Forest monitoring data of 45 plots over the Japanese archipelago during the period of 1980-2021

Tetsuro Yoshikawa; Kumiko Totsu; Yayoi Takeuchi; Taku Kadoya; Tsutomu Enoki; Sakae Fujii; Atsuko S. Fukamachi; Mitsuru Hirota; Kazuhiko Hoshizaki; Naoki Iiyama; Yukio Ishikawa; Hiroki Itô; Hajime Kobayashi; Takashi Kohyama; Yasuo Konno; Akifumi Makita; Akira S. Mori; Dai Nagamatsu; Tohru Nakashizuka; Kanji Namikawa; Mahoko Noguchi; Michinori Sakimoto; Yoshinobu Ozaki; Tatsuyuki Seino; Hisashi Sugita; Jun-Ichirou Suzuki; Ryo O. Suzuki; Satoshi N. Suzuki; Koichi Takahashi; Ryunosuke Tateno; Ryuichi Watanabe; Tamon Yamashita; Tomohiro Yoshida; Masae I. Ishihara; Kenta Tanaka; Masahiro Nakamura; Tsutom Hiura

doi:10.15468/ag72vk

Forest monitoring data of 45 plots over the Japanese archipelago during the period of 1980-2021

Citation

Yoshikawa T, Totsu K, Takeuchi Y, Kadoya T, Enoki T, Fujii S, Fukamachi A S, Hirota M, Hoshizaki K, Iiyama N, Ishikawa Y, Itô H, Kobayashi H, Kohyama T, Konno Y, Makita A, Mori A S, Nagamatsu D, Nakashizuka T, Namikawa K, Noguchi M, Sakimoto M, Ozaki Y, Seino T, Sugita H, Suzuki J, Suzuki R O, Suzuki S N, Takahashi K, Tateno R, Watanabe R, Yamashita T, Yoshida T, Ishihara M I, Tanaka K, Nakamura M, Hiura T (2024). Forest monitoring data of 45 plots over the Japanese archipelago during the period of 1980-2021. National Institute of Genetics, ROIS. Sampling event dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/ag72vk accessed via GBIF.org on 2024-11-14.

Description

Long-term monitoring of a forest tree community is a basis for understanding forest structure and dynamics, and for evaluating ecosystem functions such as primary production. Because global climate change has impacted and will change the forest ecosystems from local to global scales, it is essential to document long-term monitoring data of the forests to examine the temporal and geographical trends of forest changes. We here report the monitoring data of 45 forest plots (average area: 0.69 ha) from 27 sites in Japan. The plots are located with latitude ranges from N 32.38 to N 43.36, and with elevation ranges from 8 m to 2453 m above sea level. These plots include both old-growth and secondary forests, and cover various forest biomes, such as warm-temperate evergreen forests, temperate deciduous broadleaved forests, and boreal or sub-alpine coniferous forests. In each plot, all living trees and liana larger than a certain minimum size (basically 15 cm stem girth at breast height) were repeatedly measured, and survival and recruitment of stems were recorded. Monitoring period varies among plots from 5 to 40 years with the average of 17.3 years. The tree measurement data are presented as a format common to that of the preceding Monitoring Sites 1000 Project in Japan, and as a sample-based Darwin Core format. This dataset expands existing open monitoring data of Japanese forests and thereby facilitates further meta-analysis on forest community structures and their changes in relation to climate change and other drivers. This dataset is published as a data paper in Ecological Research (see https://doi.org/10.1111/1440-1703.12457).

Sampling Description

Study Extent

The 45 forest plots (coded as PL01–PL45 in this paper) are distributed throughout the Japanese archipelago. Plot latitude ranges from N 32.38 to N 43.36, and longitude ranges from E 131.17 to E 144.66. Elevation of the plots range from 8 m to 2453 m above sea level. Monitoring period per plot ranges from 5 to 40 years and the average is 17.3 years. Total monitoring period ranges from 1980 to 2021. A total of 269 censuses were performed in all the 45 plots. Plot size ranges from 0.0325 ha (plot ID: PL41) to 6.25 ha (plot ID: PL18), with an average of 0.69 ha. Most of the plots have rectangle shapes, but one plot has an irregular shape, and two plots have rectangle outlines but have non-covered areas inside them. These plots were all established in natural forests without cultivated or planted trees, and have experienced no large natural or anthropogenic disturbance (e.g., logging) during the monitoring. Some plots have suffered from insect damage (mainly the oak wilt disease by a bark beetle), deer browsing, or windstorm damage during their monitoring periods. The 45 plots can be categorized into two forest age classes; old-growth forest which had persisted at least 150 years without large disturbances until the start of monitoring (28 plots in 18 sites), and secondary forests, which have established within 150 years before the start of monitoring (17 plots in 11 sites).

