2025 Volume 67 Issue 2 Pages 35-42
To conserve and manage plant diversity in abandoned forests, it is important to evaluate the effects of artificial gaps. We set up ten plots with 10 m x 10 m quadrats of different forest types - six artificial coniferous forests, two evergreen broad-leaved forests, and two summer green broad-leaved forests at the Tama Forest Science Garden, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute in Japan. In 2013, the high tree layers in all forest types were cut in all plots. Between 2012 and 2023, stand regeneration and the degree of cover of all vascular plant species in each plot were surveyed. The results showed that 10 years after felling, evergreen broad-leaved trees dominated the top or lower layers of the regenerated communities in most plots. Moreover, the number of included species increased immediately after cutting. Specifically, the number of summer-green and non-forest species increased. However, it should be noted that a temporary peak was observed between two and five years following the cutting, after which a decline was detected. In this study, artificial gaps for plant diversity conservation were assessed as temporary and localized across the entire plots. Although further verification is needed, it is possible that species diversity could be maintained throughout the entire forest stand by continuously instilling new artificial gaps within the target forest stand.
