30-40 yrs of vegetation change of Mizunara oak forest in the eastern Japan

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K00564
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Environmental impact assessment
• Research Institution: Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Hoshino Yoshinobu 東京農工大学, (連合)農学研究科(研究院), 教授 (00143636)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 吉川 正人 東京農工大学, (連合)農学研究科(研究院), 准教授 (80313287)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 種組成変化 / 種多様性 / シカ影響

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To clarify the recent change of species composition and species diversity of Mizunara forest in the eastern Japan and to detect the cause of these changes, such as abandonment of coppice management and influence of deer browsing, resampling of vegetation at the same plot of surveyed from 1970 to 1980 was done from 2015 to 2017. Occurrences of grassland species and pioneer tree and shrub were decreased. Effects of deer were observed in more than half of the plots in Hokkaido, but the decrease of species number in light-impact stands was lower than that of no-impact stands. Disturbances by light impact of deer maintained species richness of plant at stand level. From the results of NMDS ordination, I found that the first axis of the ordination correlated to winter climate conditions and the second axis correlated to temperature in the growing season, respectively. Major changes in species composition of the forest were the result of forest development toward mature stage in succession.

Free Research Field

植生管理学