Final answer:
Physical geography, including landscape, climate, and natural resources, has greatly influenced economic activities in the north, leading to a reliance on primary industries like forestry and fishing and dictating the development of agricultural practices and shifts to service-oriented economies in urban areas.
Step-by-step explanation:
The physical geography of the north has had a significant impact on the economic activities in the region. In the US Northeast and its surrounding territory, which has been the traditional economic core of North America, the economy has become increasingly reliant on primary industries such as forestry and fishing as you move northward. This is partly due to the climate and the natural resources that are available in the New England, the Canadian Maritimes, and Quebec areas.
Agriculture and mining have seen a decline in the South; however, the rise of tertiary and quaternary industries has attracted new migrants to urban and suburban areas, highlighting a shift away from manual labor and towards the service sector and information economy. Additionally, the Midwest and the Great Plains, known as North America's breadbasket due to their agricultural productivity, are able to maintain a high output even with a more arid climate, thanks to methods such as irrigation.
Understanding the economic impacts of physical geography, it's clear that the availability of natural resources, the cost of transportation for goods, and the proximity to markets as explained in the model by Johann von Thünen, greatly influence where and how economic activities develop. Furthermore, the physical geography can dictate not only the economic base of a region but also its social and cultural dynamics, as seen in the Pacific Northwest with its dependency on salmon fishing and the structured societies enabled by natural resources' abundance.