Rural geographers may investigate how the countryside is being transformed by new economic linkages and how location affects agricultural potential. Development geographers are concerned with why some places are poor whereas other places are wealthy. Cultural geographers seek to unravel the mysteries of human economic and cultural difference. Physical geographers may investigate the ecological limits of plant species, and how location matters to survival. Others may investigate how climate variablity affects species composition or how distinct soil landscapes are formed.
All geographers are fundamentally interested in how places are interconnected, yet remain unique.
Some specialize in social science and seek to identify the social dynamics which are harmful to the natural environment. They may investigate how cattle ranching in Latin America is causing soil degradation, how consumer culture in industrial cities contributes to ecological destruction in tropical forests, or how pesticide runoff from modern agriculture contaminates groundwater in the Midwest. They may focus on environmental planning and risk management. Other human-environment geographers specialize in the natural sciences and seek to understand how natural systems operate and how they are impacted by society. These geographers may investigate how soil erosion is influenced by different land use practices, how lake or river ecosystems are changed by city contaminants, or what type of forests maximize water availability to an urban center.