Recent progress in geoecology in Japan

Abstract

Geoecological studies started in Japan natively in the 1970s with the work of a few physical geographers and plant ecologists. The main theme was interpretation of the alpine landscape of high mountains. Since then, alpine studies have become the mainstream of Japanese geoecology. In the 1980s, German geoecology as originated by Troll was introduced and became another main stream of research. Recently geoecological studies have increased, and some review articles or books were published. In this paper, progress of Japanese geoecology was looked back.