2012 Volume 54 Issue 1 Pages 19-28
We compared the understory vegetation and soil seed bank in three areas of the bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens) forests which have different process of formation or duration of abandonment. The number of species and/or coverage of understory and the tree density in the bamboo forests abandoned for a shorter period were higher than those in the bamboo forest abandoned for a longer period due to the invasion and growth. The species richness and coverage of trees in bamboo forests where understory vegetation remained relatively rich was not always lower than those in the broad-leaved secondary stands. The species compositions of soil seed bank were different among three areas of the bamboo forests, but the all forests contained many pioneer species. The number of species or the density of buried seeds in bamboo forests were not different among three areas, and tended to be richer than those in surrounding Cryptomeria japonica plantations. As a result, the bamboo forests abandoned for a shorter period is considered to have potential for maintaining the same rich vegetation as broad-leaved secondary forest or C. japonica plantations.
