2006 Volume 23 Issue 2 Pages 163-169
The early-stage vegetation on the shores of the crater lake formed by the 2000 eruption of Usu Volcano, Hokkaido Japan, was investigated in the summer of 2004. Invasion and establishment of vascular plants in the study area began in the spring of 2001. By the summer of 2004, 21 plant species, including emergent aquatic plants, had become established at the study site, and the vegetation exhibited changes with respect to differences in microtopography. Many of the plants were anemochorous or anthropochorous weeds. Emergent aquatic plants dominated the shores of the crater lake and other waterlogged sites. It is inferred that the most of seeds of these emergent aquatic species appear to have been dispersed by birds, and especially by waterfowl.
