The ecoregion forms a long band, about 2,100 km long and 600 km wide, from Ukraine in the west to western edge of Siberia at the Ural Mountains in the east. Most of the terrain is rolling hills and some plains. Average elevations range from 150 meters in the lowlands to 250 meters in the hills, with some isolated ranges of low mountains on the edges of the area.The ecoregion can be divided into sub-provinces from west to east: Dnieper Upland, Dnieper Lowland, Central Russian Upland, Oka-Don Plain, Volga Upland, and the Trans-Volga. Moisture diminishes as the ecoregion stretches to the east, as does the forest fragmentation.
Climate
The climate in most of the ecoregion is Humid continental climate, warm summer. This climate is characterized by large seasonal temperature differentials and a warm summer.
Flora
The natural vegetation of the forest steppe is a mosaic of woodlands and open shrublands and grasslands. Shrublands typically include the shrubs Caragana frutex, Prunus fruticosa, and Prunus stepposa. Stipa ucrainica and Bromus riparius are common grasses. Typical trees of the woodlands and forests include Quercus robur, Tilia cordata, Acer platanoides, and Corylus avellana. For centuries, scientists have speculated on the causes of variations in stands of trees. It is currently understood that on the macro level, steppes are more arid and that trees thin out in the transition zones. Because the terrain of the ecoregion is relatively flat or low hills, with no physical barriers between the biomes to the north and south, the plant communities tend to be shaped by local variations in water flow. Differences in drainage, variations in soil type and salinity, the effects of blowing wind, and the historic activities of humans all combine to create the mosaic character of the region. Open landscapes show that steppe plant communities can compete with forest. Sedges are characteristic in the steppe areas, resisting low-moisture conditions with much of their biomass underground.
The East European forest steppe has been affected heavily by human pressure: over half is arable land, and the natural forest stands have mostly been cleared. Little of the territory is legally protected as nature reserves, and such reserves that exist tend to be small tracts set aside for study. Representative protected areas in the ecoregion include:
Bashkiriya National Park, on the eastern tip of the ecoregion, at the southern base of the Ural Mountains.
Belogorye Nature Reserve, one of the last riverine old-growth oak forests that used to be typical of the East European Forest-Steppe.
