Hitsujigaoka

Sapporo Hitsujigaoka Experimental Forest

Organization

Hokkaido Research Center, Forestory and Forest Products Research Institute

Research Theme

Ecosystem-scale material badget and forest dynamics on a northern deciduous broad-leaved forest

Site Outline

Sapporo Hitsujigaoka Experimental Forest, SHEF belongs to Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Hokkaido Research Center, FFPRI-HKD and located in 42° 59′ N, 141° 23′ E, roughly 100-260m a.s.l. It is also registered on the AsiaFlux network sites (AsiaFlux Site Code: SAP). The forest consist mainly of a second-growth boreal deciduous broadleaf, on a gentle slope at Mt. Yakeyama (262m a.s.l.). The mean annual temperature is 7.1℃, and monthly mean temperatures range from -5.6℃(January) to 20.7℃(August). Annual Precipitation is about 900mm, and the maximum snow depth is over 1m (occurring between late November and mid April). The ground material in this area is composed of volcanic ash, and the soil is mainly black soil or Andisol. The forest has been regenerated naturally after a forest fire in 1912, thus it was 98 years old in 2010. Composition of tree species is dominated by B. platyphylla (an early successional species), Q. mongolica and K. septemlobus (mid-successional species), T. japonica and A. mono (late-successtional species). The first two species accounted for more than 75% of the basal area in the permanent plot in 2003(Utsugi et al. 2005). Dwarf bamboos ( Sasa kurilensis and Sasa veitchii) predominantly cover the forest floor which is also covered with Hydrangea paniculata and some herbaceous species partly cover the forest floor. The population density of trees over 5cm in stem diameter at 1.3m height(diameter at breast heght: dbh) was 672 trees ha-1 in 2003 and the mean tree height was 18.3±0.32m. The dbh ranges of B. platyphylla, Q. mongolica and the other surveyed tree species were 14.7 to 37.4cm, 13.6 to 45.9cm, and 5.2 to 61.2cm, respectively.

Contact 1

  • Address : 7 Hitsujigaoka, Toyohira, Sapporo, Hokkaido, 062-8518, Japan
  • Name : Hajime Utsugi
  • Phone : 011-590-5526
  • Fax : 011-851-4167
  • E-mail : utsugi@ffpri.affrc.go.jp

Contact 2

  • Address : 7 Hitsujigaoka, Toyohira, Sapporo, Hokkaido, 062-8518, Japan
  • Name : Yasuko Mizoguchi
  • Phone : 011-590-5529
  • Fax : 011-851-4167
  • E-mail : pop128@ffpri.affrc.go.jp

WWW site URL

Japanese : http://www2.ffpri.affrc.go.jp/labs/flux/SAP_j.html

English : http://www2.ffpri.affrc.go.jp/labs/flux/SAP_e.html