Chapter+Questions

Chapter one: Location, general terrain: The Republic of the Sudan, or Sudan is located in northeast Africa. It is bordered by Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Chad and Libya. It is also bordered by the Red Sea. The Nile rived runs straight through it from north to south, dividing the country into east and west portions. It is the largest country in Africa and the tenth largest in the world. The terrain is mostly flat plains, but includes several mountain ranges including the Jebel Marra to the west, the Red Sea Hills to the east, and the highest mountain Mount Kinyeti Imatong near Uganda. The terrain is arid towards the north, including the Nubian desert, but towards the south it becomes very wet including both swamps, and rainforest. Languages and Literacy: Official languages include Aribic and English, but Nubian, Ta Bedawie, diverse dialects of Nilotic, Nilo-Hamitic, and Sudanic languages are also widely spoken. Sudan is a LDC or Less Developed Country because of the literacy rate which is %61.1 and because it is located in sub-Saharan Africa.

Economy: Sudan has an estimated GDP of $54.68 billion. The growth rate is estimated at 4.2% which is significantly smaller than it has been in the past two years leading to the conclusion that this growth is not sustainable.

Ecological Footprint: (Global hectares per person) || 1.06 || 1.00 || Judging by the fact that 40% of the population is below the poverty line, I would say that the citizens to not suffer from "Afluenza".
 * Year ||= 1999 ||= 2001 ||
 * Ecological Footprint

Native Dress: includes the jallabiya and tob (Jalabiya) (tob)

Chapter two: Describe a typical food web: A typical food web consists of several food chains linked together, it includers decomposers, producers, consumers and sometimes tertiary consumers all organized into trophic levels of energy. In the sudan a typical food web might consist of a desert food web (cacti, insects, rodents, snakes, wild dogs etc) a rain forest food web, a mountain food web, swamp food web, river or plains food web. Both gross and net primary productivity are optimized because of the harsh climates. But are obviously varied because of the different ecosystems found. Producers include cacti, scrub brush, various grasses and rainforest plants. Herbivores include animals as large as elephants and as small as elephant-shrews. there are more than 287 mamal species located in sudan. Omnivores include monkeys, and bats. Carnivores include Shrews, moles, wild dogs, and typical desert predators. Water is a precious commodity in Sudan and irrigation systems take a toll on the hydrological cycle. The carbon cycle is minimally effected compared to the west, but it is a moderatly developed country with some emmisions. The nitrogen cycle is also somewhat impacted because of farming fertilizers. There is a study being done on using the agro-ecosystems as a carbon-sink.

Chapter 4: The rainforest provides a hotspot for biodiversity, and the rivers, especially the nile also contain large amounts of plant and animal species diversity. Several human skeletons were found in sudan pointing to craniofacial development in the human fossil record supporting evolution. In the nubian desert biome, the extreme heat and lack of moisture are the primary climate conditions driving natural selection. In the southern portions of sudan, the rainforest and swamp areas, the extremely wet and humid conditions are the primary climate conditions driving evolutions. In the plains and river areas the climate is normally temperate, but the occasional extreme dry spells leading to drought are the primary climate conditions that drive natural selection. There are a few species which are now nearly extinct in the sudanese area including the cheeta and the addax. the major causes are the hunting habits of humans and the removal of large populations of prey for the cheetah, and the plants which the addax primarily eats are being removed. The shark population on the sudanese coast of the red sea are a keystone species, the ray poplation is an indicator species.