Grow or die: A 49-year growth history of a Japanese warm-temperate tree species

The growth trajectories of trees are not fully understood due to their long lifespan. We characterized the population dynamics of the canopy tree Castanopsis cuspidata (Thunb.) Schottky in a Japanese warm-temperate forest over 49 years (1966–2015). Our study was initiated approximately 50 years after our study site was clear-cut. The forest had a closed canopy for the first 23 years of the study. Strong typhoons in 1991 and 1993 seriously damaged the forest, and since then the forest has been recovering from these disturbances. The diameter distribution of this species was bell-shaped in 1966, suggesting that the trees emerged simultaneously after the clear-cut in the 1910s, and the recruitment of trees has remained unchanged since then. The lack of recruitment of C. cuspidata before the typhoon disturbance supports this conclusion. Assuming that the C. cuspidata trees in 1966 were cohorts that were established soon after the clear-cut, the size differences reflect differences in growth..., This study was performed in a warm-temperate evergreen forest in Minamata, Kyushu, Japan (33°19’ N, 130°80’ E, 400 to 637 m above sea level). A 33-ha secondary forest at our study site was designated as a forest reserve for the conservation of genetic resources for timber trees by the Japanese government. The forest is dominated by the evergreen broad-leaf trees Castanopsis cuspidata, Quercus acuta (Thunb. ex Murray), Q. salicina (Blume), and Machilus thunbergii (Sieb. et Zucc.), which regenerated after the clear-cut between 1910 and 1920 for charcoal production. Therefore, the trees in the forest were established after the clear-cut from coppices, dispersed seeds, or soil seed banks. Castanopsis cuspidata is a common evergreen broad-leaved tree species in Japanese warm-temperate forests. Castanopsis cuspidata grows to approximately 20 m tall and over 100 cm in dbh.
Within the forest, a permanent plot of 40 m × 40 m was established in 1966 approximately 50 years after the clear-cut for ..., , # Grow or die: A 49-year growth history of a Japanese warm-temperate tree species

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## Description of the data and file structure

File name: dynamics.xlsx

Column headers: year

Rows: The diameter of the stem at breast height (dbh, 130 cm from the ground) in 1966, 1989, 2001, and 2015 are shown in cm.

dead = trees that died