For more than 1000 years, the forests in mountainous
areas of Japan
have been distinguished by excessive harvesting and litter collection.
Revegetation of these areas over the past 130 years has resulted in the current
forest coverage. However, the forest soils are immature and contain very little
organic carbon. Therefore, the past human impact likely affects the present
carbon cycle and CO2 efflux at the forest floor. It is important to
estimate the carbon cycle and CO2 efflux at the forest floor in such
a heavily affected ecosystem to discuss the relationship between the carbon
cycle and land use management. Therefore, we measured the CO2 efflux
at the forest floor in a deciduous forest heavily affected by human activities
in Japan
and estimated the annual rate.
Author: K. Tamai, Y. Kominami, T. Miyama, Y. Goto and Y. Ohtani (a123 at ffpri dot affrc dot go dot jp)
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