Forest fires have potentials to change the structure and function of forest ecosystems and significantly influence on atmosphere and biogeochemical cycles. Forest fire also affects the quality of public benefits such as carbon sequestration, soil fertility, grazing value, biodiversity, or tourism. The prediction of fire occurrence and its spread is critical to the forest managers for allocating resources and developing the forest fire danger rating system. Most of fires were human-caused fires in Korea, but meteorological factors are also big contributors to fire behaviors and its spread. Thus, meteorological factors as well as social factors were considered in the fire danger rating systems. A total of 298 forest fires occurred during the fall season from 2002 to 2006 in South Korea were considered for developing a logistic model of forest fire occurrence. The results of statistical analysis show that only effective humidity and temperature significantly affected the logistic models (p<0.05). The results of ROC curve analysis showed that the probability of randomly selected fires ranges from 0.739 to 0.876, which represent a relatively high accuracy of the developed model. These findings would be necessary for the policy makers in South Korea for the prevention of forest fires.

The status of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungal colonization in Pinus thunbergii seedlings was investigated 2 years after planting in an eastern coastal area of Korea. We established three $10{\times}10$ m plots at a P. thunbergii plantation in Gangneung and sampled lateral roots from 10 seedlings in each plot. ECMs were classified into morphological groups and the number of root tips of each morphotype was counted. In total, 8 ECM morphotypes were observed and fungal species that form each morphotype were identified by sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the nuclear rDNA. Suillus granulatus was the most abundant species (44.1-65.7% of relative abundance) in all plots, followed by Tomentella ellisii (14.0-37.8%) and unidentified fungus belonged to Atheliaceae (10.6-20.1%). These 3 fungal species accounted for almost all of the ECM abundance in each plot (94.9-99.8%). The remaining 5 fungal species were uncommon and rare. There was no clear difference in ECM fungal communities among plots. Community structure of ECM fungi in the young P. thunbergii plantation was simple and composed of fungal species that were also observed in mature coastal pine forests.

Organophosphate pesticides inhibit cholinesterase. It is likely that application of organophosphate pesticides affect behavior of arthropods. This study aimed to find changes in foraging behavior of ants due to application of fenitrothion, one of the widely used organophosphate pesticides. Foraging activity (FA) of ants was observed using bait cards in a pesticide sprayed pine stand and in an unsprayed stand before and after aerial application of fenitrothion in 2003 and 2004. Ant abundance and species richness of ants were also monitored using pitfall traps during the activity season in 2003 and 2004. There was not a significant decrease in abundance and species richness after the application of fenitrothion. However, FA of an ant, Paratrechina flavipes (Smith), which was abundant enough to be statistically compared, was depressed from 2 hours to 10 days after application of the pesticide. FA was fully recovered at day 14 in 2003, and was partially recovered at day 18 and fully at day 31 in 2004. FA of other ant species also decreased significantly during the FA depression period of P. flavipes. On the bait cards, workers of the species responded dully to baits during the FA depression period. Despite the decline in activity, alertness of P. flavipes to other species did not decrease even during the FA depression period.

Fertilization increases the crop productivity and produces high quality seedlings for plantation. We quantitatively measured both physical performances and nutrient responses of Fraxinus rhynchophylla, Fraxinus mandshurica, Pinus koraiensis, and Abies holophylla seedlings, which are commercially planted species in Korea, to nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilization. We analyzed the growth performances by using Dickson's quality index (QI) and the nutrient status by using vector diagnosis. Nitrogen or phosphorus treatment increased height and root collar diameter growth of F. rhynchophylla and F. mandshurica, however, did not increase those of P. koraiensis and A. holophylla. The order of QI was N > P > K > control for F. rhynchophylla, P ${\geq}$ N > Control ${\geq}$ P for F. mandshurica, P > Control ${\geq}$ K > N for P. koraiensis and A. holophylla. In F. rhynchophylla, fertilization diluted N concentration in tissues by 5-25% because growth responses were higher than fertilization uptake. P. koraiensis and A. holophylla showed N excess showing "toxic accumulation". F. rhynchophylla and F. mandshurica showed P deficiency with P fertilization, however, P. koraiensis and A. holophylla showed "luxury accumulation". Vector diagnosis indicated that more fertilization was applicable for F. rhynchophylla and F. mandshurica, and high fertilization rates were inefficient for P. koraiensis and A. holophylla. Both QI and vector diagnosis can be applied to verify seedling quality in the light of growth responses and nutrient status in fertilization trials.

