• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.229-237
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• 2015

This study aims to offer basic data to effectively preserve and manage pine forests using more precise pine forests' distribution status. In this regard, this study predicts the geographical distribution change of pine forests growing in South Korea, due to climate change, and evaluates the spatial distribution characteristics of pine forests by age. To this end, this study predicts the potential distribution change of pine forests by applying the MaxEnt model useful for species distribution change to the present and future climate change scenarios, and analyzes the effects of bioclimatic variables on the distribution area and change by age. Concerning the potential distribution regions of pine forests, the pine forests, aged 10 to 30 years in South Korea, relatively decreased more. As the area of the region suitable for pine forest by age was bigger, the decreased regions tend to become bigger, and the expanded regions tend to become smaller. Such phenomena is conjectured to be derived from changing of the interaction of pine forests by age from mutual promotional relations to competitive relations in the similar climate environment, while the regions suitable for pine forests' growth are mostly overlap regions. This study has found that precipitation affects more on the distribution of pine forests, compared to temperature change, and that pine trees' geographical distribution change is more affected by climate's extremities including precipitation of driest season and temperature of the coldest season than average climate characteristics. Especially, the effects of precipitation during the driest season on the distribution change of pine forests are irrelevant of pine forest's age class. Such results are expected to result in a reduction of the pine forest as the regions with the increase of moisture deficiency, where climate environment influencing growth and physiological responses related with drought is shaped, gradually increase according to future temperature rise. The findings in this study can be applied as a useful method for the prediction of geographical change according to climate change by using various biological resources information already accumulated. In addition, those findings are expected to be utilized as basic data for the establishment of climate change adaptation policies related to forest vegetation preservation in the natural ecosystem field.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.188-209
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• 2009

Dangsan forests had been established by local residents several hundred years ago. They were disturbed in various ways, but still remain in many villages where dangsan festivals are held every year. Although the remaining Dangsan forests represent korean rural cultural landscapes, their characteristics still remain to be uncovered. The objectives of this study were to understand the three elements, Dangsan tree (Divine tree), shrine and stone tower, and to investigate the culture at inland areas and seashore areas relation to Dangsan forests. Twenty cases of Dangsan forests at inland areas and twenty at seashore areas were investigated. There were nine shrines and six stone towers found out of twenty inland Dangsan forests. Fifteen shrines were found out of twenty seashore Dangsan forests. Stone tower was not found at seashore areas. Fifteen events of dangsan festival were investigated. Dangsan festival appeared to have played an important role to preserve Dangsan forests. Based on the findings of this study, Dangsan forests are, as landscape elements at inland and seashore areas, proved to have a potential for the improvement of cultural and natural landscapes in the country.

• Atmosphere
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.689-698
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• 2019

Air pollution in urban areas has become a serious problem in the recent years. Especially, high concentrations of particulate matter (PM) cause negative effects on human health. Several studies suggest urban forest as a tool for improving air quality because of the capability of forests in reducing PM concentrations through deposition and adsorption using leaf area. For this reason, the National Institute of Forest Science plans to install in-situ observation stations for PM and biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) on a national scale to verify the net effect of forests on urban air pollution. To measure the quantitative change of PM concentrations due to the urban forest, stations should be located within and outside the forest area with respect to atmospheric circulation. In this study, we analyze the wind direction at the potential measurement sites to assess suitable locations for detecting the effect of urban forests on air quality in five cities (i.e. Gwangju, Daegu, Busan, Incheon, and Ilsan). This technical note suggests effective locations of in-situ measurements by considering main wind direction in the five cities of this study. A measurement station network created in the future based on the selected locations will allow quantitative measurements of PM concentration and BVOCs emitted from the urban forest and help provide a comprehensive understanding of the forest capabilities of reducing air pollution.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.85-97
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• 2019

