[1][2] The ecoregion stretches 1,500 km, from the Belukh Range of the Altai mountains on the Russia-Kazakhstan border in the northwest, to the Gobi-Altai in Mongolia to the southeast.

To the south of the Altai are the cold, arid regions of central Asia, and to the north are the forests and wetlands of Siberia.

These climate regions tend to be found at higher elevations in the middle of continents, with wide differences between day and night temperatures.

Mid-elevation grasses are dominated by tundra fescue (Festuca lenensis) and prairie junegrass (Koeleria macrantha).

Desert-steppe vegetation in the south often features European feather grass (Stipa pennata), wild onion (Allium polyrhizum), Anabasis breviloa, and fringed sagebrush (Artemisia frigida).