Kazakh forest steppe

Kazakh forest steppe
Kazakh forest steppe
	Open mine near Magnitogorsk, Russia, at the western edge of the Kazakh forest steppe
	Ecoregion territory (in purple)
Ecology
Realm	Palearctic
Biome	temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands
Borders	List Altai montane forest and forest steppe; East European forest steppe; Kazakh steppe; Pontic steppe; Sayan montane conifer forests; Urals montane tundra and taiga; West Siberian broadleaf and mixed forests;
Geography
Area	422,360 km2 (163,070 sq mi)
Countries	Russia; Kazakhstan;
Conservation
Protected	50,222 km2 (12%)

The Kazakh forest steppe ecoregion (WWF ID: PA0809) is a long thin strip of transition zone between the forested taiga of Siberian Russia (to the north), and the Kazakh steppe to the south. The ecoregion stretches over 2,000 km from the southern Ural mountains in the west to the foothills of Altai mountains in the east, yet averages only 200 km from south to north across its length. Because the region is farther inland than European forest steppe, and some 300 to 500 km farther north, the climate is more continental and with less precipitation the tree cover more sparse. The ecoregion is in the Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome, and the Palearctic realm, with a Humid Continental climate. It covers 420,614 km² (162,400 sq mi).

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