Country

Ukraine: 5 ecoregions. Each with its climate now and toward 2050, and its conservation tier.

Ukraine's five ecoregions lay out the classic east European transition from forest to grass. The north and west sit in the Central European mixed forests and, in Transcarpathia, the Pannonian mixed forests, with the Carpathian montane forests adding a conifer-clad mountain tier. Moving south and east, the East European forest steppe interleaves woodland with open grassland before the Pontic steppe, ranked Nature Imperiled, takes over across the whole Black Sea south. The climate is continental throughout, cold winters and warm summers, drying toward the steppe. For gardeners the divide is moisture: the forested north and west grow temperate trees and shade plantings comfortably, while the steppe zone rewards drought-tolerant perennials, grasses, and the deep-rooted plants the black-earth grasslands evolved.