Sampling

Tree measurement was performed generally based on the protocol of the Monitoring Site 1000 project (Ishihara et al. 2011). All living trees and liana larger than a certain minimum size were repeatedly measured using a tape measure or a caliper. Minimum size of measured stem (in girth at breast height [GBH] or tree height) differs among the plots, but all the stems with greater than or equal to 15.7 cm in GBH (5 cm in DBH) were measured, except one plot with the minimum size of 31.4 cm of GBH (10 cm in DBH; PL18). Survival and recruitment of stems were also recorded in each census. Total number of censuses per plot ranges from 2 to 23, with the average of 6.0.

Quality Control

All plants were identified to species-level by the experts. Scientific names followed the YList (Yonekura and Kajita 2003) and were checked against the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy (GBIF Secretariat 2021).

Method steps

Tree census data was formatted into event data. A plot ID was stored in locationID. When a census date was not available, a date range based on the Japanese fiscal year was provided in eventDate.
For the measurement in which individuals were identified, occurrence data was extracted from the GBH measurement data by a combination of a plot ID, an individual identification code (*case-sensitive), a census date, and species. A combination of a plot ID and an individual identification code was stored in organismID. For the measurement in which individuals were not identified (i.e. some in PL18 and all in PL02, PL05 and PL40), a combination of a plot ID, a census date, and species was used to extract occurrence data and therefore organismID was not provided.
Measurement records including GBH and the proportion of tree trunk area where bark is stripped by deers, were created for each stem observed.

Taxonomic Coverages

Trees and liana of gymnosperm and angiosperm of 232 species from 113 genera of 54 families.

Actinidiaceae
rank: family
Adoxaceae
rank: family
Anacardiaceae
rank: family
Apocynaceae
rank: family
Aquifoliaceae
rank: family
Araliaceae
rank: family
Aucubaceae
rank: family
Betulaceae
rank: family
Cannabaceae
rank: family
Celastraceae
rank: family
Cephalotaxaceae
rank: family
Cercidiphyllaceae
rank: family
Clethraceae
rank: family
Cornaceae
rank: family
Cupressaceae
rank: family
Daphniphyllaceae
rank: family
Diervillaceae
rank: family
Ebenaceae
rank: family
Ericaceae
rank: family
Euphorbiaceae
rank: family
Eupteleaceae
rank: family
Fabaceae
rank: family
Fagaceae
rank: family
Hamamelidaceae
rank: family
Hydrangeaceae
rank: family
Juglandaceae
rank: family
Lamiaceae
rank: family
Lardizabalaceae
rank: family
Lauraceae
rank: family
Magnoliaceae
rank: family
Malvaceae
rank: family
Moraceae
rank: family
Myricaceae
rank: family
Oleaceae
rank: family
Pinaceae
rank: family
Rhamnaceae
rank: family
Rosaceae
rank: family
Rutaceae
rank: family
Sabiaceae
rank: family
Salicaceae
rank: family
Sapindaceae
rank: family
Schisandraceae
rank: family
Sciadopityaceae
rank: family
Simaroubaceae
rank: family
Stachyuraceae
rank: family
Staphyleaceae
rank: family
Styracaceae
rank: family
Symplocaceae
rank: family
Taxaceae
rank: family
Ternstroemiaceae
rank: family
Theaceae
rank: family
Trochodendraceae
rank: family
Ulmaceae
rank: family
Vitaceae
rank: family

Geographic Coverages

Japan

Bibliographic Citations

Ishihara MI, Suzuki SN, Nakamura M, et al (2011) Forest stand structure, composition, and dynamics in 34 sites over Japan. Ecol Res 26:1007 - 10.1007/s11284-011-0847-y
Yonekura K, Kajita T (2003) BG Plants: Japanese name-Scientific name index (YList). In: Retrieved July. http://ylist.info/ -
GBIF Secretariat (2021) GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2021-08-12. - 10.15468/39omei

Contacts

Tetsuro Yoshikawa
originator
position: Research Associate
National Institute for Environmental Studies
16-2 Onogawa
Tsukuba
305-8506
Ibaraki
JP

Kumiko Totsu
originator
position: Specialist (Database engineer)
National Institute for Environmental Studies
16-2 Onogawa
Tsukuba
305-8506
Ibaraki
JP
email: totsu.kumiko@nies.go.jp

Yayoi Takeuchi
originator
position: Senior Researcher
National Institute for Environmental Studies
16-2 Onogawa
Tsukuba
305-8506
Ibaraki
JP
email: takeuchi.yayoi@nies.go.jp

Taku Kadoya
originator
position: Head
National Institute for Environmental Studies
16-2 Onogawa
Tsukuba
305-8506
Ibaraki
JP

Tsutomu Enoki
originator
Kyushu University

Sakae Fujii
originator
Tokushima Prefecture Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Technology Support Center

Atsuko S. Fukamachi
originator
Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology

