Send in your “wildlife” photos, please, and remember that “wildlife” includes landscapes and “street photography.” All I ask is that the photos be of high quality. Thanks—and thanks to the many readers whose contributions have kept this feature going for years.
Today, as fall has apparently arrived for good, we have some fall photos from Gregory James. His note is brief:
Since the definition of “wildlife” has broadened, I’ll offer a few photos from along Lake Michigan the last day or two.
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Beautiful, Greg! I especially like the 3rd pic. Is the swirly grey surface water?
Yes. It is a pool at the end of a creek flowing into the lake. It looks a bit like ice, but it isn’t. (Temps in mid-low 60’s that day.)
Gorgeous! We had a very colorful hike around here (north of Toronto) on Sunday.
The Lake Michigan shore is a wonderland. Beautiful sand dunes, tall red oak/white pine/beach forests, a lake that looks like the ocean.
Nice photos Gregory! Thanks for sharing these. Fall is coming on fast now.
These are lovely! Thank you for sharing.
A long time reader here. If I would like to share a few wildlife photos, what is the email address for submitting? Thanks.
Just google my name and university name. It’ll give you my work email.
I grew up in southern Michigan and your beautiful photos brought back fond memories of my autumn sojourns to the forested shores of Lake Michigan. Thanks!
What is the adaptive advantage for a temperate tree to produce colorful foliage at leaf fall? Tropical trees, when they change leaves, do not do this.
I don’t think it is adaptive. It is the result of chlorophyll being lost and no longer absorbing red light. At least I think I remember that from reading about it long ago. A spandrel.
I don’t think it is adaptive. It is the result of chlorophyll being lost and no longer absorbing red light. At least I think I remember that from reading about it long ago. A spandrel.
No idea why that repeated!
Let me repeat and clarify. What is the adaptive pressure that has caused a wide variety of taxonomically distinct temperate zone tree species across North America and Eurasia to produce colorful foliage prior to leaf fall in autumn, whereas even a larger set of tree species in the forests of South America, Africa, SE Asia, and Australia, even species that remain leafless several months during the dry season, almost never produce colorful “fall” foliage?
I am asking Why fall foliage in the north temperate zone forests is colorful, not How anthocyanins are deposited to make it so, which is a separate question.
A botanist could be more authoritative but it likely has to do with temperatures. In any case, I don’t think it has anything much to do to adaptation “for” color.
Here is one possible adaptive explanation for colorful fall foliage of temperate zone trees:
Migrating birds may learn to use color to find trees that are metabolically “turning off”, consequently with plentiful plant-feeding insects “abandoning the ship”, so to say, insects that might reinfest the very same tree after hibernating through the winter. Trees with stronger signaling would be more effectively cleaned of parasites by migrating insectivorous birds.
Tropical trees would gain little advantage from signaling. Tropical birds tend to be resident year around in local forest patches where they can learn which local trees, whether or not these are shedding leaves, momentarily provide the best food rewards. In this case, bright foliage might be physiological costly without a compensating ecological benefit and would not evolve.
There are probably other better hypotheses than this one.
By the time the leaves turn, most birds have already headed south, at least around here. The birds now passing through are bigger, geese and cranes. Not woodland birds. Those still around are, I think, more likely to overwinter in place. Adaptation is not needed to explain fall colors.
Beautiful photos. Trees ARE wildlife!