• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.285-294
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• 2022

In order to accurately calculate greenhouse gas emissions in the agricultural field, Korea has been developing national-specific emission factors through direct measurement of gas fluxes using the closed-chamber method. In the rice paddy, only national-specific emission factors for methane (CH₄) have been developed. It is thus necessary to develop those for nitrous oxide (N₂O) affected by the application of nitrogen fertilizer. However, since the concentration of N₂O emission from rice cultivation is very low, the QA/QC methods such as method detection and practical quantification limits are important. In this study, N₂O emission from a rice paddy was evaluated affected by the amount of nitrogen fertilizer, by taking into account both method detection and practical quantification limits for N₂O concentration. The N₂O emission from a rice paddy soils affected by the nitrogen fertilizer application was estimated in the following order. The method detection limit (MDL) of N₂O concentration was calculated at 95% confidence level based on the pooled standard deviation of concentration data sets using a standard gas with 98 nmol mol^-1 N₂O 10 times for 3 days. The practical quantification limit (PQL) of the N₂O concentration is estimated by multiplying 10 to the pooled standard deviation. For the N₂O flux data measured during the rice cultivation period in 2021, the MDL and PQL of N₂O concentration were 18 nmol mol^-1 and 87 nmol mol^-1, respectively. The measured values above the PQL were merely about 12% of the total data. The cumulative N₂O emission estimated based on the MDL and PQL was higher than the cumulative emission without nitrogen fertilizer application. This research would contribute to improving the reliability in quantification of the N₂O flux data for accurate estimates of greenhouse gas emissions and uncertainties.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.256-266
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• 2022

Empirical models including the Angstrom-Prescott (AP) model have been used to estimate solar radiation at sites, which would support a wide use of crop models. The objective of this study was to estimate two sets of solar radiation estimates using the AP coefficients derived for climate zone (AP_Frere) and specific site (AP_Choi), respectively. The daily solar radiation was estimated at 18 sites in Korea where long-term measurements of solar radiation were available. In the present study, daily solar radiation and sunshine duration were collected for the period from 2012 to 2021. Daily weather data including maximum and minimum temperatures and rainfall were also obtained to prepare input data to a process-based crop model, CERES-Rice model included in Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT). It was found that the daily estimates of solar radiation using the climate zone specific coefficient, SFrere, had significantly less error than those using site-specific coefficients S_Choi (p<0.05). The cumulative values of S_Frere for the period from march to September also had less error at 55% of study sites than those of S_Choi. Still, the use of S_Frere and S_Choi as inputs to the CERES-Rice model resulted in slight differences between the outcomes of crop growth simulations, which had no significant difference between these outputs. These results suggested that the AP coefficients for the temperate climate zone would be preferable for the estimation of solar radiation. This merits further evaluation studies to compare the AP model with other sophisticated approaches such as models based on satellite data.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.218-233
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• 2022

The long-term (1986~2020) predictability of the number of days of heat and cold damages for each growth stage of soybean is evaluated using the daily maximum and minimum temperature (Tmax and Tmin) data produced by Pusan National University Coupled General Circulation Model (PNU CGCM)-Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF). The Predictability evaluation methods for the number of days of damages are Normalized Standard Deviations (NSD), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Hit Rate (HR), and Heidke Skill Score (HSS). First, we verified the simulation performance of the Tmax and Tmin, which are the variables that define the heat and cold damages of soybean. As a result, although there are some differences depending on the month starting with initial conditions from January (01RUN) to May (05RUN), the result after a systematic bias correction by the Variance Scaling method is similar to the observation compared to the bias-uncorrected one. The simulation performance for correction Tmax and Tmin from March to October is overall high in the results (ENS) averaged by applying the Simple Composite Method (SCM) from 01RUN to 05RUN. In addition, the model well simulates the regional patterns and characteristics of the number of days of heat and cold damages by according to the growth stages of soybean, compared with observations. In ENS, HR and HSS for heat damage (cold damage) of soybean have ranged from 0.45~0.75, 0.02~0.10 (0.49~0.76, -0.04~0.11) during each growth stage. In conclusion, 01RUN~05RUN and ENS of PNU CGCM-WRF Chain have the reasonable performance to predict heat and cold damages for each growth stage of soybean in South Korea.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.330-336
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• 2022

