著者

沖津 進

出版者

日本生態学会

雑誌

日本生態学会誌 (ISSN:00215007)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.35, no.1, pp.113-121, 1985-03-30

被引用文献数

5

---

OKITSU Susumu (Dept. Biosystem Management, Div. Env. Conservation, Grad. School of Env. Sci., Hokkaido Univ., Sapporo). 1985. Consideration on vegetational zonation based on the establishment process of a Pinus pumila zone in Hokkaido, northern Japan. Jap. J. Ecool., 35 : 113-121. The characteristic features and process of establishment of the Pinus pumila zone in Japanese high mountains were explained, and their ecological significance was discussed in relation to that of the vegetational zones, including both vertical and horizontal ones. The P. pumila zone is a unique vegetational zone which is not an extension of the forest zone regarded as the timberline ecotone, nor is it dependent on the Kira's Warmth Index 15. The P. pumila community invades into high mountain areas, which are forest areas under thermal conditions but become deforested by strong winds and heavy snows in winter, and finally, extends into the areas and forms the P. pumila zone there. The horizontal counterpart of this zone is the Larix dahurica forest zone in eastern Siberia, and P. pumila is presumed to have been a remnant element of L. dahurica forest in the Last Ice Age, and to have established its own vertical zone in high mountain areas of Japan after the last Ice Age.