Essentials of Ecology

S22 SUPPLEMENT 4

Figure 2 Global map of plant biodiversity. (Used by permission
from Kier, et al. 2005. “Global Patterns of Plant Diversity and
Floristic Knowledge.” Journal of Biogeography, Vol. 32, Issue 6,
pp. 921–1106, and Blackwell Publishing)

Data and Map Analysis

1. What continent holds the largest continuous area of land that
   hosts more than 5,000 species per eco-region? On what con-
   tinent is the second largest area of such land? (See Figure 1,
   pp. S10–S11, in Supplement 3 for the names of countries and
   continents.)


2. Of the six categories represented by six different colors on this
   map, which category seems to occupy the most land area in
   the world (not counting Antarctica, the large land mass on the
   bottom of the map, and Greenland)?

<500

Species number

per ecoregion

500–1000

1000–2000

2000–3000

3000–5000

>5000