Title: Origin of the "Pseudo-Alpine Zone" Viewed from the Thermal Conditions of Vertical distribution of Main Tree Species in the Tohoku Mountains, Japan.
Abstract: The subalpine zones on the mountains south of the Tohoku mountains in the Japanese Islands are normally occupied by coniferous forests dominated by Abies mariesii, A. veitchii, Picea jezoensis var. hondoensis and Tsuga diversifolia. But there are many mountains where the subalpine coniferous forest does not exist; the thermometrical subalpine zones on such mountains are replaced by subalpine and/or montane deciduous broad-leaved forests. Especially in the Tohoku mountains, the subalpine zone without A. mariesii forest is called the “pseudo-alpine zone”, where Quercus scrub usually dominates. The origin of the pseudo-alpine zone is discussed here based on the thermal conditions of subalpine main tree species and the rise in temperature during the Hypsithermal climax phase.The thermometrical zone for A. mariesii is divided into four ranges as shown in Fig. 5-b. The mountains whose peaks are thermometrically in zones B and C can be regarded as mountains where A. mariesii is alternatively indigenous or not indigenous under the present thermal conditions. On the mountains whose peaks are in zone A, A. mariesii is expected to be indigenous. Thus, the mountains in zone A but without A. mariesii forest are called the “A. mariesii-lacking mountains” and are examined here.For the “A. mariesii-lacking mountains”, the thermal conditions at their peaks were out of zone A and into zones B and/or C during the Hypsithermal climax phase, when the mean summer temperature rose to be 2.5°C higher than that at present in Japan. During the high-temperature period of the Hypsithermal, the habitat of A. mariesii was pushed over the mountain peak due to the upward migration of vegetation zones. Thus, the principal cause of the pseudo-alpine zone is the ‘pushing-out effect’ caused by the rise of temperature. The origin of the subalpine zones without subalpine coniferous forest in West Japan is also considered to be the same process as the pseudo-alpine zone in the Tohoku mountains. The lacking of a tree species on a mountain depends on a process in which the thermal conditions suitable for the species disappeared from the mountain during a period in the history of climatic changes and, since the event, the thermal habitat of the species has been isolated from the surrounding mountains with forests of the same species. The present features of distribution of the subalpine tree species which grow under cold climatic conditions on high mountain areas in Japan have been affected by the small changes (2 or 3°C) in temperature during the Holocene, reflecting the topographical mosaic built up by many small mountain blocks and inter-lowlands.