It is likely that the heading would occur early when air temperature increases. In 2022, however, the heading date was delayed unusually, e.g., by 3 to 5 days although temperature during the vegetative growth stage was higher than normal years. The objective of this study was to identify the cause of such event analyzing weather variables including average temperature, sunshine hours, and day-length for each growth stage. The observation data were collected for medium-late maturing varieties, which has been grown at crop yield experiment sites including Daegu, Andong, and Yesan. The difference in heading date was compared between growing seasons in 2021 and 2022 because crop management options, e.g., the cultivars and cultivation methods, were identical at those sites during the study period. It appeared that the heading date was delayed due to the difference in temperature responsiveness under a given day-length condition The effect of the temperature increase on the heading date differed between the periods during which when the day-length was more than 14.3 hours before and after the summer-solstice.. The effect of the temperature decrease during the period from which the day-length decreased to less than 14.3 hours to the heading date was relatively greater. This merits further studies to examine the response of rice to the temperature change under different day-length and sunshine duration in terms of heading.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.63-77
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• 2022

Our aim was to reduce estimation errors of a wind velocity model used as an early warning system for weather risk management in the agricultural sector. The Rural Development Administration (RDA) agricultural weather observation network's wind velocity data and its corresponding estimated data from January to December 2020 were used to calculate linear regression equations (Y = aX + b). In each linear regression, the wind estimation error at 87 points and eight time slots per day (00:00, 03:00, 06:00, 09.00, 12.00, 15.00, 18.00, and 21:00) is the dependent variable (Y), while the estimated wind velocity is the independent variable (X). When the correlation coefficient exceeded 0.5, the regression equation was used as the wind velocity correction equation. In contrast, when the correlation coefficient was less than 0.5, the mean error (ME) at the corresponding points and time slots was substituted as the correction value instead of the regression equation. To enable the use of wind velocity model at a national scale, a distribution map with a grid resolution of 250 m was created. This objective was achieved b y performing a spatial interpolation with an inverse distance weighted (IDW) technique using the regression coefficients (a and b), the correlation coefficient (R), and the ME values for the 87 points and eight time slots. Interpolated grid values for 13 weather observation points in rural areas were then extracted. The wind velocity estimation errors for 13 points from January to December 2019 were corrected and compared with the system's values. After correction, the mean ME of the wind velocities reduced from 0.68 m/s to 0.45 m/s, while the mean RMSE reduced from 1.30 m/s to 1.05 m/s. In conclusion, the system's wind velocities were overestimated across all time slots; however, after the correction model was applied, the overestimation reduced in all time slots, except for 15:00. The ME and RMSE improved b y 33% and 19.2%, respectively. In our system, the warning for wind damage risk to crops is driven by the daily maximum wind speed derived from the daily mean wind speed obtained eight times per day. This approach is expected to reduce false alarms within the context of strong wind risk, by reducing the overestimation of wind velocities.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2023

As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emphasized the transition to a carbon-neutral society globally by 205 0, major countries such as Korea, Japan, and Europe declared carbon-neutral goals. The agricultural sector is a carbon-absorbing sector, and its importance has increased as the General Assembly of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention (COP 26) held in the UK in November 2021 emphasized the role of agriculture to discuss climate change. However, GHG reduction projects in the agricultural sector are not properly monitored considering the domestic situation, and a system for quantitative evaluation of the effectiveness or basis of implementing the project program is not in place. Therefore, a priori study is needed to understand the current status of existing policies and to review matters that need to be improved in order to facilitate policy design, implementation, and monitoring for GHG reduction in the agricultural sector. The purpose of this study is to examine the opinions of stakeholders by applying a semi-structured interview method to diagnose the current status of Korea's GHG reduction policy in the agricultural sector and identify factors that hinder policy implementation. As a result of the semi-structured interview, this study presented factors that hinder the promotion of GHG reduction policies in the agricultural sector according to four types of data and technology, finance, institutions, and perceptions. Some stakeholders also stressed that the pilot project could be helpful as a way to comprehensively consider the implications of this study, such as securing technology data, establishing a system for verifying effectiveness, and providing incentives and promoting them. Rather than drawing specific conclusions, this study is an exploratory study that diagnoses and reviews the progress of GHG reduction policies, and it can be used as useful basic data if it secures enough interview respondents and balances the number of samples by group.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.17-27
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• 2023

