Nature Atlas

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Nature Atlas

Disputed Statements

Claims this atlas currently marks as unsettled or as tested and found false. A debated fact is one scholars hold competing positions on; a debunked one has been checked against the record and found not to hold. Both are kept in view rather than quietly smoothed over, with the reasoning that put each one where it stands.

28 statements marked Debated.

Marine, Annual Precipitation (mm)990.000000

Marine, Biomes

Standing

Concerns Annual Precipitation (mm)

Currently States 990.000000

990mm is the source's global LAND+OCEAN average annual precipitation figure; the source does not isolate an ocean-only figure. True oceanic precipitation is understood to run higher than this global blend (ocean evaporation exceeds ocean precipitation, balanced by land) and varies enormously by latitude, from near zero over the subtropical gyres to well over 3000mm under the tropical convergence zone. No single settled ocean-specific figure was found on an accessible source.

Source Precipitation (Wikipedia)

Monarch Butterfly, Conservation StatusEndangered

Monarch Butterfly, Species

Standing

Concerns Conservation Status

Currently States Endangered

The IUCN assessed the migratory monarch subpopulation as Endangered in 2022, while the species as a whole, including non-migratory populations outside North America, is not separately listed; national assessments in the United States have proposed but not finalized Endangered Species Act protection. This atlas records the migratory population's IUCN status as the honest current answer rather than a single unqualified figure.

Source IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

Monarch Butterfly, Population Estimate225000000.000000

Monarch Butterfly, Species

Standing

Concerns Population Estimate

Currently States 225000000.000000

Monarch numbers are commonly measured by the area of forest their overwintering colonies occupy in Mexico rather than by a direct count of individuals, then converted to a population estimate; the conversion factor itself is debated among researchers, and year-to-year totals have swung by an order of magnitude, so any single figure understates the volatility.

Okavango Delta, Area (sq km)15000.000000

Okavango Delta, Ecosystems

Standing

Concerns Area (sq km)

Currently States 15000.000000

The flooded extent of the delta varies seasonally from roughly 6,000 square kilometers in the dry season to as much as 15,000 to 22,000 square kilometers at peak flood; this figure reflects a commonly cited maximum extent.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Pantanal, Area (sq km)150000.000000

Pantanal, Ecosystems

Standing

Concerns Area (sq km)

Currently States 150000.000000

Estimates range from roughly 150,000 to 195,000 square kilometers depending on the boundary definition used and seasonal flood extent; this figure reflects a commonly cited conservative estimate.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Sumatran Tiger, Population Estimate600.000000

Sumatran Tiger, Species

Standing

Concerns Population Estimate

Currently States 600.000000

Published estimates for the remaining wild population range from under 400 to roughly 600 individuals depending on survey year and method; camera-trap-based density estimates for a wide-ranging, low-density forest predator carry substantially more uncertainty than a count of a visible, aggregated species, so this figure is the upper end of recent published estimates, not a settled number.

Source IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

Tropical Dry Forest, Annual Precipitation (mm)1500.000000

Tropical Dry Forest, Biomes

Standing

Concerns Annual Precipitation (mm)

Currently States 1500.000000

Bioclimatic definitions disagree on bounds: Murphy and Lugo set 250 to 2000 mm annually, FAO sets 500 to 1500 mm, and the DryFlor network sets up to 1800 mm; Wikipedia's Seasonal Tropical Forest entry gives a typical 1000 to 2500 mm range. This entry uses a representative midpoint rather than asserting one agreed figure.

Source Tropical Dry Forest Bioclimatic Definitions (PMC)

Vaquita, Population Estimate10.000000

Vaquita, Species

Standing

Concerns Population Estimate

Currently States 10.000000

Acoustic and visual survey estimates in the low double digits and falling; because the species is small, shy and now extremely rare, individual surveys disagree on the exact count from one year to the next and some individuals may go undetected, so no published figure is treated as a precise census, only as evidence the population is critically small. This atlas records the lower end of recently published estimates rather than implying false precision.

Source IUCN Red List of Threatened Species