# Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands

Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands are terrestrial biomes defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The predominant vegetation in these biomes 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 and the types of species found here.
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.
Steppes/shortgrass prairies are short grasslands that occur in semi-arid climates. Tallgrass prairies are tall grasslands in higher rainfall areas. 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 bison (Bos bison), 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.
Temperate savannahs, found in Southern South America, parts of West Asia, South Africa and southern Australia, and parts of the United States, are a mixed grassy woodland ecosystem defined by trees being reasonably widely spaced so that the canopy does not close, much like subtropical and tropical savannahs, albeit lacking a year-round warm climate. In many savannas, tree densities are higher and are more regularly spaced than in forests.
The states 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 three 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 levels in various taxa.

## Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregions

Afrotropical temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregionsvte :
| Al Hajar montane woodlands | Oman, United Arab Emirates |
| 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 |
Australasian temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregionsvte :
| Canterbury–Otago tussock grasslands | New Zealand |
| Eastern Australia mulga shrublands | Australia |
| Southeast Australia temperate savanna | Australia |
Nearctic temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregionsvte :
| 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 |
Neotropical temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregionsvte :
| Argentine Espinal | Argentina |
| Argentine Monte | Argentina |
| Humid Pampas | Argentina, Uruguay |
| Patagonian grasslands | Argentina, Chile, United Kingdom (Falkland Islands) |
| Patagonian steppe | Argentina, Chile, United Kingdom (Falkland Islands) |
| Semi-arid Pampas | Argentina |
Palearctic temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregionsvte :
| 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, Azerbaijan, Georgia, 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 |