Background: Despite the increasing role of dry forests in climate change adaptation and mitigation, these versatile resources has got less attention in the national and regional planning, their potential to enhance the local and national economy has been overlooked, and their contribution to sustainable environmental management has not been recognized. Hence, the objective of this study was to assess the socioeconomic contribution of dry forests and forest products to climate change adaptation in the Liben Woreda, Southern Oromia region of Ethiopia. Methods: For this study, an integrated qualitative and quantitative approach was used. A total of 74 households from villages in the Bulbul, Boba, and Melka-Guba kebeles were randomly selected for the household survey. Results: Results showed that 75% of the respondents in the area indicated that climate change has become their major sources of vulnerability, where drought has been manifested in the form of crops failure and massive death of livestock particularly cattle species. The main income strategies of the study households include livestock, crop, forests such as gum and resins, firewood and charcoal and non-farm activities such as in the form of petty trade, wage and aid. The average total household income was ETB 11,209.7. Out of this, dry forest income constituted 15% of the total income. In addition to using dry forests as rangeland for livestock, the communities collect wood for construction, fodder, traditional medicine, and forest food both for subsistence and for sale. On the other hand, dry forest products could be considered as less vulnerable, rather resilient livelihood strategies to climate- and environment-related risks compared to livestock and crop production such as in the face of drought periods. More than 48.6% of the households argued that the income generated from dry forests increased substantially due to increment in the level of engagement of family members in forest based income activities. On the other hand, 35.8% of the households responded that livestock production, particularly camels and goats, have been making the livelihood strategies of the respondents more resilient indicating the shift made from grazers browsers to livestock. In general trends show that, the trends of livelihood dependency on dry forest were highly increasing indicating the importance of dry forest income in responsse to frequent droughts. Conclusions: Dry forest income has been becoming crucial livelihood staretgy in response to frequent droughts in the study area and hence, it is important to improve the management of dry forests for livelihood enhancement, while also securing their long-term ecological functions.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.356-361
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• 2009

This study has targeted Quercus acutissima forests in Korea and has classified the association between Quercus acutissima forests by using the phytosociological method. In addition, the correlation between each association, distribution, potential natural vegetation, and aspect of Quercus acutissima forest according to location have been analyzed to examine the characteristics of the Korean Quercus acutissima forests. Through factor analysis of DECORANA, it was revealed that Quercetum serrato-acutissimae forms in the basal zones of mountains, Quercetum mongolico-acutissimae is formed in the highlands, in the relatively high mountain area, and Carpino-Quercetum acutissimae is mainly distributed in valleys. However, this phenomenon is not very obvious, as each association structure is often mixed up. This result is caused by inhomogeneity of the Quercus acutissima forests, and most of it is distributed in basal zones or around farmlands where there are severe disturbance factors. The proposed potential natural vegetation of the Quercus acutissima forests in Korea is as follows; Quercetum serrato-acutissimae$\rightarrow$Quercus aliena-Quercus serrata community$\rightarrow$Quercus serrata community, Quercetum mongolico-acutissimae$\rightarrow$Quercus aliena-Quercus mongolica community$\rightarrow$Quercus mongolica community, Carpino-Quercetum acutissimae$\rightarrow$Quercus aliena-Carpinus laxiflora community$\rightarrow$Carpinus laxiflora community.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.119-131
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to compare the differences of the ecological attributes in the two types of urban park at Suwon and Goyang city. 'Directly linked park' is forests and rivers in the vicinity, it is capable of re-supply of the species and 'Isolated park' is forests and rivers apart, it is a difficult re-supply of the species. The result of assessment of the ecological attributes in the two types of urban park was analyzed as the percentage of 'Forest zone' was high, but the percentage of 'Area of permeable pavement' and 'Bush area' was low. 'The planting structure' was mostly 1-layer structure(47%) and 'Foreign tree species' is high by half the proportion. 'Age classes' were a 2-3age classes level, and 'Water body' could barely. Thus, ecological attributes degree was very low. In addition, results of investigation whether the difference of ecological attributes degree between the two types of urban park, also statistically analyzed that there is no difference. Therefore, when establishing the composition of the future plans of the city park, to take full account of the ecological situation in the surrounding parkland, and identify the ecological potential with the parkland. Next, it should be designed and planned of the park that fully utilizing the potential of this ecological attributes.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.97-106
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• 2017

