• Title/Summary/Keyword: climax index

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Influence of Spatial Differences in Volcanic Activity on Vegetation Succession and Surface Erosion on the Slope of Sakurajima Volcano, Japan

  • Teramoto, Yukiyoshi;Shimokawa, Etsuro;Ezaki, Tsugio;Nam, Sooyoun;Jang, Su-Jin;Kim, Suk-Woo;Chun, Kun-Woo
    • Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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    • v.33 no.2
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    • pp.136-146
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    • 2017
  • We selected 6 plots ($100m^2$) located 2.2-3.8 km from Minamidake Crater on the north flank of Sakurajima Volcano. We conducted a field study to investigate the effects of volcanic activity on vegetation succession and surface erosion rate. The results showed that trees growing in plots further from the crater had a greater diameter at breast height (DBH), total height, and age. In addition, these plots had a greater number of woody plants and species, as well as a greater total cross-sectional area at breast height. The Fisher-Williams index of diversity (${\alpha}$) and the proportion of evergreen broad-leaved trees were higher in plots located further from the crater. Vegetation succession in these plots was not at the level of a climax forest. From 1972 to 2015, the timing for active volcano, the depth of volcanic ash layer, the dry density, and the pH of ground surface were lower for plots located further from the crater. Furthermore, the average annual sheet erosion from 1972 to 2015 was also lower for plots located further away from the crater. Overall, plots further away from the crater have a better environment for vegetation growth and a lower dry density of the volcanic ash surface layer. It is thought that lower dry density results in increased soil permeability, which impedes surface flow. In order to prevent debris-flow disasters, caused by mud and rock flow resulting from impaired soil penetrability, it is essential to promote soil development and restore penetrability by artificial vegetation restoration.

Vegetation Succession and Rate of Topsoil Development on Shallow Landslide Scars of Sedimentary Rock Slope Covered by Volcanic Ash and Pumice, Southern Kyushu, Japan

  • Teramoto, Yukiyoshi;Shimokawa, Etsuro;Ezaki, Tsugio;Kim, Suk-Woo;Jang, Su-Jin;Chun, Kun-Woo
    • Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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    • v.32 no.2
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    • pp.196-204
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    • 2016
  • In this study, vegetation succession and the rate of consequent topsoil development were investigated in shallow landslide scars of sedimentary rock slopes covered by volcanic ashes and pumice in Kagoshima prefecture, Japan. Seven shallow landslide scars of different ages were selected as study areas. In the initial period after the occurrence of a shallow landslide, deciduous broad-leaved trees such as Mallotus japonicus or Callicarpa mollis were occupied in the areas. Approximately 30 years after the landslide, evergreen broad-leaved trees such as Cinnamomum japonicum invaded in the areas, already existed present deciduous broad-leaved trees. After 50 years, the summit of the canopy comprised evergreen broad-leaved trees such as Castanopsis cuspidata var. sieboldii and Machilus thunbergii. Moreover, the diversity of vegetation invading the site reached the maximum after 15 years, followed by a decrease and stability in the number of trees. The total basal areas under vegetation increased with time. It was concluded that the vegetation community reaches the climax stage approximately 50 years after the occurrence of a shallow landslide in the study areas, in terms of the Fisher-Williams index of diversity (${\alpha}$) and the prevalence of evergreen broad-leaved trees. Moreover, according to the results of topsoil measurement in the study areas, the topsoil was formed at the rate of 0.31 cm/year. The development of topsoil usually functions to improve the multi-faceted functions of a forest. However, when the increased depth of topsoil exceeds the stability threshold, the conditions for a shallow landslide occurrence are satisfied. Therefore, we indicated to control the depth of topsoil and strengthen its resistance by forest management in order to restrain the occurrence of shallow landslides.