The data of average temperature, average relative humidity, precipitation and average wind speed were collected from 674 meteorological stations in China. A specific procedure that processes original data into a new data format needed in forest fire danger rating forecast system of China was introduced systematically, and the feasibility of this method was validated in this paper. In addition, a set of meteorological data processing software was constructed by the secondary development of GIS in order to realize automation of processing data for the system. Results showed that the approach preformed well in handling temperature, average relative humidity and average wind speed, and the processing effect of precipitation was acceptable. Moreover, the automated procedure could be achieved by GIS and the working efficiency was about 3 times as much as that of manual handling. The informationization level of processing meteorological data was greatly enhanced.

This study was performed in 22 unthinned Larix olgensis plantations in northeast China. Data were collected on 95 sample trees of different canopy positions and the diameter at breast height ($d_{1.3}$) ranged from 5.7 cm to 40.2 cm. The individual tree models for the prediction of vertical distribution of live crown, branch and needle biomass were built. Our study showed that the crown, branch and needle biomass distributions were most in the location of 60% crown length. These results were also parallel to previous crown studies. The cumulative relative biomass of live crown, branch and needle were fitted by the sigmoid shape curve and the fitting results were quite well. Meanwhile, we developed the crown ratio and width models. Tree height was the most important predictor for crown ratio model. A negative competition factor, ccf and bas which reflected the effect of suppression on a tree, reduced the crown ratio estimates. The height-diameter ratio was a significant predictor. The higher the height-diameter ratio, the higher crown ratio is. Diameter at breast height is the strongest predictor in crown width model. The models can be used for the planning of harvesting operations, for the selection of feasible harvesting methods, and for the estimation of nutrient removals of different harvesting practices.

Early results from a field trail of Agathis loranthifolia are reported from a progeny test of 100 open-pollinated families in west Java, Indonesia. The average of height and diameter at root collar (DRC) was 40.18 cm and 0.52 cm at age 15 months. Family survival rate ranged from 86.5% at age 10 months to 81.7% at age 15 months. Family means of 10 best and 10 poorest families for each trait indicated that there was a large difference of growth performances among individual families. For height and DRC growth, the poorest groups had averages of 33.98 cm and 0.43 mm while the averages of the best groups were 47.35 cm and 0.62 mm at age 15 months as a difference of 39.36% and 43.65%, respectively. Differences between the best group and the test population mean, which is the selection differential, were implying that genetic gain from selection for the improvement of height and DRC growth would be achieved. The family variances of DRC and height were relatively small compared to replicate and residual variances. Family heritabilities for both studied traits were fluctuated, and the genetic coefficients of variation for DRC and height at age of 15 months were 7.19% and 5.22%, respectively.

This study was conducted to examine the effects of wound dressing with thiophanate-methyl paste on the compartmentalization of pruning wounds in Acer palmatum. A total of thirty field-grown trees were used for three different treatments, such as no dressing, dressing once right after pruning cut, and dressing twice, one more dressing treatment one year after initial dressing. Wound closure rate (WCR) and discolored/wound area ratio (D/W ratio) two years after treatment were measured. Variations of extractives, holocellulose and lignin at the treated branch unions were also examined. The WCR of no dressing treatment of 70.9% was significantly lower than those of the two dressing treatments (85.4% and 82.7%, respectively), while the difference between dressing once and twice was not significant. The D/W ratio of no dressing treatment (39.3%) was significantly higher than those of the two dressing treatments (around 30%). Generally, at the branch core of the treated union, contents of extractives and lignin were higher and holocellulose contents were lower than the branch core of the union with living branch. Among the branch core of treated union, no dressing treatment showed a relatively lower holocellulose (63.5%), and relatively higher extractives (2.8%) and lignin (26.6%) than dressing once (66.2%, 1.7%, 26.1%, respectively).

