Removing aboveground vegetation facilitates survival but slows height growth of spruce saplings in a fenced, degraded sub-alpine forest in central Japan |
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Authors: | Hiromitsu Kisanuki Takeshi Kudo Arisa Nakai |
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Institution: | (1) Laboratory of Forest Conservation Ecology, Graduate school of Bioresources, Mie University, Kurimamachiya 1577, Tsu 514-8507, Japan;(2) Faculty of Bioresources, Mie University, Tsu, Japan;(3) Aichi Prefectural Forestry Institute, Shinshiro, Japan |
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Abstract: | The effects of removing aboveground vegetation on survival and growth of Hondo spruce (Picea jezoensis var. hondoensis) saplings were examined in a dense dwarf bamboo (Sasa nipponica) field inside a deer-proof fence built in a degraded sub-alpine forest on Mt Ohdaigahara, central Japan. All bamboo culms
were removed within a radius of 1 m from each sapling in a plot of 0.6 ha (removal plot), whereas no culms were removed in
two control plots of 0.1 ha. We measured the height, crown depth, and main shoot elongation over 1 year for all spruce saplings,
culm height and cover ratios of dwarf bamboo growing around each spruce sapling, and the light levels above each sapling.
Removal of dwarf bamboo regulated the culm height and bamboo coverage until the following summer such that light conditions
improved. The mortality of saplings smaller than the average culm height was lower in the removal plot (0.89%) than in a control
plot (5.9%). After bamboo removal, sapling height growth was reduced with increasing bamboo cover in the previous year. Complete
removal of the aboveground portions of covering bamboo improved sapling survival while regulating elongation growth, possibly
because of the sudden increase in light intensity. Thus, controlling the extent of dwarf bamboo removal might be necessary
to facilitate the growth of spruce saplings to restore the forest. |
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