Temporal Change in Vertical Distribution of Woody Vegetation on the Flank of Sakurajima Volcano, Southern Kyushu, Japan

  • Teramoto, Yukiyoshi;Shimokawa, Etsuro;Ezaki, Tsugio;Lim, Young-Hyup;Kim, Suk-Woo;Chun, Kun-Woo
    • Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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    • v.32 no.3
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    • pp.270-279
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    • 2016
  • This study explained vertical distributions and growth environments for woody vegetation. It had been degenerated by long-term volcanic activity of Sakurajima; vegetation and thicknesses of tephra layers and forest soils were investigated at 5 sites (250-700 m in altitude) with different altitudes localized at the northwestern-northern flanks of Sakurajima in Kagoshima Prefecture. The results in 2015 were compared with the vertical distribution of woody vegetation in 1963, when the volcanic activity of Sakurajima was relatively moderate. Thus, we investigated temporal changes in the vertical distribution of woody vegetation owing to volcanic activity over about 50 years (1963-2015). We indicated altitude decreased, the number of woody vegetation, number of species, sum of cross-sectional area of tree diameter at breast height, Fisher-Williams's diversity index ${\alpha}$, and forest soil thickness increased. However, these values were found to be degenerated when compared to climax forest values, and succession was incomplete. It seems that because the woody vegetation of the flank was affected by volcanic activity for a long time, exposing them to severe growth environments, areas with lower altitudes became distant from the craters of Sakurajima, thereby weakening the effect of volcanic activity in these areas at lower altitudes. a at the same altitudes over about 50 years (1963-2015) decreased by about 31-72%, and the sum of the cross-sectional area in tree diameter at breast heights decreased by about 14-62%. Thus, comparative growth environments for woody vegetation in 2015 were more severe than that of 1963, with respect to tephra layer thickness. In addition, for vegetation succession in the flank of Sakurajima, vegetation restoration should be promoted through the introduction of artificial woody plants covered by symbiotic microorganisms or organic materials.

A Phytosociological Study of Natural Forest Communities at Mt. Jokye Area (조계산지역(曹溪山地域) 삼림군집(森林群集)의 식물사회학적(植物社會學的) 연구(硏究))

  • Kim, Tae Uk
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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    • v.76 no.4
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    • pp.418-424
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    • 1987
  • Considering the seral stage of succession, phytosocialogical analysis was carried out to investigate the structure and property of community of Pinus densiflora, Pinus densiflora-Quercus spp.-Carpinus laxiflora, and Quercus spp.-Carpinus laxiflora. The study area included a section of 200m high at the sea level in Mt. Jokye, Seungju-gun, Chunlanam-do. The results show that density of forest trees tended to be decreased, Shannon species diversity index increased, and dominance decreased as seral stage progressed. Patterns of DBH class distribution showed nearly S types. In the study area succession of forest community might progressed toward climax, leading from Pinus densiflora community to Quercus spp.-Carpinus laxiflora community with intermediary Pinus densiflora-Quercus spp.-Carpinus laxiflora community. The fact that there was no pure community of Quercus spp. might be due to the rapid development of forest community investigated.

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Vegetation Types and Their Structures of the Piagol, Mt. Chiri (지리산 피아골의 식생형과 그 구조)

