POTW 10-17-10

<p>A picture from the old part of my town, Oporto (Portugal), with the cathedral on the top left and the 2 deck bridge on the right. On the bottom right, through the arch of the bridge, you can see some Port Wine cellars. This part of town is classified as World Heritage by Unesco.<br>

K10D, FA-1:2-35-al, f 6.7 @ 1/180, ISO 100</p><div></div>

<p><em>The midwest forest have mostly just a few different species making up 95+% of the forest.</em><br>

Justin.<br>

Of this statement I have to disagree.<br>

The forests that I know of in Indiana and Minnesota (the later depending on where you are in the state) rarely are exclusively one species. It is more true where there is no water courses or significant topography, but even then there is still significant tree diversity. In my experience there is incredible diversity in the woods of the midwest.<br>

To put that to the test I pulled out my trusty "Audubon Society Guide to Trees of the Eastern Region". Using the range maps I quickly compared the number of trees in each state. So comparing the number of native trees there are about 11 more species of trees in Indiana than NY. New York has more conifer diversity, but Indiana has significantly more deciduous tree diversity.<br>

Next time you are in the neighborhood try a visit to Hoosier National Forest. It is the largest continuous National forest east of the Mississippi and it is a remarkable place. </p>

<p>doug,<br /><br />how many species did you come up with for indiana? I have 150 for the adirondacks alone. My data definitely conflicts with yours. I'll look for more data on density per acre of trees.<br /><br />I'll have to do a little more research on this for indiana too, but I'm doubtful there is more density per acre of various species. bear in mind NY stradles different biomes, and much more elevation than indiana. A lot of the differences in say conifer vs hardwood has to do with both elevation and latitude which changover quite abruptly. Not sure if you've been up this way but it's pretty amazing how quickly you move between types of forest both in the car and on the trail. </p>

<p>Justin,<br>

Well, looks like I should have looked before I leaped, you are correct about diversity in Midwest Forests. So much for my Audubon Guide! (I should have stuck to my Peterson Guides!)<br>

http://www.eoearth.org/article/Central_U.S._hardwood_forests<br>

I'm a *little* correct though (I need to save some dignity here). There is a bit more diversity than you first suggested, but a lot less than I suggested.<br>

Flipping through the pages I would have guessed the most diversity in the US was in the southern Appalachians. Certainly it is a biohot spot for animal diversity in North America. </p>

 

<p>Went for a little fall scouting this weekend around Boone's Fork Pond, the colors are looking pretty goood this year.</p><div></div>

<p>Asheville, NC, this weekend: The autumn colors were rather disappointing. My photos from the trip are not very impressive, but I am posting a couple so you can see what the colors were like at the Grove Park Inn (elevation: about 3200 feet) and off the Blue Ridge Parkway within a few miles of Asheville. </p><div></div>

<p>This is an "aerial view" from the Blue Ridge Parkway a few miles south of Asheville on Saturday. That is the Biltmore House off in the distance. Notice all the green trees. </p><div></div>

<p>Even using a polarizer did not do much for the Asheville area leaf colors. Got a nice blue sky out of it, though.</p><div></div>

<p>Another shot from around the pond ...</p><div></div>

<p>Whoops, I used Flickr's "replace" feature on my Cows & Colors shot to make the sky a little more natural looking and it looks like the url may have changed. So here it is again.<br>

<a title="IMGP2002 by MattB (somedudeus), on Flickr" href=" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4149/5087406412_0523eb6ea3_z.jpg" alt="IMGP2002" width="640" height="426" /></a></p>

<p>Doug,</p>

<p>No problem. Your numbers actually perplexed me all day at work. Made the day go much faster!</p>

<p>Interestingly, if the <a href="http://www.apa.state.ny.us/">APA site</a> ever comes back up, NYS DEC via SUNY ESF has done some really great work with GIS data. Even down to mapping out forest species to ridiculous detail. Linked an example below...</p>

<p><img src="http://www.esf.edu/aec/research/ump_files/ecosys.jpg" alt="" width="1540" height="1168" /></p>

<p>Fauna it would seem is not our strong point vs. the southeast...only 53 species of mammals vs. 65 in GSMNP. About half as many reptiles and amphibians, but we do have more birds (breeding and sighted) than GSMNP.</p>

<p> </p>

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<p>Nick, I love and am impressed by the M50/4 image of your daughter too...wondering about shooting data, you really created something pretty nice indoors with a relatively slow lens. I don't see obvious flash use, and of course there's no EXIF available...can you estimate what you did? Shooting aperture, approximate shutter speed, film and scanning used, did you use tripod or flash? Or does your kitchen just have a lot more light than mine does...</p>

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<p>Thanks Andrew! If only I still had my MZ-S, I could read the EXIF-type data off the bottom of the negative. No such luck with the Ricoh, of course. (Although otherwise a very highly-featured camera.)</p>

<p>I am pretty sure it was wide open, using Kodak high definition ISO 400 film (I love that stuff). Shutter speed was probably 1/60, maybe as slow as 1/30, not much higher than 1/125. There is a large window behind me facing south, so there is often a fair amount of light coming it, and the yellow table makes a nice reflector for this type of picture. I took 3, one was blurry, and one was mid-bite, so less appealing. :-)</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Great work everyone. Highlights for me were:<br /><br />Justin - both of yours are really nice. <br />Dorus - the droplets! How?<br />Robert - On Broad St. #2 is fun. Great use of the fisheye.<br />Haig - All three are super nice but the first stands out for me. <br />Miguel - the photo of your town is really nice. Makes me want to go there!</p>