• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.94-104
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• 2018

The Soyangho Reservoir in Korea has a large drawdown zone, with an annual maximum water level fluctuation of 37 m due to dam operations to maintain a stable water supply and control flooding, especially during the monsoon period. The floristic composition, distribution and biomass of the major plant communities in the drawdown zone of the Soyangho Reservoir were assessed in order to understand their responses to the wide water level fluctuation. Species richness of vascular plants was low, and species composition was dominated by herbaceous annuals. Principal coordinates analysis using both flora and environmental data identified slope angle and the distance from the dam as important factors determining floristic composition. The species richness was low in the steep drawdown zone close to the dam, where much of the soil surface was almost devoid of vegetation. In shallower slopes, distant from the dam plant communities composed of mainly annuals were found. The large fluctuation in water level exposed soil where these annuals could establish. An overall biomass of 122 t (metric tons) Dry Matter was estimated for the reservoir, containing ca 3.6 t N (nitrogen) and ca 0.3 t P (phosphorus); the role of the vegetation of the drawdown zone in carbon sequestration and water pollution were briefly discussed.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.90-102
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• 2018

Background: We sought to understand the relationship between the seed bank and vegetation in abandoned rice paddies in South Korea, in order to guide management of these sites. We investigated the floristic composition and species richness of the soil seed bank and ground vegetation in former paddies along three seral gradients (wet meadow, young forest, and mature forest) in Gwangneung Forest Biosphere Reserve. Results: Seed bank samples contained 59 species, of which the dominant families were Cyperaceae, Gramineae, and Polygonaceae. Species richness and seedling density (59 taxa and 19,121 germinants from all samples) were high. Carex spp. (11, 921 germinants) were the dominant taxa. The species composition in the seed bank changed gradually as the land transitioned from wet meadow to mature forest. Sørensen's index of similarity between above- and below-ground vegetation was 29.3% for wet meadow, 10.8% for young forest, and 2.1% for mature forest. Germinant density also declined, with 10, 256 germinants for wet meadow, 6445 germinants for young forest, and 2420 germinants for mature forest. Conclusions: Changes in aboveground environment and life history traits such as amphicarpic plants, likely affect the composition of soil seed bank species. Abandoned paddy fields may be good sites for restoration of wetland forest and conservation of wetland habitat. Some intervention may be required to promote the recovery of a natural species assemblage.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.337-347
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• 2016

Based on genetic studies and palaeoecological surveys, the main Korean mountain range, the so-called "Baekdudaegan" (BDDG), has been recently suggested to be a major glacial refugium at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) for the boreal and temperate flora of northeastern Asia. On the basis of its shared role as a glacial refugium, and on a series of striking similarities in floristic richness and orographic features, the BDDG would constitute a sort of "eastern counterpart" of the Southern Appalachians. Given its floristic, biogeographic, and cultural value, the BDDG merits high priority for conservation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.98 no.4
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• pp.464-471
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• 2009

Vegetation types of the native conifer forests in the ridge of the Baekdudaegan, South Korea, were classified using the Braun-Blanquet method and TWINSPAN and its ecological characteristics analyzed with special repect to floristic composition. The vegetation type was classified into two types (Pinus densiflora-Carex humilis and Pinus koraiensis-Dryopteris crassirhizoma types) and seven groups. Mean species richness and total plot cover per unit area ($/100m^2$) were $21.9{\pm}8.9$ spp. and $146.9{\pm}32.3$%, respectively. The plant species composed of 82 families, 217 genera, and 387 species and the three major families, Compositae, Liliaceae, and Rosaceae, made up about 25.6% of the total species. The 7.8% of total families were the families with occurrence of only one species. The highest relative importance value was 19.2, the species belonged to Pinaceae and the pattern was different from species richness pattern of other families.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.98 no.4
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• pp.472-478
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• 2009

