Belize

Belize!


Belize is located on the Caribbean coast of Northern Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the North, Guatemala to the West, and the Caribbean Sea to the East. It has a population of 333,200 people. Here is a Political Map and a Topograpic Map. Belize's official language is English, although many people speak Spanish and Kriol, it is the only country in Central America who's official language is not Spanish. Tourism and fish packing are its main industries.

One of the main natural hazards in Belize is hurricanes. Here is a list of all the hurricanes, tropical storms, and tropical depressions that have occurred since 1864. One of the most destructive hurricanes was Hurricane Hattie in October of 1961. Hurricane Hattie was a category 5 hurricane, caused millions of dollars of damage, and killed 319 people. It hit Belize City, which was then the capital, and damaged the city so severely that the government decided to relocate the capital to Belmopan.

Belize's climate is classified as a tropical climate, with pronounced wet and dry seasons. The temperatures vary with region. Average temperature in January is 24 degrees Celcius, and 27 degrees Celcius in July. Average rainfall is 53.1 inches in the North and West, and 177.2 in the South. 60% of the country is covered by forests, 20% is cultivated, and the rest is savanna, wetlands and scrub lands.

This is a peer-reviewed journal article that talks about Belize's tropical climate. There are rainy and dry seasons, high humidity, and powerful and devastating storms.

The Bahamas

The Bahamas is a mall island nation off the coast of Florida.
It is a popular for a vacation spot because of its white sand beaches and clear blue water. It is a relativity small nation having a population of 337, 368.

The small population is attributed to the very small land are that is the Bahamas.

The Bahamas is plagued with very few natural disasters. Between 1988 and 2008 there have only been 13 natural disasters reported, and only 19 deaths related to natural disasters. In those 20 years there have only been 2 types of occurrences, flood ans storms. Statistics show that less then one person is killed per year in natural disasters in the Bahamas. When storms do hit the Bahamas however, it seriously damages the economy.

The vegetation on the Bahamas consist of low scrub, logwood, mahogany, and lignum vitae.

the Bahamas has sunshine approximately 310 days per year. The Bahamas is a maritime climate, so therefore does not experience extremes, and the average temperature of the Bahamas is 84 degrees.

The ecology of the Bahamas is being seriously effected by the introduction of a single invasive species. I found it interesting how the biodiversity of a region can be drastically impacted by one species.

And just in case you were looking to take a vacation to the Bahamas after my amazing blog, might i suggest the Atlantis Resort...

Florida Everglades by Brian Botsch

Description:

The Florida Everglades, located near the southern of Florida, is one of the largest wetlands in the world. Several hundred years ago, this wetlands was a major part of a 5,184,000 acre watershed that covered almost a third of the entire state of Florida. The Everglades consist of a shallow sheet of fresh water that rolls slowly over the lowlands and through billions of blades of sawgrass.

Vegetation:

Sawgrass marshes are the dominant vegetation community, which compromise approximately 65 to 70 percent of the total vegetation coverage of the Everglades. Sawgrass, which is a sedge, can occur in pure dense or sparse complexes or mixed with other sedges, grasses, small shrubs, attached to floating plants. Wet prairies comprise the second most abundant vegetation community. Wet prairies often form the transition zones between the sawgrass communities.

Climate:

The climate of the Everglades is semitropical. Thus the Everglades has palms and tropical plants. The region experiences two main-wet (summer) and dry (winter).

Natural Disasters:

The hurricane seasons the state of Florida experiences is mainly in summer and early autumn, and drought conditions may occur during the spring season. Periodic fires, ignited by lightning, help to maintain the grassland habitat by limiting invasion of woody brush and trees.

Climate Table

Natural Disaster Journal: Drought

Political Map:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3592319

The link above is a peer-reviewed journal article that talks about climate change in the tropical rain-forests of Australia

A picture of some the natural vegetation of Australia

Average Monthly Temperature in Celsius

Annual Precipitation Map

• As you can see in the image above, Australia has quite a few different climate regions.
• I find it interesting how two completely different climates (desert and tropical) are so close to each other in Northern Australia.

One natural event that occurs in Australia, mainly the Outback is that there are droughts. The article below goes more int detail about it.

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=108&sid=a7b0d621-c810-41d4-9d34-4317eab16820%40sessionmgr111&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=aph&AN=54489054

Transportation map of Australia

• Notice on the transportation map how there are no roads that lead through the Outback.
• I wonder if this helps preserve the natural Outback since there is less access to it.

Political Map of Australia

• Australia is divided into 6 states: New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia.
• Australia also has 2 territories: The Northern territory and The Australian Capital Territory.

Topographic Map of Australia

• The Great Barrier Reef is just of the North-Eastern coast of Australia.
• It spans for over 2000 kilometers.

Australia!

More specifically the Outback and the Great Barrier Reef.

The Great Barrier reef is located off the east coast of Australia.

Courtesy of Knight map Library Archives

To the Left is a Political Map of the Peruvian state known as Cusco that Machu Picchu is located in. There are very few roads or ways to get to the rural Incan ruins because of it's location within the Andes mountain range. To the right is a topographical map of a portion of the country of Peru including the region of Cusco. The area of Machu Picchu according to the Knight library map expert has not been plotted as a specific region of importance by the Peruvian Government because it is so rural.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8480013.stm

The above is a link that discusses a occurance of a series of natural disasters that occur in Machu Picchu. The area is extremely steep and mountainous, it has a wet-dry climate seasonality therefore it recieves abundent rainfall during certain seasons, which causes landslides and mudslides to occur. Also Peru is a highly seismic land so the city was built to withstand large Earthquakes.
Vegetation in the area includes grasses, shrubs and some trees, classified as steppe with tons of rocks.It is considered a cloud forest because clouds gather around the river below and move upward.

