Soils
Temperate grasslands have soils that are nutrient-rich from the growth and decay of deep, many-branched grass roots. The rotted roots hold the soil together and provide a food source for living plants. The world's most fertile soils, chernozems (A Russian term meaning black soil), underlie the eastern prairies of the U.S., the pampas of South America, and the steppes of Ukraine and Russia.