• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.1-23
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• 2021

This study conducted a survey on flora at Mt. susdolbon(508m), Mt. seongjubong (625.3m), and Mt. sulibong(596.2m), located in Yanggu-gun, Gangwon-do. A total of 403 taxa, including 6 forms, 43 varieties, 4 subspecies, 350 species, 255 genera, and 84 families, were surveyed in the three mountain areas. 18 taxa from 5 families of ferns, 3 taxa from 1 family of gymnosperms, and the dicotyledonous plants as 302 taxa from 69 families of the dicotyledonous plants were identified. The remarkable plants included 11 taxa of the Korean endemic plants, such as Populus tomentiglandulosa, Salix koriyanagi, Cimicifuga heracleifolia, Aconitum pseudolaeve, Clematis trichotoma, Echinosophora koreensis, Vicia chosenensis, Salvia chanryoenica, and Hemerocallis hakuunensis. The rare plants designated by the Korea Forest Service were 4 taxa, including Echinosophora koreensis as endangered species (EC), Cimicifuga heracleifolia, Epimedium koreanum, and Lilium cernuum. The Least Concern species (LC) were 13 taxa, including Persicaria orientalis, Exochorda serratifolia, Viola diamantiaca, Lithospermum erythrorhizon, and Trigonotis icumae. The invasive alien plants were 28 taxa, including Persicaria orientalis, Rumex crispus, Phytolacca americana, Cerastium glomeratum, Chenopodium album, Chenopodium ficifolium, Amorpha fruticosa, Robinia pseudoacacia, Trifolium pratense, Trifolium repens, Oxalis dillenii, Euphorbia supina, and Oenothera biennis, accounting for 6.9 percent of the 403 taxa of the surveyed plants.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.644-658
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• 2021

Understanding the functional traits of dominant species in urban ecosystems provides insight into species' trait adaptation and ecosystem function in response to fragmented and isolated urban vegetation and reduced biological interactions. This study compared means and variances of environmental factors (geographic, meteorological, and soil attributes) and 4 leaf traits (leaf area, specific leaf area, leaf dry mass content, and leaf shape index) and 7 reproductive traits (fruit width, fruit length, fruit shape, fruit dry weight, fruit dry matter content, seed weight, and seed ratio) measured of 40 Sorbus alnifolia individuals in four mountainous areas south of Seoul downtown, South Korea. We then performed the multivariate analysis of trait combinations. While the measured environmental factors indicated the individuality of the survey sites, the urban vegetation was drier and had a longer growth period. The leaves of S. alnifolia in the urban areas were smaller and heavier, and the fruits produced longer and lighter seeds, showing the traits affected by long urbanization. The study confirmed changes in the growth and reproduction mechanism of the S. alnifolia population under the urban environment, indicating reduced biological interaction due to vegetation fragmentation and isolation. This study provides limited but distinct ecological information about the function and persistence of key species in cities with a reduced scale of biological interactions and many negative environmental factors such as air pollution.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.5_1
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• pp.571-585
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• 2022

As the threat of natural disasters such as droughts, floods, forest fires, and landslides increases due to climate change, social demand for high-resolution soil moisture retrieval, such as Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), is also increasing. However, the domestic environment has a high proportion of mountainous topography, making it challenging to retrieve soil moisture from SAR data. This study evaluated the usability of Sentinel-1 SAR, which is applied with the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technique, to retrieve soil moisture. It was confirmed that the backscattering coefficient obtained from Sentinel-1 significantly correlated with soil moisture behavior, and the possibility of stand-alone use to correct vegetation effects without using auxiliary data observed from other satellites or observatories. However, there was a large difference in the characteristics of each site and topographic group. In particular, when the model learned on the mountain and at flat land cross-applied, the soil moisture could not be properly simulated. In addition, when the number of learning points was increased to solve this problem, the soil moisture retrieval model was smoothed. As a result, the overall correlation coefficient of all sites improved, but errors at individual sites gradually increased. Therefore, systematic research must be conducted in order to widely apply high-resolution SAR soil moisture data. It is expected that it can be effectively used in various fields if the scope of learning sites and application targets are specifically limited.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.30-55
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• 2022

