This report examined the season with high correlation between the flowering dates of Japanese apricot trees and temperature in various parts of Japan, besides the effects of warming in recent years, and obtained the following results. (1) In eastern Japan, the flowering dates were generally earlier from 1961 ~ 2020, but in western Japan, the flowering dates were late in several places, and the delay after 2001 were particularly remarkable. (2) The monthly mean temperature, which was highly correlated with the flowering date, was in March-April in Sapporo and December-February or December-March in Tohoku and Hokushin. In other parts of eastern Japan and western Japan, there are many locations in December and December-January. (3) In many places in eastern Japan, the period shown in the preceding point has been earlier in recent years, and the flowering date tends to be earlier. On the other hand, at five locations in western Japan, the timing of the preceding point has not been accelerated, and although the temperature has risen, the flowering date has been delayed. (4) In eastern Japan south of Fukushima, the contribution of the temperature rise in December to the flowering date has increased in recent years. On the other hand, at three locations in western Japan, there is a rise in temperature in December, but it does not contribute to the flowering date. One of the reasons for this may be that the flower buds are not released from dormancy due to the rise in temperature, and the flowering date is delayed.

Life cycle assessment was conducted for traditional Udo (Aralia cordata) cultivation in straw thatched hut and current mainstream plastic greenhouse in Sanda city. Calculations were made using the accumulated method based on IDEA v2.3, a life cycle inventory database. The results showed that the CO₂ emissions, a cause of climate change, was 4.50 kg-CO₂eq per kg of Udo in thatched hut cultivation, while it was 1.61 times higher, 7.25 kg-CO₂eq, in plastic greenhouse cultivation. In addition, the thatched hut cultivation was superior in a total of 10 impact categories, including resource depletion, eutrophication, and photochemical oxidant. On the other hand, the yield was only 76.9 % of that of the plastic greenhouse cultivation and the total labor hours were 41.2 hours longer.

An examination of the spatial characteristics of short-term fluctuations of the first flowering date (FFD) and first full bloom date (FBD) of Yoshino cherry is important to accurately evaluate the sensitivity of cherry flowering phenology to short-term fluctuation of air temperature and to improve short-term predictions of FFD or FBD. To this end, we analyzed time-series data from which long-term trend components caused by drivers such as global warming and the heat island effect were removed. We examined the spatial characteristics of cross-correlations in the differences in FFD or FBD between consecutive years among 48 locations in Japan where long-term, continuous phenological observations of Yoshino cherry have been recorded. Significant correlations in the differences between consecutive years were found mainly between sites located in the same region, between points located south of southern Tohoku except for southern Kyushu, and between points located in northern Tohoku and Hokkaido. These characteristics may be due to similarities and differences in the flowering period depending on the climate of each region.