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Fig. 3.2
Example of
Satoyama
landscape representing a mosaic of multiple land-uses such as
paddy fi eld, farmland, irrigation, human residences, secondary forest and others (September 2005,
Hirai village, Wakayama prefecture, Japan)
canals and reused to cultivate rice in paddy fi elds. During the cascading fl ow of this
water use, some nutrients (typically N and phosphorus) were removed from the
water via plant nutrient uptake, soil microbial immobilization or denitrifi cation in
anaerobic soil conditions within paddy fi elds. This helped to maintain better water
quality downstream (see, e.g., Natuhara
2013
). Traditional ecological practices in
Satoyama
landscapes entailed the collection of shrubs, brushwood, branches, litter,
and undergrowth plants from the surrounding forests (typically secondary decidu-
ous forests) near agricultural land and human settlements for use as domestic fuel
and fertilizer for paddy and crop fi elds. This meant that the fl ow of nutrients and
organic matter from nearby forests to human habitation and agriculture land contrib-
uted to sustainable food and energy production in the
Satoyama
landscape. At the
same time, the harvesting of these materials from forests resulted in more sunlight
availability for germination of tree seeds, thereby preserving biodiversity and avoid-
ing forest coverage by a single dominant species (Fukamachi et al.
1999
). The irri-
gation system and ponds also provided a good habitat for various species of wildlife,
insects, and other life forms (Kobori and Primack
2003
; Duraiappah et al.
2012
).
Historical utilization of natural resources from the surrounding forest for fuel
and fertilizer in
Satoyama
landscape also affected the current N cycle and their
response to the environmental changes (Shibata et al.
2011b
; Urakawa et al.
2014
).
Past long-term intensive utilization of forest resource in secondary forests around
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