• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.9-14
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• 2024

Quantitative evaluation of nutrient status and stoichiometry on the forest floor is a good indicator of litter quality in various vegetation types. This study was conducted to determine the effects of vegetation type on the nutrient concentration and stoichiometry of forest floors at a regional scale. Forest floor samples were collected from four vegetation types of evergreen coniferous forests including Cryptomeria japonica, Chamaecyparis obtusa, evergreen broadleaf, and bamboo spp. forests in southern Korea. The dry weight of the forest floor was higher in the C. japonica and C. obtusa forests than in the evergreen broadleaf and bamboo forests. The mean carbon (C) concentrations of the forest floor were highest in the broadleaf forest, followed by the bamboo forest, C. japonica and C. obtusa forests. Mean nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) concentrations in the the coniferous forests were lower than those in the broadleaf and bamboo forests. The mean C:N ratio was the highest in C. obtusa forest (118±25), followed by C. japonica (66±6), evergreen broadleaf (41±1), and bamboo (30±1) forests. However, C:P and N:P ratios were lower in the coniferous forests than in the broadleaf forest indicating that the stoichiometry of the forest floor varies across vegetation types. The C, N, and P stocks on the forest floor were higher in the C. obtusa forest than in the broadleaf or bamboo forests. These results highlight that vegetation type-dependent stoichiometric ratio is an useful indicator for understanding interspecific difference in quality and quantity of the forest floor.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.183-193
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• 1987

An investigation was performed to draw the decy map of litters on the floors of pine and oak forests in Korea and to reveal the turnover cycles of N, P, K, Ca and Mg in litters. Isodecay constant lines of litter organic matter, which are depended upon the altitude, latitude and orientation, were drawn on the Korean map. The decay constants of organic matter of litters were higher in the broadleaf tree forests than in the needleleaf tree forests, and in the grasslands than in the forests. The amount of mineral nutrients such as N, P, K, Ca and Mg returned annually to soils is higher in the broadleaf tree forests than in the needle leaf tree forests, and highest in the Quercus mongolica forest of the forests.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.163-169
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• 2021

Background: Understanding the habitat characteristics of the endangered Siberian flying squirrel Pteromys volans is the first step in conserving and managing the forests it requires for nesting, gliding, and feeding. Therefore, in the present study, we characterized the habitats of P. volans using GIS analysis of 411 forest sites in South Korea where fecal droppings were found. Results: Fecal signs of P. volans were found in various regions in South Korea, including the Baekdudaegan Mountains. GIS analysis with six environmental layers (vegetation type, wood-age class, diameter at breast height [DBH], crown density, elevation, and distance from stream) revealed that fecal signs of P. volans were more frequently found in broad-leaved deciduous forests (42%) located 200-399 m above sea level (43.1%) and 0-199 m from the nearest stream (53%), with 5th class wood-age (35.3%), middle size class DBH (51.1%), and high crown density (71%). Conclusions: The present study provides information on the biotic and abiotic characteristics of P. volans habitats. In South Korea, the fecal droppings of P. volans were found predominantly old deciduous broadleaf forests. Further studies are needed to reveal whether the more frequent occurrence of P. volans dropping in broadleaf forests may be due to a particular preference of this species for the forests or to a simple reflection of the area of the broadleaf forests occupying a much larger area than other forest types in Korea.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.636-645
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• 2020

