In the temperate forests of southwestern Japan, the population density of woody plants in the community increases in the early stage of secondary succession, reaches a peak in the old oak-chestnut forest, and decreases towards the climax beech forest. The species richness and diversity of woody plants also show a trend similar to that of the population density. The canopy-tree population decreases in the course of the succession while the basal area increases, showing a self-thinning process. The species richness, diversity and population density of herbaceous plants are much influenced by the dominance of the bamboo, Sasa palmata. The life-history traits of trees, lower trees and shrubs are discussed in relation to their shoot system, reproductive pattern and successional processes.

A Liquid-Core Waveguide (LCW) detection system for high sensitive determination of tegaful (FT) was developed. In this system the LCW cell was connected to the end of a hollow cathode lump and the other end to a UV spectrometer. A sample solution containing FT was pumped to the LCW cell through a T-shaped connector. A UV absorption of analyte was detected by the UV spectrometer. The configuration of connectors of LCW cell to the light source and the UV detector was designed. Stable and high responses of FT were obtained in a double tube system in which an edge of LCW cell was covered with another tube with large diameter was set in the T-connector. It was found that the UV absorption response of FT obtained in this LCW system depends on the core length and the concentration of FT. The sensitivity of FT obtained by using 65 cm of the LCW cell length was 10-fold higher than that of using 1 cm cell which was often used with a conventional UV-visible detector.

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