Nearby Nature GigaBlitz finalists, 12/2011 > Dairy Bush GigaPan - 122 - December 22 2011 by Alex Smith

Dairy Bush GigaPan - 122 - December 22 2011

Year 3 - Week 17 - 360°

The urban environment is expanding at a never before seen rate. Existing natural environments within urban centres, such as forests or woodlots, are exposed to increasing anthropogenic pressures of degradation, fragmentation, biological invasion and destruction.

One key to our capacity to understanding these changes will be ongoing monitoring through time. If such monitoring is democratized and publicly available then one may assume that a marginalized environment may become more valued by the human population. On the University of Guelph campus in Ontario, Canada, the ìDairy Bushî is an 8.5 ha woodlot that has been part of the city and the university campus since 1830. The sign outside the Bush reads, "The Dairy Bush is a unique and delicate example of Great Lakes St. Lawrence forest in Southern Ontario, and serves as an outdoor laboratory for University of Guelph students."

Starting in August 2009 and continuing once per week until this moment I visit the Dairy Bush weekly to document time in this urban woodlot using GigaPan panoramic images.

A cool, overcast morning but no snow or rain while taking the panorama. The bush was active with squirrels and white-breasted nuthatches while I was there. The last Dairy Bush GigaPan of 2011!

Check out the panorama with Google Earth's browser plug-in: bit.ly/rLmTtP 
Last weeks' GigaPan: www.gigapan.org/gigapans/94738
Next week's GigaPan: gigapan.org/gigapans/95951
I've extracted images from a year of Dairy Bush GigaPans to illustrate the rapid decomposition of the leaf litter in this forest associated with the presence of non-native worms. The forest floor is changing! www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRRv09_oF5w 
There is a timelapse video of the second year of the Dairy Bush GigaPan on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCEdsV_kki4 . (yr 1 is below)

The low-resolution timelapse video of the first year of the Dairy Bush GigaPan to YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uImvGH1dq-o 
Latitude: 43.52489 Longitude: -80.23771 Heading: 321 Elevation: 10m