Figure GT.1
Anthropogenic landscapes. (A) Although wheat fields in Canada and the city of New York may not look alike, each has been completely transformed by people. The wheat fields of Saskatchewan, Canada, were once prairie grassland composed of a rich diversity of plant and animal species. (Note that locator maps, shown here, are used throughout this book to illustrate the geographic settings of photographs.) (B) Manhattan, New York, was once deciduous forest and coastal estuaries. (C) This composite image of night lights in North America was assembled from satellite data collected in April and October of 2012. Multiple images were combined to avoid cloudy skies. Night lights indicate where people live. The eastern United States and southern Canada are brighter and more populated than the arid western United States and mountainous Canadian provinces. Note that some lights are not related to populated centers, such as natural gas flares in North Dakota.(A. Dave Reede/All CanadaPhotos/Getty Images; B. Michael S. Yamashita/NationalGeographic/Getty Images; C. NASA)