Forests under climate change and fragmentation

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K18719
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Forest science
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Nishioka Masae (石原正恵) 京都大学, フィールド科学教育研究センター, 准教授 (90594367)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 生物多様性 / 樹木群集 / 森林

Outline of Final Research Achievements

According to recent reports, forest tree composition has been changing in many places globally. This phenomenon has been understood as the effect of climate change given that tree species distribution and composition are determined by environmental filtering. However, species composition may be also affected by dispersal limitation and negative density effect due to pathogens and herbivore. This study focused on these multiple factors and evaluated relative importance of these factors in forests from sub-tropical to sub-arctic. In the cold and high elevation forests where environmental conditions are harsh, environmental filtering was relatively more important while in more favorable environment negative density effect was stronger.

Free Research Field

森林科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

近年、長期データから森林を構成する樹木の種類が変わってきていることが世界各地で報告されてきている。これらは地球温暖化の文脈で解釈されるが、病原菌等を含めた個体間相互作用や散布制限といった、他の多様性を左右する要因をほとんど考慮していない。本研究のように、こうした複数の要因を同時に検討することは、現実に起こりつつある変化のメカニズムのより正確な理解へとつながる。さらに将来予測の高精度化、気候変動や土地利用に関する政策に科学的根拠を与えると期待される。