• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.257-267
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• 2023

The grassland section of the greenhouse gas inventory has limitations due to a lack of review and verification of biomass compared to organic carbon in soil while grassland is considered one of the carbon storages in terrestrial ecosystems. Considering the situation at internal and external where the calculation of greenhouse gas inventory is being upgraded to a method with higher scientific accuracy, research on standards and methods for calculating carbon accumulation of grassland biomass is required. The purpose of this study was to identify international trends in the calculation method of the grassland biomass sector that meets the Tier 2 method and to conduct a review of variables applicable to the Republic of Korea. Identify the estimation methods and access levels for grassland biomass through the National Inventory Report in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and type the main implications derived from overseas cases. And, a field survey was conducted on 28 grasslands in the Republic of Korea to analyse the applicability of major issues. Four major international issues regarding grassland biomass were identified. 1) country-specific coefficients by land use; 2) calculations on woody plants; 3) loss and recovery due to wildfire; 4) amount of change by human activities. As a result of field surveys and analysis of activity data available domestically, it was found that there was a significant difference in the amount of carbon in biomass according to use type classification and climate zone-soil type classification. Therefore, in order to create an inventory of grassland biomass at the Tier 2 level, a policy and institutional system for making activity data should develop country-specific coefficients for climate zones and soil types.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.381-386
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• 2004

To develop accurate and predictive global carbon cycle models, it is important to understand the change of accumulated carbon for many ecosystems according to successional stage. In this study, I measured total biomass, litter and soil organic matter contents through an aerial photo and field observation. As a result, accumulated organic matter contents per unit area (kg $m^{-2})$ of three communities composed at grassland were 7.00 kg $m^{-2}$, in Solidago altissima community, 9.18 kg $m^{-2}$, in Imperata cylindrica community, and 12.68 kg $m^{-2}$, in Miscanthus sinensis community, respectively. Accumulated total organic matter contents was high in Miscanthus sinensis community at later succession stage but soil carbon was low. In Miscanthus sinensis community, highly accumulated organic matter contents was resulted from increasing of biomass comparison with that of the other two communities. The pattern of accumulated organic matter contents was changed by changing of the dominant community due to progressing in succession. The accumulated carbon in temperate grassland will be increased with progressing in succession.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.115-123
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• 2008

We describe plant biomass in the grasslands of the Mongolian steppe obtained using a quadrat sampling technique. Four sites were studied in the northeastern Mongolia located between $47^{\circ}12'N$ and $47^{\circ}40'N$ and $102^{\circ}22'E$ and $112^{\circ}24'E$, which were typical grasslands of the steppe. Biomass, carbon and nitrogen content were determined for the plants collected from the grazed and ungarazed stands. With the measurements above, we expect to obtain information on grazing effects on the grasslands and carbon sequestration of the grassland from the air. In order to estimate the biomass without destroying the stands, we derived an equation to describe the relationship between plant biomass and v-value using plant height and species coverage within the stand. Estimated plant biomass in the ungrazed and grazed stands ranged between $108.0\;g\;m^{-2}$ and $13.4\;g\;m^{-2}$ and between $97.5\;g\;m^{-2}$ and $14.1\;g\;m^{-2}$ in late June 2005, respectively. Litter in the ungrazed and grazed stands ranged from $330.3\;g\;m^{-2}$ to $78.4\;g\;m^{-2}$ and from $188.0\;g\;m^{-2}$ to $20.3\;g\;m^{-2}$, similarly. Average carbon and nitrogen contents in plants and in litter were 43.0% and 1.9% and 33.7% and 1.4%, respectively. In study sites at Baganuur, the carbon and nitrogen content of plant materials (plant plus litter) was $118.4\;g\;m^{-2}$ and $4.7\;g\;m^{-2}$ on 30 June 2005.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.353-363
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• 2005

We developed a local-scale ecophysiological model, Sim-CYCLE Fine by modifying Sim-CYCLE which was developed for a global scale simulation. Sim-CYCLE fine is able to simulate not only carbon fluxes but also plant growth with various time-steps from an hour to a month. The model outputs of $CO_2$ flux and biomass/LAI were highly reliable; we validated the model results with measurements from the eddy covariance technique and the harvest method ($R^2$ values of around 0.9 for both). The results suggested that the phonology and the seasonal dynamics of the $C_3/C4$ plant communities affected significantly the carbon fluxes and the plant growth during the plant growing season.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.238-244
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• 2005

Fertilization effects on changes in soil $CO_2$ flux and organic C in switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) land managed for biomass production were investigated. The mean daily soil $CO_2$ flux in the manure treatment was 5.63 g $CO_2-C\;m^{-2}\;d^{-1}$, and this was significantly higher than the mean value of 3.36 g $CO_2-C\;m^{-2}\;d^{-1}$ in the control. The mean daily $CO_2$ fluxes in N and P fertilizer treatments plots were not different when compared to the value in the control plots. Potentially mineralizable C (PMC), soil microbial biomass C (SMBC), and particulate organic C (POC) were highest at the 0 to 10 cm depth of the manure treatment. Potentially mineralizable C had the strongest correlation with SMBC (r = 0.91) and POC (r = 0.84). There was also a strong correlation between SMBC and POC (r = 0.90). Our results indicated that for the N and P levels studied, fertilization had no impact on temporal changes in soil organic C, but manure application had a significant impact on temporal changes in soil $CO_2$ evolution and active C constituents such as PMC, SMBC, and POC.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.297-307
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• 2008

In order to assess the effect of grazing on grasslands using floristic composition, we studied the floristic composition and plant biomass of steppe vegetation in Hulunbeier, Inner Mongolia. The dominant species of the grasslands were Stipa krylovii, Stipa grandis and Leymus chinensis. Floristic composition changed according to grazing pressure, being light, heavy and moderate. Under heavy grazing conditions, the importance value of P. acaulis, C. korshinskyi and Cleistogenes squarrosa increased in the plant community. These species were indicators of heavily grazed stand. Plant biomass of the stands ranged within 11.6g $m^{-2}$ and 63.5g $m^{-2}$ and 69.5g $m^{-2}$ and 166.2g $m^{-2}$ to the west and east of Lake Hulun, respectively. These values are equivalent to ca. $450{\sim}1,000kg$ of atmospheric carbon per hector, which is retained within the stand during the summer season.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.417-425
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• 2023

As climate change gets severe, the ecosystem acts as an important carbon sink, therefore efforts are being made to utilize these functions to mitigate climate change. In this study, we inventoried and analyzed the previous studies related to carbon storage and flux by ecosystem type (forest, cropland, wetland, grassland, and settlement) and carbon pool (aboveground and belowground biomass, dead wood, Litter, soil organic carbon, and ecosystem) in Korean ecosystems. We also collected the results of previous studies and calculated the average value of carbon storage and flux for each ecosystem type and carbon pool. As a result, we found that most (66%) of Korea's carbon storage and fluxes studies were conducted in forests. Based on the results of forest studies, we estimated the storage by carbon stock. We found that much carbon is stored in vegetation (aboveground: 4,018.32 gC m^-2 and belowground biomass: 4,095.63 gC m^-2) and soil (4,159.43 gC m^-2). In particular, a large amount of carbon is stored in the forest understory. For other ecosystem types, it was impossible to determine each carbon pool's storage and flux due to data limitations. However, in the case of soil organic carbon storage, the data for forests and grasslands were comparable, showing that both ecosystems store relatively similar amounts of carbon (4,159.43 gC m^-2, 4,023.23 gC m^-2, respectively). This study confirms the need to study carbon in rather diverse ecosystem types.