Recent research shows that increasing shortages in honeybees threaten pollination of crops in Europe. Although according to a study covering 41 European countries the overall number of honeybee stocks has increased by 7 per cent between 2005 and 2010 (to an estimated 13.4 million colonies with 7 billion honeybees), 15 countries have also experienced declines ranging from 4 per cent in Slovenia to 47 per cent in Switzerland. At the same time have changes in agricultural practices led to considerable changes in the need for pollination. Increases in pollinated crop areas are contributed to the growth of areas for producing biofuel crops (oilseed rape, sunflower and soybean), as have the use of pesticides led to a decline in the number of bees.
Tag Archives: nature
Have I got news for you
You may have noticed a slowdown in updates here on my website. I have been putting a lot of effort into the new Worldmapper website in recent months (check it out, it also has its own cartogram blog). Since Views of the World as well as Worldmapper are spare time projects and not my ‘real’ work, this website here gets a bit less attention, though I have not entirely abandoned it. Make sure to visit again, I will most definitely continue to post updates here as well that don’t fit in what we are doing over on Worldmapper. And also visit Worldmapper, we have a lot of exciting things lined up there!
All the latest stuff that I am up to can also be followed on Twitter: @geoviews
P.S.: Just so that you know what stuff in going on at Worldmapper, here is a recent map showing the heartbeat of nature (as produced by the terrestrial biosphere).
Species at Risk
Trying to get a picture of where and how many species globally are endangered or even at risk of extinction is a difficult undertaking. For 50 years the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) publishes the red list of threatened species. The list is a “comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species and their links to livelihoods”. It contains over 77,000 species of which according to the most recent report more than 22,000 are at risk of extinction. IUCN considers species at risk when they are “critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable.”
Mapped here is data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of threatened species including endangered and vulnerable species. The main cartogram shows countries resized according to all animal and plant species assessed as being at risk of local extinction. The two smaller cartograms highlight that conservation efforts have very different spatial degrees of severity, which also partly reflects the different geographical distribution of species.
Horsetrading: Equine Europe
There is a lot horsetrading going on in Europe. Literally. At the request of the European Commission the World Horse Welfare and Eurogroup for Animals have just published a report titled Removing the Blinkers which looks at the health and welfare of European Equidae in 2015. The report is the first comprehensive documentation of where horses are being kept in Europe, how they are kept, and how they are traded. The following cartogram shows a Europemapper-style cartogram depicting the EU population figures for equidea as stated in the report, using their mean figure (averaging the lowest and highest estimates for the number of horses in each country) which counts a total of just over 7 million horses in the European Union (compared to FAOSTAT estimates of only 4.3 million horses kept as livestock):
Species of the Greater London National Park
A city becoming a national park? What sounds almost like a contradiction is a very real idea. As the website of the Greater London National Park Campaign explains: “Uniquely combining a biodiverse landscape with nature reserves, parks and gardens, [London] covers an area of over 1,500 km2 and is home to more than 8 million people. Recognised as one of the world’s most important urban habitats, green, blue and open spaces occupy over 60% of London. Over 1,300 Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation cover 19% of [London]. Londonwide the capital is home to more than 1,500 species of flowering plants. More than 300 species of bird have been recorded in the city. With over 300 languages spoken, 170 museums, four UNESCO World Heritage Sites and one of Britain’s National Trails the Greater London National Park* is open for you to explore.”
Pioneered by Guerrilla Geographer Dan Raven-Ellison who convinced an ever growing number of people to support him in his endeavour to turn London into the first National Park City. I was amongst those people making a little contribution by mapping out species counts from the database of Greenspace Information for Greater London. The maps were also included in the environment section of the Londonmapper project which I am working on, and they depict the distribution of each species in a cartogram-style map distorting the shapes of the London boroughs according to how many of each species have been sighted in an area. The following maps are from that series (of which I hope to get a few more mapped in future – are there any red squirrels in London?), and especially the hedgehogs came to fame during the launch of the Londonmapper website last year:
Hedgehog
(click for larger version)
Earthquake risk zones: A people’s perspective
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In a paper for the Journal of Maps published in 2014 I have analysed and visualised data documenting earthquakes that have occurred since 2150 BC. The following map was part of the material supplementing the publication showing the results of the analysis shown on an equal population projection. The gridded cartogram gives every person on the planet an equal amount of space while highlighting the most densely populated spaces in relation to the earthquake risk (calculated via the intensity of earthquakes recorded since 2150 BC). Also shown are the world’s megacities (over 5 million population). The map shows the large populations that make even Nepal (with its almost 28 million people) much more visible than it would be on a conventional map, highlighting why this event turns out to be quite disastrous. The map also shows what the USGS statement above mentions that Nepal is amongst the areas in the region which are far less subject to major earthquakes (as indicated by the yellow to blue shading in the map there):
(click for larger version)
Download as poster (PDF, 62MB)