Weeds are one of the factors that reduce crop yield through nutrient and photosynthetic competition. Quantification of weed density are an important part of making accurate decisions for precision weeding. In this study, we tried to quantify the density of weeds in images of maize fields taken by unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). UAV image data collection took place in maize fields from May 17 to June 4, 2021, when maize was in its early growth stage. UAV images were labeled with pixels from maize and those without and the cropped to be used as the input data of the semantic segmentation network for the maize detection model. We trained a model to separate maize from background using the deep learning segmentation networks DeepLabV3+, U-Net, Linknet, and FPN. All four models showed pixel accuracy of 0.97, and the mIOU score was 0.76 and 0.74 in DeepLabV3+ and U-Net, higher than 0.69 for Linknet and FPN. Weed density was calculated as the difference between the green area classified as ExGR (Excess green-Excess red) and the maize area predicted by the model. Each image evaluated for weed density was recombined to quantify and visualize the distribution and density of weeds in a wide range of maize fields. We propose a method to quantify weed density for accurate weeding by effectively separating weeds, maize, and background from UAV images of maize fields.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.61-70
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• 2023

In order to select high-quality winter cereal crops with high yield and to increase self-sufficiency rate of forage, their growth, yield, and feeding value of several cereal crops cultivated in winter were investigated in the paddy field of the southern region. Four wheat cultivars and green barley headed in early and mid-April, while oat and Italian ryegrass headed in early May. Fresh forage yields of wheats, green barley, and oat were significantly higher than that of Italian ryegrass, and dry forage yields of wheats and green barley were significantly higher than those of not only Italian ryegrass but also oat. In particular, the yield of a wheat cultivar 'Cheongwoo' was the highest. Mineral contents of wheat forages, even though low, were in the range 27.8~33.7mg·g^-1 DW suitable for feeding cattle and young female cows. Crude protein content of a wheat cultivar 'Cheongwoo' was high up to 7.6%, similarly to 7.0% requiring for feeding cattle. Feeding values such as total digestible nutrients (TDN) and relative feed value (RFV) of wheats and green barley were superior to those of oat and Italian ryegrass. In addition, dry matter rates of 4 wheat cultivars and green barley were in the range 30~40%, indicating that wheat cultivars and green barley could be used for various feeding purposes such as green or dried forage, and silage. Based on these results, wheat cultivars including 'Cheongwoo' and green barley could be encouraged to be cultivated in paddy fields, as high-quality winter forage crops with high yield.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.80-98
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• 2023

This study explores the effectiveness of various data preprocessing algorithms for improving subseasonal to seasonal (S2S) climate predictions from six climate forecast models and their Multi-Model Ensemble (MME) using a deep learning-based postprocessing model. A pipeline of data transformation algorithms was constructed to convert raw S2S prediction data into the training data processed with several statistical distribution. A dimensionality reduction algorithm for selecting features through rankings of correlation coefficients between the observed and the input data. The training model in the study was designed with TimeDistributed wrapper applied to all convolutional layers of U-Net: The TimeDistributed wrapper allows a U-Net convolutional layer to be directly applied to 5-dimensional time series data while maintaining the time axis of data, but every input should be at least 3D in U-Net. We found that Robust and Standard transformation algorithms are most suitable for improving S2S predictions. The dimensionality reduction based on feature selections did not significantly improve predictions of daily precipitation for six climate models and even worsened predictions of daily maximum and minimum temperatures. While deep learning-based postprocessing was also improved MME S2S precipitation predictions, it did not have a significant effect on temperature predictions, particularly for the lead time of weeks 1 and 2. Further research is needed to develop an optimal deep learning model for improving S2S temperature predictions by testing various models and parameters.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.359-367
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• 2023

Grapes are one of the most important fruit trees both domestically and globally. Recently, changes in plant phenology and frequent low temperatures due to climate change are increasing the possibility of damage to grape shoots in spring, which is a serious threat to grape production. This study was conducted to investigated the severity of shoots damage and the change of free sugar content in the plant organs by phenological stage, especially, from germination to leafing period. Furthermore, in order to compare the cold hardiness among grape varieties including 'Campbell Early', 'Kyoho' and 'Shine Muscat' widely grown in Korea, lethal temperature (LT₅₀) and free sugar content by grape variety were analyzed. Shoot damage by low temperatures continued to increase as the phenological stage progressed gradually, from the bud burst to the fourth leafing stage. On the other hand, the free sugar content of each organ except leaves continued to decrease, showing pattern to similar to cold hardiness. This indicates a close relationship between free sugar content and cold hardiness. In terms of cold hardiness comparison among grape varieties, 'Shine Muscat' showed the highest cold resistance in the leafing stage with the lowest LT₅₀ and the highest total free sugar content. Next was 'Kyoho' and 'Campbell Early'. There are clear differences in cold hardiness depending on the variety. However, it is not the same at all growth stage. It may change according to phenological stage and influenced by free sugar content at that time.