Kohyama1987

Report for study: Kohyama1987

Contact Information

Data contributor: Takashi Kohyama

Email: kohyama@ees.hokudai.ac.jp

Address:

• Faculty of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan

Data source

Citation: Kohyama T (1987). 'Significance of architecture and allometry in saplings.' Functional Ecology, 1(4), pp. 399-404.

DOI: 10.2307/2389797

Abstract: Species differences in branching architecture and allometry were analysed for co-occurring forest floor saplings of 10 species of shade-tolerant evergreen broad-leaved tree, representative of primary warm-temperate rain forests in southern Japan, from the viewpoints of assimilative efficiency and significance for regeneration. Considerable diversity was found in the architecture of branching and in the leaf size of saplings. The differences in branching and leaf size were related to differences in allometric relationships between various properties of the saplings. It was hypothesized that this architectural and allometric diversity is related to the alternative of `choosing' either the pattern of assimilate allocation, which is adaptive in competition when there is an early improvement in light conditions, or the allocation pattern which is favourable for surviving long periods under persistently dark conditions. Measurements of sapling growth in closed stands and in gaps supported the hypothesis.

Overview of data provided

The dataset includes records for 59 individuals from 9 species belonging to 5 family(ies), presenting 1 functional type(s), growing in 1 condition(s) within 1 major type(s) of habitat, with data included for the following variables:

Variable	Label	Units	N	Min	Median	Max
latitude	Latitude	deg	59	30	30	30
longitude	Longitude	deg	59	130	130	130
a.lf	Leaf area	m2	59	0.026	0.086	0.35
a.stbh	Stem area at breast height	m2	59	0.000015	0.00005	0.00013
a.cp	Crown area	m2	59	0.066	0.21	1
h.t	Height	m	59	0.3	0.89	1.7
h.c	Height to crown base	m	59	0.08	0.43	1.2
d.bh	Dbh	m	59	0.0043	0.008	0.013
h.bh	Height of d.bh measurement	m	59	0.03	0.089	0.17
d.cr	Crown width	m	59	0.29	0.52	1.1
c.d	Crown depth	m	59	0.11	0.32	0.84
m.lf	Leaf mass	kg	59	0.0018	0.0068	0.024
m.st	Total stem mass	kg	59	0.0023	0.015	0.098
m.so	Aboveground mass	kg	59	0.0044	0.026	0.12
m.br	Branch mass	kg	59	0	0.0022	0.027

And locally within the country:

## Error - location lies outside country borders. Perhaps add more decimal places?

The sites sampled are:

Location	Longitude	Latitude	Vegetation
Ohkou River, Yakushima Island, Kyushu, Japan	130.4333	30.31667	Temperate rainforest

The growing conditions of sampled plants was:

Location	growingCondition
Ohkou River, Yakushima Island, Kyushu, Japan	field wild

Species sampled

Species	Family	Pft
Litsea acuminata	Lauraceae	evergreen angiosperm
Symplocos glauca	Symplocaceae	evergreen angiosperm
Myrsine seguinii	Myrsinaceae	evergreen angiosperm
Neolitsea aciculata	Lauraceae	evergreen angiosperm
Symplocos purnifolia	Symplocaceae	evergreen angiosperm
Distylium racemosum	Hamamelidaceae	evergreen angiosperm
Cleyera japonica	Theaceae	evergreen angiosperm
Camellia sasanqua	Theaceae	evergreen angiosperm
Eurya japonica	Theaceae	evergreen angiosperm

Methods used

Sampling strategy: Abundant/representing species with high sapling(seedling) density under closed canopy were selected, based on the permanent plot censuses in primary forest. Chosen individuals were apparently seed origin and without obvious sign of past stem breakage.

Leaf area: The outline of the entire leaf(let)-brade (excluding petiole/rachis) was traced by thin tracing paper. The traced leaf brades were cut, weighed, and converted to area from unit-area weight of used paper.

Stem cross sectional area: Two perpendicular diameters were measured for the main stem at 1/10 of top height using a calliper, and cross-section area was obtained as that of ellipsoid with two diameters.

Height: the vertical distance from the base on soil surface to the highest leaf, measured by a pole or a convex steal measure tape.

Crown area: Two horizontal widths of crowns were obtained with a convex steel measure tape. The maximum width was obtained first, and the other was the maximum one along the perpendicular angle to the first one. Crown projection area was calculated from these two widths as an ellipsoid area.

Biomass: Entire samples were put into electric oven at 80degC over a couple of days to yield oven-dry weight, measured with an electric balance.

Growth environment: All samples were from fully closed-canopy stands, or they were not grown under canopy gaps. Primary warm-temperate rain forest.

Year collected: 1983

Plots of data

This is how the study Kohyama1987 fits in the entire dataset (grey). each colour represents a species. A legend of species names with colours is included at the end for reports with 1 < n < 20 species.