Internet Resources for Physical Geography Last updated September 7, 2001

Choose one of the topics listed below:

Biogeography and Ecology

• Online Vegetation and Plant Distribution Maps (Branner Earth Sciences Library and Map Collections)
• Global Climate & Biomass Maps (Sustainable Development Dimensions & the Agrometeorology Group of the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization)
• Description of the Ecoregions of the United States (US Forest Service)
• Ecological Regions of North America (North American Comission for Environmental Cooperation)
• The Critical Ecoregions Program (Sierra Club)
• A High Resolution National Map of Vegetation Ecoregions (William W. Hargrove and Robert J. Luxmoore, Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
• Major Biomes of the World (Susan L. Woodward, Radford University)
• Tour of Biomes (Environmental Protection Agency - COTF)
• The Vegetation/Ecosystem Modeling and Analysis Project (VEMAP)
• Forestry Resources
  • USDA Forest Service
  • Forestry Resources (Finnish Forest Research Institute)
  • Canadian Forestry Sites:
    • Canada's Forest Network
    • Canadian Forest Service
    • Quebec Natural Resources Ministry - Forest Information
  • State of the World's Forests (UN-FAO)
  • Forests for Life (World Wildlife Federation)
  • Ultimate Tree Ring Web Pages (H.D. Grissino-Mayer, Valdosta State Univ.)
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• U.S. National Wetlands Survey (US Fish and Wildlife Service)
• Species in Parks: Flora and Fauna Databases (National Park Service and Information Center for the Environment)
• Plants National Database (US Department of Agriculture - Natural Resources Conservation Service)
• Plant Facts (Ohio State University)
• USGS Biological Resources (US Geological Survey)
• Animal Diversity Web (Univ. Michigan Museum of Zoology)
• Environment Canada
  • Canadian Wildlife Service
  • Canadian Wildlife Service - Hinterland Who's Who (Environment Canada)
• Biodiversity Group (Environment Australia Online - Australian Department of Environment & Heritage)
• Tropical Data Base - Department within the Andre Tosello Foundation aimed at promoting more sustainable use of Brazil's biodiversity through dissemination of high quality information. You may need to set the default language to english.
• UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre - part of the United Nations Environment Programme

Geomorphology and Hydrology

General Geomorphology Resources

• Virtual Geomorphology
• Laboratory for Experimental Geomorphology
• USGS Topographic Maps Illustrating Physiographic Features

Landforms of Earth

• GeoImages Project - The Geo-Images Project attempts to make images (mostly photographs) that are useful in teaching geography more widely available using computers and the internet.
  • Air Photos of California and Alaska - dozens of oblique air photos from Denali National Park, Fairbanks and southern Alaska, Cascade Range volcanoes, San Francisco Bay Area and more.
• Canadian Landscapes (Terrain Sciences Division of Canada) - hundreds of photographs of Canada. Brief geological explanations on how the landforms were created.
• Images of Canada (CCRS - Canada Centre for Remote Sensing)
• Color Landform Atlas of the United States
• Geomorphology from Space - This is an out of print 1986 NASA publication edited by Nicholas M. Short, Sr. and Robert W. Blair, Jr. designed for use by the remote sensing science and educational communities to study landforms and landscapes. Landforms include tectonic, volcanic, fluvial, coastal, karst, glacial, etc.

Mass Wasting

• Mass Wasting Features of North Dakota (North Dakota State University)
• USGS
  • Geologic Hazards: Landslides
  • Geologic Hazards: National Landslide Information Center
  • Geologic Hazards: California - Major Landslide Damage Sites - El Nino related landslides
  • Landslides and Debris Flows - Fly-by movies, animations & photos
• Effects of El Nino on Streamflow, Lake Level, and Landslide Potential
• Slumgullion Earthflow: A Large Scale Natural Laboratory and Virtual Field Trip (USGS)

Glacial Geomorphology

• National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
  • All About Glaciers (NOAA/NSIDC)
• Glacier (Rice University) - all about Antarctica
• Ice Ages (Illinois State Museum ) - Online Exhibit
• Cold Links (National Snow & Ice Data Center) - a list of snow & ice web sites
• Quaternary Research (Geology & Geophysics, UW-Madison)
• Virtual Tour of Mendenhall Glacier
• USGS Satellite Image Atlas of Glaciers of the World
• Illustrated Glossary of Alpine Glacial Landforms
• Glacier Features (Photos and descriptions of the effects and features of glaciation)
• Snow, Ice and Permafrost (Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks)
• The 1996 Jokulhaulp; Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge
• Canadian Ice Service
• Ice-Core Evidence of Rapid Climate Shift During the Termination of the Little Ice Age (M.M. Reddy, D.L. Naftz, P.F. Schuster, USGS)
• Global Ice Core Research
• Stelmo's Glaciers (LOTS of links to glacial material)
• The Crevasse Zone (glacier velocity and surface elevation research on the Juneau Ice Field, Alaska, S. McGee)
• Satellite Image Atlas of Glaciers of the World (USGS)
  • South America
  • Irian Jaya, Indonesia and New Zealand

