Figure 1: A map of African population density in 2010 (a) with close-ups of south-east Nigeria (b) and Khartoum (c). Figure taken unmodified from Linard et al. (2012, fig. 1). This figure was originally published in PLoS One, under a CC-BY license. The original publication is available from http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0031743
Figure 2: A map of Africa showing the locations of each of the medium- and small-scale areas ('regions' and 'local areas' respectively) selected for this study. Regions are outlined in black, local areas in red
Figure 3: Maps of continental variation in ten environmental variables, specifically a) annual mean temperature; b) temperature seasonality; c) annual mean rainfall; d) rainfall seasonality; e) topography; f) terrain roughness; g) soils; h) surface geology; i) vegetation; j) ecoregions. Colouring and data sources/references are given in Table 1
Figure 4: Maps of east African regional variation in ten environmental variables, specifically a) annual mean temperature; b) temperature seasonality; c) annual mean rainfall; d) rainfall seasonality; e) topography; f) terrain roughness; g) soils; h) surface geology; i) vegetation; j) ecoregions. Colouring and data sources/references are as given in Table 1
Figure 5: Maps of west African regional variation in ten environmental variables, specifically a) annual mean temperature; b) temperature seasonality; c) annual mean rainfall; d) rainfall seasonality; e) topography; f) terrain roughness; g) soils; h) surface geology; i) vegetation; j) ecoregions. Colouring and data sources/references are as given in Table 1
Figure 6: Maps of central African regional variation in ten environmental variables, specifically a) annual mean temperature; b) temperature seasonality; c) annual mean rainfall; d) rainfall seasonality; e) topography; f) terrain roughness; g) soils; h) surface geology; i) vegetation; j) ecoregions. Colouring and data sources/references are as given in Table 1
Figure 7: Maps of south African regional variation in ten environmental variables, specifically a) annual mean temperature; b) temperature seasonality; c) annual mean rainfall; d) rainfall seasonality; e) topography; f) terrain roughness; g) soils; h) surface geology; i) vegetation; j) ecoregions. Colouring and data sources/references are as given in Table 1
Figure 8: Maps of east African local variation in nine environmental variables, specifically a) annual mean temperature; b) temperature seasonality; c) annual mean rainfall; d) rainfall seasonality; e) topography; f) topographic roughness; g) surface geology; h) vegetation; i) ecoregions. Colouring and data sources/references are as given in Table 1
Figure 9: Maps of west African local variation in nine environmental variables, specifically a) annual mean temperature; b) temperature seasonality; c) annual mean rainfall; d) rainfall seasonality; e) topography; f) topographic roughness; g) surface geology; h) vegetation; i) ecoregions. Colouring and data sources/references are as given in Table 1
Figure 10: Maps of central African local variation in nine environmental variables, specifically a) annual mean temperature; b) temperature seasonality; c) annual mean rainfall; d) rainfall seasonality; e) topography; f) topographic roughness; g) surface geology; h) vegetation; i) ecoregions. Colouring and data sources/references are as given in Table 1
Figure 11: Maps of south African local variation in nine environmental variables, specifically a) annual mean temperature; b) temperature seasonality; c) annual mean rainfall; d) rainfall seasonality; e) topography; f) topographic roughness; g) surface geology; h) vegetation; i) ecoregions. Colouring and data sources/references are as given in Table 1
Figure 12: A simple summary of the patterning visible in maps of African landscapes at the continental scale, and the major influences on these patterns. The yellow box represents the climate sub-system and the red box the 'physical landscape' sub-system. Moving down from one scale (say the continental) to another (say the regional) has the effect of squashing the variables into the lower half of the image, with the degree of 'squash' depending on scale and geography
Figure 13: A map of reconstructed climate conditions at the last glacial maximum, based on data from version 4.0 of the Community Climate System Model. High annual mean temperatures (up to 29.1°C) are towards the red end of the spectrum, cold ones (down to a low of -49.7°C) in blue. Note that this map, like others based on global palaeoclimatic models, supports the idea that latitudinal banding patterns, modified by underlying terrain features, were characteristic of past climates just as they are of current ones. The data for this map came from the WorldClim portal at http://www.worldclim.org/paleo-climate
Table 1: The variables and datasets used to explore spatial structure in extant African landscapes, and brief details of how each dataset is displayed
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