  • 장윤석;임양재
    • Journal of Plant Biology
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    • v.28 no.2
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    • pp.165-175
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    • 1985
  • The natural forest vegetation of the Piagol, Mt. Chiri, was classified into five major communities, i.e. Quercus mongolica, Carpinus laxiflora, C. tschonoskii, Q. serrata and Fraxinus mandshurica community. C. tschonoskii, C. laxiflora and Q. mongolica characteristically were dominated in the range of 500∼700 m, 700∼900 m and 900∼1,400 m in altitude, respectively. Abies nephrolepis and Rhododendron schlippenbachii in the ridge of Nogodan-Nalnaribong, and F. mandshurica and Q. serrata in the Yongsuam ravine were found as the dominant species. The transition between C. tschonoskii and C. laxiflora communities was relatively wide. The boundary between F. mandshurica, in the conglomerated zone, and the other communities surrounding its community was fairly abrupt. In Q. mongolica community, the canopy was relatively opened and the oak young tree of undergrowth was fairly dense. In the community of C. laxiflora and C. tschonoskii, the species composed of their understory was rich while their coverage was lower than that of Q. mongolica community. Shannon's diversity index was decreased in order of C. tschonoskii, C. laxiflora and Q. mongolica community, while their Simpson's dominance index increased conversely. Judging by the DBH-class distribution showing the negative exponential curve, these communities were considered as the climax forest. In Polar Ordination used samples (quadrats), the vegetation of the Piagol was divided into five groups, which was coincided with five communities classified by Braun-Blanquet system. In the ordination, the first axis and the second axis may be considered soil conditions and thermal conditions, respectively. It seems that two different methods, phytosociological method in macro level and ordination techniques in micro level, are useful for the vegetation classification.

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Vegetation Structure of Evergreen Broad-Leaved forest in Dongbaekdongsan(Mt.), Jeju-Do, Korea (제주도 동백동산 상록활엽수림의 식생구조)

  • Han, Bong-Ho;Kim, Jong-Yup;Choi, In-Tae;Lee, Kyong-Jae
    • Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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    • v.21 no.4
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    • pp.336-346
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    • 2007
  • This study was conducted to evaluate the vegetation structure of 34 plots for inspection(plot unit: $100m^2$)of evergreen broad-leaved forest in Dongbaekdongsan(Mt.), Jeju-do, Korea. In accordance with the results of TWINSPAN and mean importance percentage analysis, the target forest was aged $28{\sim}52$, and classified into seven community types in total: Ilex rotunda community, Castanopsis sieboldii community, Castanopsis sieboldii-Quercus glauca community, Quercus glauca-Castanopsis sieboldii community, Quercus glauca community, Quercus glauca-Camellia japonica community, and Quercus glauca-Styrax japonica community. According to the results of importance percentage analysis and DBH class distribution of major woody species, the vegetational aspects showed that the dominant species were Castanopsis sieboldii and Quercus glauca in the canopy layer and Camellia japonica in the subordinate layer. Ilex rotunda and Quercus glauca-Styrax japonica community were damaged vegetation in the canopy layer. According to the index of Shannon's diversity in the six communities including the dominant species - Quercus glauca and Castanopsis sieboldii, their species diversity degree was $0.8745{\sim}1.3018$ and that of Ilex rotunda community was the lowest 0.7619. Camellia japonica, Eurya japonica, Ilex rotunda, Trachelospermum asiaticum var. intermedium, Ardisia crenata appeared in all the seven communities. In addition, Litsea coreana and Cinnamomum japonicum as well as Neolitsea serica presumed as climax species in the warm temperate climate also appeared and the constancy ratio of Cinnamomum japonicum was more than 80%. As a result, the target forest in Dongbaekdongsan(Mt.) was mainly compose of Castanopsis sieboldii and Quercus glauca in the canopy layer as a mixed vegetational pattern, and Cameliia japonica was dominant in the subordinate layer. Continuous monitoring was required, since Camellia japonica was strong in the subordinate layer in contrast to the weakness of Litsea coreana and Neolitsea serica reported as the species of climax stage in the forest with Evergreen Broad-leaved Vegetation at a viewpoint of successional direction.

