Phytosociological approach for beech-deciduous oak forests in East Asia
*Kazue FUJIWARA （Yokohama City Univ., Grad. S. Nanobioscience）

Beech-deciduous oak forests in East Asia are unique as compared with Europe and North America. These forests occur in maritime Japan and Ulleung-do (Korea) and Taiwan, and continental China. Beech reflects the different moisture and bimodality patterns on the Japan Sea and Pacific sides of Japan. Beech in China may be mixed with evergreen oak, as also in Japan (Kii Peninsula, Hakone). Beech forests in China have mainly four species, which occur in the evergreen oak-forest zone in southern China (except F. lucida). These beech forests occur in a moist region and were classified as cool-temperate, but here we can say ‘typical temperate’, based on wider comparison. Deciduous oak forests include warm-temperate deciduous forests, which occur north of the evergreen broad-leaved forest zone and south of the Quercus mongolica forests, which are cool-temperate. Warm-temperate deciduous oak forests also occur, as secondary forests, in the evergreen zone and show high diversity. The northernmost deciduous oaks tolerate cold below -30°C and form mixed forests, so-called nemoral forests (cool-temperate). Published phytosociological field data (5488 relevés of beech forest and 3643 of oak) were analyzed by Excel and show the composition of beech and deciduous oak forests in detail.