This will probably be a pretty easy question to answer, but I was curious as to why the steppes of Asia didn't develop like the American prairies in the United States. My understanding is that steppes and prairies are similar types of biomes. Maybe they did? Maybe they are drastically different ecologically and I'm just an idiot?
Note: I think the answer is probably that it's not feasible/ not similar to American prairies, but I'm not sure.
Depends on where you're talking about.
http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/nr/documents/HWSD/soil_quality/SQ2.gif
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Global_soils_map_USDA.jpg
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MEDIA/nrcs142p2_050554.jpg
The Steppes have a fairly diverse range of climates, water retention and soil quality but generally the answer is going to be an intersection of those three factors and simple altitude.
And take a look at average temperatures for a handful of regional cities-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omsk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulan_Bator
Can you see why some parts would be less than ideal for agricultural development?
