Gap-Disturbance Regimes in Different Forest Types of Japan

In this study, I defined a gap as a small opening formed in a forest canopy (area < 0.1 ha) and tried to synthesize gap-disturbance regimes of primary mature stands in different forest types of Japan, such as warm temperate evergreen broad-leaved (4 stands in 3 localities), cool temperate deciduous broad-leaved (10 in 5) and subalpine evergreen coniferous (3 in 1) forests. Mean percentage of the total gap area within the total forested area (percentage gap area) in each forest type was 17.0% in warm temperate (number of surveyed gaps was 161), 13.8% in cool temperate (278 gaps), and 8.0% in subalpine (100 gaps) forests. Mean gap density (ha-1) and mean gap size (m2) were 19.5 and 77.1 in warm temperate, 16.4 and 92.0 in cool temperate, and 19.1 and 41.9 in subalpine forests, respectively. These figures indicate that gap density is not substantially different among the forest types, but the mean gap size of subalpine forests is smaller than the other two, resulting in lower percentage gap area of this forest type. The gap size distributions were similar among the forest types; smaller gaps were much more frequent than larger ones, and gaps > 400 rrr were rare in warm temperate and cool temperate forests. In subalpine forests gaps > 200 m2 were rare. Gaps formed by multiple gapmakers comprised 19.9% of all gaps in warm temperate, 9.9% in cool temperate, and 44.9% in subalpine forests, which implies that gap formation by simultaneous tree fall or gap enlargement is more frequent in subalpine forests. Canopy trees died less often by uprooting in every forest type; dominant mode for the death of canopy trees was by leaving standing-dead or with broken trunks in every forest type. Since typhoons are obviously a chief agent of forest disturbance in Japan, frequency or magnitude of typhoon disturbance may influence these differences in the gap-disturbance regimes. In addition to the disturbance, tree architectures seem to affect some of these differences; narrower crown size of conifers compared with broad-leaved trees is considered one major cause for smaller gap size of the conifer forest.