DOI: 10.5061/dryad.m63xsj45n
title: Environmental heterogeneity on landslide slopes affects the long-term recoveries of forest ecosystem components

description: Landslides are a common disturbance in mountainous areas of the world.
 Transporting and accumulating landslide debris, i.e., disturbance
 legacies, such as coarse woody debris (CWD), vegetation patches, and
 surface soils, generate a heterogeneous environment along slopes (zones),
 which are suggested to affect forest recovery. However, the long-term
 changes in forest ecosystems after landslides remain unknown, particularly
 zone-dependent change patterns. We aimed to reveal the differences in the
 changes in live trees, understory vegetation, CWD, and soils among zones
 by surveying forests with landslide ages (years since the landslide)
 ranging from 3 to 74 years and reference stands. The increase in live tree
 aboveground biomass occurred at a faster rate at the lower part of the
 slopes where the disturbance legacies were rich and surface soils were
 stabilized due to the smaller slope angle. Chronological patterns of
 understory vegetation amounts were determined by the differences in
 disturbance legacy richness and the timing of subsequent canopy closure.
 The amounts and decay-class diversity of CWD were determined by the
 differences in legacy richness and mortality through stand development.
 These zone-dependent chronological changes influenced litter production
 and determined the recovery rates of surface soil carbon and nitrogen
 stocks. The increase in the dominance rates of forest herbaceous species
 was faster in the lower part of the slopes due to the faster surface soil
 development and canopy closure. Our results illustrate that long-term
 forest ecosystem succession and recovery after landslides occurs more
 rapidly at the lower parts than at the upper parts of slopes.
description: # Environmental heterogeneity on landslide slopes affects the long-term
 recoveries of forest ecosystem components
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.m63xsj45n](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.m63xsj45n) The raw data used in the following publication: Hotta W, Morimoto J, Yanai S, Uchida Y, Nakamura F (2024) Environmental heterogeneity on landslide slopes affects the long-term recoveries of forest ecosystem components. CATENA 234: 107578 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2023.107578 We surveyed live trees, coarse woody debris, understory vegetation, and soil carbon and nitrogen. We selected slopes where landslides occurred in 2018, 2003, 1981, and before 1947. We also selected reference stands. We divided each slope into three zones (i.e., the initiation, the transport, and the deposition) from top to bottom. ## Description of the data and file structure tree\_analysis\_revise.csv: the raw data of the live tree survey. cwd2.csv: the raw data of the coarse woody debris survey. understory\_analysis.csv: the raw data of the understory survey. soil\_CN.csv: the raw data of carbon and nitrogen concentrations and bulk densities. env\_quadrat\_data2.csv: the raw data of environmental variables (e.g., slope angle and soil moisture content) plot\_slopeaspect.csv: the GIS-based data of the slope aspect of each plot. ## Data-specific information Column headers of tree\_analysis\_revise.csv \- Year: Year when a landslide occurred \- LandslideID: ID of landslide slopes in the year \- Zone: Zone within landslide slopes \(for landslides: Initiation/Transport/Deposition; for reference stands: Upper/Middle/Lower\) \- Tree ID: ID of tree individuals \- Species\_Jp: Tree species name in Japanese \- DBH\_cm: Diameter at breast height \(cm\) \- H\_m: Tree height \(m\) \- BA: Basal area \(cm<sup>2</sup>) \- BEF: Species\-age specific biomass extension factor \- R: Root ratio \- D1: Wood density \- TimVol: Volume of a stem \- AGBiomass\_mg: Aboveground biomass \(Mg\) Column headers of cwd2.csv \- Year: Year when a landslide occurred \- LandslideID: ID of landslide slopes in the year \- Zone: Zone within landslide slopes \(for landslides: Initiation/Transport/Deposition; for reference stands: Upper/Middle/Lower\) \- CWDID: ID of CWD individuals \- Da\_cm\, Db\_cm: Diameters of both ends of downed logs / Diameters at breast height of snags \(no data in column "Db\_cm"\) \- L\_m: Length of downed logs or height of snags \- Decay: Decay class \(1\, 2\, 3\, 4\, or 5\) \- sp: Species \(conifer or broadleaves\) \- type: CWD type \(downed logs or snags\) \- Mass\_g: Mass of each CWD \(g\) Column headers of understory\_analysis.csv \- Year: Year when a landslide occurred \- LandslideID: ID of landslide slopes in the year \- Zone: Zone within landslide slopes \(for landslides: Initiation/Transport/Deposition; for reference stands: Upper/Middle/Lower\) \- QuadratID: ID of quadrat in each plot \- Species\_Jp: Species name of Japanese \- Coverage\_%: percent cover of each species \- Max\_H\_cm: Maximum height of each species \(cm\) \- Species type: species habitat type \(Open land species/Generalist/Forest species/Unknown\) \- Moisture type: species moisture preference \(Dry/Moderate/Wet/Unknown\) Column headers of soil\_CN.csv \- Year: Year when a landslide occurred \- LandslideID: ID of landslide slopes in the year \- Zone: Zone within landslide slopes \(for landslides: Initiation/Transport/Deposition; for reference stands: Upper/Middle/Lower\) \- Type: Sample type \(L/FH/Twig/Mineral soils \(0\-5cm\)\) \- Mass\_g: Dry weight of a sample including a sampling bag \- bagmass\_g: Dry weight of a sampling bag \- samplemass\_g: Dry weight of a sample \- angle\_mean: Mean slope angle of a sampling plot \- Carbon\_%: Carbon concentration \- Nitrogen\_%: Nitrogen concentration \- C\_mass\_mg: Carbon stock \(Mg\) \- N\_mass\_mg: Nitrogen stock \(Mg\) Column headers of env\_quadrat\_data2.csv \- Year: Year when a landslide occurred \- LandslideID: ID of landslide slopes in the year \- Zone: Zone within landslide slopes \(for landslides: Initiation/Transport/Deposition; for reference stands: Upper/Middle/Lower\) \- QuadratID: ID of quadrat in each plot \- Angle: Slope angle in each quadrat \(degree; 0\-90\) \- O\_depth: O layer depth in each quadrat \(cm\) \- Moisture\_a\, Moisture\_b\, Moisture\_c\, Moisture\_d: Soil moisture content in each quadrat \(%; measured four times\) \- Moisture\_mean: Mean soil moisture content \(%\) Column headers of plot\_slopeaspect.csv \- Year: Year when a landslide occurred \- LandslideID: ID of landslide slopes in the year \- Zone: Zone within landslide slopes \(for landslides: Initiation/Transport/Deposition; for reference stands: Upper/Middle/Lower\) \- slope aspect: Slope aspect of each plot \(azimuth; 0\-360\) ## Sharing/Access information All data here was collected by the authors. If this data is used, please cite this data set and the following publication: Hotta W, Morimoto J, Yanai S, Uchida Y, Nakamura F (2024) Environmental heterogeneity on landslide slopes affects the long-term recoveries of forest ecosystem components. CATENA 234: 107578 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2023.107578