• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.69-77
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• 2019

Pterocarpus erinaceus is a multipurpose tree species indigenous to semi-arid and Guinean-savanna woodlands of Africa. Natural regeneration on the savanna is being hampered by higher fire frequencies and other land use changes. Simultaneously, demand for timber from the species on the international market is on the rise, raising conservation concerns. To ensure sustainability, good quality seeds, sources of which have not received much research focus, are needed for afforestation. This study investigated how seed quality, germinability and initial seedling growth of P. erinaceus might be influenced by land-use type, mother tree size as well as source and timing of fruit harvest, using both correlational and experimental approaches. The results showed that up to 94.6% of all harvested fruits contained seeds, with no differences found between fruits harvested from cultivated and non-cultivated lands. Percentage of (sound) unblemished seeds was found to be higher for fruits harvested early March (47.3%) than fruits from late April (39.5%). Percentage sound seeds was 41.4% for dispersed fruits (i.e. detached fruits picked from under mother trees) which was not found to differ from undispersed fruits (i.e. fruits harvested while still attached to mother trees) at 45.5%. Also, the influence of fruit harvest time was not found to be different for dispersed and undispersed fruits. Correlations between seed set (proportion of fruits containing seeds) and mother tree size (both tree height and DBH) were found to be very low and non-significant for both dispersed and undispersed fruits. Across mother trees, mean emergence percent was 79.7%, and mean seedling height at three weeks following emergence was 5.32 cm. Both emergence percentage and seedling height were not found to differ among mother trees, but seeds from dispersed fruits had a higher emergence percent (85%) than seeds from undispersed fruits (74%). Implications of findings are discussed.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.311-325
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• 2023

This study was conducted to analyze the habitat suitability of the major honey trees including Kalopanax septemlobus Koidz., Prunus spp., Tilia spp., and Styrax obassia Siebold & Zucc. indigenous to mountain Gariwang and Yumeong using the machine learning approach (i.e., MaxEnt model). The AUC values of the model predictions were mostly above 0.7, and the results of the response curves showed that the environmental drivers that had effects on the habitat suitability of the major honey trees were elevation, mean annual precipitation, and mean annual temperature. These results indicate that climatic drivers along the elevation gradient are the main environmental drivers in explaining the distribution patterns of the major honey trees. In addition, the results of the response curves of Prunus spp. and Styrax obassia Siebold & Zucc. differed slightly in terms of slope and mean annual solar radiation as the main environmental drivers. The results of this study will be valuable for the establishment of honey tree forests and management plans for the natural and artificial forests in South Korea, as well as for the mapping the distribution of honey trees. Further studies at different regional levels, reflecting biotic drivers, will be needed to expand the production of honey and pollen at different strata and to produce honey annually.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.88-91
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• 2015

Studies on the diversity of indigenous fungi were conducted in the central districts of South Korea from 2008 to 2013. During the studies, potentially unrecorded agarics were collected. All specimens collected in this study were examined morphologically and phylogenetic analysis was also performed. They were identified as Galerina sideroides and Gymnopus luxurians. These fungi have never been reported in South Korea. We report them here with detailed descriptions and figures.

• Mycobiology
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.408-414
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• 2015

Amanita (Agaricales, Basidiomycota) is one of the most well-known genera composed of poisonous mushrooms. This genus of almost 500 species is distributed worldwide. Approximately 240 macrofungi were collected through an ongoing survey of indigenous fungi of Mt. Jeombong in Inje County, Korea in 2014. Among these specimens, 25 were identified as members of Amanita using macroscopic features. Specimens were identified to the species level by microscopic features and molecular sequence analyses of the internal transcribed spacer and large subunit of nuclear ribosomal RNA. We molecularly identified 13 Amanita species, with seven species matching previously recorded species, four species (A. caesareoides, A. griseoturcosa, A. imazekii, and A. sepiacea) new to Korea, and two unknown species.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.205-211
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• 2016

Leaf chlorophyll content provides valuable information about physiological status of plants. However, fewer studies have investigated the difference in chlorophyll concentration in leaves of tropical afforestation tree species. Therefore, this study examines the difference in foliar chlorophyll contents of six tropical afforestation tree species namely: Tectona grandis, Pentaclethra macrophylla, Piptademiastrum africanum, Azadirachta indica, Brachystegia eurycoma and Gmelina arborea found in the relict forest in Umudike, South east, Nigeria. A single factor experiment in a completely randomised design in three replicates was employed to analyse the rate of leaf chlorophyll contents. Fisher's least significant different was used to test for significance in mean difference in foliar chlorophyll contents between tree species at 95% confidence interval using analysis of variance. The results of this study showed a significant difference in foliar chlorophyll concentration between the tree species with Tectona grandis having a higher chlorophyll concentration than other trees this could be as a result of its higher vegetative activity which increases its primary productivity followed by Pentaclethra macrophylla while Azadirachta indica having least the chlorophyll concentration. The study further revealed that other indigenous tree species like Piptademiastrum africanum and Brachystegia eurycoma have higher chlorophyll concentration. Further studies should be carry out to examine factors that have contributed informed the differences in the chlorophyll concentration of these trees species, thus this would broaden the understanding of their physiological status and equally encourage there conservation.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.775-783
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate if an community forestry programme (HKm) could be one of the main tool for REDD+ in Indonesia. Recently, considerable numbers of countries including Norway, England, Korea and etc. have invested 69 million US$ in total to Indonesia for implementation of REDD+. However, forest dependent people without a communal right are subject to poor forest governance during a stream of REDD+ in Indonesia. This study suggest that HKm are needed to be a tool for REDD+ in order to achieve the objects of REDD+ in terms of Equity, Efficiency, and Effectiveness (3Es) by stimulating local and Indigenous peoples to participate in REDD+. As a result of our study, Indonesia government have designated only 200,000 ha for HKm area by 2007. Indonesia government have a week political will to extend its area to give a communal right to those peoples who dwell in state forests and HKm application process is complicated and slow. HKm has a potential to be main tool for REDD+ in Indonesia. However HKm will be difficult to be main tool for REDD+ without resolving current obstacles.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.193-205
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• 2021