Ecological Changes of Insect-damaged Pinus densiflora Stands in the Southern Temperate Forest Zone of Korea (I) (솔잎혹파리 피해적송림(被害赤松林)의 생태학적(生態学的) 연구(研究) (I))

  • Yim, Kyong Bin;Lee, Kyong Jae;Kim, Yong Shik
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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    • v.52 no.1
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    • pp.58-71
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    • 1981
  • Thecodiplosis japonesis is sweeping the Pinus densiflora forests from south-west to north-east direction, destroying almost all the aged large trees as well as even the young ones. The front line of infestation is moving slowly but ceaselessly norhwards as a long bottle front. Estimation is that more than 40 percent of the area of P. densiflora forest has been damaged already, however some individuals could escapes from the damage and contribute to restore the site to the previous vegetation composition. When the stands were attacked by this insect, the drastic openings of the upper story of tree canopy formed by exclusively P. densiflora are usually resulted and some environmental factors such as light, temperature, litter accumulation, soil moisture and offers were naturally modified. With these changes after insect invasion, as the time passes, phytosociologic changes of the vegetation are gradually proceeding. If we select the forest according to four categories concerning the history of the insect outbreak, namely, non-attacked (healthy forest), recently damaged (the outbreak occured about 1-2 years ago), severely damaged (occured 5-6 years ago), damage prolonged (occured 10 years ago) and restored (occured about 20 years ago), any directional changes of vegetation composition could be traced these in line with four progressive stages. To elucidate these changes, three survey districts; (1) "Gongju" where the damage was severe and it was outbroken in 1977, (2) "Buyeo" where damage prolonged and (3) "Gochang" as restored, were set, (See Tab. 1). All these were located in the south temperate forest zone which was delimited mainly due to the temporature factor and generally accepted without any opposition at present. In view of temperature, the amount and distribution of precipitation and various soil factor, the overall homogeneity of environmental conditions between survey districts might be accepted. However this did not mean that small changes of edaphic and topographic conditions and microclimates can induce any alteration of vegetation patterns. Again four survey plots were set in each district and inter plot distance was 3 to 4 km. And again four subplots were set within a survey plot. The size of a subplot was $10m{\times}10m$ for woody vegetation and $5m{\times}5m$ for ground cover vegetation which was less than 2 m high. The nested quadrat method was adopted. In sampling survey plots, the followings were taken into account: (1) Natural growth having more than 80 percent of crown density of upper canopy and more than 5 hectares of area. (2) Was not affected by both natural and artificial disturbances such as fire and thinning operation for the past three decades. (3) Lower than 500 m of altitude (4) Less than 20 degrees of slope, and (5) Northerly sited aspect. An intensive vegetation survey was undertaken during the summer of 1980. The vegetation was devided into 3 categories for sampling; the upper layer (dominated mainly by the pine trees), the middle layer composed by oak species and other broad-leaved trees as well as the pine, and the ground layer or the lower layer (shrubby form of woody plants). In this study our survey was concentrated on woody species only. For the vegetation analysis, calculated were values of intensity, frequency, covers, relative importance, species diversity, dominance and similarity and dissimilasity index when importance values were calculated, different relative weights as score were arbitrarily given to each layer, i.e., 3 points for the upper layer, 2 for the middle layer and 1 for the ground layer. Then the formula becomes as follows; $$R.I.V.=\frac{3(IV\;upper\;L.)+2(IV.\;middle\;L.)+1(IV.\;ground\;L.)}{6}$$ The values of Similarity Index were calculated on the basis of the Relative Importance Value of trees (sum of relative density, frequency and cover). The formula used is; $$S.I.