Landscape patterns and plant species diversity of forest reserves in the Kanto region, Japan

Plant species richness of twenty old-growth forest reserves in the cool-temperate zone in the Kanto region, Japan were investigated to detect the effect of forest fragmentation. The species richness of trees and forest floor plants were analyzed by multiple regression models relating to nine variables on the characteristics of landscape, local habitat and forest stand. The total species diversity did not have a significant correlation with any variables of landscape patterns. In this study, single large reserve in the SLOSS discussion did not seem very effective to preserve more species. However, forest reserves in large patches tend to have relatively infrequent species. Large patches of natural forests were regarded as one of the important factors to preserve infrequent species.