STEPPES

STEPPES, a type of flora represented by communities of herbal xerophytes with predominance of sod grasses and sedges. The S. are mostly comprised by sod grasses (Stipa zalesskii, Stipa pulcherrima, Helictotrichon desertorum, etc), wild grasses (spike speedwell, dropwort, bedstraw, etc), and legumes (species of astragalus, lucerne, locoweed, etc). Shrubs (shrub cherry, shrub caragan, low almonds, etc) can also be found among steppe communities. Between the 18–19th centuries the majority of black soil plain S. were plowed, in the 1960s they were destroyed during the Virgin Lands Campaign. Most of the preseved S. inhabit lands, which are not suitable for plowing, i.e. the Bashkir Trans‑Urals and the Bashkir piedmont of the Urals. The significant part of S. are located on undeveloped skeletal soils, that is why petrophytes prevail in their composition (Alyssum tortuosum, Centaurea sibirica, Onosma simplicissima), while on rocks grates and needle‑leaved carnation can be found. In the forest‑steppe zone, especially in the Northern Bashkir Trans‑Urals and the NE part of the Republic, there is a northern version of S. with feather grass, Stipa tirsa, and meadow species (meadow clover, great burnet, etc). Lessing feather‑grass can be found among S. communities of the Southern Bashkir Trans-Urals, while the number of wild grasses decreases. The plain part of that area has scabby S. with sea lavender and Artemisia lercheana. A particular variant of relict mountain S. with an abundance of wild grasses and a limited number of species (less than 40 species) can be found on the territory of Bashkirsky Nature Reserve. Between the 1970–80s, a significant part of the Republican S. were disturbed by intensive grazing, which led to the development of pasture digression and dominance of Stipa capillata, Artemisia austriaca, and sheep fescue. In the 1990s due to the decrease of livestock and increase of natural forage lands, which replaced low‑yielding agricultural lands, the process of S. recovery was started. The S. of the RB comprise about 70 rare plant species included in The Red List of the RB (Agropyron fragile, Glycyrrhiza korshinskyi, Koeleria sclerophylla, etc).