The climate of Machu Picchu is considered a Subtropical highland climate ( for cusco) there are two distinct seasons with rainfall in November through March. Frost and hail is common although snowfall hardly ever occurs. The climate of Machu Picchu is slightly warmer than that of cusco because it is lower in elevation and the cloud cover that occurs, helps to keep the nights warmer in temperature.

http://www.mundoandino.com/peru/climate-of-peru
Temperature: 15.3 C

Precipitation: 796 mm

Peer Reviewed Article: http://onesearch.uoregon.edu/metasearch/record?group=000515&resultSet=002665&startRecord=1 the Peer review is here.

The article is here:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V9D-4X0PBTY-3&_user=2148430&_coverDate=11/30/2009&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view

This article deals with the geology and formation of the mountains that host Machu Picchu including the movement of the tectonic plates to form the Andes mountain range.

Machu Picchu is possibly the most popular tourist destination in Peru because of the "lost city" of the Incas which remained hidden in it's mountainous terrain until the early 20th century. The structure was believed to be the offical site for the Incan rulers and it was built in 1400 AD. It was abandoned by the Incas prior to the Spanish concquest and thus was not discovered or destroyed by the Spanish.

Brazil!

The country of Brazil is located in eastern South America. It is the largest country in South America and borders the Atlantic Ocean. Brazil borders almost every country in South America except for Ecuador and Chile.

The country experiences natural disasters such as floods and droughts. Earlier this year in April they had abundant precipitation, resulting in floods that produced deadly mudslides that killed an estimated 200 people in the region of Rio de Janeiro. Droughts also have affected the people of Brazil, rivers are drying up and preventing transportation of boats and ultimately isolating entire communities. Droughts usually will occur in the Northeast territory of Brazil, while floods occur in the South. Floods cause not only the displacement of people but also the displacement of animals such as the Fire Ant that resides in the Amazon. These Ants have adapted to the increase in water level the flood brings and have learned how to navigate on the water.



Brazil has multiple biomes such as; tropical rainforest, savanna, and grassland. Which results in a wide variety of vegetation types. Central Brazil has grasses and sparse trees due to the droughts that can occur there. In the tropical rainforests, epiphytes and lichens grow on trees and provide food and habitats for animals.




The climate of Brazil is influenced by the ITCZ. Precipitation ranges in Brazil vary monthly and by region. The Amazon Basin is classified as a wet-equitorial climate and experiences a high annual precipitation. Rainfall in the region can reach over 2,000 mm annually. During the rainy season which is from December to May average temperature is around 80 degrees.

Brazil's wildlife is currently threatened by habitat loss. A Peer-Reviewed Journal I read, examined size of the environmental niche birds in the Atlantic Forests of Brazil occupied. More importantly though, how the size of the niches' are being affected by climate change and deforestation."The changes in environmental conditions that have occurred with large-scale deforestation suggest that selective regimes may have shifted and, as a consequence, spatial patterns of intra-specific variation in morphology, behaviour and genes have probably been altered."(1) It was interesting to find out not only the size of the niches was being altered by deforestation but also the genetic variability of the bird species.


1.Loiselle, Bette, Catherine Graham, Jaqueline Goerck, and Milton Cezar Ribeiro. "Assessing the Impact of Deforestation and Climate Change on the Range Size and Environmental Niche of Bird Species in the Atlantic Forests, Brazil." Journal of Biogeography, 37.7 (2010): 1288-1301.

Havasu Canyon

The Havasu Canyon is can only be reached by foot starting at the top of the canyon or by boat, traveling down the Colorado river and hiking up from there, but people take this long difficult hike to see the spectacular water. Havasu canyon is know for its bright blue green water, this is why the natives from this area are named Havasu Baaja, which in English translates to " People of the Blue Green Waters". These waters look like a tropical oasis in the middle of a desert canyon. The reasoning for the unique waters is the mineral make up of the water.
The Water that fills the Havasu Creek has a heavy concentration of Calcium Carbonate along with aragonite and clay that is made up of past and present vegetation in the area. As well as effecting the color of the water the content of the water also has to do with the formation of the travertine pools along this passage of water. Any debris that flows into the current of the water is added to the thick substance that over time adds up to make dams continuously down the creek. From the natural damming of the water, floods are very common in this area and these pools that are created can become very deep. Over time these once small creeks become hard to cross, so pioneers who wanted to discover more about these canyons used to blow apart these damns with dynamite just so the waters were easy to cross by foot or horse.

The vegetation in this canyon has a much wider variate than the grand canyon area it flows to because of the rich mineral and organic make of on the water. At the base of the Grand Canyon the vegetation in mostly dry and desert like but where side canyon and creeks come in there is a ticker, green type of vegetation. In the Havasu Canyon specifically there are cotton wood trees that line the water and there are also red-bud and ash trees.

The climate of this canyon could be a wet-dry continental, monsoon or desert climate. The summer season is dry and the winter season is wet with frequent flooding. The soil is dry, coarse and does not contain much organic material so when heavy rain falls above the canyon it all runs into the canyon creating magnificent waterfalls and dangerous flash floods.