Even though physical distance among Japan, China and Taiwan is close, “distance” in terms of flora and plant species diversity appears to be so far. For instance, cool temperate forests in Japan are often occupied predominantly by beech trees, but they are seldom found in the continent. Frequency of fire and typhoon is also different. Such differences should cause regional variation in successional sere, and consequently, various types of forests are found within the temperate forests of EA.

Then, questions arise: By using species composition and disturbance regime as explanatory variables, can differences in these forests explained by a single model? Or, does the model itself vary within EA?

In this symposium, researchers invited from China, Taiwan and Japan provide talks on temperate forests of EA in relation to species composition, diversity, dynamics, etc. With these information shared, we would like to discuss about commonness and uniqueness within temperate forests of EA.