Karst

• Karst Link Page - lots of links to karst information organized by continent
• Karst Network - cave and karst research in Germany
• The Karst Waters Institute - non-profit institution whose mission is to improve the fundamental understanding of karst water systems through sound scientific research and the education of professionals and the public
• Yugoslav Karst - geology, distribution, karst features
• Biospeology - the biology of caves, karst and groundwater
• Physical Geology Tutor: Karst Features

Elevation Datasets

• Digital Topographic Data (National Geophysical Data Center)

Hydrology & Water Resources

• USGS
  • Water Resources of the United States
  • Water Data - real-time, historical daily flows & peaks, water quality
  • Water Resources of Wisconsin
  • National Water Quality Assessment Program - Western Lake Michigan Drainages
• USDA-ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory
• Index of Watershed Indicators (EPA) - information on the "health" of aquatic resources in the United States
• National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center (NOAA) - Snow cover maps and data
• Hydrology Web - Hydrology & related internet resources; extensive listing!
• Universities Water Information Network
• Dartmouth Flood Observatory
• Great Lakes
  • Great Lakes Online (University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute)
    • Great Lakes Internet Resources
  • Our Great Lakes (Environment Canada) - working towards a healthy and sustainable Great Lakes Basin ecosystem
  • The Great Lakes: An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book (Environment Canada and U.S. EPA)
  • Great Lakes Information Network
  • Visualizing the Great Lakes

Soil Science

• USDA - Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS)
  • Soil Data Resources - links to National Soil Survey, official soil survey descriptions, National Soil Information System, and more.
  • National Soil Survey Center - links to soils data, standards for soil survey, research, soil quality fact sheets, field guides and more.
    • National Soil Data Access Facility
    • Soils Photo Gallery - links to images of soil orders, profiles, landscapes, thin sections, and land use, mapping.
  • Wisconsin Soils Program
  • World Soil Resources
• Soil Taxonomy: The Twelve Soil Orders (U. Idaho Soil Science Div.)
• USLE (Universal Soil Loss Equation) Database (USDA-ARS)
• AGNPS-GRASS Interface (Purdue University, Dept. of Agricultural engineering) - distributed parameter model that predicts soil erosion and nutrient transport loading.

Reference Material & Publications

• NOAA Photo Collection  - hundreds of public domain photographs of marine life, weather phenomena, severe storms, tornadoes, scientists, ocean scenes, etc.
• USGS Fact Sheet collection - dozens of fact sheets concerning natural resources (oil and gas, mining, etc.) , environmental hazards (lanslides, volcanoes, earthquakes, etc.), the environment (wetlands, pesticides, water quality, coastal issues, etc.), and information management.
• The Earth from Space - Astronauts' views of the home planet; a dataset of astronaut acquired imagery of earth from the NASA Space Shuttle Earth Observations Photography database.
• NASA's Visible Earth - a searchable directory of images, visualizations and animations of the Earth.
• The Physical Environment - Free online textbook including multimedia and self assessment features. Michael Ritter, University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point.

Information Servers

• National Climatic Data Center
• National Geophysical Data Center
• Climate Diagnostics Center
• U.S. Geological Survey
• East Anglia Home Page Oceanography, Meteorology, Climatology
• Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
• NASA JPL Earth Sciences - Links to resources related to the atmosphere, land and oceans.
• NASA Subject Index
• NASA GISS (Goddard Institute for Space Studies) - climate modeling, earth observations, data sets and images.
• Earth Observatory (NASA)
• National Geodetic Survey Division (GPS programs, etc.)
• National Center for Atmospheric Research
• NOAA Home Page
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• Canadian Information Servers
  • Canada Centre for Remote Sensing
  • Geodetic Survey of Canada
  • Geological Survey of Canada
  • Geomatics Canada
  • Geophysical Atlas of Canada
  • National Atlas of Canada
  • Meteorological Service of Canada

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Photo Credit: USDA NRCS Photo Library

 Maintained by Karen A. Lemke (klemke@uwsp.edu). Last revised 8/29/01 KAL.