• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.51-61
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• 2016

In order to provide recommendations on the most useful forage species to smallholder farmers, eleven grass and eleven legume forages grown in Abomey-Calavi in Republic of Benin were investigated for nutritive value (i.e. chemical composition and energy content) and fermentation characteristics (i.e. gas and volatile fatty acid production, organic matter degradability). The in vitro gas production technique was used, incubating the forages for 120 h under anaerobic condition with buffalo rumen fluid. Compared to legume, tropical grass forages showed lower energy (8.07 vs 10.57 MJ/kg dry matter [DM]) and crude protein level (16.10% vs 19.91% DM) and higher cell wall content (neutral detergent fiber: 63.8% vs 40.45% DM), respectively. In grass forages, the chemical composition showed a quite high crude protein content; the in vitro degradability was slightly lower than the range of tropical pasture. The woody legumes were richer in protein and energy and lower in structural carbohydrates than herbaceous plants, however, their in vitro results are influenced by the presence of complex compounds (i.e. tannins). Significant correlations were found between chemical composition and in vitro fermentation characteristics. The in vitro gas production method appears to be a suitable technique for the evaluation of the nutritive value of forages in developing countries.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.575-580
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• 2010

Forest fires in Korea, having forest coverage of 70%, have kept increasing in number and scale since the middle of 1990's. Although deposited fallen leaves in forests such as herbaceous plants, conifers, and broadleaf trees are used as a medium for forest fires, the pyrolysis and combustion characteristics of the various species of trees are hardly studied. Oriental oak is the representative broadleaf tree in domestic forests, and pyrolysis and combustion of oriental oak leaf were carried out by thermogravimetic analysis (TGA). The leaf of oriental oak was ignited at $239^{\circ}C$ whereas pyrolysis started at $250^{\circ}C$. The corresponding kinetic parameters including activation energy and pre-exponential factor were determined by differential method over the degree of conversions. The values of activation energies for pyrolysis were increased as the conversion increases from 10% to 80%, whereas those of values were decreased during combustion.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.33-45
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to establish the strategic direction of school forest based on the analysis of planting species and status and environmental consciousness of students on 9 elementary schools in Gyeongsangbuk-Do. According to the results of analysis of planting status, the green space area of Ahwa elementary school was increased as $2,300m^2$ and the green space area of most schools was increased more than $500m^2$ by the construction of school forest. The planting species were surveyed as 109 species in total and the deciduous broad-leaf trees and herbaceous plants were identified by each 29 species. As a result of analysis of elementary school students' awareness on school forest using surveys, the ratio of students that know school forests is 58.9% and the ratio of participation is 20.7%, that is very low. Finally, in the direction for the desirable construction of school forest, the students evaluated by preferring the evergreen broad-leaved trees, flowering trees and fruit trees and they required the development of teaching materials and program and the quantitative increase of forest.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.78 no.3
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• pp.302-313
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• 1989

To investigate the effects of forest fire on the change of vegetation and soil conditions by the lapse of time, the 5th soil survey and vegetation analysis were carried out in July of 1988 at the rocky areas of Mt. Kwanak, where ground fire broke out 5 years ago. Three-year increasing trends of organic matter content, the value of pH, and total nitrogen content stabilized after the restoration of the vegetation. By the comparison of the occurrences of the species for 5 years after the forest fire, woody and herbaceous plants were categorized into 4 groups, i,e., invasive, sensitive, tolerant, and neutral species to the forest fire. Although such diversity indices as the species diversity and similarity index indicate that the restoration of damaged vegetation to the original species composition was proceeded for the period, the restoration of vegetation to the original crown closure and tree growth was not proceeded yet.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.104 no.2
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• pp.300-308
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• 2015

Landscape planning system established in 2007. It is necessary that forest landscape management will be established based on the long-term and wide scope plan for forest management. This study suggested the considering factor while the establishing forest landscape plan for forest characteristics. Forest landscape type was consisted of 4 medium classification(geographical resources, waterscape, forest resources, cultural resources) and 12 small classification(geographical resources: panorama of ridge, ridge of curious rock peaks, waterscape: waterfall, valley, lake, forest resources: crown layer scenery, royal azaleas of main ridge, autumnal tints of ridge slope, flowers in herbaceous plants, inside of forest, forest trail scenery, cultural resources: facilities). This study suggested that consideration on 6 functions of forest in landscape zone planning and forest landscape management plan each classification (main ridge, sense of season, waterscape, rock resources).

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.469-478
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• 2006

