Eurasian forest-steppe zone – new publication

Eurasian forest-steppes form a 9000-km-long transitional zone between temperate forests and steppes, featuring a complex mosaic of herbaceous and woody habitats. However, a continental-scale empirical delineation of the zone was missing until recently. Finally, in 2018, a map has been proposed by László Erdős and his colleagues based on floristic composition, physiognomy, relief, and climate. Ákos Bede-Fazekas, senior lecturer of our department, now published his research in the prestigious (D1, IF = 4.6) journal called "Scientific Reports" in which he compared this expert delineation with the results of solely macroclimate-based analysis using predictive distribution modeling and hierarchical clustering. The paper was written in collaboration with scientists from the Centre for Ecological Research and the University of Debrecen. By assessing the discrepancies, the researchers located the areas where refinement of the delineation or the inclusion of non-macroclimatic factors should be considered. Also, they identified the most important variables for predicting the existence of the Eurasian forest-steppe zone.