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| Taoda Hirosi | |
| Section Director of Plant Ecology | |
| Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute | |
| Forestry Agency | |
| Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries | |
| P.O.Box 16, Tsukuba Norin, Ibaraki 305, Japan | |
| Tel: +81-298-73-3211(Ext.353) Fax: +81-298-73-1542 | |
| E-mail: taoda@ffpri.affrc.go.jp |
20,650,000 Yen
(FY 1998; 8,698,000 Yen)
The objective of our studies is to estimate the change of community dynamics and distribution of the present vegetation under changing climate. We drew the map of Japan presenting snow accumulation under present and warming climate. One analysis predicted a remarkable decrease of snow accumulation on the plains of the Sea of Japan side and inland provinces of Tohoku region. We estimated effects of snow cover and temperature on distribution and dynamics of snow-patch vegetation, subalpine Ericaceae scrub, Pinus pumila scrub, fir forests. We also estimated the past distributional change of snow-patch vegetation and fir forests by analyzing buried peat soil and pollen. We studied the effects of warming climate on leaf phenology of birch and species diversity of beech bearing forests. One study indicated that effects of warming climate on species diversity of beech bearing forests would be different between the Pacific and the Sea of Japan sides. The studies on snow-patch vegetation indicate that plant distribution is most sensitive to the date of snow disappearance and that amount of snow cover played a major role for the shrinkage of snow patch in spring and summer. The snow cover is one of the most important factors controlling vegetation dynamics on mountains in Japan, as well as the thermal factor.
climate change, snow cover, phenology, regeneration