This study was conducted to examine the effects of pruning season on the compartmentalization of pruning wounds in Acer palmatum and Pinus strobus. A total of eighty five field-grown trees for each species were allocated to five different seasons, early- and late-winter, mid-spring, mid- and late-summer, for pruning treatments. Wound closure rate (WCR) of the two species for one year after treatment, area of discolored stem tissue on the medial longitudinal surface and cambial dieback length under the pruning wound of A. palmatum were measured. Changes of total phenols and variations of extractives, holocellulose and lignin at the treated branch unions were examined. In WCR of A. palmatum, late-winter (March, 39.8%) and mid-spring (May, 39.7%) were higher than any other seasons, while early-winter (November, 28.4%) was significantly lower than late-winter and mid-spring. P. strobus showed similar results with A. palmatum. The WCR of early-winter (57.2%) was the lowest significantly among the five seasons, and mid-spring (73.5%) and late-winter (71.4%) showed higher a WCR than other seasons. In the discolored/wound area ratio of A. palmatum, early-winter (73.2%) was the highest by far, and mid- (July) and latesummer (September, 36.7%, respectively) were the lowest among the five seasons. In the length of cambial dieback, two dormant seasons, early- and late-winter were longer than any other seasons. Phenol contents at the treated branch union were changed in line with the seasonal fluctuation of the tree. Total phenols in the below core of the treated union were higher than those of the branch union with living branch, while little differences were seen in the above core. At the branch core of the treated union, phenols of A. palmatum decreased one month after the treatments, but P. strobus maintained similar to or a little higher than those at the controls. The major changes in chemical composition at pruning wounds were extractives and lignin increased by less than 20% in A. palmatum, while extractives in P. strobus remarkably increased by 70%.

Picea jezoensis with several infraspecific taxa is indigenous to Eastern Asia and the Far East of Russia. Although these taxa are very common, the taxonomic confusion surrounding this complex is reflected in ambiguity of the various taxonomic treatments currently used. Patterns of intraspecific variations of cone morphology and recognition of taxa within the P. jezoensis complex were investigated from 175 individuals. Morphological variation of cone characters was determined by the univariate analysis to be insignificant in separating most previously recognized infraspecific taxa in Korea, China, Russia, and Japan. Our statistical analysis showed that cones from northern populations were larger and wider than those from southern populations. Individuals from South Korea were predominantly smaller even than those from Honshu of Japan which were previously recognized as var. hondoensis. All measured characters appeared to show some clinal variation with changes in latitude, and a distinctive trend was evident. Consequently var. hondoensis, var. koreana, and var. microsperma cannot retain their infraspecific state within the P. jezoensis complex.

The aim of this study was to investigate relationship among seed viability and enzymes activities involved in scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS), especially, superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione reductase (GR), and catalase (CAT). In other respects, osmopriming has been demonstrated to reinvigorate aged seeds. Various viabilities of seeds that were ranged from 80 to 100% of germination rate could be produced using osmopriming and accelerated aging treatments. Priming treatment of Pinus thunbergii seeds for 3 days at $15^{\circ}C$ with a polyethylene glycol solution at -1.2 MPa improved their subsequent germination at $25^{\circ}C$. Accelerated aging (3, 6, 9, and 12 days at $41^{\circ}C$ and 100% relative humidity) decreased seed germination percentage depending on aging treatment duration. Electrolyte conductivities of seeds were measured as assay of membrane integrity. The conductivity from electrolyte leakage of P. thunbergii seed was also correlated with seed germinability. Conductivity for control seeds that had 95% of germination percentage was 3.48 ${\mu}S\;g^{-1}$, but jumped as doubled (7.98 ${\mu}S\;g^{-1}$) in 12-day-aged seed that had 80% of germination percentage. Our results demonstrate that aging of P. thunbergii seeds is associated with changes in the electrolyte leakage, lipid peroxidation, and antioxidant defense system. Priming of aged seeds progressively restored the initial germinative ability and resulted in a marked decrease in the levels of MDA and conductivity of seed leachate. These effects of priming were also well recovered of GR and CAT activities in aged seed. The improved seed quality by priming treatment appears at least partly attributable to reduced lipid peroxidation, resulting from enhanced antioxidative enzyme activities that are suggesting the antioxidant defense systems play a key role in seed vigor.

Influences of environment (indicated by plant associations) and forest management practices on the distribution of Armillaria spp. and genets (vegetative clones) were investigated. A total of 142 isolates of Armillaria was collected from various host trees on pristine and managed sites (thinned and/or fertilized) growing in relatively wet and dry environments in eastern Washington, U.S.A. The incidence of Armillaria spp. was significantly higher in the relatively wetter sites than the relatively drier sites, as indicated by plant associations. However, no differences in Armillaria occurrence were found among different forest management practices (control vs. thinned vs. thinned and fertilized) within both wetter and drier sites. Incidence of Armillaria was significantly different among conifer and shrub species. The highest proportion with Armillaria was found on grand fir (Abies grandis). Based on pairing tests and rDNA sequencing, the 142 isolates were comprised in a total of 20 genets representing three Armillaria species. More diverse Armillaria spp. were found in both relatively wetter and relatively drier sites within the undisturbed control plots, compared to plots disturbed by forest management practices. The results from this study provide baseline information toward understanding how environment and forest management practices influence incidence and diversity of Armillaria species and genets.