Objectives: This study was performed to find phytoncide (monoterpene) emission characteristics and weather factors for application in prediction modeling for phytoncide weather services. Methods: From 2017 to 2019, one coniferous forest and one deciduous forest were selected to investigate the monthly emission characteristics and identify the correlation with weather factors. Research items were analyzed for 11 species known to be emitting the most monoterpenes. Results: Phytoncide (monoterpene) began to increase in April when trees were activated and continued to be released until November. The concentration range of monoterpene in deciduous forests was 0.0 to 427.4 ng/S㎥ and coniferous forests was 0.0 to 1,776.8 ng/S㎥. Phytoncide emission concentrations in deciduous forests were 20 to 90 percent of those in coniferous forests, and averaged 39 percent overall. The correlation between monoterpene and temperature was very close, with 0.835 for the broadleaf forest and 0.875 for the coniferous forest. Monoterpene and humidity were found to be 0.731 for the broadleaf forest and 0.681 for the coniferous forest, while wind speed showed a negative correlation of -0.482 and -0.424, respectively. Regression of temperature with phytoncide showed that the coefficient of determination (r2) was highly correlated with 0.75 for the broadleaf forest and 0.80 for the coniferous forest. Not only is phytoncide concentration affected by temperature, humidity, and wind speed, but also rainfall over the preceeding one to three days. Nearby rainfall on the day of sampling was found to have a direct effect on the physiological activities of the trees. Conclusions: Overall, if the values of monoterpene and temperature, humidity, and wind speed are used as basic factors, and rainfall from one to three days previous is replaced with complementary values, it is believed that the numerical analysis and modeling of daily and monthly phytoncide will be possible.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.1039-1050
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• 2022

Forests are valuable natural resources for people living around the mountains. In particular, the comfortable feeling or healing is one of the most important benefits obtained from forests. This healing can be possible by many aspects of forests, including the landscape, natural sounds, anions, and pleasant aromas. We focused on the volatile organics from forest causing pleasant aromas, phytoncides. Twenty phytoncides were monitored from February to September in a national tree garden (BaekDoDaeGan SooMokWon). Five sites were monitored two times per month and 20 phytoncides were detected. Borneol showed the highest annual average concentration and the order of concentration was borneol > mycene > sabinene > limonene > α-pinene. The average phytoncide concentration was relatively high in spring and summer season when the trees were physiologically active. Daily monitoring showed that the afternoon hours had higher concentrations of phytoncides than the morning hours, which may be due to the stabilized atmospheric conditions at the sites. Among the five sites, coniferous forests gave higher phytoncide emissions than broadleaf tree forests. The current study showed that forests produce several phytoncides that cause a healing effect and a forest bath may be beneficial to the health of visitors to forests.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.231-235
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• 2004

Landsat satellite images were analyzed to study vegetation change patterns of warm-temperate forests from 1991 to 2002 in Wando. For this purpose, Landsat TM satellite image of 1991 and Landsat ETM image of 2002 were used for vegetation classification using ENVI image processing software. Four different forest types were set as a classification criteria; evergreen broadleaf, evergreen conifer, deciduous broadleaf, and others. Unsupervised classification method was applied to classily forest types. Although it was impossible to draw exact forest types in rocky areas because of differences in data detection time and rough resolution of image, 2002 data revealed that total 2,027ha of evergreen broadleaf forests were growing in Wando. Evergreen broadleaves and evergreen conifers increased in total areas compared to 11 years ago, but there was sharp decrease in deciduous broadleaves. GIS-based management system for warm-temperate forest was done using Arc/Info. Geographic and attribute database of Wando such as vegetation, soils, topography, land owners were built with Arc/Info and ArcView. Graphic user interface which manages and queries necessary data was developed using Avenue.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.409-419
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• 2017

Although Korean red pine (Pinus densiflora) forests near temples are valuable as forests of the cultural landscape, they are likely to be deteriorated because of vegetation succession and climate changes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the vegetation structure, the pine vitality, and the site environmental characteristics of the pine forests near temples to identify the correlation between pine tree growth and location environment. We selected Chuneunsa, Wonhyosa, Jeungsimsa, and Taeansa Temples since these four areas still had the healthy pine forests. In all four studied area, the pine trees dominate the canopy layers while the deciduous broadleaf trees mostly inhabited appeared in the lower layers. The growth of pine trees in Jeungsimsa and Wonhyosa areas was not as good as Chuneunsa area where the pine trees tended to be older. We found higher total nitrogen content in soil in Jeungsimsa area than other areas, maybe because of increase in total nitrogen caused by the development of low vegetation in the area. This peculiarity may have led to the pine trees in the area to fall behind the deciduous broadleaf trees in competition for nitrogen nutrient and thus to show deteriorated growth. The altitude and the twig length showed a negative correlation as did the degree of slope and the mean importance percentage of the pine tree. In other words, the growth environment such as soil became poorer when the altitude and the degree of slope increased, and thus the growth amount and dominance of the pine trees were lower. The degree of slope showed a positive correlation with the twig length of the pine tree. Within boundaries of location environment where the pine tree forests were dominant, it seemed that growth of the pine trees was more favorable as the slope was steeper because the trees could avoid competition with deciduous broadleaf trees. On the other hand, the growth of pine trees deteriorated as the electrical conductivity of soil increased; increase in soil nutrients might have accelerated vegetation development of deciduous broadleaf trees and thus aggravated the growth environment of pine trees to negatively affect maintaining the health of the pine tree forests.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.20-38
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• 2014

