Timing of forest fine root production advances with reduced snow cover in northern Japan: implications for climate-induced change in understory and overstory competition.

To investigate the effect of reduced snow cover on fine root dynamics in a cool-temperate forest in northern Japan because of decreases in snowfall at high latitudes due to global warming, we monitored root length, production, and mortality before and after snow removal with an in-ground root scanner. We measured root dynamics of both overstory deciduous oak (Quercus crispula) and understory evergreen dwarf bamboo (Sasa nipponica), the two major species in the forest. Snow removal advanced the timing of peak root production by a month both in total and in Sasa, but not in oak.

Analysis of bacterial xylose isomerase gene diversity using gene-targeted metagenomics.

Bacterial xylose isomerases (XI) are promising resources for efficient biofuel production from xylose in lignocellulosic biomass. Here, we investigated xylose isomerase gene (xylA) diversity in three soil metagenomes differing in plant vegetation and geographical location, using an amplicon pyrosequencing approach and two newly-designed primer sets. A total of 158,555 reads from three metagenomic DNA replicates for each soil sample were classified into 1127 phylotypes, detected in triplicate and defined by 90% amino acid identity.

The total amounts of radioactively contaminated materials in forests in Fukushima, Japan.

There has been leakage of radioactive materials from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. A heavily contaminated area (≥ ¹³⁴,¹³⁷Cs 1000 kBq m⁻²) has been identified in the area northwest of the plant. The majority of the land in the contaminated area is forest.