Recovery of plant community dominated by Miscanthus sinensis after deer exclosure in Ashiu Research Forest

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Other Title
  • 芦生研究林におけるシカ排除柵によるススキ群落の回復過程
  • アシセイ ケンキュウリン ニ オケル シカ ハイジョ サク ニ ヨル ススキ グンラク ノ カイフク カテイ

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Abstract

Heavy grazing by Japanese sika deer (Cervus nippon) has caused alteration of grasslands in various places over Japan in recent years. Grassland community dominated by Miscanthus sinensis near Choji Valley Station, Ashiu Research Forest has disappeared since 2007 due to grazing by sika deer. To examine recovery process of grassland community by exclosure, we studied changes in diversity and biomass one to three years after fencing by vegetation census and harvest. Since one year after fencing, diversities of species and functional groups classified by functional traits were higher inside the exclosure than the outside, and species compositions were different clearly between inside and outside. Seventy seven species, including species that were reported to have disappeared since 2003 around the research site, were found inside the exclosure. Two years after fencing, vegetation height, cover, and biomass increased to the level of M. sinensis grasslands in Japan. The quick recovery of the grassland in terms of diversity and biomass may be due to early fencing just after the disappearance of M. sinensis grassland. Inside the exclosure, tall plants such as M. sinensis, Lysimachia clethroides, shrub and small trees species dominated resulting in the exclusion of some short branching forbs, and inhibition of tree recruitment. These results suggest that M. sinensis grassland will continue to dominate and that plant diversity will decrease. Plant community outside the exclosure shifted toward a simpler community dominated by an unpalatable species, Juncus effusus var. decipiens and a branching annual forb, Centipeda minima.

Journal

  • Forest Research, Kyoto

    Forest Research, Kyoto 78 39-56, 2012-09-28

    京都大学フィールド科学教育研究センター森林生物圏部門

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