The process of decline of an endangered tree species, Pinus armandii Franch. var. amamiana (Koidz.) Hatusima, on the southern slope of Mt. Hasa-dake in Yaku-shima Island

The process of decline of an endangered tree species, Pinus armandii var. amamiana, was monitored on the southern slope of Mt. Hasa-dake in Yaku-shima Island from 1994 to 1998. There are 163 trees of P. armandii var. amamiana over 1.3 m in height. They are distributed on steep ridges and rocks with a thin soil layer mostly consisting of friable granite. During the monitoring period, 21 trees of P. armandii var. amamiana died and the mortality rate was 12.9%. Dead trees were categorized into three types: standing, uprooted and landslide. The uprooted- and landslide-typed dead trees were found only after a severe typhoon struck Yaku-shima Island. This suggests that the combination of fragile site conditions and severe typhoons play an important role in the process of decline of P. armandii var. amamiana. The standing-typed dead trees were presumed to have been killed by pine wilt disease, accounting for 71.4% of the dead trees. However, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, the cause of pine wilt disease, was not detected from any of the wood chips or branch samples from the standing-typed dead trees of P. armandii var. amamiana. This might indicate that some factor(s) other than pine wilt disease could be responsible for the standing-typed death of P. armandii var. amamiana in natural habitats.