A Synthesis of Studies by the Harvest Method: Primary Production Relations in the Temperate Deciduous Forests of Japan

Abstract

In Japan many studies on primary forest production utilizing the harvest method have been published since 1952 which include various forest types ranging from boreal conifer forests of northern Japan to tropical forests of Cambodia and Thailand, and from pine groves of the seashore to the creeping pine carpets of alpine timberline. These studies, which present data on more than 300 stands were reviewed recently by Kira and Shidei (1967) and recorded in a recent IBP handbook (Newbould, 1967). Satoo (1968b) also has synthesized the existing data on woodlands of Pinus densiflora. Since most of these investigations have been in the interest of silviculture, data for broadleaved deciduous forests, which are of less commercial value, are not often compared with coniferous forests. Almost all of them lack information on root and undergrowth biomass, and data for primary production are very limited. Because of steady progress in methodology, these data are not always based on the same method, even for the same investigator(s). This makes it difficult to compare the existing data, and, if we select the data by method, data obtained by one and the same method are too scarce to be synthesized. Thus, the contents of this synthesis are inevitably of more or less tentative nature; yet, it is hoped that this summary may be of use as a starting point for more advanced studies.