Eurasia’s natural zones

The arctic region has one zone, the arctic desert: cold, precipitation as snow, multi-year ice, only moss and lichens, with the polar bear, walrus and seal. The subarctic has tundra and forest-tundra: in the tundra the mean July temperature does not exceed +10 °C, the soil is gley and peaty, plants are moss, lichen, dwarf birch and shrubs; reindeer, lemmings and Arctic foxes live there. Forest-tundra has dwarf pine, birch and larch. In the temperate region the zones change from north to south: taiga, mixed forest, broad-leaved forest, forest-steppe and steppe, semi-desert and desert. The taiga is the largest zone, with podzol soil and spruce, pine, cedar and larch; deer, bears, lynx and squirrels live there. Mixed and broad-leaved forests have oak, maple, birch, beech and linden, with brown forest soil. The steppe has fertile black soil and feather grass; saiga, marmots, wolves and eagles live there, but most steppe is now ploughed. The semi-desert gets 150–250 mm of rain and has chestnut soil; the desert has dry hot summers (+25…+32 °C), little rain and grey and saline soils. In deserts and semi-deserts live the two-humped camel, goitered gazelle, Przewalski’s horse, lizards and snakes. The Karakum, Kyzylkum, Taklamakan and Gobi are in this zone.