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Enviornmental Conservation (2010)

Shiro TSUYUZAKI
Plant community ecology / Environmental conservation

Mount Usu / Sarobetsu post-mined peatland
From left: Crater basin in 1986 and 2006. Cottongrass / Daylily

(Fall semester 2009. Update on Feb. 13 2010)

Advanced course in environmental conservation

A Table of Contents

[ References | Examination (レポート Report) ]

Expected background: Knowing "fundamental ecology" and/or related subjects
Content: Lecture held in 2009

Room# C202 (10:30-12:00)

Detailed memo

October 7 2010

Introduction (Guidance)

What is this lecture?
Contents
Flow chart of this lecture

Classification of ecology
Life cycle (life history)

Case of Trillium (Ref. T. smallii )
MVP (minimum viable population)
Case: Trillium in fragmented forests

Metapopulation

Case: Silver-studded blue butterfly (Plejebus argus) in North Wales
Case: spatial occurrence and abundance patterns of Maculinea butterflies

October 14 2010

Ecosystem (or biosystem)
Environment
Definitions and criteria of plant community

Flora (floristic composition) - Ex. Mount Koma

Vegetation physiognomy
Strata (sg. stratum)
Larch forest in Oku-Nikko
Strata of tropical forest with reference to the conservation of mammal species
Herbaceous plant diversities vs strata

Pattern and scale

Plant community dynamics = spatial and temporal patterns

The problems on pattern and scale in ecology

Complex dynamics in ecology

Toposequence, chronosequence, and permanent plot
Toposequence
Soil moisture (or water depth) gradient

October 21 2010

Baidzharakhs (relic mounds)
Chronosequence: Case, Fire history

Scaling from large to small

Scale-dependent factor
Vegetation in gullies created by ice wedges near Kolyma River

Scale-dependent interactions

Scale-dependent interactions and community structure on cobble beaches

October 28 2010

Seasonal shifts in competition and facilitation in subalpine plant communities of the central Caucasus

Global (biome) > Regional > Habitat > Microhabitat

Biome: Precipitation and temperature

World

Plant functional types (PFT) and species attributes

Inductive method vs deductive method
Attributes for obtaining PFT: vegetative strategy, life history, phenology, and seed biology
Case: comparison of plant community structures between distinct areas
Case: landscape-scale variation in the seed banks of floodplain wetlands with contrasting hydrology in China

Japan

Climate (temperature and precipitation)
Distribution of fern species in Japan
Warmth index
Snow (dorso-ventral sturcture)
Dwarf-shaped plants: Adaptation to snow

Hokkaido

Distribution of Sasa (dwarf bamboo) in Hokkaido

November 4 2010

Mixed forest

Vegetation map
Soil type map - andosol, lithosol, and regosol

Habitat

Dorso-ventral sturcture of plant community on mountians
Case: Hokkaido

Microhabitat

Case 1. Pumice Plains on MSH: rill, near-rock
Case 2. Hummock-hollow complex (Bulte-schlenke comlex)
Application of postfire peat accumulation and microtopography in boreal bogs
Case 3. Tree establishment on Mount Usu: rill, ground surface texture

TOP

Disturbance

Natural disturbance and human disturbance
Scale, frequency and intensity

Natural disturbance

Floodplain

Case study: Vegetation zonation in Sorachi River
Disturbance-maintained landscape

November 11 2010

Intermediate (-disturbance) hypothesis

Relationships between grazing pressure and species richness showing the intermediate grazing optimization hypothesis, compensatory growth model and overgrazing model
Effect of pocket gophers on plant community dynamics
Plant species diversity in response to disturbance magnitude in a grassland remnants

Soil erosion

Types of soil erosion
Water erosion, subsurface erosion and wind erosion
Sheet erosion, rill erosion, gully erosion, and streambank collapse and removal
Cases: Alpine area, volcano
Problems on the measurement of underground organs
(Mini)rhizotron
Estimation of root lifespan

Forest fire

Soil profile (acidic brown forest soil)
The role of duff on seedling establishment

November 18 2010

Field trip to understand real plants
see the flora list for HUSTEP

November 25 2010

Seeder and sprouter

Fallen-log regeneration

Human disturbance
Examples, Military forces (US Air Forces), Refugee, and coal slag heap

Biological invasion

Alien species
Invasive species - biological invasion
Invasion patterns of larch (Larix kaempferi) on Mount Koma

Seed source vs environmental factors (elevation, aspect, and slope)
Morphological plasticity

Interactions

Distribution and dispersion

Random, contagious, and regular distribution patterns
Age and dispersion pattern
Analysis methods on spatial pattern

Dispersion pattern analysis
Spatial autocorrelation

December 2 2010

Competition: intera-specific and inter-specific competition

Competition experiment design
Aboveground competition vs belowground competition
Competition for light causes plant biodiversity loss after eutrophication

Indices of plant-plant competition

On indices of plant-plant competition and their pitfalls
Regional effects on competition-productivity relationship: a set of field experiments in two distant regions

Determinants on ecosystem structure with reference to "scale"

Environmental gradients, biotic interactions, and disturbance

Island Biogeography

Principles: distance from mother land and island size

Mother land
Relationship between island area and number of species
Minimum area for the establishment of species
Relationship between island area and extinction rate
How human makes islands (forest cutting, etc.)
Owl can not establish on small islands
Relationship between distance from mother land and immigration rate
Graphical presentation of island biogeography
Measuring immigration and extinction rates

December 9 2010

Ecotone and corridor

Corridor in landscape
Corridor supports the movements of animals and plants
Corridor supports population growth rate
Conservation areas determined by corridors and island biogeography

Applications of island biogeography to nature conservation

Edge
Effects of edge on inside and outside of island
Buffer zone
MVP again. How do we decide nature reservation area?

Restoration ecology

Management methods for degraded ecosystems

Land degradation
Terminology used in the analysis of ecosystem stability

Landscape ecology

Landscape unit: structure, function, and change

Satoyama (village forest)
Interaction between ecosystems: terrestrial-oceanic link created by food chain

TOP

Community diversity

α-diversity, β-diversity, and γ-diversity

α-diversity = within-habitat diversity
β-diversity = between-community diversity
γ-diversity = landscape diversity

α-diversity (and γ-diversity)

Type 0: Using number of species = Species richness
Type 1: Using number of species and total individuals
Type 2: Using relative dominance
Relationship between animal species richness and plant structural diversity

Species richness
Fischer's α-diversity index - Representative T1

Case: Species richness in Kinabalu
How to measure α-diversity

Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H') - representative T2

Bit
Diversity and evenness

Selection of parameter for diversity

Density vs biomass

Niche
Resource patitioning hypothesis

Niche breadth and overlap
Scale dependent effects of land use on plant species richness