In March 2011, the Pacific coastal forest in Northeast Japan was devastated by the tsunami that occurred after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Targeted reforestation of the coastal forest is one of the high priorities of earthquake disaster restoration efforts. Previous work has indicated that individuals with a large diameter at breast height (dbh) were not most affected by tsunami damage in the coastal forest. Therefore, we determined the yield–density diagram for the coastal forests in Miyagi prefecture and Yamagata prefecture at approximately the same latitude. We then used the yield–density diagram, which describe stand density in each diameter class and predict future transitions among classes, to analyze coastal forest dynamics. Significant differences were not observed between forests in the two prefectures in either the full density curve or in the boundary diameter curve. We suggest that reforestation efforts utilize the yield–density relationship of Yamagata prefecture. The differences in the dbh distribution of the stand before and after tsunami damage were clear in the yield–density diagram, supporting previous work. Forest dynamics analysis revealed that the density of trees with large dbh would increase to approximately 82% of stand density in about 5 years. Thus, we assert that yield–density diagram is useful for effective reforestation and subsequent forest management of coastal black pine forest.

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[in Japanese]

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