Steppe can be classified by climate: • Temperate steppe: the
true steppe, found in
continental climates can be further subdivided, as in the
Rocky Mountains 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.
Subtropical steppe 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, 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. == Human impact ==