=\frac{2C}{S_1+S_2}{\times}100=\frac{2C}{100+100}{\times}100=C(%)$$ Where: C = The sum of the lower of the two quantitative values for species shared by the two communities. $S_1$ = The sum of all values for the first community. $S_2$ = The sum of all values for the second community. In Tab. 3, the species composition of each plot by layer and by district is presented. Without exception, the species formed the upper layer of stands was Pinus densiflora. As seen from the table, the relative cover (%), density (number of tree per $500m^2$), the range of height and diameter at brest height and cone bearing tendency were given. For the middle layer, Quercus spp. (Q. aliena, serrata, mongolica, accutissina and variabilis) and Pinus densiflora were dominating ones. Genus Rhodedendron and Lespedeza were abundant in ground vegetation, but some oaks were involved also. (1) Gongju district The total of woody species appeared in this district was 26 and relative importance value of Pinus densiflora for the upper layer was 79.1%, but in the middle layer, the R.I.V. for Quercus acctissima, Pinus densiflora, and Quercus aliena, were 22.8%, 18.7% and 10.0%, respectively, and in ground vegetation Q. mongolica 17.0%, Q. serrata 16.8% Corylus heterophylla 11.8%, and Q. dentata 11.3% in order. (2) Buyeo district. The number of species enumerated in this district was 36 and the R.I.V. of Pinus densiflora for the uppper layer was 100%. In the middle layer, the R.I.V. of Q. variabilis and Q. serrata were 8.6% and 8.5% respectively. In the ground vegetative 24 species were counted which had no more than 5% of R.I.V. The mean R.I.V. of P.densiflora ( totaling three layers ) and averaging four plots was 57.7% in contrast to 46.9% for Gongju district. (3) Gochang-district The total number of woody species was 23 and the mean R.I.V. of Pinus densiflora was 66.0% showing greater value than those for two former districts. The next high value was 6.5% for Q. serrata. As the time passes since insect outbreak, the mean R.I.V. of P. densiflora increased as the following order, 46.9%, 57.7% and 66%. This implies that P. densiflora was getting back to its original dominat state again. The pooled importance of Genus Quercus was decreasing with the increase of that for Pinus densiflora. This trend was contradict to the facts which were surveyed at Kyonggi-do area (the central temperate forest zone) reported previously (Yim et al, 1980). Among Genus Quercus, Quercus acutissina, warm-loving species, was more abundant in the southern temperature zone to which the present research is concerned than the central temperate zone. But vice-versa was true with Q. mongolica, a cold-loving one. The species which are not common between the present survey and the previous report are Corpinus cordata, Beltala davurica, Wisturia floribunda, Weigela subsessilis, Gleditsia japonica var. koraiensis, Acer pseudosieboldianum, Euonymus japonica var. macrophylla, Ribes mandshuricum, Pyrus calleryana var. faruiei, Tilia amurensis and Pyrus pyrifolia. In Figure 4 and Table 5, Maximum species diversity (maximum H'), Species diversity (H') and Eveness (J') were presented. The Similarity indices between districts were shown in Tab. 5. Seeing Fig. 6, showing two-dimensional ordination of polts on the basis of X and Y coordinates, Ai plots aggregate at the left site, Bi plots at lower site, and Ci plots at upper-right site. The increasing and decreasing patterns as to Relative Density and Relative Importance Value by genus or species were given in Fig. 7. Some of the patterns presented here are not consistent with the previously reported ones (Yim, et al, 1980). The present authors would like to attribute this fact that two distinct types of the insect attack, one is the short war type occuring in the south temperate forest zone, which means that insect attack went for a few years only, the other one is a long-drawn was type observed at the temperate forest zone in which the insect damage went on continuously for several years. These different behaviours of infestation might have resulted the different ways of vegetational change. Analysing the similarity indices between districts, the very convincing results come out that the value of dissimilarity index between A and B was 30%, 27% between B and C and 35% between A and C (Table 6). The range of similarity index was obtained from the calculation of every possible combinations of plots between two districts. Longer time isolation between communities has brought the higher value of dissimilarity index. The main components of ground vegetation, 10 to 20 years after insect outbreak, become to be consisted of mainly Genus Lespedeza and Rhododendron. Genus Quercus which relate to the top dorminant state for a while after insect attack was giving its place to Pinus densiflora. It was implied that, provided that the soil fertility, soil moisture and soil depth were good enough, Genus Quercuss had never been so easily taken ever by the resistant speeies like Pinus densiflora which forms the edaphic climax at vast areas of forest land. Usually they refer Quercus to the representative component of the undisturbed natural forest in the central part of this country.

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