Spatial Distribution Pattern of Forest Islands and their Ecosystem Conservation Potential in Rural Landscane

Abstract

The Present study was designed to classify spatial distribution pattern of forestislands and to clarify their ecosystem conservation potential in rural landscape.
The relation between land characteristics and land use was analyzed in water catchment of Sakura River in Ibaragi Prefecture, applying φ-indicater (tab-1). Spatial distribution pattern of forest-islands was classified to 4 type, 1) natural 51 stands of forest-islands were studied phytosociologically in 2)-type area to clarify their ecosystem conservation potential. Principal Component Analysis was applied to the 4-rank coverage data of 38 herb-layer species, 30-70% constancy (tab-2, 3, fig-1). The first principal component was positively correlated with the percentage of the natural forests around their stands (fig-2).
In view of above results, it is implied that it is necessary to maintain every successional stage diversely through the species recruitment potential to keep up ecosystem conservation potential of forest-islands in rural landscape.