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Effects of bark stripping by sika deer, Cervus nippon, on wind damage to coniferous trees in subalpine forest of central Japan

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Journal of Forest Research

Abstract

We evaluated the effect of bark stripping by sika deer (Cervus nippon), and subsequent wood decay, on tree fall in a coniferous forest on Mt Ohdaigahara in central Japan from July to September 2006. This valuable primeval coniferous forest is declining because of bark stripping. Broken trunks of Abies homolepis and Picea jezoensis var. hondoensis had more serious decay and larger bark-stripping wounds on the trunk than standing trees, suggesting that bark stripping causes trunk decay and results in broken trunks and uprooting by typhoons.

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Acknowledgments

We thank S. Kumar and A. Kamata for their help with fieldwork. Thanks are also due to members of the Forest Protection Laboratory of Nagoya University for their valuable discussions. This study was financially supported in part by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (no. 14206019) and from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (nos. 18380090 and 18380097).

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  1. Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Nagoya, 464-8601, Japan

    Ei’ichi Shibata

  2. School of Agricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

    Yudai Torazawa

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  1. Ei’ichi Shibata
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  2. Yudai Torazawa
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Correspondence to Ei’ichi Shibata.

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Shibata, E., Torazawa, Y. Effects of bark stripping by sika deer, Cervus nippon, on wind damage to coniferous trees in subalpine forest of central Japan. J For Res 13, 296–301 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10310-008-0080-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10310-008-0080-x

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