NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
TOKYO REGIONAL OFFICE
The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Tokyo Regional Office periodically receives and disseminates reports on research developments in Japan that are related to the Foundation's mission. It also provide occasional reports on developments in other East Asian Countries (http://www.twics.com/~nsfasia/as-reports.htm).
These reports present information for the use of NSF program officers and policy makers; they are not statements of NSF policy..
Special Scientific Report #01-05 (October 8, 2001)
EFFECTS OF AFFORESTATION ON CARBON STORAGE IN SOILS
The following report was written by Mikhail A. Yatskov, who received his Masters Degree from the School of Forestry at Oregon State University in June 2001. Mr. Yatskov was a participant in the 2001 Summer Institute Program in Japan, co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Japanese Ministry of Education and Science (Monbukagakusho). While in Japan he conducted his research under the direction of Dr. Yoshiki Yamagata of the National Institute of Environmental Studies (NIES) in Tsukuba, along with several colleagues at other facilities in the country. Mr. Yatskov can be reached at Mikhail.Yatskov@orst.edu.
Due to fairly short period of time allocated for the program and the nature of data and sample collection in the field of natural resources, I worked on multiple projects with multiple laboratories.
The main project I worked on was the effect of afforestation on carbon storage in soils. The principal investigator on the project was Dr. Yoshiki Yamagata (NIES, Leader of Carbon Sink Assessment Team) while my host scientist and supervisor during the soil sample collection was Dr. Masamichi Takahashi (Nutrient Dynamics Lab, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute?FFPRI). The project has been planed for three years and this summer was the first field season. The execution of the project involves 30-cm soils core collection from under the forest stands of different age, species composition, origin, as well as from the grass fields and cornfields. Then, these samples must be analyzed for carbon concentration and percent of humus in the core. The hypothesis is that the carbon accumulation in soils has positive correlation to the stand age. If the hypothesis is valid, then the concentration of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere can be lowered by planting forests over the large territories. Six people including myself were involved in the sample collection. The samples were collected in Tanashi Experimental Forest of the University of Tokyo with help of Dr. Tange Takeshi and in Chioda nursery (Ibaraki prefecture) under plantations of Sugi (Criptomeria japonica) and Hinoki (Chamaecypress obstruta) of different ages as well as under broadleaf mixed forest. However, no laboratory or statistical analyses were performed on collected samples. I also spent some time collecting samples and renewing experiment on ion exchange in soils at Katsura Experimental Forest.
The second project I participated in was dealing with the nutrient dynamics in a 60 ha watershed at the Katsura Experimental Forest. Among other 5 people, I was working with Dr. Shuichiro Yoshinaga (Soil geochemistry laboratory) collecting water samples for nutrient analysis from different depth at different locations in the watershed, measuring water table depth, soil depth using soil penetrometer, and digging soil pits to examine soil profiles.
The third project “Determining cause of sub alpine zone tree dieback in Oodaigahahra mountains” I was part of took place in Kansai region. Among others, I worked with my host Dr. Takahashi and Dr. Shinji Kaneko (Forest Environment Group, Kansai Research Center, FFPRI) collecting water, soil, tree, and shrub samples from the sites in the mountains. The sub alpine zone of Oodaigahara Mountains is now a National park. It has high dear population (30 dear per km2) and during last 10 years encountered damage of large forest area. One of the hypothesis states that high dear population is a main cause of the forest damage. Another one says that acid rains may be a reason. Acid rains are current and serious problem for high elevation forests in Japan. They occur as a result of extensive industry development taking place in China. The industry development would not be a problem itself, but the lack of pollutant absorbing devices and the nature of air mass movement bring all the pollutants to Japan, where they fall with the precipitation in form of acid rain. Therefore, the project’s goal is to determine the cause of forest dieback in this region.
While in Kansai region, I was able to visit Yamashiro Experimental Station with twin flux towers monitoring carbon dynamics in the Yamashiro Mountains, Kasuga-yama ever-green natural forest and Nara Park (World Cultural Heritage).
The forth project I was part of took place in Ogawa Experimental Forest. It dealt with the ground calibration of LIDAR images and was performed by my host #2 Dr. Hiroshi Tanaka (Community Dynamics Laboratory, FFPRI, Tsukuba), Dr. Yasumasa Hirata (Remote Sensing Laboratory, FFPRI, Shikoku branch) and myself. The ground calibration procedure involved measuring of the distances of permanent points in the watershed with the laser. The work was necessary to compare the point distribution on the LIDAR image with actual point distribution in the field. I also helped Dr. Tanaka to set up the experiment examining the effect of dear on vegetation and testing the ecosystem capacity to support dear population (i.e., how many dear can be supported by forest covered area of 1 km2, as an example).
Along with all these multiple projects I was able to present the results of my MS thesis project “The Chronosequence of Wood Decomposition in the Boreal Forests of Russia” at four of five FFPRI branches (Tsukuba, Kyoto, Morioka, and Sapporo) and give a presentation at NIES.
As part of data gathering on salmon stocks in Japan visited multiple fish hatcheries and made useful contacts with Japanese scientists working with salmonids.