Pine (Pinus densiflora) forests of 58 sites on the ridge of the Baekdudaegan, South Korea were classified by applying the phytosociological method and TWINSPAN. The floristic composition and life-form characteristics of the vegetation types analyzed and documented. The vegetation types were classified into five groups including four groups of Carex humilis var nana type and one group of Abies koreana-Sasa borealis type. Compositae was the most diverse family (26 species), Liliaceae (21 species), Rosaceae (18 species) and Betulaceae (11 species) whereas 27 families were represented by only one species. Taxonomically, Compositae was the most diverse (17 genera), Liliaceae and Rosaceae(12 genera) whereas 41 families were represented by only one genus. The Fagaceae was the most important family in total coverage (19.0) and followed Pinaceae (16.7) and Ericaceae (15.1). Five families such as Compositae, Liliaceae, Rosaceae, Betulaceae, and Umbelliferae contributed little to total coverage, although represented by numerous species. In the correlation between species richness and life forms, the species richness was highly correlated with growth and disseminule forms. In general, the correlation coefficients between life forms represented lower values than those between species richness and life-forms.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.1257-1269
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• 2007

This study was performed to get more knowledge on the flora and their life form spectrum in the Hallasan Natural Reserve. The vascular plants include 83 species 35 genera 12 families of pteridophytes, 5 varieties 5 species 3 families of gymnosperm, 100 taxa in 2 varieties 98 species 58 genera 8 families of monocotyledon and 362 taxa in 3 forma 10 varieties 349 species 186 genera 65 families of dicotyledon in Hallasan Natural Reserve. The total of vascular plants is 550 taxa in 3 forma 11 varieties 536 species 284 genera 88 families. Among these, 204 species in total including 19 species of pteridophytes, 2 species of conifers, 45 species of monocotyledon and 138 species of dicotyledon are found only in the Hallasan Natural Reserve. The pteridophyte-quotient is 4.52 and floristic richness is 1.94. In the analysis of life form spectrum, there are 190 species (34.5%) of hemicryptophytes and 122 species (22.2%) of geophytes so that two life forms take large portions, 312 species (56.7%) of the vegetation in Hallasan Natural Reserve. Megaphanerophytes and microphanerophytes take 14.5% including 80 species followed by 83 species (15.1%) of nanophanerophytes, 42 species (7.6%) of chamaephytes, 29 species (5.3%) of therophytes, 24 species (4.4%) of hydrophytes and 18 species (3.3%) of epiphytes. According to the life form spectrum hemicryptophytes dominated high portions, which suggests Hallasan Natural Reserve has hemicryptophytic climate and similar to middle parts in the Korean Peninsular. The differences, however, were noticed by that it has more chamaephytes and less therophytes than that of the Peninsular and partially shows the characteristics of artic or subalpine climate.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.60-88
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• 2023

This study was conducted to investigate the vertical distribution and vascular plants in the Gakho mountain. Form the results of three field surveys from May 2022 to September 2022, a total of 478 total taxa, representing 426 species, 11 subspecies, 35 varieties, four forms, and two hybrids were identified, which were categorized in 282 genera and 94 families. We identified the elevational distribution ranges of 398 taxa of vascular plants. Among them, 19 taxa were endemic to Korea, one taxon was identified as a rare plant. The floristic target plants amounted to 72 taxa, specifically two taxa of grade V, two taxa of grade IV, 16 taxa of grade III, 27 taxa of grade II, and 25 taxa of grade I. Further, 71 taxa were identified as northern lineage plants. A total of 19 taxa of alien plants were identified, with a Naturalized Index of 4.0%, an Urbanization Index of 6.6%, and three plants that disturbed the ecosystem. The result of analyzing the pattern of species richness showed a reversed hump shape with minimum richness at mid-high elevation. A cluster analysis showed a high degree of similarity between adjacent elevation sections that are geographically adjacent with similar habitat environments. Warmth index in the Gakho mountain ranged from 57.2℃·month to 84.2℃·month. Our results provide basic data on vascular plants and valuable information on elevational distribution ranges of current plant species in the Gakho mountain, which could serve as a baseline for comparison of the shifts in elevation under future climate change.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.79-90
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• 2017

