Atlas of the Biosphere

The Atlas of the Biosphere is our online resource targeted to high school students, university students and teachers. It contains maps with geographically explicit data broken down into four general categories: humans, land use, ecosystems, and water resources. The atlas also contains schematics that look at the various resource flows and pools that make up individual Earth systems.

You may download maps (at 1600×1200 pixel resolution) and/or data (as an ESRI ArcView grid). The atlas also includes animated schematics that look at the various resource flows and pools that make up individual Earth systems.

If you use any of the maps from the Atlas of the Biosphere in any publication, please cite “The Nelson Institute Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, University of Wisconsin-Madison” as the source.

About the Atlas of the Biosphere

The Atlas of the Biosphere was created as a master’s thesis project of the University of Wisconsin’s Nelson Institute Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE). The project goal was to provide information about the environment and human interactions with the environment. We have no additional information regarding the data or sources other than what is listed on the site. If you have any questions regarding a particular dataset, please contact the original author of that dataset.