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Buried seed populations on the volcano Mt. Usu, northern Japan, ten years after the 1977–78 eruptions
Author(s) -
Tsuyuzaki Shiro
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
ecological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.628
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1440-1703
pISSN - 0912-3814
DOI - 10.1007/bf02347149
Subject(s) - grassland , topsoil , vegetation (pathology) , volcano , population , geology , environmental science , ecology , soil water , soil science , biology , medicine , demography , pathology , seismology , sociology
In 1987, a study on buried seed populations was conducted in the crater basin of Mt. Usu, a volcano located in northern Japan, where the vegetation had beeen almost completely destroyed by eruptions in 1977 and 1978. The former vegetation had consisted of grassland and broad‐leaved forest. In the areas formerly occupied by this grassland and forest, 2128.0 and 1985.3 seeds per square meter, respectively, were extracted from 12 blocks of the former topsoil using a floattion method. This revealed that many seeds were still viable even after ten years of burial under thick volcanic deposits. The seeds were distributed more in sandy soil than in rocky soil of the former topsoil. Twenty‐five species, most of which favored grassland, were detected in both the former grassland and forest. From comparison of α‐and β‐diversities between the grassland and forest, the structure of the buried seed population was considered likely to have been more diverse in the forest than in the grassland. The determinants of composition of the buried seed populations were discussed with reference to the former vegetation and soil characteristics.