Why is this the distribution of the Eurasian forest-steppe zone? – new publication

In Eurasia, the forest-steppe zone consisting woody and herbaceous vegetation in patchy mosaics is situated in its temperate regions and covers a vast area. Although its distribution is more or less known, the drivers of this distribution are under debate. It is clear that climate and, more specifically, aridity is the main driver in coarse scale. It determines where the continuous forest cover of the humid environment opens and where woody patches starts to occur in the steppe cover of the dry environment. However, climate alone cannot explain how the forest-steppe zone is able to take away such a large, more than 400 km wide belt from the territories dominated by forest and grasslands. A recent study, in which Ákos Bede-Fazekas, senior lecturer of our department, participated, explores this question. It studies the effects of climatic variability, soil, topography, fire and herbivory, and vegetation feedbacks. The research was led by László Erdős and Péter Török and published in the highly prestigious journal "Biological Reviews" (D1, IF = 14.35).