Scientific Area
An attempt to compare the vegetation map of Mt. Hakkoda made in the 1930s with the existing vegetation map
ID: 613 / 394
Category: Abstract
Track: Pending
Proposed Symposium Title: An attempt to compare the vegetation map of Mt. Hakkoda made in the 1930s with the existing vegetation map
Authors:
Tetsuya Matsui1, Takuto Shitara2, Hiroko Kurokawa3, Michio Oguro3, Takehiro Sasaki4, Haruka Ohashi5, Kaoru Niiyama3, Mitsue Shibata3
Affiliations: 1 Center for Biodiversity and Climate Change, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Forest Research and Management Organization, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan 2 Tama Science Forest Garden, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Forest Research and Management Organization, Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan 3 Department of Forest Vegetation, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Forest Research and Management Organization, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan 4 Graduate School of Environment and Information Sciences, Yokohama National University, Yokohama, Japan 5 Department of Wildlife Management, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Forest Research and Management Organization, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
Abstract:
A set of vegetation survey data from the early 1930s in the Towada-Hakkoda region of Aomori Prefecture, northern Japan, was discovered in a warehouse of the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute. By digitizing these documents and comparing them with the current situation, the authors attempt to determine how the vegetation in the area has changed over the past 90 years, and what the characteristics and factors has changed. In this presentation, the authors focus on the vegetation map and compare it with the vegetation maps (1/50,000 and 1/25,000) of the Ministry of Environment in GIS. The vegetation maps were georeferenced and converted to polygon format for GIS analysis. As a result, the Abies mariesii community decreased by about 50 % and was replaced either by Fagus crenata community and pseudo-alpine vegetation. The Fagus community increased by about 1.5 times and the Quercus crispula community decreased by about 60%. In the valley near the village, in the vicinity of the coppice forests and the forest roads, the Fagus, Quercus and Betula communities have been replaced by Cryptomeria japonica plantations. The factors that may have caused these vegetation changes include vegetation succession due to the cessation of coppice forest use and afforestation during the post-war afforestation expansion period.