New research carried out by researchers at the University of Tsukuba Forestry, and Forest Products Research Institute recently unveiled the Sugadaira Highlands Kogen biome for the past three centuries.
Specifically, as indicated in a Phys.org report, the study revealed that the said area close to the City of Ueda in Nagano Prefecture was covered in grasslands approximately as far back as the 1720s, and from that time on, the site has been quickly losing its grasslands.
In the past years, there has been a reduction in grasslands worldwide and within Japan on a gauge heretofore exceptional or unmatched.
There's hesitation that a large number of flora and fauna living in these grasslands may turn extinct. To take measures to conserve grasslands and their biodiversity, there is a need to understand the time, place, and manner grasslands are rapidly decreasing and the manner they have existed.
Scientists further found that designation as a National park is not associated with any inhibition of the loss of grassland, either in Sugadaira or the whole of Japan.
ALSO READ: Who's Responsible for the Disappearance of the Great White Sharks in Cape Town?
Grassland in the Sugadaira Highlands
While it has been approximated that grasslands have been present in Sugadaira Kogen since several thousand years back, the changes in their site and distribution have gone through are unknown.
In this research, Professor Tanaka Kenta and Taiki Inoue, the first author, combined two maps created around 1881 for different purposes. Doing so enabled them to approximate that the site of the grasslands during that time was 44.5 kilometers.
By referencing illustrations made from much older periods, Professor Tanaka and his colleagues learned that most of the Sugardia Kogen were covered in the grasslands at least from 1722 until 188. Nonetheless, 88 percent of the said grasslands had been lost by 2010, mainly to afforestation.
Until the late 1940s, the Sugadaira Kogen was labeled or named as Joshin'etsukogen National Park, and its grassland ecosystem, as described in the Jagran Josh site, was regarded as a natural environment specifically worthy of preservation.
Reduction of the Grasslands
A similar report from The Florida News Times said the decrease of the grasslands is inclined to accelerate the following designation of the area following the designation of the site as a National Park.
When compared to other examples in the whole of Japan, the site turned clear that the label as a National Park does not essentially inhibit the grasslands' loss.
For the maintenance of these grasslands, it will need some fixing and maintenance like entering to cut down trees that have occupied the sites.
Nonetheless, there are regulations set out for preserving primeval nature in National Park; such maintenance and repair has probably been decreased.
The study findings published in the Japanese Journal of Conservation Ecology have also revealed an issue. When areas of secondary nature such as grasslands are labeled as natural parklands, the secondary nature is not essentially preserved unless there is some concurrent support for interventions by humans.
Related information about the grassland ecosystem is shown on Geodide's YouTube video below:
RELATED ARTICLE : Scientists Claim Killer Whales Attacking Boats Are Just Playing
Check out more news and information on Environment & Climate in Science Times.
