GEOG 3318 Project: Biogeographic Pattern

Physical Environment      Alabama is the fifth most biodiverse state in the US, ranking first among states east of the Mississippi River (Stein 2002). Alabama contains six distinct Level III Ecoregions which are further divided into more specific Level IV Ecoregions; some of these are illustrated in Figure 1 below. I selected the following three locations based on their spatial distribution and their representation of three distinct ecoregions: Red Mountain, Old Cahawba Prairie, and Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) (Figure 1). Figure 1. Map showing three selected locations within Alabama and their corresponding Level III and Level IV Ecoregions.  Data source. Climate     Overall, Alabama has a humid subtropical climate type. Between my three selected locations, climate does not vary drastically. One notable difference is in mean precipitation of Bon Secour NWR, which has drier periods in the spring and fall relative to wetter winters and very wet summers (particularly in Augu

 Map of Selected Regions in New York Blue: Franklin County Orange: Essex County Green: Fort Drum (Jefferson County) Climographs Soil Franklin County Source: websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov Essex County Source: websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov Jefferson County Source: websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov Description:      New York is a vast state with many neighbors, including: New Jersey, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and even Canada. This diversity allow extends into the state itself, the state being home to various types of physical environments. Before going to New York, I always thought of it having one of the biggest cities in the United States and did not think much about how much of the outdoors the state had to offer. One of the biggest regions is located in central to northern New York, a place called Adirondack Park. This area has many different ponds, lakes, mountains, valleys, and more. From this area in New York, I chose to focus on Franklin County and Essex County. Franklin County

Climographs Soils Calama Area - Inceptisols, low amount of vegetation Source: Encyclopedia Britannica Santiago Region- Alfisols Source: Encyclopedia Britannica Cochrane Region- Entisols Source: University of Idaho Region Description     The country of Chile stretches along the West Coast of South America for over 2,500 miles. Because of its wide range in latitude, the country is host to a plethora of different biomes, from cold highland and mountainous regions to the driest desert on the planet. To outline this, I selected three regions in the country that I think highlight the diversity the country contains. The first region is in the Northern part of Chile, called Calama. It is located on the edge of the Atacama Desert. While the temperatures may not be scorching like those of other deserts such as the Sahara, the Atacama is one of the driest places on Earth, with only around two inches of precipitation a year.      The next region is Santiago, located towards the center of the count

  Area specifications  This area is known as the White river National wildlife refuge and covers multiple counties in the state of Arkansas. Ranging from Clarendon Arkansas following the white river almost to the Mississippi River the National wildlife refuge covers approximately 160,000 acres of hard wood bottomlands (Sharp, 2012).     Area Climate The landforms in this area vary containing flat fields, hard wood bottomlands, and rivers/ aquatic regions. The climate in the three points I chose have similar climates but vary in organisms and water availability throughout the year depending on rainfall and dam generation upriver. Although a large majority of the refuge is bottomlands there is still a wide variety of plants and animals that live in this area. The refuge experiences hot and humid summers, mild winters, and abundant rainfall (Sharp, 2012).        Area Soil This area contains predominantly Sharkey clay (a vertisol) with the majority of the location being hard wood forest th