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Morphological variation along the sea-land gradient: trees in a subtropical maritime woodland

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Journal of Forest Research

Abstract

As long-lived sessile organisms, trees demonstrate morphological variability in response to the environmental conditions encountered in a particular local habitat. However, the detection of such variation on a small spatial scale may not be straightforward. In this study we investigated the morphological variation of trees along the edge–interior gradient of a small subtropical-temperate coastal woodland in Amakusa, western Kyushu, Japan. The woodland was located on a narrow sand-spit surrounded by the sea, thus exposed to intense marine influences. In three dominant tree species, Quercus glauca, Ligustrum japonicum, and Pittosporum tobira, the tendency of multi-stemming was significantly greater on the seaward edge of the woodland and declined towards the interior. Furthermore, tree height and size (cross-sectional area at breast height) declined and canopy openness increased towards the woodland edge. In Q. glauca and L. japonicum, shoot growth was more pronounced in the interior than on the edge (i.e. shorter shoots with wider spacing in the latter habitat). Thus, spatial variation in tree structure manifested clearly as shorter height with greater multi-stemming tendencies and greater canopy openness (more spacing among branches/shoots) towards the woodland edge where more light is available and the effects of sea wind and salt spray are greater.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks are due to Jusak R.P. Daud for help with field work and Takashi Kawai and Seiji Arakaki for advice at different stages of this work. MY is indebted to the past and present members of the Amakusa Marine Biological Laboratory, especially the late Masahiro Kido, for various forms of support during the course of this study. This work was supported financially by the Kyushu University P & P program, the twenty-first Century COE and the GCOE programs of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology and the scientific research grant (“Grant-In-Aid” nos 14340246 and 14255013 to MT) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

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  1. Amakusa Marine Biological Laboratory, Kyushu University, Amakusa, Kumamoto, 863-2507, Japan

    Makoto Yoko-o & Mutsunori Tokeshi

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  1. Makoto Yoko-o
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  2. Mutsunori Tokeshi
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Correspondence to Makoto Yoko-o.

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Yoko-o, M., Tokeshi, M. Morphological variation along the sea-land gradient: trees in a subtropical maritime woodland. J For Res 16, 55–61 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10310-010-0207-8

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