1989 Volume 44 Issue 2 Pages 53-69
The purpose of this paper is to reveal the pattern and process of vegetation landscape in relation to change in the social system in a mountainous area. All of Hiwa-cho (subdivided into 9 sections), a farm village in the Chugoku Mountain range, was examined in this research. The actual vegetation map of Hiwa-cho drawn at a scale 1:25,000 (as of 1988) was analyzed by each of the vegetation units, i.e. the number of all vegetation units and their sizes were measured. Then three representative sections (Oppara, Kowada, and Nunomi) were selected and their distribution patterns of vegetation units were analyzed in detail. Social change in the area was examined and measured through statistical books and interviews. These results were as follows: 1. Among the nine sections, as large as the ratio of paddy fields, the number of vegetation units were increased. Namely, the section with larger paddy fields has more vegetation units, therefore its degree of landscape diversity was enhanced. The small vegetation units were located nearby paddy fields. This pattern is caused by the subdivision of the Quercetum variabili-serratae and small units of Cryptomeria japonica and Chamaecyparis obtusa plantations in an abandoned meadow of the Arundinello-Miscanthion sinensis. This meadow had been used for mowing. Each farmer had the dispersed meadows connected with paddy fields. After the revolutionary change of fuel and fertilizer, it has been treated in different manners. As a result, it produced the diverse vegetation landscape. 2. The large vegetation units were distributed far from paddy fields. These units originated from the territory of served coppice forests for "Tatara" steal manufacture, cooperative pastures, and public forests. It seems that forests of every height class of the Castaneo-Quercetum crispulae (same as Q. mongolica var. grosseserrata) and the Quercetum variabili-serratae used to be distributed mosaically in this territory as coppice forests. At the present, this area consists of large units of the Cryptomeria japonica and Chamaecyparis obtusa plantations, and tall tree forests of the Castaneo-Quercetum crispulae and the Quercetum variabiliserratae. The secondary succession from the GerarLio-Zoysietum japonicae to the Saussureo-Miscanthetum sinensis occurred at the pasture where the grazing pressure of cattle was less. 3. The Castaneo-Quercetum crispulae and the Aralio-Rubetum crataegifolli grew at the slopes of more than 700m altitude, and the Quercetum variabili-serratae and the Mallotus japonicus community were distributed at less than 700 m in Hiwa-cho. This is one of the causes which increase the diversity of vegetation landscape. Even in similar size sections, the diversities of vegetation units were different because of these topographical and climatic factors.
