Abstract
In human inhabited areas, forest vegetation develops under various anthropogenic influences. In the Kitakami Mountain Range in Northern Honshu, Japan, present secondary stands clearly showed differing species compositions according to the type of past land-use at the site and could be classified into several types. The species constituting each stand type had some specific trends in their characteristics which appeared to be advantageous to their subsistence under the disturbance regimes imposed by a certain land-use. Two congeneric trees (Betula maximowhicziana and Betula platiphylla var. japonica) were typical examples: Segregation in distribution at landscape scale was closely related to interaction of their specific characteristics with past land-use at the site. Meanwhile, spatial distribution of each land-use type was determined by the site environment. Consequently, present secondary stands in the Kitakami Mountain Range should be understood as the combined result of direct influences by the site environment and indirect influences by the site environment through land-use or disturbance regimes. Diversity of anthropogenic disturbance regimes due to various site environments might to a certain extent be responsible for the disparity found between vegetation growing on the Japan Sea side and on the Pacific Ocean side of Northern Honshu.
