Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands

Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands is a terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature.[1] The predominant vegetation in this biome consists of grass and/or shrubs. The climate is temperate and ranges from semi-arid to semi-humid. The habitat type differs from tropical grasslands in the annual temperature regime as well as the types of species found here.[1]

See also: Grassland
Extent of temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands

The habitat type is known as prairie in North America, pampas in South America, veld in Southern Africa and steppe in Asia. Generally speaking, these regions are devoid of trees, except for riparian or gallery forests associated with streams and rivers.[1]

Steppes/shortgrass prairies are short grasslands that occur in semi-arid climates. Tallgrass prairies are tall grasslands in areas of higher rainfall. Heaths and pastures are, respectively, low shrublands and grasslands where forest growth is hindered by human activity but not the climate.

Tall grasslands, including the tallgrass prairie of North America, the north-western parts of Eurasian steppe (Ukraine and south of Russia) and the Humid Pampas of Argentina, have moderate rainfall and rich soils which make them ideally suited to agriculture, and tall grassland ecoregions include some of the most productive grain-growing regions in the world. The expanses of grass in North America and Eurasia once sustained migrations of large vertebrates such as buffalo (Bubalus bubalis), saiga (Saiga tatarica), and Tibetan antelopes (Pantholops hodgsoni) and kiang (Equus hemionus). Such phenomena now occur only in isolated pockets, primarily in the Daurian Steppe and Tibetan Plateau.[1][2]

The floral communities of the Eurasian steppes and the North American Great Plains have been largely extirpated through conversion to agriculture. Nonetheless, as many as 300 different plant species may grow on less than 3 acres of North American tallgrass prairie, which also may support more than 3 million individual insects per acre. The Patagonian Steppe and Grasslands are notable for distinctiveness at the generic and familial level in a variety of taxa.[1]

Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregions
Al Hajar Al Gharbi montane woodlands Oman
Amsterdam and Saint-Paul Islands temperate grasslands Amsterdam Island, Saint-Paul Island
Tristan da Cunha-Gough Islands shrub and grasslands Tristan da Cunha, Gough Island
Canterbury-Otago tussock grasslands New Zealand
Eastern Australia mulga shrublands Australia
Southeast Australia temperate savanna Australia
California Central Valley grasslands United States
Canadian aspen forests and parklands Canada, United States
Central and Southern mixed grasslands United States
Central forest-grasslands transition United States
Central tall grasslands United States
Columbia Plateau United States
Edwards Plateau savanna United States
Flint Hills tall grasslands United States
Montana valley and foothill grasslands United States
Nebraska Sand Hills mixed grasslands United States
Northern mixed grasslands Canada, United States
Northern short grasslands Canada, United States
Northern tall grasslands Canada, United States
Palouse grasslands United States
Texas blackland prairies United States
Western short grasslands United States
Argentine Espinal Argentina
Argentine Monte Argentina
Humid Pampas Argentina, Uruguay
Patagonian grasslands Argentina
Patagonian steppe Argentina
Semi-arid Pampas Argentina
Al-Hajar foothill xeric woodlands and shrublands Oman, United Arab Emirates
Al-Hajar montane woodlands and shrublands Oman, United Arab Emirates
Alai-Western Tian Shan steppe Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan
Altai steppe and semi-desert Kazakhstan
Central Anatolian steppe Turkey
Daurian forest steppe China, Mongolia, Russia
Eastern Anatolian montane steppe Armenia, Iran, Turkey
Emin Valley steppe China, Kazakhstan
Faroe Islands boreal grasslands Faroe Islands, Denmark
Gissaro-Alai open woodlands Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan
Kazakh forest steppe Kazakhstan, Russia
Kazakh steppe Kazakhstan, Russia
Kazakh Uplands Kazakhstan
Mongolian-Manchurian grassland China, Mongolia, Russia
Pontic steppe Kazakhstan, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria
Sayan Intermontane steppe Russia
Selenge-Orkhon forest steppe Mongolia, Russia
South Siberian forest steppe Russia
Syrian xeric grasslands and shrublands Iraq, Jordan, Syria
Tian Shan foothill arid steppe China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
gollark: It has a good side, though.
gollark: That's good, or maybe bad.
gollark: Well, I don't live in America, but... probably. The companies there did already kind of do stuff like that anyway, I think.
gollark: With net neutrality?
gollark: Yes, the loss of which was also bad, except this will be worse.

See also

References
  1.  This article incorporates text available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license. World Wide Fund for Nature. "Temperate Grasslands, Savannas and Shrubland Ecoregions". Archived from the original on 2011-04-01.
  2. Hilbig, W (1995). The vegetation of Mongolia. Amsterdam: SPB Academic Press.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.