Forest bathing has beneficial effects on human health via showering of forest aerosols as well as physical relaxation. Terpenes that consist of multiple isoprene units are the largest class of organic compounds produced by various plants, and one of the major components of forest aerosols. Traditionally, terpene-containing plant oil has been used to treat various diseases without knowing the exact functions or the mechanisms of action of the individual bioactive compounds. This review categorizes various terpenes easily obtained from forests according to their anti-inflammatory, anti-tumorigenic, or neuroprotective activities. Moreover, potential action mechanisms of the individual terpenes and their effects on such processes, which are described in various in vivo and in vitro systems, are discussed. In conclusion, the studies that show the biological effectiveness of terpenes support the benefits of forest bathing and propose a potential use of terpenes as chemotherapeutic agents for treating various human diseases.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.64-79
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• 2017

Identifying disease genes from human genome is a critical task in biomedical research. Important biological features to distinguish the disease genes from the non-disease genes have been mainly selected based on traditional feature selection approaches. However, the traditional feature selection approaches unnecessarily consider many unimportant biological features. As a result, although some of the existing classification techniques have been applied to disease gene identification, the prediction performance was not satisfactory. A small set of the most important biological features can enhance the accuracy of disease gene identification, as well as provide potentially useful knowledge for biologists or clinicians, who can further investigate the selected biological features as well as the potential disease genes. In this paper, we propose a new stepwise random forests (SRF) approach for biological feature selection and disease gene identification. The SRF approach consists of two stages. In the first stage, only important biological features are iteratively selected in a forward selection manner based on one-dimensional random forest regression, where the updated residual vector is considered as the current response vector. We can then determine a small set of important biological features. In the second stage, random forests classification with regard to the selected biological features is applied to identify disease genes. Our extensive experiments show that the proposed SRF approach outperforms the existing feature selection and classification techniques in terms of biological feature selection and disease gene identification.

• The Korean Journal of Soil Zoology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.91-105
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• 1998

This study was conducted to analyze oribatid mites communities in deciduous forests in Namsan and Kwangreung on which different levels of environmental stresses might press, and to select potential condidate of biological indicator species. In overall, pH was lower in soil than in litter layer. Also soil pH, total nitrate content and soluble sulfate content were significantly higher in Namsan than in Kwangreung (p<0.05). The flora in Namsan and Kwangreung deciduous forests were dominated by Quercus mongolica, and Carpinus laxiflora respectively. It indicated that Namsan was in the lower stage of the floral succession. The number of species of oribatid mites was significantly higher in Kwangreung (39 families, 65 genera and 114 species) than in Namsan (32 families, 53 genera and 89 species) (p<0.05). Common species found in two regions were 77 species. Mean density of oribatid mites was 1.8 times higher in Kwangreung than in Namsan and this difference came mainly from litter layer. Among correlation analyses between environmental factors and oribatid mites density and species number, only density was negatively correlated with fresh litter depth in Namsan litter layer (r=-0.89, p<0.05). The pH which was considered to affect distribution of oribatid mites didn't show significant results.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.172-186
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• 2017

The effects of application of fuel-reduction treatment in wildfire management has not been tested in dry forests of Ghana. Therefore, the short-term ecological effects of prescribed burning and hand thinning treatments followed by experimental wildfire were investigated in degraded forests and Tectona grandis forest plantations in two forest reserves of different levels of dryness in Ghana. The results showed that more trees were killed in prescribed burning (average of 41% in degraded forest and 18% in plantations) than hand thinning (7.2% in degraded forests and 8% in plantation). More tree seedlings were also killed in prescribed burning (72%) than hand thinning (47%). The mortality of trees and seedlings were greater in Worobong South forest, a less dry forest reserve than the Afram Headwaters forest, a drier forest reserve. Fuel treatment especially prescribed burning compared to the control reduced wildfire effects on forest canopy particularly in the less dry forest and tree mortality especially in the drier forest. Prescribed burning temporarily increased pH, exchangeable potassium (52%) and available phosphorus (82%) in the surface soils of the entire plots. The two fuel treatment methods did not have much influence on basal area, organic matter and total nitrogen. Nevertheless, they were able to reduce the adverse wildfire effects on soil pH, exchangeable potassium, available phosphorus, organic matter and total nitrogen concentrations. Fuel treatments therefore have potential application in dry forest management in Ghana due to their ability to retain important forest ecological traits after a wildfire incidence.