Howland Forest Map of the Forest Ecosystem Dynamics Project Spatial Data Archive

Forest Ecosystem Dynamics (FED) Project Spatial Data Archive: Howland Township Forest Map

The Biospheric Sciences Branch (formerly Earth Resources Branch) within the Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and associated University investigators are involved in a research program entitled Forest Ecosystem Dynamics (FED) which is fundamentally concerned with vegetation change of forest ecosystems at local to regional spatial scales (100 to 10,000 meters) and temporal scales ranging from monthly to decadal periods (10 to 100 years). The nature and extent of the impacts of these changes, as well as the feedbacks to global climate, may be addressed through modeling the interactions of the vegetation, soil, and energy components of the boreal ecosystem.

The Howland Forest research site lies within the Northern Experimental Forest of International Paper. The natural stands in this boreal-northern hardwood transitional forest consist of spruce-hemlock-fir, aspen-birch, and hemlock-hardwood mixtures. The topography of the region varies from flat to gently rolling, with a maximum elevation change of less than 68 m within 10 km. Due to the region's glacial history, soil drainage classes within a small area may vary widely, from well drained to poorly drained. Consequently, an elaborate patchwork of forest communities has developed, supporting exceptional local species diversity.

This data layer contains forest polygons with information on cover type, volume, and crown closure for both the forest overstory and understory for the Township of Howland located in Penobscot County, Maine. The map was digitized, projected and differentially corrected using Global Positioning System points. Forest types were determined by delineation from color infrared photographs. Note that the USGS records show that the orthophotoquads from which the data were digitized are in the Transverse Mercator projection. The printed map grid on both Howland and Edinburg maps is in the Universal Transverse Mercator projection. So, although the Edinburg map states that base map and control are from a Polyconic projection, (the Howland does not mention projection) the original base maps were assumed to be in the Transverse Mercator.