Studies by the National Institute for Environmental Studies and Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine have shown that deforestation associated with tatara ironmaking has had a major negative impact on the habitat of small mammals such as rats and bats since ancient times.
The research group compares the data of villages, iron making, and pottery from the Jomon period to the Edo period held by the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties with the data of the Ministry of the Environment's Basic Survey on Natural Environment Conservation (1993-1998), which is unique to Japan. The habitat of 31 species of mammals was investigated.
According to the report, medium- and large-sized mammals such as rabbits, bears, raccoon dogs, deer, wild boars, and antelopes showed diversity regardless of human activities such as iron making, but small mammals such as rats, bats, momonga, and dormouses. There was a negative impact on diversity in areas where steelmaking was done in the past.
Since iron and pottery require a large amount of firewood and charcoal for production, the surrounding mountains were cut down and brought about a great environmental change.Furthermore, in ironmaking, topsoil stripping and soil erosion occur as the ore is collected.This seems to have had a serious impact on the habitat of small mammals.
The research group found that medium and large mammals adapted to changes in the forest environment and minimized their impact, while small mammals had a smaller range of suitable environments and with other populations after the extinction of local individuals. I suspect that it was too far away to be re-introduced.
Paper information:[Scientific Reports] Long-lasting effects of historical land use on the current distribution of mammals revealed by ecological and archaeological patterns
