Much of this falls as snow, serving as reservoir of moisture for the beginning of the growing season. Warm to hot summers are experienced, depending on latitude. Perennial grasses, with their growth buds at or just below the surface, are well-adapted to drought, fire, and cold. Major regional expressions. The Palouse Prairie of eastern Washington state, the California grasslands, and the desert grasslands of the Southwest are also temperate grasslands.
Calcification is the dominant soil-forming process in semiarid regions.
Mild leaching, high organic content, and concentration of calcium carbonate in the B horizon typifies the dark brown mollisols developed under the temperate grasslands. Loess and hence chernozem underlie the eastern prairies of the US, the pampas of South America, and the steppes of Ukraine and Russia. The temperate grassland fauna is very low in diversity, especially in comparison with the tropical grasslands or savannas of Africa. Mole rats, fossorial members of one of the two mammal families endemic to the Palearctic, are conspicuous by virtue their many mounds. Polecats and other members of the weasel family are among the larger, extant carnivores.