Abstract
Habitat of a Late Glacial coniferous forest was reconstructed based on plant macrofossil assemblages including autochthonous moss fossils buried just below the As-YP pumice (13,320 ± 130 – 13,710 ± 130 yr B.P.) at Minami-Karuizawa, central Japan. A coniferous forest consisting of Picea sect. Picea and Pinus pumila was reconstructed with forest floor vegetation of Sphagnum girgensohnii, Pleurozium schreberi, and other forest mosses. Along microtopographic gradients on the forest floor, Pleurozium schreberi dominant on the forest floor of the present subalpine coniferous forest in Japan was distributed only on convexity and slope. On the other hand, Sphagnum girgensohnii now limited in wet concavity dominated both on concavity and whole flat areas. Forest floor vegetation dominated by Sphagnum girgensohnii is now distributed in Picea glehnii–Pinus pumila forests in the Numanohara Bog, Hokkaido. Thus the Late Glacial coniferous forest at Minami-Karuizawa probably grew on a wet habitat.
