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The Palaearctic steppe biome: a new synthesis

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Abstract

The Palaearctic steppes range from the Mediterranean basin towards China, forming one of the largest continuous terrestrial biomes. The literature on steppe ecology and conservation is vast but scattered and often not available in English. We provide a review of some key topics based on a new definition of steppes, which includes also Mediterranean steppes and alpine rangelands of the Asian Highlands. Revisiting the terrestrial ecoregions of the world, we estimate that the Palaearctic steppe biome extends over ca. 10.5 million km2. Major chorological regions differ in their macroclimatic niche with a clear distinction between Middle Asia with its winter precipitation and the Central Asian summer-rain regions of the Mongolian plateau and of Tibet. Steppe soils store large amounts of carbon, yet the sequestration potential is debated and depends on land use. Major physiognomic-ecological steppe types include forest-, typical-, desert-, and alpine-steppe, which vary in the importance of grasses, mainly C3 species. The steppes host a specialised fauna, and Middle Asia, Tibet, and especially Mongolia, have large herds of migrating ungulates. The share of pristine and protected sites is low in the steppe regions, with conversion into croplands being the most important land use impact in Europe, Middle Asia, and the Mediterranean, while grazing has a severe impact in some parts of Mongolia and Tibet. There are major gaps in our knowledge on: (1) the effects of climate change on the crucial seasonal patterns; (2) the role of steppe soils in the global carbon budget; and (3) the ecology and distribution of most animal groups except vertebrates.

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Fig. 1

Photos J. Dengler, O. Demina, K. Wesche, D. Ambarlı

Fig. 2
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Fig. 4

(adopted from Hijmans et al. 2005). (Color figure online)

Fig. 5

(adopted from Hijmans et al. 2005). (Color figure online)

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Abbreviations

BP:

Years before present

cal BP:

Calibrated years before present

QR:

Range between quartiles

s.lat.:

Sensu lato (in the wide sense)

s.str.:

Sensu stricto (in the narrow sense)

TEOWs:

Terrestrial ecoregions of the world (Olson et al. 2001)

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Acknowledgments

Our sincere thanks go to David Hawksworth for giving us the opportunity to put together an exciting special issue and for his patience during the process. He also provided very helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper. We thank Aiko Huckauf for polishing our English and Milan Chytrý, Olga Demina, Wanja Mathar, Alireza Naqinezhad, Jens Oldeland, Mustafa Sözen and Yun Wang for providing photos. K.W. extends special thanks to Tatiana Bragina and Ilya Smelyanski from the IUCN Specialist Group on Holarctic steppes; his work feeding into this paper was partly financed by the German Research Foundation (DFG), by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF: CAME-PaDeMoS and GLUES-Kulunda initiatives) and by the International Fund for Agricultural Development. J.K. was funded by the BMBF within their Sustainable Land Management funding framework (Project SASCHA, funding reference 01LL0906A) and by the Volkswagen Foundation (funding reference A112025).

Authors contribution

This synthesis was coordinated by K.W. and J.D., with K.W. drafting the majority of sections and preparing the maps together with J.T, while J.D. contributed the sections on steppe definition and subdivision. Regional aspects were mainly contributed by P.T. and J.D. for the European region, J.K. for the Middle Asian region, K.W. and J.T. for the Mongolian and Tibetan regions and D.A. and J.D. for the Mediterranean region. All authors critically revised the whole manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Görlitz, P.O. Box 300154, 02806, Görlitz, Germany

    Karsten Wesche & Jan Treiber

  2. Plant Ecology, Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstr. 30, 95447, Bayreuth, Germany

    Jürgen Dengler

  3. Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, Düzce University, Konuralp, P.O. Box 4032, 81620, Düzce, Turkey

    Didem Ambarlı

  4. Institute of Landscape Ecology, University of Münster, Heisenbergstr. 2, 48149, Münster, Germany

    Johannes Kamp

  5. MTA-DE Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Research Group, Egyetem Square 1, Debrecen, 4032, Hungary

    Peter Török

  6. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

    Karsten Wesche & Jürgen Dengler

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  1. Karsten Wesche
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  2. Didem Ambarlı
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  3. Johannes Kamp
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Correspondence to Karsten Wesche.

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Communicated by David Hawksworth.

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Wesche, K., Ambarlı, D., Kamp, J. et al. The Palaearctic steppe biome: a new synthesis. Biodivers Conserv 25, 2197–2231 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-016-1214-7

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