Crop damage by wildlife is becoming an increasingly problem in Japan. A troop of Japanese macaque, Otsuki troop, has been tracked using radio-telemetry near the city of Shibata, Niigata Prefecture. Home range and the core area were determined by the fixed kernel method. Core area of the troop was located around the peninsular-shaped forest sticking out in the crop fields. Landcover was classified using ALOS/AVNIR-2 images. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the environmental factors contributing the presence /absence of crop damage by the troop. In the model of home range, 3 factors were extracted; distance between crop field and forest edge, distance between crop field and settlement, distance between crop field and road. In the model of core area, distance between crop field and forest edge was chosen as a contributing factor. These results indicated crop fields near forests were vulnerable to the damage by macaques. Peninsular-shaped forests were frequently used as corridors connecting crop fields and forest habitat, and facilitate the expansion of damage by macaques.

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This study focuses on the effect of the reduction and fragmentation of sand dunes on the development of coastal sand dune vegetation in Shonan coast, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Changing area and distribution of sand dunes were examined by land use maps over three time periods. The effect of development on coastal sand dune vegetation was examined by comparing the changes before and after the development of the Tsujido sand dune. The area and width of the sand dunes has been reduced by two-thirds from 1921 to 2006. Landform transformation from sand dune to urban area or coastal forest had a more significant impact on the reduction of sand dune than coastal erosion. The three distinct zones of vegetation observed in the Tsujido sand dune are unfixed, semifixed and stabilized zones, going from the shoreline inland before the development of the sand dune. It was found that the semifixed zone disappeared after the development of the sand dune, due to the reduction of sand dune. A portion of coastal sand dune vegetation has been isolated in the back of the coastal forest after the development of the sand dune. As a result, coastal plants except Fimbristylis sericea have disappeared, so that inland and alien species have been successfully established on these areas due to barrier effect of the coastal forest. It was concluded that sand dune development destroyed the zonation of coastal sand dune vegetation due to the reduction of sand dune, and resulted in the establishment of inland and alien species due to fragmentation.

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We investigated the pattern of land-use changes since 1902 within a river basin in mountainous region of Kyushu, southern Japan in order to discuss the factors promoting the different land-use changes in relation to the natural and social conditions. Land-use maps were generated for the upper Hitotsuse River basin by interpreting the symbols of topographic maps in 1902, 1965 and 1990. The study area was divided into two parts (upper and lower parts of the basin) based on the dissimilarity of the pattern of the 51 combinations of land-use changes analyzed at about 13,000ha catchment scale. The biases of distribution were analyzed by calculating the Jacobs' electivity index for each pattern of land-use change at 50m x 50m cells in relation to elevation and slope. As the result, we found clear differences in the timing of expansion of traditional Satoyama land use and establishment of conifer plantation between the upper and lower parts of the basin. During 1902 to 1965, expansion of Satoyama land use such as coppice forests and grassland had expanded in the upper basin, though the conifer plantation was prevailed in the lower basin. In the following period (1965-1990), the expanded Satoyama land use in upper basin was replaced by conifer plantations. Analysis of electivity demonstrated the priority of the establishment of conifer plantations on relatively steep slopes at lower elevation, which might resulted in the difference of the pattern of land-use change between upper and lower elevation. The expanded Satoyama land-use before 1965 in the upper basin seemed to be partly owing to the settlement in this period. These result indicated that the influences of social factors such as national forest management policy or agricultural modernization varied depending on natural condition represented by topography, which might be responsible to promote the different land-use change within a river basin of the region.

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Historical change in residential land development was analyzed as a preliminary study to evaluate the effect of urbanization on regional biodiversity. The area of the residential land development in Osaka Prefecture (excluding Osaka City) from 1955 to 1989 was 17,015 ha (10.2% of total area). That was 4,176 ha (3.2%) in low land, 3,539 ha (11.6%) in table land, 6,941 ha (40.2%) in hilly areas, and 2,359 ha (3.5%) in mountainous areas and the foot of mountains. The proportion of developed areas was highest in the hill. The development was highest in the 1960s, and the development rate decreased after 1975. The large development has concentrated on hills and mountains after 1980.

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For Hokkaido, various data sources such as literature material and field survey data were integrated to construct a wildlife distribution database for plant, bird, mammal, amphibian, reptile, fish, aquatic and terrestrial insect species. Geographical position information was produced based on 1 km, 5 km, and 10 km mesh codes. The database includes approximately 2,400 thousands data, rendering it the largest scale database for any region in Asia. Using these data, distributions can be analyzed in comparison with the number of threatened species inside and outside of protected areas, and the relation between ecosystem types and the number of species for Hokkaido. Results clarify the possibility that the database can contribute to wide-area biodiversity evaluation and selection of important regions for biodiversity conservation efforts.

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Semi-natural grasslands were once widely distributed in the mountainous areas of Japan, where they were utilized as pastures or common hayfields for the local village communities. However, most of these grasslands have since disappeared and the mountain landscape has greatly changed due to economic development and the changes in the Japanese life style after World War II. The goal of this study was to analyze the spatio-temporal changes of these mountainous semi-natural grasslands, and to reconstruct the landscape at each stage over the past 100 years. For this purpose, diverse geographic information, such as temporal topographic maps and aerial photos, were integrated to allow spatial analysis to be performed using GIS. As a result of this analysis, the mountainous grasslands were found to have existed until the period immediately following World War II, but were rapidly changed to largely coniferous plantation forests during the 1960s.

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This research studied the management situation of different habitats, investigating flora and dividing the grasslands located in Shiroi City, Chiba Prefecture into six habitats (abandoned rice fields, mowed land, sloped, developed land, management -abandoned land, arable and playgrounds). For the species rate of attribute-based classification for each habitat, endangered plants were the most common in mowed land, and were the least common at abandoned rice fields, developed land and arable and playgrounds. Grassland plants were the most common in mowed land, and were the least common in abandoned rice fields. Ruderal plants were over half at 50-60% in all habitats. Exotic plants were the least common in mowed land, and were the most common in developed land. Endangered plants included many species at 17 species for mowed land, and included few species at abandoned rice fields and developed land. In grassland types at each habitat, Miscanthus sinensis and Imperata cylindrical types included many species at mowed land, Zoysia japonica type included many species in arable and playgrounds. With respect to management of each habitat, we found that mowed land and a part of sloped is regularly mowed of about 1-3 times per year, arable and playgrounds are hard mowed over 4 times per year, and in other habitats, although the length of time that has elapsed since abandonment is different, basically, these habitats are abandoned.

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