This study conducted a flora survey in the areas of Mt. Sambong (282m) and Mt. Jaung (263m), located in Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do. A total of 434 taxa, including 6 forms, 34 varieties, 11 subspecies, 383 species, 271 genera, and 94 families, were surveyed in the two mountain areas. The ferns were identified as 24 taxa from 10 families, the gymnosperms as 8 taxa from 2 families, the dicotyledonous plants as 322 taxa from 73 families, and the monocotyledonous plants as 80 taxa from 9 families. Five taxa, including Salix koriyanagi, Cimicifuga heracleifolia, Forsythia koreana, Paulownia coreana, and Hemerocallis hakuunensi, were identified as the Korean endemic plants. Eight taxa, including Cimicifuga heracleifolia, Tylophora floribunda, and Iris minutiaurea as Vulnerable species, andAristolochia contorta, Viola diamantiaca, Lithospermum erythrorhizon, Lilium distichum, andArisaema heterophyllumas Least Concern species, were designated as rare and endangered plants designated by the Korea Forest Service. The invasive alien plants were 40 taxa, including Rumex crispus, Phytolacca americana, Cerastium glomeratum, Silene armeria, Chenopodium album, Chenopodium ficifolium, Magnolia obovata, Potentilla supina, Amorpha fruticosa, Medicago sativa, Robinia pseudoacacia, Trifolium repens, Euphorbia supina, Hibiscus trionum, and Oenothera biennisaccounting for 9.2 percent of the 434 taxa of the surveyed plants. As this area is a mountainous area close to settlement facilities, it is believed that ecological preservation measures and measures of specialized plants should be implemented.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.6_1
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• pp.1427-1435
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• 2023

Vegetation indices based on selected wavelength reflectance measurements are used to represent crop growth and physiological conditions. However, the anisotropic properties of the crop canopy surface can govern spectral reflectance and vegetation indices. In this study, we applied an ensemble of bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) models to high-resolution Sentinel-2 satellite imagery and compared the differences between correction results before and after reflectance. In the red and near-infrared (NIR) band reflectance images, BRDF-corrected outlier values appeared in certain urban and paddy fields of farmland areas and forest shadow areas. These effects were equally observed when calculating the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and 2-band enhanced vegetation index (EVI2). Furthermore, the outlier values in corrected NIR band were shown in pixels shadowed by mountain terrain. These results are expected to contribute to the development and improvement of BRDF models in high-resolution satellite images.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.76-84
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• 2013

