• Journal of the Korea Furniture Society
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.222-228
• /
• 2012

Seonreung is the tomb of Seong-jong (A.D. 1457~1494), the 9th king of Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) and his second queen Jeonghyeon-wanghu (1462~1530). We obtained dendrochronological dates of Jeongjagak (ceremonial hall) of Seonreung. It was known first built in 1495 and reconstructed in October 1706, We obtained tree-ring dates of 20 wood elements (beams, pillars, truss posts, cant strips, roof boards and roof loaders). Their outermost rings were dated from 1630 to 1705. The dates of bark rings in four elements were A.D. 1705 with completed latewoods, indicating that these woods were cut some time between the autumn of 1705 and spring of 1706. The results confirmed the reconstruction date Jeongjagak of Seonreung in 1706, suggesting that there was not so long period for wood drying or storage, i.e., less than 6 months. The dates of outermost rings prior to 1705 in other elements indicated that some outer rings of these elements were removed during wood processing. Tree-ring dating proved that the present Jeongjagak of Seonreung had been well preserved for more than 300 years.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
• /
• v.47 no.1
• /
• pp.90-100
• /
• 2019

This study aims to determine the ideal feed speed of a resistograph to evaluate the number of tree rings in several tree species. The needle speed was fixed at 1,500 r/min. Herein, various tree species, such as Pseudotsuga menziesii, Pinus koraiensis, Abies holophylla, and Zelkova serrata, were considered for experiments. Results showed that the most proper feed speed for Zelkova serrata, Larix kaempferi, Pseudotsuga menziesii, Abies holophylla, and Pinus koraiensis was 75, 100, 100, 150, and 175 cm/min, respectively. However, in all the cases, the electric resistance values of tree ring narrower than 1 mm were not suitable for determining tree-ring boundaries. Upon comparing the inter-annual time series of ring widths and electric resistance values of resistograph, a meaningful synchronization was verified. If resistograph would be improved to the extent that it can measure tree rings narrower than 1 mm, it can replace the conventional method used for counting the number of tree rings in the increment cores. Additionally, it can also be used to investigate the tree growth.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
• /
• v.47 no.6
• /
• pp.700-708
• /
• 2019

To verify the possibility of using resistograph to estimate the age of big old living trees, we selected three Zelkova serrata and seven Pinus densiflora in Goesan. The mean diameters at breast height of Z. serrata and P. densiflora were 102 (92-116) cm and 80 (65-110) cm, respectively. The heights measured from the ground using a resistograph ranged at 1.2-4.3 m and 0.6-1.1 m for Z. serrata and P. Densiflora, respectively. The most appropriate needle speed to determine tree-ring boundaries for measuring ring width was 1500 r/min for both tree species. Alternatively, the suitable feed speeds for Z. serrata and P. densiflora were 50 cm/min and 150 cm/min, respectively. From the measured data, the mean numbers of tree rings of Z. serrata and P. densiflora were 57 (43-68) and 104 (93-124), respectively, and the mean tree-ring widths were 4.27 mm (3.18-5.09 mm) and 2.93 mm (2.32-3.34 mm), respectively. A comparison between the time series of tree-ring widths by resistograph and that from the local master chronologies tallied for the heartwood part. Finally, this study showed that resistograph can be used to estimate tree ages when a local master chronology is available.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.229-233
• /
• 2011

BACKGROUND: Soil acidification, which is known to be one of the reasons of forest decline, is associated with decreases in exchangeable Ca and increases in Al concentration, leading to low Ca/Al ratio in soil solution. As tree rings are datable archives of environmental changes, Ca/Al ratios of annual growth ring may show decreasing pattern in accordance with the progress of soil acidification. This study was conducted to investigate Ca/Al pattern of Pinus densiflora tree ring in an attempt to test its usefulness as an indicator of historical soil acidification. METHODS AND RESULTS: Three P. densiflora tree disks were collected from P. densiflora forests in Jeonnam province, and soil samples (0-10, 10-20, and 20-30 cm in depth) were also collected from the tree locations. Soils were analyzed for pH and exchangeable Ca and Al concentrations, and Ca/Al was calculated. Annual growth rings formed between 1969 and 2007 were separated and analyzed for Ca/Al. Soil Ca/Al was positively (P<0.01) correlated with soil pH, suggesting that soil acidification decreased Ca while increasing Al availability, lowering Ca/Al in soil solution. The Ca/Al of tree rings also showed a decreasing pattern from 18.2 to 5.5 during the period, and this seemed to reflect historical acidification of the soils. CONCLUSION(s): The relationship between soil pH and Ca/Al and the decreasing pattern of Ca/Al of tree ring suggest that Ca/Al of tree ring needs to be considered as a proxy of the progress of soil acidification in P. densiflora forest in southern Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
• /
• v.46 no.1
• /
• pp.100-106
• /
• 2018

This study was fulfilled to investigate the anatomical characteristics according to provinces. In order to compare anatomical characteristics between provinces we selected Goseong, Hongcheon, and Bonghwa as experimental sites. To use the tree rings formed at the same years we dated all tree rings by cross-dating method used in dendrochronology and the cutting years were successfully dated in 2014, 2012, and 2014 for woods from Goseong, Hongchen, and Bonghwa, respectively. Based on the cutting years tracheid lengths and widths were measured considering juvenile wood (tree rings between the pith and first 10 years), heartwood (tree rings formed between 1955 and 1964), and sapwood (tree rings formed between 2002 and 2011). According to the results about differences between tracheid lengths from three provinces, juvenile wood did not show a difference, statistically, but heartwood and sapwood showed differences as the tracheid lengths following Bonghwa, Hongcheon, and Goseong. Bongwha also showed the largest value in the trachied width among three provinces. The tracheid lengths in the radial direction increased up to around the first 20 years, and then they showed stabilized. All wood samples showed typical Korean red pine's characteristics in anatomical observation under a light microscope.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.15 no.6
• /
• pp.370-377
• /
• 1971

