In Japan, forests associated with shrines and temples are recognized as important components of urban green space, which can potentially function as centers for ecosystem conservation in rapidly urbanizing Japanese cities. In addition to their ecological value, shrine/temple forests have social value, providing recreational and aesthetic needs to residents of urban areas. We review the historical development of shrine/temple forests in Japan and discuss current conservation issues from both ecological and sociological perspectives. Generally, shrine forests are minimally managed and public access is discouraged, whereas temple forests are intensively managed for public display. Shrines tend to be spatially scattered across the landscape but associated with specific geographical features, whereas temples tend to be clustered. Their wide and random distribution in urban areas suggests that shrine forests can potentially be used as stepping stones in the urban green space network, whereas spatially clustered temple forests can be integrated to form large areas of green space. Species diversity of shrine/temple forests declines with decreasing area. The distribution pattern of species is not completely nested, indicating that although conservation of large forest fragments may be effective for maintaining landscape-level biodiversity, smaller forest fragments and adjacent precincts are sometimes significant because rare species occasionally inhabit them. Active management and ecological restoration, such as removal of invasive species, are also important to maintain the desirable near-natural forest conditions. A working group including the owner, community, regional government, and ecologists should be involved in creating an effective, longterm management plan. Because social and cultural values are diverse, basic ecological studies of shrine/temple forests would contribute a scientific basis that fosters public confidence in the process.
Over the past decade, the abundance of sika deer has rapidly increased around Japan. Previous studies have showed overabundance of deer causes drastic reduction of forest understory vegetation, leading excessive soil erosion. However, no study has investigated the effects of excessive deer browsing on aquatic insect assemblages via sediment runoff. These effects are important to understand whether the terrestrial alteration by deer influences aquatic ecosystems. In a primary deciduous forest catchment in Ashiu, Kyoto, a deer exclusion fence has been in place since 2006. We compared forest floor cover, overland flow, stream environment, and aquatic insect assemblages in first-order streams and catchments inside and outside of the deer-exclosure from May-2008 to April-2009. The floor inside the deer-exclosure catchment was covered by lush understory vegetation, whereas outside was almost bare. The overland flow runoff rate at midslope and the dominancy of fine sediment deposition in the streambed were higher outside than inside. Among aquatic insects, burrowers, which are tolerant against fine sediment deposition, were significantly more abundant outside than inside, whereas clingers exhibited the opposite patterns. Collectorgatherers, which feed on fine detritus, were significantly more abundant outside than inside. Meanwhile, filterers were more abundant inside. The Simpson's diversity index of the aquatic insect assemblages was higher inside than outside. These results suggest that the demise of understory vegetation due to excessive deer browsing has indirectly caused changes in the aquatic insect assemblages of this catchment via increased sediment runoff and subsequent sandy sedimentation of the streambed.
Leaf chlorophyll quantification is a key technique in tree vigor assessment. Although many studies have been conducted on nondestructive and in-field spectroscopic determination, it is reasonable to develop speciesspecific chlorophyll indices for accurate determination, because leaf spectra can vary independently of chlorophyll content due to leaf surface and structural differences among species. The present study aimed to develop optimal reflectance and absorptance indices for estimating the leaf chlorophyll content of Cerasus jamasakura (Siebold ex Koidz.) H. Ohba var. jamasakura and Cerasus 9 yedoensis 'Somei-yoshino,' and to examine their performance by comparing them with 46 published chlorophyll indices and SPAD. For 96 and 100 leaf samples, measurements were taken using a spectroradiometer with a leaf-clip attachment and a SPAD-502 chlorophyll meter, and chlorophyll content was determined by extraction with N,N 0 -dimethylformamide. The optimal leaf chlorophyll indices were then developed systematically by testing eight types of indices.As a result, we confirmed that the optimal chlorophyll indices performed better than any of the published leaf chlorophyll indices or SPAD, giving RMSEs that were approximately twice as good as those for SPAD, and found that the newly proposed index type-a difference and ratio combination type-may be a useful form of chlorophyll content estimation. We also found that absorptance indices achieved equivalent results to reflectance indices despite the hypothesis that absorptance measurement is direct and has more potential. Among the published indices, the reflectance ratio index of Datt [Datt B (1999) Int J Remote Sens 20(14):2741-2759] and the red edge chlorophyll index of Ciganda et al. [Ciganda V, Gitelson A, Schepers J (2009) J Plant Physiol 166:157-167] were effective at estimating the leaf chlorophyll contents of both flowering cherries.
Context Habitat fragmentation is likely to have deleterious genetic consequences for plant populations. Although the genetic effects of fragmentation in plants have been investigated in various landscapes, such studies are scarce in urban landscapes where forests tend to be fragmented and have a complex internal structure.Objectives This study aimed to determine the factors, including patch and sub-patch level spatial factors, affecting the genetic diversity of a herbaceous species in urban fragmented forests.Methods We collected 30-39 leaf samples of Viola grypoceras A. Gray var. grypoceras, a perennial herbaceous species with short-distance seed dispersal, from 12 fragmented and 12 suburban forests each at Kyoto City, Japan, and analyzed the genetic diversity of this species by developing six simple sequence repeat markers. Field survey was conducted to collect demographic and spatial data. Results There was no significant difference in allelic richness between the urban fragmented and suburban forests. However, statistical analysis revealed that the area of vegetation, distribution pattern of populations in a forest, and average distance between nearest populations affected the genetic diversity of this species in urban fragmented forests.Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (Conclusion Although V. grypoceras has traits that allow it to tolerate fragmentation, such as selfpollination and seed bank-formation ability, pure loss of habitat and reduced fragment size might have deleterious effects on this species, and these effects might become more apparent if fragmentation continues to proceed in the future.
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