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Progressive and retrogressive gradient of grassland vegetation measured by degree of succession—Ecological judgement of grassland condition and trend IV

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Summary

The types of grassland vegetation expressed by the dominants were surveyed from north to south in Japan, and their successional and climatic relationships were given from the viewpoint of quantitative and dynamic ecology (Table I, Figs. 1–3).

There are many grassland types in Japan, but only major types were dealt with, compared by some characteristics (location, use, dominant, ground cover of vegetation (v), number of constituent species (n), degree of succession (DS), summed dominance ratio (SDR), and relative SDR (SDR′) and showing each example of the floristic composition (Tables II–XIII).

The grassland vegetation in Japan is not the climatic climax but seral stages, except alpine grasslands over the tree line of high mountains. There are two cases in grassland succession, orthosere and plagiosere. “Orthosere” is the ordinary subsere in the abandoned field lacking biotic suppressions, however “plagiosere” is the gradient under biotic pressures such as grazing, mowing, burning, etc. The latter is mostly dealt with in this paper.

The ordination of various grassland types in the DS-frequency relationships is given in Fig. 4. This is not a real course of the grassland succession, but ecological gradient of grassland types. Such an ordination of grassland vegetation in a given area may show the seral status itself.

Zusammenfassung

Der Verfasser hat die Typen der durch Dominanten gekennzeichneten Grünland-Vegetation von Norden bis Süden in Japan untersucht; Tab. I und die Abb. 1–3 geben die Sukzessions-und Klima-Verhältnisse von dem Gesichtspunkt der quantitativen und dynamischen Ökologie wieder.

Es gibt sehr viele Grünlandtypen in Japan, aber der Verfasser behandelt nur die größeren Typen im Vergleich zueinander durch einige Merkmale (Stellen, Gebrauch, Dominantarten, Vegetations-deckungsgrad (v), Artenzahl (n), Sukzessionsgrad (DS), summierende Dominanz Verhältnisse (SDR), relative SDR (SDR′)), und einige Beispiele der Artenzusammensetzung (Tab II–XIII).

Die japanische Grünland-Vegetation ist kein klimatischer Klimax, sondern serale Stufe, mit Ausnahme der alpinen Grünland-Vegetation über der Baumgrenze des Hochgebirges. Wir haben zwei Fälle in Grünland-Sukzessionen, Orthosere und Plagiosere. “Orthosere” ist die gewöhnliche sekundäre Sere auf dem verlassenen Feld ohne biotischen Druck, “Plagiosere” ist das Gefälle unter biotischem Druck, zum Beispiel, Weide, Mahd, Brand, usw. Der Verfasser behandelt hauptsächlich den letzteren Fall in dem Artikel.

Abb. 4 zeigt die Anordnung der verscheidenen Grünlandtypen auf die Verhältnisse der DS zur Frequenz. Das ist nicht ein wahrhaftes Fortschreiten der Grünland-Sukzession, sondern ein ökologisches Gefälle der Grünlandtypen. Solche Anordnung der Grünland-Vegetation einer gewissen Fläche wird den seralen Zustand selbst zeigen.

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  1. Department of Biology, Chiba University, Japan

    Makoto Numata

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  1. Makoto Numata
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Contribution from JIBP-CT No. 14. This is partly supported by the special project research “Studies on the dynamic status of biosphere” sponsored by the Ministry of Education.

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Numata, M. Progressive and retrogressive gradient of grassland vegetation measured by degree of succession—Ecological judgement of grassland condition and trend IV. Vegetatio Acta Geobot 19, 96–127 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00259006

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