Vegetation phenology is the most important indicator of ecosystem response to climate change. Therefore it is necessary to continuously monitor forest phenology. This paper analyzes the phenological characteristics of forests in South Korea using the MODIS vegetation index with error from clouds or other sources removed using the HANTS algorithm. After using the HANTS algorithm to reduce the noise of the satellite-based vegetation index data, we were able to confirm that phenological transition dates varied strongly with altitudinal gradients. The dates of the start of the growing season, end of the growing season and the length of the growing season were estimated to vary by +0.71day/100m, -1.33day/100m and -2.04day/100m in needleleaf forests, +1.50day/100m, -1.54day/100m and -3.04day/100m in broadleaf forests, +1.39day/100m, -2.04day/100m and -3.43day/100m in mixed forests. We found a linear pattern of variation in response to altitudinal gradients that was related to air temperature. We also found that broadleaf forests are more sensitive to temperature changes compared to needleleaf forests.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.511-524
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• 2014

In this study, we investigated the statistical occupations and interannual variations of land cover types over Northeast Asian region using the 12 years (2001-2012) MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) land cover data sets. The spatial resolution and land cover types of MODIS land cover data sets are 500 m and 17, respectively. The 12-year average shows that more than 80% of the analysis region is covered by only 3 types of land cover, cropland (36.96%), grasslands (23.14%) and mixed forests (22.97%). Whereas, only minor portion is covered by cropland/natural vegetation mosaics (6.09%), deciduous broadleaf forests (4.26%), urban and built-up (2.46%) and savannas (1.54%). Although sampling period is small, the regression analysis showed that the occupations of evergreen needleleaf forests, deciduous broadleaf forests and mixed forests are increasing but the occupations of woody savannas and savannas are decreasing. In general, the pixels where the land cover types are classified differently with year are amount to more than 10%. And the interannual variations in the occupations of land cover types are most prominent in cropland (1.41%), mixed forests (0.82%) and grasslands (0.73%). In addition, the percentage of pixels classified as 1 type for 12 years is only 57% and the other pixels are classified as more than 2 types, even 9 types. The annual changes in the classification of land cover types are mainly occurred at the almost entire region, except for the eastern and northwestern parts of China, where the single type of land cover located. When we take into consider the time scale needed for the land cover changes, the results indicate that the MODIS land cover data sets over the Northeast Asian region should be used with caution.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.481-488
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to suggest how to manage healing forests. Field investigation and surveys were conducted to produce results and 313 questionnaires collected from workers in the forestry sector and ordinary people were analyzed. The results were as follows: it is required to preserve flowering plants, scenic trees, and ecological trees in the understory vegetation, and to remove trees that block the forest landscape, leaving about 50 to 60 percent of the understory vegetation. The preferred density order of broadleaf trees was analyzed as follows: Betula platyphylla > Liriodendron tulipifera > Quercus acutissima. The preferred density order of coniferous trees was analyzed as follows: Abies holophylla > Cryptomerias japonica and Chameacyparis obtusa > Larix kaempferi > Pinus densiflora > Pinus koraiensis. The preferred density in healing forests was 81-89% compared to the number of residual trees for quantitative thinning. Specifically, the preferred density were 87% for P. koraiensis, 86% for L. kaempferi, 81% for P. densiflora, 83% for C. japonica, 84% for C. obtusa and 89% for Q. acutissima. In the case of healing forests, it is recommended to periodically conduct a small-scale thinning with different densities according to the species and diameter of trees based on the results of this study.