Sixty-year stand dynamics of a forest stand damaged by Typhoon Toyamaru in Higashitaisetsu natural forest, central Hokkaido, Japan

Abstract

The stand dynamics of a natural coniferous forest during 60 years after severe wind damage in 1954 was examined in the Higashitaisetsu area, central Hokkaido. This stand had a standing tree density of 1,230 trees/ha, a basal area of 46.15 m²/ha, and a stand volume of 423.4 m³/ha in 2014, 60 years after the wind damage. The stand volume was 1.8 times greater than before the wind damage. The number of trees increased in the first 37 years after the wind damage, probably largely due to the growth of advance regeneration; however, subsequently the number of trees began to decrease, probably due to the competition among trees and the decrease in ingrowth rate. Based on a stand development stage after a replacing disturbance, we considered that the forest stand was the stand initiation stage about 40 years after the wind damage and then moved to the stem exclusion stage.