Relationship between Natural Disturbance Regimes and Landscape Diversity in Mountain Regions and Lessons for Nature Conservation

抄録

This presentation provides analysis of the relationship between natural disturbance regimes and landscape diversity in mountain regions. The case study of North Japan Alps is chosen for this purpose. The landscapes of these areas show an impressive array of geodiversity and landscape mosaic features. At the landscape level, heterogeneity; and to an extent habitat formation; is related to the frequent natural disturbances that are typical to dynamic mountain environments. In this research, particular effort was given to understand natural disturbance regimes as a ‘continuum’ (i.e. not as isolated disturbances) forming out of the overall geological-geomorphological background of intense uplift and erosion that prevail over the Hida Mountain Belt.