Elevation Contours for Study Area of the Forest Ecosystem Dynamics Project Spatial Data Archive

Forest Ecosystem Dynamics (FED) Project Spatial Data Archive: Elevation Contours for the Northern Experimental Forest

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 elevation contours for the 10 X 10 km area located within the Northern Experimental Forest. Contours and elevation benchmarks from the United States Geological Survey 7.5" Maine quadsheets for Howland and Lagrange were digitized, and elevation data in feet were added.

The data was revised by projecting it into NAD83 datum by L. Prihodko at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Although the data was received at GSFC with an undeclared datum, it was assumed to be in North American Datum of 1927 (NAD27) because the original map from which the data were digitized was in NAD27. Also, the data fit exactly within the bounds of the FED site grid (even Universal Transverse Mercator projections) in NAD27. After projecting the data into NAD83 it was checked to insure that the change was a linear translation of the coordinates.