Physical Environment, Geography, and History of SE Asia

Here is a link to my quick and dirty, definitely non-expert, view of how the physical environment and geography have helped to shape the history of SE Asia.

http://www.slideshare.net/MarkMcGinley/physical-environment-and-history-of-se-asia-11923636

Biodiversity Challenge: Temperate Zone Vs Tropics

Even though Texas is larger and contains more habitat diversity (measured by a greater number of ecosystems), Malsysia contains many more species than Texas. In fact, Malaysia is considered to be a "biodiveristy hotspot".

Why are there so many more species in Malaysia than in Texas? The answer probably has to do with a general phenomenon that scientists have been trying to understand for over two hundred years- the tropical temperate gradient in species richness. There have been over thirty hypotheses developed to explain this pattern and research and debate on the topic is continuing today.

Readings

More General
Latitudinal gradients in diversity- http://www.ecology.info/article.aspx?cid=10&id=69

Latitudinal gradients in species diversity- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latitudinal_gradients_in_species_diversity

Thorough techical review
Latitudinal gradients of biodiversity: patterns, process, scale, and synthesis. Annula Review of Ecology and Systematics by Mike Willig, Dawn Kaufman, and Richard Stevens
http://hydrodictyon.eeb.uconn.edu/people/willig/Willig_pdf/120.%20Willig_etal_2003.pdf

Powerpoint Presentation

http://www.slideshare.net/secret/9hVZHFohOJijx5

Dust Bowl on the Llano Estacado

The Dust Bowl was an environmental catastrophe, a natural hazard (multiannual drought) in the 1930s in the Southern Great Plains of the USA, resulting in the activation of a geomorphic process (intense wind erosion) which, when human society could not adapt to it, cascaded into unprecedented agricultural, economic, and societal collapse in its core region. Over the years, the cause of the Dust Bowl has been variably ascribed to specific climatic or meteorological phenomena or land management practices. Drought and wind erosion have been notable phenomena in the Southern Great Plains throughout the Holocene, occurring long before conversion of the land to agricultural use, and still continue today. (Gill and Lee 2006)

Further Readings

Dust Bowl http://www.eoearth.org/article/Dust_Bowl

The Dust Bowl http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1583.html

On the cause of the 1930s Dust Bowl. Science 2004 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/303/5665/1855.abstract

NASA explains the Dust Bowl Drought http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2004/0319dustbowl.html

A critical evlauation of the Dust Bowl and its causes. Gill and Lee. 2006
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006AGUFM.A44C..06G

What America Looked Like: The Dust Bowl (2012 in The Atlantic. lots of good photos)
http://m.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/02/what-america-looked-like-the-dust-bowl/253220/#slide3

Misery on a Grand Scale: The Drought of today and Yesteryear. Wynan Meinzer is a photographer who teachers photography at Tech. He teaches Wildlife Photography at Junction during Intersession which would be a great experience for all budding photographers.
http://www.wymanmeinzer.com/misery-on-a-grand-scale-the-drought-of-today-and-yesteryear/

Video

Surviving the Dust Bowl. PBS
http://video.pbs.org/video/1311363860/

History of the Llano Estacado

I have suggested many times that ecology plays an important role in the history of a region. The history of the Llano Estacado is certainly no exception. In order to understand the history of our region we need to study the effect of ecology on the lifestyle and settlement patterns of the Native Americans, the exploration and settlement patterns of the Spaniards, and the ultimate settlement patterns of the Anglo-Americans. Enjoy.

A Brief History of the Llano Estacado
http://www.slideshare.net/MarkMcGinley/history-of-the-llano-estacado

Examples of EoE Articles Written by Tech Students

Species Accounts

Asian Elephant http://www.eoearth.org/article/Asian_elephant

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin http://www.eoearth.org/article/Atlantic_Spotted_Dolphin?topic=49540

Dugong http://www.eoearth.org/article/Dugong?topic=49540

General

Common Aquatic Insects http://www.eoearth.org/article/Common_aquatic_insects


Ecotourism in Sabah, Malaysia http://www.eoearth.org/article/Ecotourism_in_Sabah,_Malaysia?topic=49563

Desert Birds http://www.eoearth.org/article/Desert_birds

Insect Adaptations to Stream Systems. http://www.eoearth.org/article/Insect_adaptations_to_stream_systems?topic=49548

Common Bats of Big Bend National Park http://www.eoearth.org/article/Common_bats_of_Big_Bend_National_Park

Riparian zone http://www.eoearth.org/article/Riparian_zone

Issues

Invasive River Can Along the Rio Grande
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Invasive_river_cane_along_the_Rio_Grande

Zoonotic diseases http://www.eoearth.org/article/Zoonotic_diseases?topic=58074

Environmental Effects of the Chernobyl Accident
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Environmental_effects_of_the_Chernobyl_accident

Playa Lakes

Playas are an interesting, and relatively unique, ecosystem found on the Llano Estacado.

Readings

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/1311091.pdf?acceptTC=true

http://www.eoearth.org/article/Playa_lake

From the Sibley Nature Center

Playas http://www.sibleynaturecenter.org/habitats/playas/index.html

To see a good powerpoint presentation (1) click on the above link, (2) scroll down to the section entitled "Related Resources, and (3) click on the link "Playas and Playa Lakes" listed under "Overview".

Playa Lakes of the southern Llano Estacado: Southern High Plains http://www.sibleynaturecenter.org/habitats/playas/masternaturalistreport.pdf

Great Reference

Loren Smith, a former TTU professor, has written the best scholarly reference about playas.

Playas of the Great Plains. 2003. Loren Smith. University of Texas Press

South East Asia

Although we will not start our in depth study of SE Asia until next month I thought that it might help to show you a few maps that will hopefully help us to become oriented.

Map of Southern Asia


Map of SE Asia

This map superimposes a map of the Indonesian Islands over the map of the continental US. I find that this map helps me to get a better understanding of the size of the region.
Remember that Malaysia is about the same size as New Mexico.