There have been many earlier studies of the biodiversity and ecosystem services of abandoned farmlands, but studies of abandoned villages are limited, particularly in Asian countries. The drastic aging and depopulation of Japanese society will likely lead to increased village abandonment in the future. To properly manage abandoned villages and build a comprehensive land-use plan, we need to know how natural succession will proceed after the abandonment of local towns and villages. We investigated forest structures and compositions at the sites of abandoned mining villages and compared them with ambient undisturbed natural forests. The environmental factors that determine plant succession are the distance from ambient forests, land-use period, and years since abandonment. The results showed that the sizes of tall trees and species diversity of understory vegetation recovered to the level of the control sites approximately 50–60 years after village abandonment. However, the species compositions of tall trees and understory vegetation were fairly different from those of the control sites. The distance from ambient natural forest, which regulates the seed supply for abandoned sites; land-use periods, which are surrogates for the durations of anthropogenic disturbance; and times since abandonment are strong drivers of the recovery of forest species compositions.

以前有很多关于荒地的生物多样性和生态系统服务的研究，但是对荒村的研究却很有限，特别是在亚洲国家。日本社会的急剧老龄化和人口减少有可能导致将来村庄的废​​弃率增加。为了适当管理废弃村庄并制定全面的土地利用计划，我们需要了解在放弃当地城镇和村庄后自然继承将如何进行。我们调查了废弃矿山村落的森林结构和组成，并将其与周围未受干扰的天然林进行了比较。决定植物演替的环境因素是与周围森林的距离，土地使用期限以及废弃后的年限。结果表明，废弃村庄后大约50–60年，高大树木的大小和林下植被的物种多样性恢复到了控制点的水平。但是，高大的树木和林下植被的物种组成与控制地点的物种组成有很大不同。与周围自然森林的距离，该距离调节着荒地的种子供应；土地使用期间，是人为干扰持续时间的替代；废弃以来的时间和时代是恢复森林物种组成的重要驱动力。与周围自然森林的距离，该距离调节着荒地的种子供应；土地使用期间，是人为干扰持续时间的替代；废弃以来的时间和时代是恢复森林物种组成的重要驱动力。与周围自然森林的距离，该距离调节着荒地的种子供应；土地使用期间，是人为干扰持续时间的替代；废弃以来的时间和时代是恢复森林物种组成的重要驱动力。