Map of vegetation during the last glacial maximum in Japan

Abstract

A vegetation map reconstructed for the Japanese Archipelago (based upon pollen data from 28 sites and plant macrofossil data from 33 sites) at the time of last glacial maximum shows that coniferous forests covered extensive areas of the land. Boreal conifer forests (dominated by the Picea jezoensis complex, P. glehnii, Abies sachalinensis, A. mariesii, Tsuga diversifolia, and Pinus with Larix gmelinii, though the latter species was confined only to the northern part of northeastern Honshu and Hokkaido) occupied the modern cool-temperature deciduous broadleaf and mid-temperate conifer forest zones, and temperate coniferous forests (mainly Picea maximowiczii, P. polita, P. bicolor, P. koyamai, Abies firma, A. homolepis, Tsuga sieboldii, and Pinus), the present warm-temperate evergreen (laurilignosa) forest zone. Small populations of various broadleaf forest species were scattered in the full-glacial temperate conifer forest mainly along the coastal belt, and the true laurilignosa forest was limited in distribution, occurring only in the paleo-Yaku Peninsula.