GEOG 1001 : Test 2 Study Guide
GEOG 1001: Study Guide for Exam 2
This guide should be used as a guide for studying your lecture notes, the slides I have put on Moodle,
and the relevant chapter in the textbook. This test will be based upon Chapter 3, so you should reread it.
Words in BOLD are generally highlighted in the textbook and refer to that paragraph/section. Key
concepts and ideas that you should know are:
1) How many people in total live in the Russian Federation, Central Asia and the Transcaucasus
• 323 million people
2) The average GNI PPP per capita in the Russian Federation, Central Asia and the Transcaucasus
• $7456
3) Understand the VASTNESS of this region
• Arctic sea to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the east, mountains to the south, and Europe to the
west
4) Which parts of the region are affected by SEVERE CLIMATES
• Nearly half of the territory of Russian Federation is north of 60 degrees North
• Pronounced high-pressure systems develop over Siberia in winter, bringing clear skies and calm
air
• Average January temperatures in Verkhoyansk, a mining center in the center of middle of this
high-pressure area, hover around -58 F
5) Know what PERMAFROST is
• Long and intense winters so that the subsoil is permanently frozen
6) Which parts of the region are affected by ARIDITY
• Central Asia
7) Which country in the region has a MEDITERRANEAN climate
• Transcaucus
8) The positive and negative effects of climate change in the region
• Positive: longer growing seasons
• Negative: melting of permafrost
9) Changing climatic and geopolitical issues in THE ARCTIC
• Because of global warming, temperatures are rising and the extent of ice in the Arctic is
decreasing rapidly
• For the first time, the seafloor will be accessible to extensive resource development involving
drilling for oil and natural gas
• Polar bears will be deprived of their natural habitat
• Opening of ice mean sthe creation of a new world region
o The geopolitical contest for the control of this area has already begun, with Russia,
Norway, Denmark, Canada, and the United States making legal claims on the region
o In August 2007, the Russian government sent two tiny submarines to plant the Russian
flag on the Arctic seafloor
10) Which body of water is the largest inland sea in the world, and which lake is the deepest
• Caspian Sea at 371,000 square kilometers
• Lake Baykal with a depth of 1615 meters
11) TUNDRA, TAIGA, MIXED FOREST, STEPPE, SEMIDESERT, DESERT. Where do these landscapes
exist in the region, and what are their defining characteristics
• Tundra-an arctic wilderness where the climate precludes any agriculture or forestry
o Covers 2.16 million square kilometers, representing almost 13% of the Russian
Federation
o Most northerly
o Arctic wilderness
▪ Winters: weak daylight; snow
▪ Summers: long days; bogs and marshes
o Indigenous peoples
▪ Reindeer herders
• Taiga- used to describe the entire zone of coniferous forest that stretches from the Gulf of
Finland to the Kamchatka Peninsula—more than 4.4 million square kilometers
o It is uniformly covered in characteristic forests made up of larches: hardy, flat-rooted
trees that can establish themselves above permafrost
o Largest zone
o Coniferous forest: spruce, fir, and pine
o Fur-bearing animals
• Mixed forest- stands of mixed woodland arise, mostly in valley bottoms; this one was cleared
and cultivated early in Russian history
o Large-scale logging opperations → loosely regulated
o Environmental concerns
• Steppe- large area of flat grassland or prairie
o Stretches about 4000 kilometers from the Carpathians to the Altay Mountains covering
more than 4.25 million square kilometers
o Cleared for agriculture: wheat farming; dry-farming methods
o Strikingly flat, punctuated here and there by streams and river valleys
• Semidesert and desert- Central Asia with salt pans and boulder-strewn landscapes
o Nomadic pastoralists
o Kara-Kum (black sands) and Kyzyl-Kum (red sands)
o Desert farming
12) When did the RUSSIAN EMPIRE begin to spread, where from, and in what directions did it
Document Summary
This guide should be used as a guide for studying your lecture notes, the slides i have put on moodle, and the relevant chapter in the textbook. This test will be based upon chapter 3, so you should reread it. Words in bold are generally highlighted in the textbook and refer to that paragraph/section. Norway, denmark, canada, and the united states making legal claims on the region. Lake baykal with a depth of 1615 meters: tundra, taiga, mixed forest, steppe, semidesert, desert. Where do these landscapes exist in the region, and what are their defining characteristics: tundra-an arctic wilderness where the climate precludes any agriculture or forestry, covers 2. 16 million square kilometers, representing almost 13% of the russian. Federation: most northerly, arctic wilderness, winters: weak daylight; snow, summers: long days; bogs and marshes. Indigenous peoples: reindeer herders, taiga- used to describe the entire zone of coniferous forest that stretches from the gulf of.