The importance of forests and trees in climate change mitigation and soil nutrient cycling cannot be overemphasized. This study assessed the above-ground carbon stock of two exotic and two indigenous tree species - Gmelina arborea, Tectona grandis, Khaya grandifoliola and Nauclea diderrichii and their litter impact on soil nutrient content of an arboretum within the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Data were collected from equal sample plots from the four species' compartments. Tree growth variables including total height, diameter at breast height, crown height, crown diameter and merchantable height were measured for the estimation of above-ground carbon stock. Soil samples were collected from a depth of 0-30 cm from each compartment and analyzed for particle size distribution, organic carbon, total nitrogen, available phosphorus, exchangeable bases, exchangeable acidity, cation exchange capacity, base saturation, pH, Manganese, Iron, Copper and Zinc. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test for significant difference (p<0.05) in the carbon contents of the four species and the soil nutrient contents of the different species' compartments. Pearson correlation was used to assess the relationships between the carbon contents, growth parameters and soil parameters. The highest and lowest carbon stock per hectare was observed for G. arborea (151.52 t.ha^-1) and K. grandifoliola (45.45 t.ha^-1) respectively. Cation exchange capacity and base saturation were highest and lowest for soil under G. arborea and K. grandifoliola respectively. The pH was highest and lowest for soil under G. arborea and T. grandis respectively. Carbon stock correlated positively with dbh, crown diameter, merchantable height and Zn and negatively with base saturation. The study revealed that G. arborea and N. diderrichii can effectively be used for reforestation and afforestation programmes aimed at climate change mitigation across Nigeria. Therefore, policies to encourage and enhance their planting should be encouraged.

• Journal of Species Research
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.206-219
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• 2016

As a subset study to discover indigenous prokaryotic species in Korea, a total of 42 bacterial strains assigned to the class Alphaproteobacteria were isolated from diverse environmental habitats including plant roots, ginseng soil, forest soil, marsh, mud flat, freshwater, and seawater. From the high 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity (>99.1%) and formation of a robust phylogenetic clade with the closest species, it was determined that each strain belonged to each independent and predefined bacterial species. There is no official report that these 42 species have been described in Korea; therefore 4 species of 1 genera in the order Caulobacterales, 18 species of 10 genera in the order Rhizobiales, 7 species of 5 genera in the order Sphingomonadales and 13 species of 11 genera in the order Rhodobacterales within the Alphaproteobacteria are reported for alphaproteobacterial species found in Korea. Gram reaction, colony and cell morphology, basic biochemical characteristics, isolation source, and strain IDs are also described in the species description section.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.89-119
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• 2020

Species invasions have rapidly increased due to the substantial growth of global trade in the recent past. As the awareness of the negative effects on natural ecosystems derived from alien species has grown, many countries and lawmakers have enacted rules and policies on the conservation of indigenous plants. Unfortunately, in Korea, research on species invasion is seriously lacking despite the growing number of alien species. In the current study, we report alien plants that have intentionally and/or unintentionally been introduced in Korea and also presented a checklist of invasive plants found both in the literature and in field surveys. We reviewed all documented records of alien plants, i.e., scientific papers, illustrated books, and annual reports. We also categorized alien plants by origin, time of introduction, naturalization, and the rate of their spread. The results revealed that there are 619 alien plant taxa (96 families, 353 genera, 595 species, 6 subspecies, 11 varieties, 1 forma, and 6 hybrids) occurring in Korea. Among these, 30 taxa are archaeophytes (Arc.), 214 are potentially invasive plants (PIPs), and 375 are invasive alien plants (IAPs). In addition, IAP taxa consist of grades 5 (widespread, WS) to 1 (potential spread, PS) of alien plants according to the rate of spread in Korea. Our results suggested that the number of alien plants is likely to keep growing; thus, the distribution should be regularly monitored and the list of alien plants must be updated.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.704-715
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• 2006

Oil spill was found in 1999 from a diesel storage facility located near the top of Baekun Mountain in Uiwang City. Application of bioremediation techniques was very relevant in removing oil spills in this site, because the geological condition was not amenable for other onsite remediation techniques. For efficient bioremediation, bacterial communities of the contaminated site and the uncontaminated control site were compared using both molecular and cultivation techniques. Soil bacterial populations were observed to be stimulated to grow in the soils contaminated with diesel hydrocarbon, whereas fungal and actinomycetes populations were decreased by diesel contamination. Most of the dieseldegrading bacteria isolated from contaminated forest soils were strains of Pseudomonas, Ralstonia, and Rhodococcus species. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis revealed that the profiles were different among the three contaminated sites, whereas those of the control sites were identical to each other. Analysis of 16S rDNA sequences of dominant isolates and clones showed that the bacterial community was less diverse in the oil-contaminated site than at the control site. Sequence analysis of the alkane hydroxylase genes cloned from soil microbial DNAs indicated that their diversity and distribution were different between the contaminated site and the control site. The results indicated that diesel contamination exerted a strong selection on the indigenous microbial community in the contaminated site, leading to predominance of well-adapted microorganisms in concurrence with decrease of microbial diversity.