Abstract
Changes in vegetation of the Nakoudojima island between 1978, 1991 and 2003 were quantified with aerial photographs. The island was divided into 9200 plots (10 m × 10 m) on the aerial photographs and the plots were categorized into forest, grassland, bare ground or others. Percentages of the grassland increased 66.3% to 69.0% and those of the bare ground increased from 7.0% to 15.5% for 23 years. Some grasslands became bare ground between 1978 and 1991, which resulted in a decrease in the area of the grassland and an increase in the area of the bare ground during this period. On the other hand, some bare ground changed to grasslands between 1991 and 2003, which meant an increase of grasslands. These changes in vegetation would be due mainly to grazing and trampling, and their termination caused by feral goats. Percentages of the forest decreased from 16.2% to 6.0% for 23 years. Many forests changed into grasslands or bare ground even after the eradication of feral goats, which suggests that canopy trees in the forest died by natural disturbances in addition to the lack of seedlings by the grazing of feral goats.
Reprinted from Hata K, Suzuki J, Kachi N (2007) Ogasawara Research 32:1–8, with permission of the Tokyo Metropolitan University.
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Acknowledgments
The Environmental Agency and the Department of National Forests in the Ogasawara Islands allowed us to conduct this study at the Nakoudojima island. Udayani Rose Weerasinghe kindly provided an unpublished data about seeds in the soils of the various vegetation in the Nakoudojima island. The study was financially supported by a Grand-in-Aid for Scientific Research of Japan Society for Science Promotion and the Fund for the Global Environmental Research Program of the Ministry of the Environment of Japan (Grand No. F-51).
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HATA, K., SUZUKI, JI., KACHI, N. (2010). Vegetation changes between 1978, 1991 and 2003 in the Nakoudojima island that had been disturbed by feral goats. In: Kawakami, K., Okochi, I. (eds) Restoring the Oceanic Island Ecosystem. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-53859-2_14
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