Ecological structure of abandoned coppice beech stands and its potential for timber production, distributed in the mountainous heavy snowfall region.

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K07474
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Forest science
• Research Institution: Niigata University
• Principal Investigator: Kamitani Tomohiko 新潟大学, 自然科学系, 教授 (40152855)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 村上 拓彦 新潟大学, 自然科学系, 准教授 (20332843) ; 箕口 秀夫 新潟大学, 自然科学系, 教授 (30291355)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 旧薪炭林 / ブナ林 / 資源評価 / 天然更新 / 木材利用

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In the mountainous heavy snowfall region, we examined the possibility of sustainable beech forestry, due to effective estimation of beech volume in stand scale, measurement of available beech round timber from stand volume, criteria for sustainable harvest of selective logging and thinning, furthermore, ecological character.
On GIS system, we cut the study area of 700 hectares into the mesh size of 50 meters and then estimated stand volume in each mesh from an equation with tree crown area measured on the aerial photos. Following the total stand volume, we proposed a group selection system in an analogous manner to primeval forests recurring in cycle of one hundred years. Intense thinning should be effective for growing sufficiently of the high dense seedlings regenerated in advance. We also showed that the trees with hollows should be left for nesting site as much as possible in a harvest stand for the biodiversity forest management.

Free Research Field

森林生態学