Within a 44-km2 belt between 530-850 m a.s.l. (subtropical lower montane wet forest) examination of aerial photographs from 1936-1988, and field surveys, revealed 46 landslides; 40% of landslides had map areas (the horizontal projection of their actual areas) between 200-400 m2. Landslides >1800 m2 comprised <10% of the sample, but accounted for c40% of the total map area disturbed. On average, landslides disturb a minimum of 0.3% and 0.08% of the forest map area per century on slopes underlain by intrusive and volcaniclastic rocks, respectively. On 8 landslides <1 yr old, the soil in the lower zone generally had a higher concentration of organic carbon and nutrients than that in the upper zone. Germinable buried seeds of light-demanding species were found only in the lower zone (22 seeds m-2), c5% of the average buried seed density found in adjacent mature forest. Vegetation analyses on a 52-yr chronosequence of 20 landslides showed that regrowth was consistently more vigorous in the lower zone. Species composition is dominated on landslides up to 38 yr old by light-demanding, fast-growing pioneer trees. Revegetation of the upper zone seemed to be retarded by extensive mats of light-demanding ferns. Basal area and floristic composition start to resemble predisturbance conditions on 300-600-m2, 52-yr old landslides. -from Author
