• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.571-578
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• 2013

This study generated regression models through a direct harvesting method to estimate carbon storage and uptake by Pinus densiflora and Pinus koraiensis, the major evergreen tree species in urban landscape, and established essential information to quantify carbon reduction by urban trees. Open-grown landscape tree individuals for each species were sampled reflecting various diameter sizes at a given interval. The study measured biomass for each part including the roots of sample trees to compute the total carbon storage per tree. Annual carbon uptake per tree was quantified by analyzing radial growth rates of stem samples at breast height. The study then derived a regression model easily applicable in estimating carbon storage and uptake per tree for the two species by using diameter at breast height (DBH) as an independent variable. All the regression models showed high fitness with $r^2$ values of higher than 0.98. While carbon storage and uptake by young trees tended to be greater for P. densiflora than for P. koraiensis in the same diameter sizes, those by mature trees with DBH sizes of larger than 20 cm showed results to the contrary due to a difference in growth rates. A tree of P. densiflora and P. koraiensis with DBH of 25 cm stored 115.6 kg and 130.0 kg of carbon, respectively, and annually sequestered 9.4 kg and 14.6 kg. The study has broken new grounds to overcome limitations of the past studies which quantified carbon reduction of the study species by substituting, due to a difficulty in direct cutting and root digging of landscape trees, coefficients from forest trees such as biomass expansion factors, ratios of below ground/above ground biomass, and diameter growth rates.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.99 no.1
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• pp.144-152
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• 2010

This study was conducted to analyze the growth characteristics and aboveground carbon storage for old growth Zelkova serrata artificial forests (site1: age class IX, site2: age class VIII) in Gwangneung Experimental Forest. The trees were classified by crown classes for analyzing forest stand structure. The growth characteristics were analized through ringwidth increment by crown classes and stem analysis of dominant trees. There were a wide range of DBH (site1: 8~62 cm, site2: 14~40 cm) and height (site1: 8~26 m, site2: 12~26 m) distributions and revealed different growth characteristics by crown classes in both sites. The mean annual increment (MAI) of ringwidth for the last 5 years of dominant trees for site1 (3.3 mm) was higher than MAI of ringwidth of total growth period (2.3 mm) and MAI of ringwidth for the last 5 years of dominant trees for site2 (2.2 mm) was equal to MAI of ringwidth of total growth period (2.2 mm). Also, the growth increment of ringwidth by crown classes had significant differences between dominant tree and the others crown classes (p<0.01) in both sites. As a results of stem analysis of dominant trees in both sites, there were similar to their volume between site1 (1.106 $m^3$) and site2 (1.035 $m^3$). In spite of old age, the annual increment of volume has been increasing steadily until recent year. Meanwhile, total aboveground carbon storage of site1 (65.6 Mg C $ha^{-1}$) was higher than that of site2 (56.1 Mg C $ha^{-1}$). The proportion of dominant and co-dominant trees to total aboveground carbon storage was more than 90% and the greatest individual aboveground carbon storage by crown classes was dominant tree in all both sites. However, individual aboveground carbon storage of dominant tree in site1 had 0.054 Mg C $tree^{-1}$ more than site2 owing to the differences from average DBH of dominant trees by sites. We think that these results will contribute to the forest practice for Zelkova serrata artificial forests as a basic information.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.173-181
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• 2015

Fluxes of carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) were measured above crop canopy using the Eddy Covariance (EC) method, and emission rate of methane ($CH_4$) was measured using Automatic Open/Close Chamber (AOCC) method during the 2012-2013 barley and rice growing season in a barley-rice double cropping field of Gimje, Korea. The net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of $CO_2$ in the paddy field was analyzed to be affected by crop growth (biomass, LAI, etc.) and environment (air temperature, solar radiation, etc.) factors. On the other hand, the emission rate of $CH_4$ was estimated to be affected by water management (soil condition). NEE of $CO_2$ in barley, rice and fallow period was -100.2, -374.1 and $+41.2g\;C\;m^{-2}$, respectively, and $CH_4$ emission in barley and rice period was 0.2 and $17.3g\;C\;m^{-2}$, respectively. When considering only $CO_2$, the barley-rice double cropping ecosystem was estimated as a carbon sink ($-433.0g\;C\;m^{-2}$). However, after considering the harvested crop biomass ($+600.3g\;C\;m^{-2}$) and $CH_4$ emission ($+17.5g\;C\;m^{-2}$), it turned into a carbon source ($+184.7g\;C\;m^{-2}$).

