Temporal Changes in a Japanese Broadleaved Forest Impacted by Oak Wilt and Deer

Time series data documents changes in a temperate broadleaved secondary forest in Japan affected by mass oak tree mortality from Japanese oak wilt and foraging pressure from sika deer. The dataset captures temporal shifts in species composition within the canopy and sub-canopy layers and species occurrence in the understory. It was authored by Hiroki Itô and last updated in June 2019.

Use Cases

• Analyze temporal trends in canopy and sub-canopy species composition to assess forest recovery after oak mortality events.
• Model the relationship between deer foraging pressure and understory species occurrence over time.
• Investigate the co-impact of Japanese oak wilt disease and sika deer presence on overall forest structure dynamics.

Strengths

• Provides a concrete, documented example of temporal changes in a temperate broadleaved secondary forest.
• Explicitly captures the combined ecological impacts of a specific disease (Japanese oak wilt) and a herbivore species (sika deer).
• Focuses on distinct forest layers (canopy, sub-canopy, understory) for detailed structural analysis.

Limitations

• Unknown sample size, row count, and specific variables limit reproducibility and statistical power assessment.
• Data is from a single forest site, limiting generalizability to other geographic or ecological contexts.
• Last update was in 2019, so the data may not reflect recent forest conditions or ongoing changes.

Provenance

Source

Hiroki Itô via Dryad.

Collection Method

Field monitoring of a specific forest site, methodology details not provided.

Time Range

Temporal coverage not explicitly stated.

Freshness

Last updated 2019-06-26; no update frequency stated.

Geography

A broadleaved secondary forest in Japan.