Steppes

Topic: World Physical Features and Natural Regions · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 4 "Primary Activities"

Meaning

The Steppes are the temperate grasslands of Eurasia. They are wide, nearly treeless plains in the mid-latitudes, deep inside the continent. They stretch from Ukraine across southern Russia and Kazakhstan to Mongolia.

They matter for two reasons. Their black-earth soil makes them one of the world's main wheat-exporting regions. They are also the traditional home of pastoral nomads (herders who move with their animals to find grass). A war or drought here can raise food prices across the world.

Explanation

Why grassland and not forest: location and climate

• Cause: the Steppes lie far from the sea.
• They sit in the continental interior, at about 30°–55° N.

• Moist winds from the sea lose most of their water before they get this far.

• Result: a continental climate (hot summers, very cold winters and a big difference between summer and winter temperatures).

• Rainfall: 25–75 cm a year. Most of it falls in spring and early summer, often as convectional showers (short, heavy showers that form when hot ground heats the air and the air rises).
• Winter: very cold, with snow on the ground and frequent frost.

• Summer: warm to hot, and short.

• Köppen class: the drier edges are BSk, which means a cold, semi-arid steppe climate. The word "steppe" is itself used for this climate type.

Why there are so few trees

• Low rain: there is not enough water for deep-rooted trees.
• Frost: hard winters kill young trees.
• Fire: dry grass burns often. The grass grows back from its roots, but tree seedlings die.
• Grazing: animals eat the young shoots. In the Steppes these are the horses, sheep and camels of the nomads.
• Grass is tall in the wetter parts and short in the drier parts. Trees grow only along rivers.

Chernozem: the soil that makes the Steppes rich

• Chernozem is Russian for "black earth". It is a deep soil with a thick black top layer full of humus (rotted plant matter). It is among the most fertile soils in the world [3].
• Conditions it needs: 450–600 mm of rain a year, falling mostly in spring or early summer, plus cold winters and short, hot summers [3].
• How it forms:
• Grass roots die every year and add a lot of humus to the soil.
• With little rain there is little leaching (water washing nutrients down and out of the soil).

• Calcium and humus stay in the top layer, so the soil turns black and crumbly.

• At the drier edges it changes into chestnut soils.

• Chernozem covers about 230 million hectares worldwide, mainly in the steppes of Eurasia and the plains of North America [3].

How people use the Steppes

• Extensive commercial grain cultivation: wheat is grown for sale on very large farms run with machines.
• Land is plentiful and workers are few, so tractors and combine harvesters do most of the work.
• Yield per hectare is low, because each hectare gets little fertiliser and labour.
• Yield per worker is high, because one farmer with machines can handle hundreds of hectares.

• Winter wheat is grown in the milder parts and spring wheat in the colder parts.

• Pastoral nomadism: herders such as the Kazakhs and the Mongols move with their horses, sheep and camels to find fresh grass. It is the old way of life in the drier, eastern steppes.

• Railways and ports: grain reaches world markets through Black Sea ports such as Odesa.

Where it occurs

• World: the Eurasian belt, from west to east:
• Ukraine: the black-earth heartland and a major wheat exporter. Grain leaves from Black Sea ports such as Odesa.
• Southern Russia: the black-earth belt continues here, also growing wheat for export.
• Northern Kazakhstan and western Siberia: the land ploughed in the Virgin Lands campaign, a Soviet plan under Nikita Khrushchev. It started in 1953 and was officially launched in March 1954. Slavic settlers farmed the new wheat land [4].
  • At first grain output rose. Over the following decades soil erosion led to an ecological disaster [4].

• Kazakhstan and Mongolia: drier, shorter grass, where pastoral nomads (Kazakhs, Mongols) have lived for centuries.

• Sister grasslands in other continents: Prairies (North America), Pampas (Argentina, Uruguay), Velds (South Africa), Downs (Australia), Canterbury Plains (New Zealand) and Puszta (Hungary).

• India: India has no true steppe. Its dry lands in Rajasthan and the Deccan face similar risks, though. If grass cover is ploughed up without soil conservation, wind erosion follows.
• 2022 news link: the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
• Russia's invasion of Ukraine blocked Ukraine's Black Sea ports, and world grain prices jumped.
• The UN and Türkiye brokered the initiative in July 2022, with Ukraine and Russia as signatories. It ran until July 2023 [2].
• It moved nearly 33 million tonnes of grain and food from three Ukrainian ports to 45 countries [2].
• Maize was the largest item at over 16.8 million tonnes, followed by wheat at 8.9 million tonnes. China was the biggest buyer, at about 8 million tonnes [2].
• About 40% of the wheat went to low- and lower-middle-income countries [2].

Don't confuse with

• Prairies: these are the temperate grasslands of North America (USA and Canada), east of the Rockies, and have the Chinook wind. The Steppes are in Eurasia. They share the same chernozem soil and wheat economy.
• Savanna / Llanos / Campos: these are tropical grasslands. They are hot all year, with a wet and a dry season, tall grass and scattered trees. The Steppes are temperate, with cold, snowy winters and shorter grass.
• Puszta: the grassland of the Great Hungarian Plain in the middle Danube basin. It is a separate entry in the list of temperate grasslands, even though it is also in Europe. The Steppes run from Ukraine to Mongolia.
• Mediterranean lands (Cs): these lie on the western sides of continents (30°–45°) and get winter rain from the westerlies. The Steppes lie in the continental interior and get rain in spring and early summer.

Prelims Hooks

• Steppes → Eurasia (Ukraine, southern Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia). The other matches: Prairies → North America, Pampas → Argentina/Uruguay, Velds → South Africa, Downs → Australia.
• Chernozem ("black earth") is the soil of the Steppes, Prairies and Pampas. It forms under 450–600 mm of spring and early-summer rain with cold winters [3].
• The drier edge of the Steppes has the Köppen climate BSk (cold, semi-arid steppe).
• Virgin Lands campaign: Khrushchev, officially launched in March 1954, ploughed the steppes of northern Kazakhstan and western Siberia [4].
• Black Sea Grain Initiative (July 2022): brokered by the UN and Türkiye. The largest export was maize, not wheat [2].
• Trap: the Steppes, Prairies and Pampas are temperate. The Llanos, Campos and Savanna are tropical.

Mains Points

• Breadbasket and food security (GS-I/GS-III):
• Wide flat land, fertile chernozem, machine-run farms and Black Sea ports give the Steppes a large grain surplus to export.

• The world depends on a few regions like this, which makes food supply fragile. The 2022 blockade of Ukraine's ports raised prices for import-dependent countries in Africa and West Asia. The Black Sea Grain Initiative moved nearly 33 million tonnes to 45 countries [2].

• Land degradation from misuse (GS-III):

• The Virgin Lands campaign raised grain output at first. Over the following decades, ploughing semi-arid steppe without soil conservation led to soil erosion and an ecological disaster [4].

• Lesson for India's dry lands (Rajasthan, Deccan): keep the grass cover, plant shelter belts (rows of trees that break the wind) and match farming to the rainfall.

• Distribution logic (GS-I):

• The Steppes sit far inside the continent, so they have a continental climate and only 25–75 cm of rain.
• This climate explains the grass, the black soil, the extensive farming and the nomadic herding found here.

Related concepts

• Temperate grasslands of the world
• Prairies
• Pampas
• Velds
• Downs
• Canterbury Plains

Read more

• Natural regions II: temperate grasslands and Mediterranean lands