2018 Volume 44 Issue 2 Pages 352-359
The slope revegetation guidelines for national parks framed by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment require the incorporation of information on ecological succession when designing revegetation strategies. Therefore, it is important to elucidate revegetation process following disturbances caused by landslides. In the present study, we investigated the vegetation it was established after the landslide in semi-natural grasslands in Aso, Kumamoto, Japan. We selected three sites of different stage of succession in Machikoga Pasture―a new landslide site (NLS) and an old landslide site (OLS) wherein the most recent landslides occurred four and 26 years ago, respectively, and a control site (C) with no recent landslide disturbances. Vegetation cover in OLS was higher than that in NLS. The dominant species changed with the sites. The OLS site was dominated by Arundinella hirta and Lespedeza bicolor, whereas the C site was dominated by Miscanthus sinensis. In addition, the floristic composition was different on sites. The occurrence of commonly occurring species in OLS, such as Patrinia scabiosifolia, was high only in specific stages of succession. The cooccurrence of different age of landslide sites enhanced plant species diversity in the semi-natural grasslands in the study area. Consequently, the vegetation may recovers as time proceeds and the presence of vegetation of different landslide ages derived from landslides of different ages increases the species diversity of semi-natural grasslands in the Aso area.
