Long-term Monitoring and Research in Asian University Forests : Understanding Environmental Changes and Ecosystem Responses

This book disseminates various long-term data and research results from university forests in Asia towards realizing adaptive forest management and conservation based on a comprehensive understanding of environmental changes and ecological responses.

University forests - which refer to large, forested areas owned or controlled by universities and devoted primarily to research and teaching programs in forest-related sciences - have collected, managed and analyzed long-term meteorological, hydrological, biological and geographic data under an organizationally stable observation system. With the influence of global warming becoming apparent and extreme weather events occurring more frequently in the region, it is an important and urgent challenge to understand long-term environmental and ecosystem changes in forests and provide robust scientific knowledge on how ecosystems respond to those changes. This book is a step towards addressing the challenge.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Forest Research.

Toshiaki Owari is Associate Professor of Forest and Water Resources Management at the University of Tokyo, Japan. He is currently the Director of the University of Tokyo Hokkaido Forest, Japan, and Deputy Coordinator of IUFRO Research Group 1.05.00 (Uneven-aged silviculture) and Working Party 1.01.09 (Ecology and silviculture of fir).

Sangjun Im is Professor of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Bioresources at Seoul National University, Republic of Korea. He is now Deputy Coordinator of IUFRO Research Group 1.06.00 (Restoration of degraded sites) and a member of the editorial board of Landslides and Landscape and Ecological Engineering.

Biing T. Guan is Professor of the School of Forestry and Resource Conservation, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.