Analysis of the Relationships between Forest Floor Vegetation and Environmental Factors for Forest Management Plan at Michinoku Lakewood National Government Park

Many people have recently been appreciating country forests as an amenity area in their daily lives. In order to keep the forest floor vegetation in good condition, it is necessary to set a clear target for a management plan of the forest based on analysis of relationships among the forest floor vegetation, the landforms and other environmental factors. The purpose of this study is to examine how to categorize habitats and how to set a target of a management plan based on the analysis. A case study was conducted to understand the relationships in Michinoku Lakewood National Government Park in Kawasaki Town, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. It was found that the species composition of the vegetation, the accumulated air temperature and the soil moisture were different in different landforms (i.e. valley and ridge / slope) . The relative photon flux density of the valley was not higher than the one of the ridge slope, although the tree density of the ridge / slope was lower than the valley's. Based on these results, we proposed that it was necessary to categorize the habitats into two types, valley and ridge / slope, and to set a target of the management plan based on the characteristics formed by the species composition and environmental factors of the two types.