Some of the most accessible sources for African maps are the new atlases which have been published since World War II. If we interpret the term “atlas” loosely so as to include any assemblage of maps which can be placed on a book shelf, the range of subject materials covered is surprisingly large -- from agriculture to zoogeography. But despite the wealth of data which is presented in convenient map form, it is difficult to obtain information about atlases and their contents. The purpose of this article is to provide a guide to the kinds of information which is available, and a list of atlases and other publications with African maps which have appeared since 1945.

The analysis is based mainly upon atlases examined at the Map Division in the Library of Congress, at the American Geographical Society in New York, and at the University of California, Los Angeles. A few additional atlases were obtained through inter-library loan. Mrs. Clara Egli LeGear, of the Map Division, Library of Congress, provided especially helpful bibliographic aid at the early stages of the survey. This article is a part of a research project supported by the African Studies Center at U. C. L. A. More extension listings of African maps and atlases are in preparation; the authors would therefore welcome comments upon errors or omissions which may be noted in the article.

This listing of recent African atlases is supplementary to that published in thisBulletin, October 1962. As in that article, atlases have been grouped according to major areas covered, and contents classified. Subject headings are: historical (hist.), physical and terrain (phys.), geology (geol.), climate (dim.), vegetation (veg.), soils, hydrography and irrigation (hydro.), political and administrative (pol.), agriculture and land use (agric.), forestry (for.), minerals and mining (min.), transportation (trans.), communications (commo.), miscellaneous economic (misc. econ.), population (pop.), tribes and races (trib.), languages (lang.), religious (relig.), health and diseases (health), African regions (regional), city and vicinity (city), other African subjects (other sub.), and non-African or extra-regional areas (other areas).

This analysis is based mainly upon atlases examined at the Map Division in the Library of Congress, the American Geographical Society in New York, and the University of California, Los Angeles. This article is part of a research project supported by the African Studies Center at UCLA. The authors welcome comments on errors or omissions.

One of the problems encountered in doing many types of research on Africa is the absence of adequate bibliographical materials on maps. It is true that reliable maps at the desired scales do not exist for some features or areas of Africa. Often, however, the maps do exist but are so scattered through map files and journals and other publications that finding them is a research job in itself. Unlike the situation on books, periodicals, and journal articles, there are only a few references which deal with the nature and availability of African maps, and none of these cover all types of maps.

The range of subjects covered by maps, of course, is enormous--from natural features like the amount of rainfall or types of soils to cultural topics like population distribution, tribal areas, and agricultural products. The major purposes here will be to describe the common types of maps of Africa, to give some suggestions on their uses and availability, and to list a few references which give further information. The authors are making a survey of maps of Africa which is supported by the African Studies Center of U.C.L.A. and welcome this opportunity to call attention to the problems and scope of the project.

Knowledge of the status of ecosystems is vital to help develop and implement conservation strategies. This is particularly relevant to the Arctic where the need for biodiversity conservation and monitoring has long been recognised, but where issues of local capacity and logistic barriers make surveys challenging. This paper demonstrates how long-term monitoring programmes outside the Arctic can contribute to developing composite trend indicators, using monitoring of annual abundance and population-level reproduction of species of migratory Arctic-breeding waterbirds on their temperate non-breeding areas. Using data from the UK and the Netherlands, countries with year-round waterbird monitoring schemes and supporting relevant shares of Arctic-breeding populations of waterbirds, we present example multi-species abundance and productivity indicators related to the migratory pathways used by different biogeographical populations of Arctic-breeding wildfowl and wader species in the East Atlantic Flyway. These composite trend indicators show that long-term increases in population size have slowed markedly in recent years and in several cases show declines over, at least, the last decade. These results constitute proof of concept. Some other non-Arctic countries located on the flyways of Arctic-breeding waterbirds also annually monitor abundance and breeding success, and we advocate that future development of “Arctic waterbird indicators” should be as inclusive of data as possible to derive the most robust outputs and help account for effects of current changes in non-breeding waterbird distributions. The incorporation of non-Arctic datasets into assessments of the status of Arctic biodiversity is recognised as highly desirable, because logistic constraints in monitoring within the Arctic region limit effective population-scale monitoring there, in effect enabling “monitoring at a distance”.

This systematic review aims to evaluate the effectiveness of various physical environmental enrichment items such as brushes, ropes, teats, chains, balls, cowhides/blocks, at improving the welfare of indoor-housed calves, heifers, and cattle. This review of 33 peer-reviewed papers and one industry report evaluated different welfare-related outcomes following physical environmental enrichment, including feed intake, lying time, play and exploratory behaviour, aggression, stereotypic behaviour and cross-sucking behaviour. The results of the meta-analysis revealed that calves and heifers enrolled in experimental studies using enrichment items had significantly improved growth rates, and increased locomotor play, but the overall reduction in cross-sucking behaviour was small and non-significant. The effect of enrichment on feed intake, aggression/stereotypic behaviour, play behaviour, cleanliness score contrasted between studies, with some reporting improvements while others showed no effect of environmental enrichment in these parameters. The risk of bias assessment revealed limitations in researcher blinding, sequence generation, and allocation concealment across the literature assessing the effectiveness of environmental enrichment on animal welfare. Overall, this review underscores the significant positive impact of physical enrichment on the welfare and behaviour of indoor-housed cattle, while highlighting the need for further research to optimise enrichment strategies across different cattle age groups and housing conditions.