Eurasian steppe

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The Eurasian steppe belt (light blue)

The Eurasian steppe - sometimes also called the Great Steppe - is a steppe landscape that extends on the Eurasian double continent between Eastern Europe and East Asia .

geography

The Eurasian steppe stretches for a total of 7,000 kilometers between Manchuria in the east to the Hungarian Puszta in the west, which merges into the European deciduous forest biome in the Austrian Burgenland . It is the largest steppe region in the world. The Pannonian Basin , the Caspian Depression and the Kazakh Threshold lie in the steppe area . The southern border of the steppe cannot be precisely defined as it merges smoothly into the semi-deserts and deserts of Central Asia.

The following states have a share in the contiguous greater area of ​​the Eurasian steppe (in alphabetical order): China , Kazakhstan , Moldova , Mongolia , Romania , Russia , Ukraine and Uzbekistan . In addition, several steppe empires emerged in the Eurasian steppe .

In the Pannonian Florentine Province , which is spatially separated from the greater area by the Carpathian Mountains , there are only larger natural steppe areas in Hungary . The other countries of Pannonia - outskirts of Austria , Serbia , Slovakia and the Czech Republic - no longer belong to the steppe zone in terms of climate . Most of the steppe-like vegetation has been created here by anthropogenic influences since prehistory. The steppe also touches the northern coasts of the Black and Caspian Seas .

Seven different steppe types can be distinguished by cluster analysis . The typical grassland steppes make up 18 percent of the world's steppes. These grassland steppes (without the adjacent forest steppes and semi-deserts) are subdivided into different ecoregions . The environmental foundation WWF mentions (from west to east): Pontic steppe, Kazakh steppe, Altai steppe and the Mongolian-Manchurian grasslands. In the east, the steppe of the lowlands merges into the steppe and semi-desert Mongolian plateau . The different ecoregions are quite uniform and differ only for the plant connoisseur. The steppe is severely narrowed in two places: At the Ural - Caspian narrow point and the Djungarian narrowing .

The steppe plays a decisive role in understanding processes and their ecological consequences of the melting of the glaciers after the last Ice Age and the subsequent emergence of Stone Age nomadic peoples in the Paleolithic .

Climate and vegetation

The Eurasian steppe has the semi-arid climate typical of steppes . Due to the greater distance to the nearest oceans , however , the annual amount of precipitation is more limited than in other steppes ( continentality ). Depending on the steppe shape, the precipitation varies between 443 mm and 388 mm.

The wetland Saryarka around Lake Tengiz and Korgalzhin in the middle of the Kazakh steppe is an unusual natural phenomenon in the semi-arid steppe climate . The Tengiz Lake is fed by the Nura River and is about three times the size of Lake Constance .

The grassland steppe is particularly vulnerable to the consequences of anthropogenic climate change . Above all, the spread of trees and bushes is a problem here, as these allow the soil to dry out more quickly due to the increased water requirement.

Flora and fauna

flora

Over 1,500 plant species are known, especially grasses. Festuca valesiaca dominates among the grasses .

fauna

The two largest wild mammals are the saiga antelope and the Przewalski horse , which were once common throughout Eurasia. Today they only live in very remote and often protected wilderness regions and are threatened with extinction. In the Eastern European part of the steppe, bison and tarpans used to live, but they are now extinct there. Among the rodents , especially the stands steppe marmot out.

There are also a large number of birds on the few bodies of water . In the Saryarka wetland there are up to 30 million during the breeding season. The bird species also include the steppe lapwing, which is threatened with extinction .

Population and human history

The Eurasian steppe is also known as a cultural area for the descendants of the nomadic steppe peoples of Eurasia . Already in Eurasian history, the Eurasian steppe was the cultural area of the prehistoric steppe cultures . The Huns , the Scythians and Hungarians as well as the Turks are to be mentioned here, who invaded Western Europe during long periods of drought. In addition, the Eurasian steppe is also seen by some scientists as the original home of the Indo-Europeans . The oldest archaeological finds come from the Pleistocene .

Research into the cultural and historical significance of the Eurasian steppe is still quite new. It did not emerge until the Cold War , but established itself above all from 1991 when the Soviet Union fell apart .

During the Soviet era, the steppe (especially the northern, slightly more humid regions) was largely cultivated and used extensively for agriculture . However, after the collapse of the USSR, agriculture here partially came to a standstill. The drainage of a number of lakes that were used to irrigate agriculture has led to a dramatic salinization of the soil.

