Abstract
When pasture land is abandoned, there are, in many cases, inhibitory factors that slow the rate of transition to a natural vegetation. Accordingly, the planned management of restoration has become an important issue in various parts of the world, where environmental conditions can vary widely. Although tree plantations are widely used as a management tool for restoration, there have been few studies addressing the practical aspects of the procedure. I examined effects of tree plantations within the framework of an evaluation of methods for restoring abandoned pasture on Hokkaido, northern Japan. I developed and analyzed vegetation maps spanning the past 57 years for the old-growth site influenced by artificial disturbance; the procedure revealed the pattern of change in the vegetation cover. Matrix model analysis showed that intensive use of plantations contributed to reduction of the area occupied by dwarf bamboo and pasture land (i.e., superior to simple abandonment). Furthermore, the field study of vegetation types and changes in species composition over 20 years suggests that plantations have contributed to a reduction in the effects of factors that inhibit revegetation. However, the establishment of monoculture plantations is frequently viewed skeptically as a procedure that is applied without fundamental ecological knowledge. For sustained management, adequate historical and ecological information on the restoration site should be provided to all stakeholders.
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Acknowledgments
I sincerely thank Dr. Y. Ishikawa, Mr. S. Ichikawa, and Mr. A. Yoshinaka for kindly contributing their field survey data, and Drs. T. Kohyama and T. Takada for critical comments. I also thank Dr. E. Kato, Ms. A. Nishimura, Ms. C. Miyoshi, and Ms. A. Koyama for their help on the field survey. I am grateful to the staff of the Municipal Government of Shari and Shiretoko Nature Foundation for their permission and kind support during field work, and Mr. M. Takada and the staff of the Hokkaido Institute of Environmental Sciences for their support in GIS operation, and Mr. T. Itagaki for his help in developing vegetation maps. I am also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for constructive and helpful comments on the manuscript. This study was partly supported by the 21st COE program “Prediction and avoidance of an abrupt change in the bio-geosphere system” of Hokkaido University.
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An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11355-008-0036-5
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Shoyama, K. Reforestation of abandoned pasture on Hokkaido, northern Japan: effect of plantations on the recovery of conifer-broadleaved mixed forest. Landscape Ecol Eng 4, 11–23 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11355-008-0034-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11355-008-0034-7