The Carbon-14 content in surface air at Seoul, Korea, was measured from February 1970 to August 1971 and a Larix Leptolepis, Gordon tree (Ip-Gal Namu) grown at Kwang-Nung, Kyunggi-Do, Korea, having 37 growth rings, was assayde for $^{14}C$. From the results of the surface air study, it was calculated that during the above period the inventory of excess $^{14}C$ in the atmosphere decreased with a half-time of 4.6 years. The overall yearly decrease was also checked. The tree-ring study showed that the tree's atmosphere was affected by $^{14}C$ from nuclear tests after 1956. In one study, atmospheric $CO^2$ samples were collected bi-monthly by the absorption of $CO^2$ in alkaline hydroxide solution. In the other, 5 year annual growth rings were assayed for radiocarbon. For the radioactivity measurement, carbon atoms in samples were converted to carbon atoms of benzene. The resulting benzene was taken as primary solvent for liquid scintillation counting.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.88 no.4
• /
• pp.429-437
• /
• 1999

Heavy metals(Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn) in tree rings of P. thunbergii growing at Onsan Industrial Complex of air polluted area were analyzed to study the condition of heavy metal pollution. The tree ring width began to decrease after operation of factories and decreased abruptly at Onsan Industrial Complex after 1991. Cd contents in tree rings showed 119.4ppb to 867.0ppb level and suddenly increased after 1991. Cu contents showed 309.5ppb to 3686.8ppb, and Pb contents 911.33ppb to 7997.1ppb and fluctuations of those were high after operation of factories. Zn contents showed the highest level of 3528.7ppb to 23826.7ppb and largely ascended after 1960, and increased suddenly after 1992, as compared to former tendency. On the other hand, heavy metal contents in tree rings of P. thunbergii at Gosung of non-air polluted area were far lower than Onsan I. C., and there was a wide difference between both areas after 1990. On the heavy metal contents accumulated in bark of P. thunbergii of both areas, it was higher to 10 times in Cd, 1,000 times in Cu, 285 times in Pb and 133 times in Zn contents at Onsan than at Gosung. In the heavy metal analysis for circle plate and cores, heavy metal contents in cores were generally higher than those in disk and Pb contents showed specially high difference, but pattern of variation by tree age showed a similar tendency.

• Journal of agriculture & life science
• /
• v.44 no.5
• /
• pp.35-43
• /
• 2010

To examine the relationship between climate and tree-ring growth of Pinus densiflora S. et Z. growing in the ridges of the Baekdudaegan, it was analyzed the sample cores of 48 trees were collected from 21 sites. After the pattern of tree rings of all Pinus densiflora were cross-dating each other, it was recognized the growth of Pinus densiflora was affected by climate largely when tree-ring chronologies were standardized to remove the age-related growth. As a cluster analysis was conducted to examine the similarity of chronologies, three clusters were classified, the tree-ring growths of Pinus densiflora was not by regional or elevational gradients but by the growth tree-ring width amplitude as micro-site growth environments. Correlation coefficients between the chronologies of three clusters and monthly climate (temperature and precipitation) factors were obtained. As a result, tree-ring growth of Pinus densiflora was more affected by temperature than precipitation and the trees of high-growth cluster possessed less climatic influences.

• The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.157-159
• /
• 2003

Much of northern Asia is lacking in high-resolution palaeoclimatic data coverage. This vast region thus represents a sizeable gap in data sets used to reconstruct hemispheric-scale temperature trends for the past millennium. To improve coverage, we present a regional-scale composite of four tree-ring width records of Siberian pine and Siberian larch from temperature-sensitive alpine timber-line sites in Mongolia. The chronologies load closely in principal components analysis (PCA) with the first eigenvector accounting for over 53% of the variance from ad 1450 to 1998. The 20-year interval from 1974 to 1993 is the highest such growth period in this composite record, and 17 of the 20 highest growth years have occurred since 1946. Thus these trees, unlike those recently described at some northern sites, do not appear to have lost their temperature sensitivity, and suggest that recent decades have been some of the warmest in the past 500 years for this region. There are, however, comparable periods of inferred, local warmth for individual sites, e.g., in 1520-1580 and 1760-1790. The percent common variance between chronologies has increased through time and is highest (66.1%) in the present century. Although there are obvious differences among the individual chronologies, this result suggests a coherent signal which we consider to be related to temperature. The PCA scores show trends which strongly resemble those seen in recent temperature reconstructions for the Northern Hemisphere, very few of which included representation from Eurasia east of the Ural Mountains. The Mongolia series therefore provides independent corroboration for these reconstructions and their indications of unusual wanning during the twentieth century.

• Journal of the Korea Furniture Society
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.130-136
• /
• 2008

The objective of this study was to date coffin woods of a grave of husband and wife, using the tree rings, which were excavated from Hoamdong, Chungju city in the central area of South Korea. The species of coffin woods was Japanese Red Pine (Pinus densiflora S. et Z.), one of the major conifers growing in Korea. The husband coffin was dated as A.D. 1628. Due to the absence of bark in the wife's coffin, the number of sapwood rings was estimated to obtain the cutting date. The cutting date of wife's one was estimated to be A.D. 1651${\pm}$10. The Jeogori Jacket for women, which was found in the husband coffin, indicates that the husband died earlier than the wife, as the tree-ring dates suggested.