| General Information: |
| Title: | Observation of leaf phenology of trees in a secondary deciduous broad-leaved forest in northern Chugoku Mountain Range, western Japan, from 2004 to 2016 |
| Identifier: | ERDP-2020-20.1.1 |
| Abstract: |
Long-term record of leaf phenology of woody plants that have high longevity and that have been growing on the same site for a longer time could be one of the good indicators for assessing the effects of climate change on forest ecosystem functioning. Since climatic conditions could be different among locations, we need to record the phenology of forest plants growing under various climate types. Here, we report seasonal changes in leaf abundance of deciduous trees during a 13-year period in the Sambe Forest of Shimane University located in northern Chugoku Mountain Range, western Japan [35° 9′ N, 132° 37′-40′ E, 300–628 m above sea level (asl)]. Northern Chugoku Mountain Range is situated in the west end of Japan Sea side climate. Our study would provide the first record of tree phenology in this region. We examined 8 species belonging to 8 genera common in a secondary deciduous broad-leaved forest in western Japan. Habitats of native trees ranged from canopy to understory in the forest and pioneers in an open site. Some of trees were exceptionally planted in an arboretum in the Sambe Forest. Leaf types included single leaf (i.e., Carpinus tschonoskii, Swida macrophylla, etc.) and pinnate leaves (i.e., Aesculus turbinata and Phellodendron amurense). We observed changes in the relative leaf abundance caused by budburst, leaf expansion, and leaf shedding of the fixed shoots of targeted trees during three-day to three-week intervals from March to December each year from 2004 to 2016. Over the 13-year period, we used a digital camera to take photographs of the shoots that were processed to estimate the leaf abundance. Our data was obtained from common tree species that have a wide habitat range and are distributed nationwide. Therefore, comparison of our data with those data in other climate types may significantly contribute to understand the effect of climate change across Japan on forest plants.
The complete dataset for this abstract published in the Data Paper section of the journal is available in electronic format in the Ecological Research Data Paper Archives at http://db.cger.nies.go.jp/JaLTER/ER_DataPapers/archives/2020/ERDP-2020-20.
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| Keywords: |
- deciduous broad-leaved trees
- digital image
- leaf flushing
- leaf shedding
- abandoned fuelwood forest
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Involved Parties
| Data Set Owners: |
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Individual: | Yoshinobu Ozaki |
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Organization: | Education and Research Center for Biological Resources, Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, Shimane University |
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Address: |
| 941–1 Sambe-Tane, |
| Ohda, Shimane 694-0003 Japan |
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Individual: | Erika Kasai |
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Organization: | Education and Research Center for Biological Resources, Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, Shimane University |
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Address: |
| 941–1 Sambe-Tane, |
| Ohda, Shimane 694-0003 Japan |
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Individual: | Tamon Yamashita |
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Organization: | Institute of Environmental Systems Science,Shimane University |
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Address: |
| 1060 Nishi-Kawatsu, |
| Matsue, Shimane 690-8504 Japan |
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| Data Set Contacts: |
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Individual: | Yoshinobu Ozaki |
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Organization: | Education and Research Center for Biological Resources, Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, Shimane University |
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Address: |
| 941–1 Sambe-Tane, |
| Ohda, Shimane 694-0003 Japan |
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Phone:
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Phone:
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Individual: | Tamon Yamashita |
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Organization: | Institute of Environmental Systems Science, Shimane University |
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Address: |
| 1060 Nishi-Kawatsu, |
| Matsue, Shimane 690-8504 Japan |
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Phone:
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Phone:
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Email Address:
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Individual: | Erika Kasai |
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Organization: | Forest Science Section, Education and Research Center for Biological Resources, Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, Shimane University |
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Address: |
| 941–1 Sambe-Tane, |
| Ohda, Shimane 694-0003 Japan |
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Phone:
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| Associated Parties: |
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Individual: | Tamon Yamashita |
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Organization: | Institute of Environmental Systems Science, Shimane University |
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Address: |
| 1060 Nishi-Kawatsu, |
| Matsue, Shimane 690-8504 Japan |
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Phone:
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Phone:
