John Stewart
Question 3.b.1
What trends do you see in natural forests versus plantation forests around the
world?
Most forests in the world are natural forests (North and South America, Europe, Southern
Africa), except for a large number of plantation forests in northern Africa.
John Stewart
Question 3.b.2
What trends do you see in rates of deforestation around the world? Please be
specific about which areas of the world are showing forest loss and speculate on
why this might be occurring.
There are high rates of deforestation in central and southern Africa, south America, and
eastern Asia. There is net forest gain in Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Spain, China and Uruguay.
Deforestation in Africa might be due to a lack of restrictions on logging and clearing land
for agricultural or commercial use. This also might be because the soil these forested
regions is particularly suitable for agriculture and farming and businesses could put the
forest area to good use by cutting down the trees and building farms.
John Stewart
Question 3.b.3
Which regions of the world have the greatest number of threatened plants? How
does deforestation rate correspond with threatened plants?
The regions with the most threatened plants are central and south America, central Africa
and in parts of East Asia. This roughly corresponds to the deforestation trends.
Deforestation and threatened plants are high on the east coast of south America, the east
and west coasts of Africa and on the islands off the eastern coast of Asia.
John Stewart
John Stewart
Average Annual Population Change
John Stewart
Deforestation
Question 3.b.4
After comparing different field values, do you think there is a relationship
between threatened plants or deforestation with population? Provide evidence to
support your claims with screenshots of your maps examining different fields
within the data.
1. These maps show a positive relationship between population growth and deforestation.
In central Africa Population growth and deforestation are both very high. This might be
because the increase in population necessitates an increase in raw materials, such as wood
from logging food from agricultural production.
John Stewart
2. This map shows the relationship between regions with high population growth and
regions with locations of threatened plants. This relationship is slightly weaker than the
relationship between population growth and deforestation. The regions with the most
threatened plant species have moderate to high population growth. These areas include
Central America, north western South America, central Africa, and the islands of south
east Asia.
John Stewart
3. This map shows how the average annual population change correlates with the number
of threatened plant species. The number of threatened plant species has a strong positive
correlation with the urban population growth in Africa and a weaker correlation with
urban population growth in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Papua New Guinea.
Question 3.b.5
Using Figure 3.b.8, in which biomes do you find most of the threatened plants?
Which biomes do you find the greatest increase in human population? Which
themes and field values did you use to answer this question?
The biomes with the most threatened plants are Tropical Evergreen Forest, Savanna,
Cold Desert, and Tropical Deciduous Forest. The biomes with the greatest increase in
human population are Hot Desert, Savanna, Tropical Evergreen Forest, and
Temperate Grassland. For this question I used Threatened Plants and 2000-2005
total average annual population change.
John Stewart
Question 3.b.6
What trends do you see in the cereal production since 1992? Why might there be
missing data for the countries in the former Soviet Union?
Cereal production since 1992 has decreased mainly in parts of Africa (Saudi Arabia,
Iraq, Algeria, Morocco, Zaire, Congo, Zambia, Somalia, Botswana, and South Africa),
and also in Mongolia and N. Korea. Production has increased mainly in other African
countries (Angola, Mozambique, Central African Republic, and Chad), Peru and
Argentina, and Papua New Guinea. The missing data in countries of the former
Soviet Union might be because their cereal production was never measured or
because the countries never made those calculations public. This could also be
because there is not enough cereal production in those countries to make an
accurate estimate.
John Stewart
Question 3.b.7
Do you see a relationship between deforestation rate and change in cereal
production since 1992? What might be happening in countries that do not follow
the same pattern?
Regions with high deforestation rates (most of Africa, Argentina and Mexico)
generally have high cereal production. This is especially true in Argentina and Chad.
However, some countries in Africa with high deforestation rates have low cereal
production (Botswana, Namibia, Madagascar and Zambia). This could be because the
forests became so depleted that there were not enough raw materials to continue
cereal production or because the soil in regions with high deforestation became too
nutrient-depleted to be used for farming.
John Stewart
Question 3.b.8
How do the distribution of the Earth’s grasslands relate to changes in cereal
production? Where do you see exceptions to this pattern?
The Earth’s grasslands are located in regions with high cereal production. North and
South America, northern Africa and countries in Eastern Europe have large numbers
of grasslands and high cereal production. The opposite is true in southern Africa,
Mongolia and China. This might be because the grasslands that existed in this
regions in 1992 have been completely used up by over farming and are no longer
useful for cereal production. It could also be possible that these regions haven’t been
used for cereal production so that the grasslands could be preserved.
John Stewart
Question 3.b.9
Based on the status of each biome, which biomes do you think are most at risk
from human pressures? Which biomes should receive priority for conservation?
Why? What strategies could be implemented to better protect Earth’s biomes?
I think the biomes that are most at risk from human pressures are Temperate
Broadleaf Mixed Forest, Boreal Forest/Taiga, Desert Shrublands, Tropical/subTropical Grasslands, Temperate Grasslands, and Montane Grasslands/Shrublands in
North America, Western Europe and Eastern Asia. The areas that should receive
priority for conservation are those where the most damage is being done in the
shortest amount of time, especially in those with high population growth. I think it
would be most useful to concentrate conservation efforts in central Africa and East
Asia where populations are increasing. I think this makes sense because areas with
high population growth are more likely to continue putting pressure on their biomes.
To protect the biomes it would be beneficial to reduce pollution by creating stricter
regulations on industry and disposing of waste. It would also be wise to protect
threatened areas by turning them into parks and not allowing businesses to buy
them and possibly cause damage.
Question 3.b.10
Using the Biome Status theme overlaid on the Biomes theme, or by using two
data frames to compare Biomes and Biome Status maps simultaneously, create
a JPEG layout (like you did for Africa earlier in the lab) of the continent or region
that includes some of the biome that you think should receive priority for
conservation. To accomplish this, use the layout view and zoom in on the region
that includes the biome you selected for conservation. Make sure that your layout
includes titles, legends, your name and any other relevant information.
John Stewart