One of the most important research projects to investigate the steppe region is the Baikal Archeology Project , which primarily researches the region around Lake Baikal . The first settlements appeared on Lake Baikal in the early Holocene . Above all, prehistoric cemeteries were discovered here, of which the so-called “ locomotive cemetery ” from the Neolithic, excavated in 1897, is the best known. In addition, the Eurasian steppe is considered the cradle of domestication of the horse ( Tarpan ). Finds of similar significance were made in Mongolia.

Many important tools from the Bronze Age were also found in the steppe region . The mummy finds in the Chinese province of Xinjiang also date from this period .

With the expansion of the rail infrastructure in the area of ​​the Silk Road , the remote regions of the Eurasian steppe will also be integrated. However, there are also considerable interventions in the landscape.

protection

Thought is being given to designating parts of the steppe, such as the area around Lake Tengiz, as a biosphere reserve and world natural heritage . However, the experts and coordinators required to implement the concept are missing. In 1998, at the suggestion of NABU , the region was named a nature reserve.

gallery

literature

  • Nicola Di Cosmo, Michael Maas (Eds.): Empires and Exchanges in Eurasian Late Antiquity. Rome, China, Iran, and the Steppe, ca. 250–750. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2018.
  • Bryan Hanks: Archeology of the Eurasian Steppes and Mongolia. In: Annual Review of Anthropology 39, 2010, pp. 469-486.
  • John B. Taft, Loy R. Philippe, Chris H. Dietrich, Kenneth R. Roberson: Grassland composition, structure and diversity patterns along major environmental gradients in the Central Tien Shan. In:  Plant Ecology 212, 2011, pp. 1349-1361. 

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Harald Frater: scinexx - The Eurasian steppe: misunderstood wasteland between the Black Sea and the Gobi desert. In: scinexx.de. Retrieved February 16, 2017 .
  2. ↑ a b Geoffrey AJ Scott: Canada's Vegetation. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 1995, ISBN 978-0-773-56509-8 , p. 150 ( limited preview in Google book search)
  3. ↑ Természettudományi Múzeum (Hungary): Annales historico-naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici 1969.
  4. ↑ Harald Frater: scinexx - exclave in Central Europe: The Puszta, a piece of steppe in Hungary. In: scinexx.de. June 10, 2005, accessed July 22, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Jürgen Schultz: The ecological zones of the earth. 4th ed. Ulmer, Stuttgart 2008. ISBN 978-3-8252-1514-9 , pp. 202-203.
  6. ↑ a b Taft et al., P. 1350
  7. ↑ Game Finder . WWF International. Retrieved February 17, 2017.
  8. ↑ Hanks, pp. 471f.
  9. ↑ Taft et al., P. 1356
  10. ↑ a b c d Harald Frater: scinexx - Where the steppe becomes a water paradise: Tengiz and Korgalzhiner lakes. In: scinexx.de. June 10, 2005, accessed July 22, 2017 .
  11. ↑ Taft et al., Pp. 1350f.
  12. ↑ Konradin media, Leinfelden-Echterdingen: Steppes: Wide grasslands -. In: Wissen.de. Retrieved July 22, 2017 .
  13. ^ Hanks, p. 472
  14. ↑ çuvaşlar: The Proto-Turkic Urheimat & The Early Migrations of Turkic Peoples. In: chuvashlar.blogspot.de. Retrieved February 17, 2017 .
  15. ↑ Eurasian steppe. In: research.uni-leipzig.de. March 1, 2008, accessed July 22, 2017 .
  16. ^ Hanks, p. 472
  17. ↑ Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität M & uu: Steppe Ecosystems in Kazakhstan - AG Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research. In: uni-muenster.de. July 11, 2001. Retrieved July 22, 2017 .
  18. ↑ Harald Frater: scinexx - upheaval in nowhere: The new territory campaign of the Soviet era. In: scinexx.de. June 10, 2005, accessed July 22, 2017 .
  19. ↑ Harald Frater: scinexx - steppe to desert and back again: collapse or resurrection? In: scinexx.de. June 10, 2005, accessed July 22, 2017 .
  20. ↑ Hanks, pp. 472-474.
  21. ↑ Hanks, pp. 474f.
  22. ↑ The Eurasian steppe connects to the New Silk Road. In: info.kopp-verlag.de. July 22, 2017, archived from the original on October 29, 2016 ; Retrieved July 22, 2017 .