The composition changes of litters were investigated to figure out the effects of the decomposition of Humulus japonicus on nutrient circulation and decomposition process in the riverine wetlands: Tan stream and Amsa-dong. Litterbags (mesh size 1 mm and 5 mm) were installed to monitor mass and nutrient changes of 5 types of litters: H. japanicus only, Miscanthus sacchariflarus only, Phragmites communis only, mixed litters including H. japonicus, and mixed litters without H. japonicus for 7 months. It was shown that k (decay rate) of the H. japanicus ($2.68{\sim}3.12$) was higher than that of M. sacchariflorus ($1.83{\sim}2.16$) and P. communis ($0.02{\sim}1.18$). The mass and organic remainings of the mixed litters including H. japonicus at Tan stream were $47.0{\sim}55.1%\;and\;47.0{\sim}54.9%$ and those of the litterbags without H. japanicus were $49.2{\sim}65.4%\;and\;47.1{\sim}57.5%$, respectively. This result indicated that the nutrient circulation was faster at H. japanicus community than others. Ca, Na, Mg, K, P, C, N and H contents reduced to around $40{\sim}80%$ of original. However, Na concentration increased up to $407{\sim}584%$ at 100 days and decreased to $248{\sim}498%$ at the end of the experiment. Decomposition rates were similar between 1 mm and 5mm mesh size litterbags and this implies that plant litters in studied areas decomposed mainly by microbes rather than small animals. This study revealed that the fast growth of H. japonicus was resulted from fast decomposition in part: positive feedback of nutrient cycling.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.104-111
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• 1994

The marsh vegetation in the vicinity of Tumunsan, Tokyusan National Park, Chollapuk-do, Korea was analysed in order to find out the vegetational characteristics. The total number of vascular plants surveyed were summarized as 39 familieis, 77 genera, 74 species, 18 varieties and 1 form. The ten species such as Juncus effusus var. decipiens, Carex leiorhyncha, Lysimachia vulgaris var. davurica, Sirpus triqueter, Scirpus karuizawensis, Caltha palustris var. membranacea, Carex doniana, Carex humilis, Vicia venosa, and Disporum smilacinum showed the Importance Value more than 10 % in herbaceous marsh vegetation. The species such as Heloniopsis orientalis, Astilbe chinensis var. davidii, Trignotis peduncularis, Lycopus ramosissimus var. japonicus, Iris nertschinskia and Hosta capitata were distributed at very limited or wide spread localities in the marsh. The marsh vegetation in this area is one of the rare and very distinct natural resources in Tokyusan National Park and the proper Action Plan of Management is strongly needed because the projected developing works in this site will act seriously in marsh vegetational changes in the future.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.395-403
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• 2011

This study was conducted to investigate the habitat positional environment and vegetation properties of Mankyua chejuense. The habitats were classified into two types depending on the depth of the habitat, the ratio of rock exposure, the dominant species and the surrounding vegetation, which affected the vegetation of the habitats. The habitats with a high ratio of rock exposure showed a distinctive geographical boundary to the adjacent region and most of them were composed of trees that grow in humid environment. On the contrary, in the soil-rich habitats, the depth was shallow, soil layer was well developed, and the trees were introduced from the adjacent areas. However, the dominant species in the herbaceous layer were aquatic plants, which indicated that the habitats had the properties of wetland. Therefore, it was found that thes habitats of Mankyua chejuense have the properties similar to those of marshland. For the preservation of Mankyua chejuense, it is very important to make the habitats maintain such properties of wetland.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.233-237
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• 2001

Changes of the oribatid mite species composition during the litter decomposition was investigated in the north-facing and south-facing slopes with different lower vegetation (annual herbaceous plants in north and perennial Sasa in south) in the altitude 1,000 m of Mt. Jumbong, a nature reserve area in Korea, from August 1994 to September 1995. Total 58 species of oribatid mites were collected. The values of O1son's negative exponential index (k) were -0.56 in the south-facing slope and -0.49 in the north-facing slope, but there was no significant difference between them. The decomposition rate of litter increased rapidly until Oct. 1994, and decreased thereafter. Intensive settlement of the forest litter by oribatid mites was recorded in the autumn periods and it decreased in the next spring and summer. Species diversity index (H'), and species evenness (J') ranged from 1.74 to 2.69, and from 0.57 to 0.93, respectively, and the values were lowest in spring. In the successive periods of growing season, there followed great changes in the structure of species dominance. Heminothrus minor was one of the most dominant species in autumn in the first year when litter were placed, but was never recovered next seasons. In contrast, Platynothrus yamasakii was also dominant in the first autumn, then decreased very low in numbers in next spring and summer, but regained its number in autumn. On the other hand, an increase of the number during these periods was observed by Epidamaeus sp.2. Ceratopia bipilis and Epidamaeus sp.1 were abundant both in the north-and south-facing slopes. Trichogalumna nipponica was only found in the south-facing slope, and Nanhermannia elegantula was only found in the north-facing slope.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.425-441
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• 2010

Forages are the backbone of sustainable agriculture. They includes a wide variety of plant species ranging from grasses, such as tall fescue and bermudagrass, to herbaceous legumes, such as alfalfa and white clover. Abiotic stresses, especially salinity, drought, temperature extremes, high photon irradiance, and levels of inorganic solutes, are the limiting factors in the growth and productivity of major cultivated forage crops. Given the great complexity of forage species and the associated difficulties encountered in traditional breeding methods, the potential from molecular breeding in improving forage crops has been recognized. Plant engineering strategies for abiotic stress tolerance largely rely on the gene expression for enzymes involved in pathways leading to the synthesis of functional and structural metabolites, proteins that confer stress tolerance, or proteins in signaling and regulatory pathways. Genetic engineering allows researchers to control timing, tissue-specificity, and expression level for optimal function of the introduced genes. Thus, the use of either a constitutive or stress-inducible promoter may be useful in certain cases. In this review, we summarize the recent progress made towards the development of transgenic forage plants with improved tolerance to abiotic stresses.