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.517-525
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• 2013

Time-series data of Normal Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) obtained by the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) satellite imagery gives a waveform that reveals the characteristics of the phenology. The waveform can be decomposed into harmonics of various periods by the Fourier transformation. The resulting $n^{th}$ harmonics represent the amount of NDVI change in a period of a year divided by n. The values of each harmonics or their relative relation have been used to classify the vegetation species and to build a vegetation map. Here, we propose a method to estimate the annual amount of carbon absorbed on the forest from the $1^{st}$ harmonic NDVI value. The $1^{st}$ harmonic value represents the amount of growth of the leaves. By the allometric equation of trees, the growth of leaves can be considered to be proportional to the total amount of carbon absorption. We compared the $1^{st}$ harmonic NDVI values of the 6220 sample points with the reference data of the carbon absorption obtained by the field survey in the forest of South Korea. The $1^{st}$ harmonic values were roughly proportional to the amount of carbon absorption irrespective of the species and ages of the vegetation. The resulting proportionality constant between the carbon absorption and the $1^{st}$ harmonic value was 236 tCO2/5.29ha/year. The total amount of carbon dioxide absorption in the forest of South Korea over the last ten years has been estimated to be about 56 million ton, and this coincides with the previous reports obtained by other methods. Considering that the amount of the carbon absorption becomes a kind of currency like carbon credit, our method is very useful due to its generality.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.41-51
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• 1999

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of local climatic conditions on the annual increment of Korean white pine planted in Gapyung and Yaungdong. For this, stand variables such as mean DBH, mean height, basal area per hectare, and volume per hectare by stand age were measured and summarized for each locality. Based on these statistics, annual increments for 8 years from stand age 10 to 18 were calculated for each of stand variables. A topoclimatological technique which makes use of empirical relationships between the topography and the weather in study sites was applied to produce normal estimates of monthly mean, maximum, minimum temperatures, relative humidity, precipitation, and hours of sunshine. Then, the yearly climatic variables from 1990 to 1997 for each study site were derived from the spatial interpolation procedures based on inverse- distance weighting of the observed deviation from the climatic normals at the nearest 11 standard weather stations. From these estimates, 17 weather variables such as warmth index, coldness index, index of aridity etc., which affect the tree growth, were computed on yearly base for each locality. The deviations of measured annual increments from the expected annual increments for 8 years based on yield table of Korean white pine were then correlated with and regressed on the yearly weather variables to examine effects of local climatic conditions on the growth. Gapyung area provides better conditions for the growth of Korean white pine in the early stage than Youngdong area. This indicates that the conditions such as low temperature, high relative humidity, and large amount of precipitation provide favor environment for the early growth of Korean white pine. A ccording to the correlation and regression an analysis using local climatic conditions and annual increments, the growth pattern of Gapyung area corresponds to this tendency. However, it was found that the relationship between annual increments and local climatic conditions in Youngdong area shows different tendency from Gapyung. These results mean that the yearly growth pattern could not sufficiently be explained by climatic conditions with high variance in yearly weather variables. In addition, the poor growth in Youngdong area might not only be affected by climatic conditions, but also by other environmental factors such as site quality.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.13-21
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• 2014

This study generated regression models to quantify storage and annual uptake of carbon from five native landscape tree species through a direct harvesting method, and established essential information to estimate carbon reduction effects from urban greenspaces. Tree species for the study included the Chionanthus retusus, Prunus armeniaca, Abies holophylla, Cornus officinalis, and Taxus cuspidata, which are usually planted in cities of middle Korea, but for which no information on carbon reduction is available. Ten tree individuals for each species were sampled reflecting various stem diameter sizes at a given interval. The study measured biomass for each part including the roots of sample trees to compute total carbon storage per tree. The annual carbon uptake per tree was quantified by analyzing the radial growth rates of stem samples at breast height or ground level. Regression models were developed using diameter at breast height (dbh) or ground level (dg) as an independent variable to easily estimate storage and annual uptake of carbon per tree for each species. All the regression models showed high fitness with $r^2$ values of 0.92~0.99. Storage and annual uptake of carbon from a tree with dbh of 10 cm were greatest with C. retusus (20.0 kg and 5.9 kg/yr, respectively), followed by P. armeniaca (17.5 kg and 4.5 kg/yr) and A. holophylla (13.2kg and 1.8 kg/yr) in order. A C. officinalis tree and T. cuspidata tree with dg of 10 cm stored 9.3 and 6.3 kg of carbon and annually sequestered 3.2 and 0.6 kg, respectively. The above-mentioned carbon storage equaled the amount of carbon emitted from gasoline consumption of about 23~35 L for C. retusus, P. armeniaca, and A. holophylla, and 11~16 L for C. officinalis and T. cuspidata. A tree with the diameter size of 10 cm annually offset carbon emissions from gasoline use of about 6~10 L for C. retusus, P. armeniaca, and C. officinalis, and 1~3 L for A. holophylla and T. cuspidata. The study breaks new ground to easily quantify biomass and carbon reduction for the tree species by overcoming difficulties in direct cutting and root digging of urban landscape trees.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.97-104
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• 2017