Mitsuru Hirota
originator
University of Tsukuba

Kazuhiko Hoshizaki
originator
Akita Prefectural University

Naoki Iiyama
originator
Tokushima University

Yukio Ishikawa
originator
Hirosaki University

Hiroki Itô
originator
Hokkaido Research Center, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute

Hajime Kobayashi
originator
Shinshu University

Takashi Kohyama
originator
Hokkaido University

Yasuo Konno
originator
Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine

Akifumi Makita
originator
Akita Prefectural University

Akira S. Mori
originator
The University of Tokyo

Dai Nagamatsu
originator
Tottori University

Tohru Nakashizuka
originator
Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute

Kanji Namikawa
originator
Hokkaido University of Education

Mahoko Noguchi
originator
Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute

Michinori Sakimoto
originator
Kyoto University

Yoshinobu Ozaki
originator
Shimane University

Tatsuyuki Seino
originator
University of Tsukuba

Hisashi Sugita
originator
Toyama Prefectural Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries Research Center

Jun-Ichirou Suzuki
originator
Tokyo Metropolitan University

Ryo O. Suzuki
originator
University of The Ryukyus

Satoshi N. Suzuki
originator
The University of Tokyo

Koichi Takahashi
originator
Shinshu University

Ryunosuke Tateno
originator
Kyoto University

Ryuichi Watanabe
originator
Shinshu University

Tamon Yamashita
originator
Shimane University

Tomohiro Yoshida
originator
Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology

Masae I. Ishihara
originator
Kyoto University

Kenta Tanaka
originator
University of Tsukuba

Masahiro Nakamura
originator
Hokkaido University

Tsutom Hiura
originator
The University of Tokyo

Yayoi Takeuchi
metadata author
position: Senior Researcher
National Institute for Environmental Studies
16-2 Onogawa
Tsukuba
305-8506
Ibaraki
JP
email: takeuchi.yayoi@nies.go.jp

Tetsuro Yoshikawa
author
position: Research Associate
National Institute for Environmental Studies
16-2 Onogawa
Tsukuba
305-8506
Ibaraki
JP

Kumiko Totsu
author
position: Specialist (Database engineer)
National Institute for Environmental Studies
16-2 Onogawa
Tsukuba
305-8506
Ibaraki
JP
email: totsu.kumiko@nies.go.jp

Yayoi Takeuchi
author
position: Senior Researcher
National Institute for Environmental Studies
16-2 Onogawa
Tsukuba
305-8506
Ibaraki
JP
email: takeuchi.yayoi@nies.go.jp

Taku Kadoya
author
position: Head
National Institute for Environmental Studies
16-2 Onogawa
Tsukuba
305-8506
Ibaraki
JP

Tsutomu Enoki
author
Kyushu University

Sakae Fujii
author
Tokushima Prefecture Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Technology Support Center

Atsuko S. Fukamachi
author
Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology

Mitsuru Hirota
author
University of Tsukuba

Kazuhiko Hoshizaki
author
Akita Prefectural University

Naoki Iiyama
author
Tokushima University

Yukio Ishikawa
author
Hirosaki University

Hiroki Itô
author
Hokkaido Research Center, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute

Hajime Kobayashi
author
Shinshu University

Takashi Kohyama
author
Hokkaido University

Yasuo Konno
author
Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine

Akifumi Makita
author
Akita Prefectural University

Akira S. Mori
author
The University of Tokyo

Dai Nagamatsu
author
Tottori University

Tohru Nakashizuka
author
Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute

Kanji Namikawa
author
Hokkaido University of Education

Mahoko Noguchi
author
Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute

Michinori Sakimoto
author
Kyoto University

Yoshinobu Ozaki
author
Shimane University

Tatsuyuki Seino
author
University of Tsukuba

Hisashi Sugita
author
Toyama Prefectural Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries Research Center

Jun-Ichirou Suzuki
author
Tokyo Metropolitan University

Ryo O. Suzuki
author
University of The Ryukyus

Satoshi N. Suzuki
author
The University of Tokyo

Koichi Takahashi
author
Shinshu University

Ryunosuke Tateno
author
Kyoto University

Ryuichi Watanabe
author
Shinshu University

Tamon Yamashita
author
Shimane University

Tomohiro Yoshida
author
Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology

Masae I. Ishihara
author
Kyoto University

Kenta Tanaka
author
University of Tsukuba

Masahiro Nakamura
author
Hokkaido University

Tsutom Hiura
author
The University of Tokyo

Yayoi Takeuchi
administrative point of contact
position: Senior Researcher
National Institute for Environmental Studies
16-2 Onogawa
Tsukuba
305-8506
Ibaraki
JP
email: takeuchi.yayoi@nies.go.jp

Biodiversity Division
administrative point of contact
National Institute for Environmental Studies
16-2 Onogawa
Tsukuba
305-8506
Ibaraki
JP
email: biodiv.data@nies.go.jp