Lab 7
For lab 7 we got to choose a theme to map. I chose to create a qualitative map of the distribution of common carp (Cyprinus carpio). I plan on doing my senior project in geography on this specie and thought it would be useful to create a map showing the distribution of carp by country. My four nominal classes are “Native”, “Introduced”, “Not-established”, and “No carp”. Native means the fish have existed in a country naturally without introduction by humans. Introduced means humans have transported the fish into a particular country and that wild reproducing populations have established. Not-established refers to when the fish has been transported into a country but wild populations are not established (e.g. isolated occurrences of individual carp or used in aquaculture). No carp refers to countries with no record of carp within its borders.
I chose to use a Mercator projection as a base map but I caution map readers to realize that the areas are highly distorted. Countries are colored in entirety for the class they are in and it is important to consider that carp may not be present throughout the entire country (far northern Canada and Russia and their islands for example). I used a Mercator to preserve shape so that the countries are easily recognized and to avoid shape distortion along the map’s edges.
.