Greenspace enlargement through proper landscape planting is essential to creating a low carbon society. This study analyzed changes in stem diameter growth rates(DGR), ratios of below ground/above ground biomass(B/A), and carbon sequestration by age of major landscape tree species. Landscape trees for study were 11 species and 112 individuals planted in middle region of Korea. The DGR and B/A were analyzed based on data measured through a direct harvesting method including root digging. The carbon sequestration by tree age was estimated applying the derived regression models. The annual DGR at breast height of trees over 30 years averaged 0.72 cm/yr for deciduous species and 0.83 cm/yr for evergreen species. The B/A of the trees over 30 years averaged 0.23 for evergreen species and 0.40 for deciduous species, about 1.7 times higher than evergreen species. The B/A by age in this study did not correspond to the existing result that it decreased as tree ages became older. Of the study tree species, cumulative carbon sequestration over 25 years was greatest with Zelkova serrata(198.3 kg), followed by Prunus yedoensis(121.7 kg), Pinus koraiensis(117.5 kg), and Pinus densiflora (77.4 kg) in that order. The cumulative carbon sequestration by Z. serrata offset about 5% of carbon emissions per capita from household electricity use for the same period. The growth rates and carbon sequestration for landscape trees were much greater than those for forest trees even for the same species. Based on these results, landscape planting and management strategies were explored to improve carbon sequestration, including tree species selection, planting density, and growth ground improvement. This study breaks new ground in discovering changes in growth and carbon sequestration by age of landscape trees and is expected to be useful in establishing urban greenspaces towards a low carbon society.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.122-137
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to present the characteristics of tree growth and the status of the ecosystem in Yeongdeok Docheon-ri Docheon forest, which was designated as Natural Monument No. 514. Results showed that most of the soil properties were generally within desirable levels except for some properties. The forest was composed of 503 trees. Major trees included Zelkova serrata, Celtis sinensis, Cornus walteri, Diospyros lotus, Hemiptelea davidii, and Evodia daniellii. In particular, trees such as Zelkova serrata, Celtis sinensis, and Cornus walteri showed D.B.H ranging from 10cm to 70cm. These trees appeared to be major tree species since the beginning of Docheon forest's existence. The wild birds observed from the site were from 18 families, 20 species, and 95 individuals. Also were found 1 mammal species, 1 reptile species, and 1 amphibian species. A dead Aix galericulata (designated Natural Monument No. 327) was found in the forest. The annual tree diameter growth of the sample trees was 2.3mm per year on average. The average age of the overstory trees was approximately 101 years, and the oldest tree was estimated to be 300~400 years old.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.103 no.2
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• pp.264-269
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• 2014

The aim of this study was to determine the current distribution area of Robinia pseudoacacia habitat and to estimate its stand yield as well as its carbon stocks. In order to do so, the area of R. pseudoacacia distribution is obtained based on the large-scaled forest type map (1:5,000). Also, Weibull diameter distribution model is used to predict the yield of R. pseudoacacia stands. In addition, carbon emission factor is applied to calculate carbon stocks and removals. To obtain the stand yield of R. pseudoacacia, we developed estimation equation considering growth factors of the stand, e.g. mean diameter, the basal area, maximum and minimun diameter and etc. and tested it to ensure accuracy. Consequently, estimation equation derived from all growth factors have shown significance that could also be used for analysis. Site index was also established to determine the productivity of the forestland that later turned out to be ranging from 16 to 22. Based on these results, stand yield tables were drawn up. R. pseudoacacia is widely distributed in inland areas of Gyeongsang, Chungcheong and Gyeonggi provinces which covers total area of 26,770 ha. And when it is converted into carbon stocks, it amounts to 2,517,598tC with annual carbon uptake of 3.76tC/ha which is comparable to Querqus species that is known to storer large amounts of carbon. Therefore, R. pseudoacacia is also expected to serve as a viable carbon pool that would contribute to the mitigation of climate change. Furthermore, stand yield tables, an outcome of this survey would assist not only in proper management but also in sustainable management policy of R. pseudoacacia.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.104 no.3
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• pp.421-426
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• 2015

The objective of this paper is to look into the growth of Cryptomeria japonica stand in South Korea along with the evaluation on their yields, followed by their carbon stocks and removals. A total of 106 sample plots were selected from Jeonnam, Gyeongnam, and Jeju, where the groups of standard are grown. We only used 92 plots data except outlier. As part of the analysis, the Weibull diameter distribution was applied. In order to estimate the diameter distribution, the growth estimation equation for each of the growth factors including the height, the diameter at breast height, and the basal area was drafted out and the verification for each equation was examined. The site index for figuring out the forest productivity of Cryptomeria japonica stand for each district was also developed as a Schumacher model and 30yr was used as a reference age for the estimation of the site index. It was found that the site index for Cryptomeria japonica stand in South Korea ranges from 10 to 16 and this result was used as a standard for developing the stand yield table. According to the site 14 in the stand yield table, the mean annual increment (MAI) of the Cryptomeria japonica reaches $7.6m^3/ha$ on its 25yr and its growing stock is estimated to be at $190.1m^3/ha$. This volume is about $20m^3$ as high as that of the Chamaesyparis obtusa. Furthermore, the annual carbon absorptions for a Cryptomeria japonica stand reached the peak at 25yr, which is 2.14 tC/ha/yr, $7.83tCO_2/ha/yr$. When compared to the other conifers, this rate is slightly higher than that of a Chamaecyparis obtusa ($7.5tCO_2/ha/yr$) but lower than that of the Pinus koraiensis ($10.4tCO_2/ha/yr$) and Larix kaempferi ($11.2tCO_2/ha/yr$). With such research result as a base, it is necessary to come up with the ways to enhance the utilization of Cryptomeria japonica as timbers, besides making use of their growth data.