• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.363-369
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• 1999

Reconstruction of the past vegetational changes of Korea in connection with climate changes enables to understand the impacts of past and future global warming on alpine vegetation. Despite the early appearance of the cold-tolerant vegetation since the Mesozoic Era. the occurrence of warmth-tolerant vegetation during the Oligocene and Miocene implies that most of alpine and subalpine vegetations have been confined to the alpine and subalpine belts of northern Korean Peninsula. The presence of cold-episodes during the Pleistocene. however. might have caused a general southward and downslope expansions of cold-tolerant alpine and subalpine vegetation. But the climatic warming trend during the Holocene or post-glacial period eventually has isolated cold-tolerant alpine and subalpine vegetation mainly in the northern Korea. but also on scattered high mountains in the southern Korea. The presence of numerous arctic-alpine and alpine plants on the alpine and subalpine belts is mainly due to their relative degree of sensitivity to high summer temperatures. Global warming would cause important changes in species composition and altitudinal distributional pattern. The altitudinal migration of temperate vegetation upward caused by climatic warming would eventually devastate alpine plants.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.105 no.3
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• pp.284-293
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• 2016

In order to assess th changes in vegetation characteristics over time in the forest-lands which is isolated by urbanization, vegetation surveys based on the Braun-Blanquet phytosociological method was carried out in 1996 and 2015 on Mt. Hwangyeong located in the center of Busan metropolitan city, South Korea. The number of vegetation types based on floristic composition showed no significant changes, the vegetation units under the community levels was more or less represents the difference. the average total vegetation cover and average number of species per unit area ($100m^2$) was increased 16% and 2 species, respectively. The relative importance value (RIV) for each tree species, Quercus spp. like as Q. mongolica and Q. serrata was decreased, while the warmth-tolerant trees, evergreen broad-leaved trees, and mesophyte like Lindera erythrocarpa, Styrax japonica, Osmanthus heterophyllus, and Stephanandra incisa was increased significantly. Changes of the life form spectrums of vascular plants did not substantially, hemicryptophyte(H) and therophyte (Th) was decreased, while nanophanerophyte(N) was increased significantly. Also through the creating of large-scale vegetation map (based on physiognomic vegetation types) was compared the spatial distribution characteristics of each vegetation types.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.323-337
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• 2006

This work discussed the species composition, phylogeny, spatio-temporal distribution, ecology and natural history of North Korean Pinaceae or pine tree family, which seems to be important to maintain nature and ecosystem in the Korean Peninsula. Out of five genera and sixteen species of Pinaceae of the Korean Peninsula, North Korea contains four genera and eleven species of Pinaceae, including Pinus densilflora, P. koraiensis, P. pumila, Picea jezoensis, P. koraiensis, P. koraiensis var. koraiensis, P. pungsanensis, Larix gmelini, L. gmelinii var. olgensis, Abies holophylla and A. nephrolepis. In terms of phylogeny Pinus is closely related to Picea, and followed by Larix. Abies is close to Tsuga which only occur at Ullung Island. Distributional pattern of North Korean Pinaceae can be classified into four types; three species of nation-wide montane type i.e., Pinus densilflora, P. koraiensis and Abies holophylla, four species of central and northern subalpine type, i.e., Pinus pumila, Picea koraiensis, Larix gmelini and Abies nephrolepis, one nation-wide subalpine type, Picea jezoensis, and three species disjunctive to north type, i.e., Picea koraiensis var. koraiensis, P. pungsanensis, and Larix gmelinii var. olgensis. Pinaceae species occurring on the alpine and subalpine belts of North Korea, such as Pinus koraiensis, P. pumila, Picea jezoensis, P. koraiensis, P. koraiensis var. koraiensis, P. pungsanensis, Larix gmelini, L. gmelinii var. olgensis and A. nephrolepis are considered as the glacial descendant from the boreal region. Those species might have migrated from the north during the Pleistocene glacial epochs in search of favourable condition, and since the Holocene period they survived on the hostile alpine and subalpine environments, in which they are more competitive than warmth-tolerant temperate vegetation. Certain species, such as Picea pungsanensis, is segregated on the isolated mountains since the Pleistocene period, and forced to adapt to local environment, and eventually became an endemic species of North Korea. Recent rapid global warming trend especially in northern high mountains of North Korea could cause an unfavourable environment for the survival of cold-tolerant Pinaceae of the alpine and subalpine belts. Pinus densiflora, which is occurring on the montane belt might faced with difficulties due to both the deforestation and the outbreak of insect-borne disease, such as Bursaphelenchus xylophilus.