Improving the urban environmental quality relies mainly on the increasing of urban forests capacity to store carbon dioxide. This study assesses the floristic diversity of urban institutional lands in Bukavu and their potential to reduce atmospheric $CO_2$. An exhaustive inventory over three sites ($Coll{\grave{e}}ge$ Alfajiri, $Cath{\acute{e}}drale$ Notre-Dame de la Paix and Institut $Sup{\acute{e}}rieur$ $P{\acute{e}}dagogique$) of Bukavu led to the identification of 1,113 trees of which the diameter at breast height (1.30 m) ranged from 4.9 to 161 cm. Results reveal a floristic diversity made up of 4 families of conifers with 4 species and 14 of broadleaves with 21 species. Average densities were of $54trees\;ha^{-1}$ and $5.21m^2\;ha^{-1}$ of basal area. Urban-based allometric equations used yielded up to 312.8 tons of carbon stored in trees aboveground biomass equivalent to 1,147.9 tons of $CO_2$ reduced from the atmosphere over the three sites. The rate of carbon storage reaches $15.1tons\;ha^{-1}$. Thus, trees of the three institutional sites in Bukavu play an important role in reducing atmospheric $CO_2$ and contribute, thereby, to mitigate global climate change effects. Given the current environmental challenge associated with high population growth rate in cities, the urban forest ecosystem in DRC requires to be extended and further investigation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.97 no.2
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• pp.171-180
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• 2008

The characterization of tree species and forest stand conditions is useful in the planning of activities aimed to conserve biodiversity. The main objective of this study was to describe tree species diversity, species composition and stand structure of tropical deciduous forests distributed in three regions in Myanmar. Forest inventory was conducted in the Oktwin teak bearing forest, the Letpanpin community forest and Alaungdaw Kathapa National Park. According to the Jackknife estimator of species richness, 85 species (${\pm}18.16$), 70 species (${\pm}5.88$) and 186 species (${\pm}17.10$) belonging to 31 families were found in the Oktwin teak bearing forest, 33 families in Letpanpin community forest and 53 families in Alaungdaw Kathapa national park, respectively. Shannon's diversity indices were significantly different among the forests (p<0.05). It ranged from 3.36 to 4.36. Mean tree density (n/ha) of the Oktwin teak bearing forest, Letpanpin community forest and Alaungdaw Kathapa National Park were 488 (${\pm}18.6$), 535 (${\pm}15.6$) and 412 (${\pm}14.1$), while basal areas per hectare were $46.96m^2({\pm}3.23),\;49.01m^2({\pm}5.08)\;and\;60.03m^2({\pm}3.88)$, respectively. At the family level, Verbenaceae, Myrtaceae and Combretaceae occupied the highest importance value index, while at the species level it was Tectona grandis, Lagerstoremia speciosa and Xylia xylocarpa.

• Journal of Species Research
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.136-159
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• 2019

This study was carried out to investigate the flora of six islands belonging to the Gogunsan Archipelago (i.e., Sinsi-do, Seonyu-do, Munyeo-do, Yami-do, Bian-do, and Duri-do) in the Korean Peninsula. As results of five field surveys from March to October of 2016, we have identified 575 total taxa, representing 527 species, five subspecies, 42 varieties, and one hybrid, placed in 358 genera and 118 families. Of these 575 taxa, four are endemic to Korea, six taxa are listed on the Korean Red List of threatened species, 67 are floristic regional indicator plants, and 74 are invasive alien species. In this study, we compared species richness among the islands, and find that the larger the islands, the higher the species richness. In the case of habitat affinity types, forest species were most common, followed by farmland, seacoast, bare ground and wetland species. From similarity analyses based on the composition of vascular plants, each island did not exhibit either local specificity or unique diversity. On the contrary, the proportion of invasive alien and ruderal species may increase by human activities. Investigations and analyses of island flora such as this are important to assess the current status of the flora, predict future vegetation patterns and the spread of the alien species, and establish managment plans of plant diversity.