• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.83-92
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• 2022

The 2020 summer extreme flood severely disturbed the riparian ecosystem of the Seomjin River. Some trees were killed by the flood impact, whereas others have recovered through epicormic regeneration after the disturbance. At the same time, several tree individuals newly germinated. This research aimed to explain the recovery of the riparian ecosystem by spatial proximity between each tree individual of different characteristics, such as "dead", "recovered", and "newly germinated". A spatial point pattern analysis based on K and g-functions revealed that the newly germinated trees and the existing trees were distributed in the spatially clumping patterns. However, further detailed analysis revealed that the new trees were statistically less attracted to the recovered trees than the dead trees, implying competitive interactions hidden in the facilitative interactions. Habitat amelioration by the existing trees positively affected the growth of the new trees, while "living" existing trees were competing with the new trees for resources. This research is expected to provide new knowledge in this era of rapid climate change, which likely induces stronger and more frequent natural disturbance than before. Environmental factors have been widely used for ecosystem modeling, but species interactions, represented by the relative spatial distribution of plant individuals, are also valuable factors explaining ecosystem dynamics.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.55-67
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• 2021

Hornbeams (Carpinus spp.), which are widely distributed in South Korea, are recognized as one of the most abundant species at climax stage in the temperate forests. Although the distribution and vegetation structure of the C. laxiflora community have been reported, little ecological information of C. tschonoskii is available. Little effort was made to examine the distribution shift of these species under the future climate conditions. This study was conducted to predict potential shifts in the distribution of C. laxiflora and C. tschonoskii in 2050s and 2090s under the two sets of climate change scenarios, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. The MaxEnt model was used to predict the spatial distribution of two species using the occurrence data derived from the 6th National Forest Inventory data as well as climate and topography data. It was found that the main factors for the distribution of C. laxiflora were elevation, temperature seasonality, and mean annual precipitation. The distribution of C. tschonoskii, was influenced by temperature seasonality, mean annual precipitation, and mean diurnal rang. It was projected that the total habitat area of the C. laxiflora could increase by 1.05% and 1.11% under RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios, respectively. It was also predicted that the distributional area of C. tschonoskii could expand under the future climate conditions. These results highlighted that the climate change would have considerable impact on the spatial distribution of C. laxiflora and C. tschonoskii. These also suggested that ecological information derived from climate change impact assessment study can be used to develop proper forest management practices in response to climate change.