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(Upload on October 28 2026) [ 日本語 | English ]

Advanced course in environmental conservation (環境保全学特論)






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

Version for graduate students

Room# D102 (every Tuesday and Friday in the first half of second semester, 13:00-14:30)

A Table of Contents

Flow Expected background: Knowing "fundamental ecology" and/or related subjects

湿原が世界を救う
湿原が世界
を救う

SUP
Wetland plant
ecology

Introduction (Guidance)

October 6 2026
What is this lecture?
Flow chart of this lecture
Classification of ecology
Life cycle (life history)

Case of Trillium (Ref. T. kamtschaticum)
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
Carrying capacity

Pattern and scale

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

October 9 2026

Strata of tropical forest with reference to the conservation of mammal species
Herbaceous plant diversities vs strata

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
Baidzharakhs (relic mounds)
Chronosequence: Case, Fire history
Permanent plots: Case Mount Usu

October 13 2026
Scaling from large to small

Scale-dependent factor

Scale-dependent interactions

Scale-dependent interactions and community structure on cobble beaches
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 (PFTs)

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

Biodiversity hotspots
October 16 2026 (canceled)
October 20 2026
Japan
Climate (temperature and precipitation)

Distribution of ferns in Japan
Warmth index
Precipitation
Snow (dorso-ventral sturcture)
Dwarf-shaped plants: adaptation to snow

Hokkaido

Distribution of Sasa (dwarf bamboo) in Hokkaido

Microhabitat
Case 1. Pumice Plains on MSH: rill, near-rock
Case 2. Tussock
Case 3. Flooding
Case 4. Tree establishment on Mount Usu: rill, ground surface texture

Disturbance

October 23 2026
Natural disturbance and human disturbance
Scale, frequency and intensity
Natural disturbance
Floodplain

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

Fallen-log regeneration
Human disturbance
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)

October 27 2026

Morphological plasticity

Intermediate (-disturbance) hypothesis

Gause's axiom
Relationships between grazing pressure and species richness showing the intermediate grazing optimization hypothesis, compensatory growth model and overgrazing model
Plant species diversity in response to disturbance magnitude in a grassland remnants

Soil erosion

Cases: Alpine zone, and volcano
Problems on the measurement of underground organs
(Mini)rhizotron

Estimation of root biomass
Estimation of root lifespan
Comparing with isotope measurements

Wildfire

The role of duff on seedling establishment
Seeder and sprouter
Tree regeneration after large-scaled wildfire in Alaska (Tsuyuzaki et al. 2014)
Wildfires and global change

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

Dispersion pattern analysis
Spatial autocorrelation

October 30 2026
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

How to write the paper for evaluation

In preparation (準備中)
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