steppes, it is less and less possible to see a fox, a badger and large steppe birds - bustards, little bustards. The steppe vegetation is also changing strongly - some species are disappearing, others are greatly reduced. The steppe is deprived of the main grasses - feather grass and fescue.
The nature of the steppe and forest-steppe zones has been greatly changed by human economic activity. In the west, the plowing of the zone reaches 80%. The steppe is the country's main grain granary. Wheat, corn, sunflower and other important crops are grown here.
One of the forms of violation of the ecological balance in the steppe zone was overgrazing. Plant species that are not eaten by livestock are replacing traditional steppe grasses. Cattle trample vegetation, wind erosion of the soil intensifies. As a result, the vast steppe spaces in Kalmykia had turned into a large area by the end of the 1990s. our century in the semi-desert.
Desert and semi-desert zone. Semi-deserts and deserts of Russia are located in the Caspian Sea and Eastern Ciscaucasia. The semi-desert is treeless, like the steppe. It is characterized by transitional features from steppes to deserts. The climate here is sharply continental. There is little precipitation in this zone - 50 mm per year. Evaporation is 4-7 times higher than the amount of precipitation. Together with the evaporated moisture, soluble substances move into the upper soil horizons, which leads to their salinization. The soils are chestnut. Wormwood-cereal vegetation prevails on these soils. The sparse, sparse vegetation is sensitive to the proximity of groundwater.
The main reason for the formation of deserts (as well as other zones) is climate. Deserts are characterized by an even greater moisture deficit (less than 150 mm per year) and higher average July temperatures of -25 °C. Humidity coefficient in the desert zone does not exceed 0.1-0.3
