Here is a map showing the general location of Australia’s tropical and temperate forests.
Australia’s forests face many threats including habitat modification, impact of exotic species, altered fire regimes, ecologically unsustainable resource use, and climate change.
The five largest deserts in Australia include the Great Victoria Desert: 424,400 km2, Great Sandy Desert: 284,993 km2, Tanami Desert: 184,500 km2, Simpson Desert: 176,500 km2, and the Gibson Desert: 156,000 km2.
The map above shows the general location of the five major deserts. A recent trend has been an increase in rainfall in these arid areas. For example some parts of the Gibson desert have doubled in rainfall from an average of 150 mm to 300 mm annually.
Along with this increase in rainfall in the desert regions, there has been a decrease in southern areas. Scientists say that this is the result of north-west cloud bands that used to bring rain to southern regions, moving north over central Australia.
http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/oceania/aussnewld.htm
http://www.outback-australia-travel-secrets.com/australian-desert.html
Here is a map of Antarctica I designed showing the land and ice shelves.
Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent in the world and is about 14.4 million square kilometers in size. 98 percent of the continent is covered by ice.
Ice shelves are formed around the continent where ice, which was formed on the land, moved off the land and is floating on the sea.
The ice on and around Antarctica has been speculated to be unaffected by climate change or global warming. There has been no evidence to suggest that melting Antarctic ice has contributed to a rise in sea level.
Another environmental characteristic is a large hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica. It is still increasing in size but it has no effect on the continent’s environment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica#Effects_of_global_warming
Purchase an image of this map at higher resolution for only $2.
Here is a map of the Sahara desert that I designed.
The Sahara desert is estimated to be about 9,000,000 square kilometers. It is bigger than the total area of Australia and almost as large as continental United States.
It encompasses Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and Tunisia.
There has been speculation that the Sahara is expanding and encroaching on the Sub-Saharan region however these claims have not been proven.
Vegetation measurements taken from satellite images showed that over 11 years the Sahara ebbs and flows much like a tide and hasn’t been continually expanding.
Source:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_n3_v140/ai_11127602
Here’s a free map of Brazil. Please feel free to put it on your website or use it however you like, but I request that you place a link on your site back to this page. It features the locations of the main cities including, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Curitiba, Brasilia and Fortaleza.
Here’s a free map of Hawaii. Please feel free to put it on your website or use it however you like, but I request that you place a link on your site back to this page. It features the locations of the main islands including, Niihau, Maui, Hawaii, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Kayoolawe, and Kauai.
Here’s a free map of Spain. Please feel free to put it on your website, but I request that you place a link on your site back to this page. It features the locations of the major cities including, Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Malaga, Sevilla, Cordoba and Palma.
Here’s a free map of China. Please feel free to put it on your website, but I request that you place a link on your site back to this page.
The world’s tropical rain forest is located in South and Central America, Africa, Asia and Australia. It is the home for about half of all animal and plant species in the world. Also over a quarter of all modern medicine come from plants found in this type of forest. It is often called “the world’s largest pharmacy”. Vast amounts of the worlds carbon dioxide is stored in these forests. Therefore deforestation would lead to the release of this carbon into the atmosphere accelerating global warming.
Continue reading The World’s Tropical Rainforest