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Email Address:
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Individual: | Yoshinobu Ozaki |
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Organization: | Forest Science Section, Education and Research Center for Biological Resources, Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, Shimane University |
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Address: |
| 941–1 Sambe-Tane, |
| Ohda, Shimane 694-0003 Japan |
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Phone:
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Phone:
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Individual: | Erika Kasai |
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Organization: | Forest Science Section, Education and Research Center for Biological Resources, Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, Shimane University |
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Address: |
| 941–1 Sambe-Tane, |
| Ohda, Shimane 694-0003 Japan |
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Data Set Characteristics
| Geographic Region: |
| Geographic Description: | the Tane site in the Ohda city |
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Bounding Coordinates:
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| West: | 132.3715 degrees
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| East: | 132.3715 degrees
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| North: | 35.958 degrees
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| South: | 35.958 degrees
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Mimimum Altitude: | 450.0 meter |
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Maximum Altitude: | 420.0 meter |
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| Geographic Region: |
| Geographic Description: | the Shishidani site in the Iinan town |
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Bounding Coordinates:
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| West: | 132.3923 degrees
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| East: | 132.3923 degrees
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| North: | 35.936 degrees
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| South: | 35.936 degrees
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Mimimum Altitude: | 623.0 meter |
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Maximum Altitude: | 300.0 meter |
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| Geographic Region: |
| Geographic Description: | the Ohtani site in the Iinan town |
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Bounding Coordinates:
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| West: | 132.4026 degrees
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| East: | 132.4026 degrees
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| North: | 35.96 degrees
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| South: | 35.96 degrees
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Mimimum Altitude: | 500.0 meter |
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Maximum Altitude: | 300.0 meter |
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Sampling, Processing and Quality Control Methods
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Step by Step Procedures
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| Step 1: |
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Description:
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Measurement methods
Our targets were eight common tree species in the Sambe Forest. They were widely grown in western Japan. A list of target trees is shown in Table 1. First, we chose three individual trees from each targeted species along the forest road and trails that were easy to access with no obstacles between tree shoots and the ground. Second, we tagged a couple of shoots from each individual tree. A stick was driven into the soil just below the tagged shoots to fix the position of observation. We took digital photographs of the shoots at the top of each stick at an interval of three days to three weeks from March to December. Occasional snow in winter and other factors caused damage to the shoots. In such cases we replaced the damaged shoots with new intact shoots for phenological observation. When we took photographs of the shoots, a camera was set at a constant height and direction on the stick and the camera lens was set in the same angle of view. Originally, the camera used for observation was a Nikon Cool Pix 950 whose focal length varied from 7 mm (F = 2.6) to 21 mm (F = 4) on 1/2 size of CCD. After several years, we replaced it with a Nikon Cool Pix 4500 whose focal length varied from 7.85 mm (F = 2.6) to 32 mm (F = 5.1) on 1/1.8 size of CCD. Digital photographs were processed to binary images. We assumed that black pixels in a specific area of the binary image indicated branches and leaves of the shoots. Before the onset of leaf flushing and after the end of leaf shedding, black pixels were thought to be originated solely from branches. Between the onset of leaf-flashing and the end of leaf shedding, the number of black pixels varied with leaf expansion, senescence, and shedding. We computed the excess number of black pixels over the number of black pixels only of branches without leaves for every observation date. We considered that the maximum black pixel number was obtained when all leaves fully expanded. Eventually we calculated relative leaf abundance as the pixel number of the observed date in relation to the maximum pixel number of the shoots in that year.
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Data Set Usage Rights
| The complete dataset for this abstract published in the Data Paper section of the journal is available in electronic format in the Ecological Research Data Paper Archives at http://db.cger.nies.go.jp/JaLTER/ER_DataPapers/archives/2020/ERDP-2020-20. |
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