FOREST DIFFERENTIATION AND ECOLOGICAL,ARCHITECTURAL TYPES OF EVERGREEN BROAD-LEAVED TREES WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO LEAF TRAITS

研究了热带山地林带常绿阔叶林的群落分化和生态结构特征，特别参考了日本南部和中部北纬限区组成常绿阔叶林的叶、芽和分枝特征。沿着雅库岛山脊-坡地-山谷复合体地貌的地形梯度划分了森林类型。森林分层对于森林的结构构成，即树冠和林下植被，具有特别重要的意义。与森林分层相关的树种群之间，芽结构类型、叶片动态、分枝格局和树体构型都具有相关性，并受气候和地貌因子等环境制约因素的影响。针对热带常绿阔叶树与其它生长性状密切相关的特点，设计了新的芽分类系统，即裸芽、垂芽和鳞片。因此，我们提出了一个新的项目，重点是常绿阔叶树的分枝和枝条生长结构，以了解日本南部和中部热带山地森林北部限制区的森林结构。

The community differentiation, and ecological, architectural traits of evergreen broad-leaved forests which derived from tropical montane forest zones were investigated with special reference to the leaf, bud, and branching traits of the component evergreen broad-leaved trees at their northern latitudinal limit areas in southern and central Japan. Forest types were differentiated along topoedaphological gradients along landforms of the ridge-slope-valley complex in Yakushima. Forest stratification was of particularly important for the structural making up of the forest, i.e., canopy and understory. Bud structural types, leaf dynamics, branching pattern, and tree architecture are all correlatively differentiated among those tree groups related to forest stratification, which in turn affected by environmental constraints including climate and topo-edaphological factors. New system of bud typification, i.e., naked, hypsophyllary, and scaled, was devised to categorize evergreen broad-leaved trees of tropical origin, which is intimately correlated with other growth traits of the tree groups. Accordingly, we have proposed a new project focused on branching and shoot growth architecture of evergreen broad-leaved trees to understand forest structure in the northern limit areas of the tropical montane forests in southern and central Japan.