An adequate downscaling of the official forecasts of Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) is a prerequisite to improving the value and utility of agrometeorological information in rural areas, where complex terrain and small farms constitute major features of the landscape. In this study, we suggest a simple correction scheme for scaling down the KMA temperature forecasts from mesoscale (5 km by 5 km) to the local scale (30 m by 30 m) across a rural catchment, especially under temperature inversion conditions. The study area is a rural catchment of $50km^2$ area with complex terrain and located on a southern slope of Mountain Jiri National Park. Temperature forecasts for 0600 LST on 62 days with temperature inversion were selected from the fall 2011-spring 2012 KMA data archive. A geospatial correction scheme which can simulate both cold air drainage and the so-called 'thermal belt' was used to derive the site-specific temperature deviation across the study area at a 30 m by 30 m resolution from the original 5 km by 5 km forecast grids. The observed temperature data at 12 validation sites within the study area showed a substantial reduction in forecast error: from ${\pm}2^{\circ}C$ to ${\pm}1^{\circ}C$ in the mean error range and from $1.9^{\circ}C$ to $1.6^{\circ}C$ in the root mean square error. Improvement was most remarkable at low lying locations showing frequent cold pooling events. Temperature prediction error was less than $2^{\circ}C$ for more than 80% of the observed inversion cases and less than $1^{\circ}C$ for half of the cases. Temperature forecasts corrected by this scheme may accelerate implementation of the freeze and frost early warning service for major fruits growing regions in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.171-177
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to find a scheme to scale down the KMA (Korea Meteorological Administration) digital precipitation maps to the grid cell resolution comparable to the rural landscape scale in Korea. As a result, we suggest two steps procedure called RATER (Radar Assisted Topography and Elevation Revision) based on both radar echo data and a mountain precipitation model. In this scheme, the radar reflection intensity at the constant altitude of 1.5 km is applied first to the KMA local analysis and prediction system (KLAPS) 5 km grid cell to obtain 1 km resolution. For the second step the elevation and topography effect on the basis of 270 m digital elevation model (DEM) which represented by the Parameter-elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM) is applied to the 1 km resolution data to produce the 270 m precipitation map. An experimental watershed with about $50km^2$ catchment area was selected for evaluating this scheme and automated rain gauges were deployed to 13 locations with the various elevations and slope aspects. 19 cases with 1 mm or more precipitation per day were collected from January to May in 2013 and the corresponding KLAPS daily precipitation data were treated with the second step procedure. For the first step, the 24-hour integrated radar echo data were applied to the KLAPS daily precipitation to produce the 1 km resolution data across the watershed. Estimated precipitation at each 1 km grid cell was then regarded as the real world precipitation observed at the center location of the grid cell in order to derive the elevation regressions in the PRISM step. We produced the digital precipitation maps for all the 19 cases by using RATER and extracted the grid cell values corresponding to 13 points from the maps to compare with the observed data. For the cases of 10 mm or more observed precipitation, significant improvement was found in the estimated precipitation at all 13 sites with RATER, compared with the untreated KLAPS 5 km data. Especially, reduction in RMSE was 35% on 30 mm or more observed precipitation.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.65-77
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• 2012

This study examined changes in land cover for the past 25 years in Busan and subsequently evaluated heat island potential by using land surface temperature and observation temperature data. The results were as below. The urban area of Busan increased by more than 2.5 times for the past 25 years from 1975 to 2000. It was believed that an increase in the pavement area of city within such a short period of time was an unprecedented phenomenon unique to our country. It could be assumed that urban heat island would be worsened through this process. After analyzing the land temperature according to the land cover, it was shown that there were noticeable changes in the temperature of urban & built-up and mountain & forest areas. In particular, the temperature rose to $36{\sim}39^{\circ}C$ in industrial areas during the summer, whereas it went down to $22{\sim}24^{\circ}C$ in the urban areas at whose center there were mountains. It was found that heat island potential according to the level of land cover had various values depending on the conditions of land cover. Among the areas of urbanization, the industrial area's heat island potential is 6 to $8^{\circ}C$, and the residential and commercial area's is $0{\sim}5^{\circ}C$, so it has been found that there is high possibility to induce urban heat islands. Meanwhile, in the forest or agricultural area or the waterside, the heat island potential is $-6{\sim}-3^{\circ}C$. With this study result, it is possible to evaluate the effects of temperature increase according to the urban land use, and it can be used as foundational data to improve urban thermal environment and plan eco-friendly urban development.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.18-26
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• 2020

Echinosophora koreensis (Nakai) Nakai an endemic plant with limited distribution in some parts of the Korean Peninsula, is designated as "Endangered" species on the IUCN Red List. The species is under the threat of deterioration in nature due to various environmental changes causing loss of natural habitats. We investigated the distribution pattern and population structure of E. koreensis to serve as a basic reference for identifying the dynamics and persistence of natural populations of this species in the future. To determine the characteristics of the E. koreensis population, we laid two to three large plots sized 20m×30m on the ridgeline as the reference in Yanggu, Chuncheon, and Hongcheon and laid four to seven small quadrats sized 1m×1m on the transect. A total of 530 plots were laid, 10 each at 2m interval, to measure the number of the stems, the number of fruiting, height, and other factors. The collected distribution information was compared with the existing IUCN assessed categories by applying IUCN Red List ver 3.1 Criteria B. The average population density of the three surveyed areas was 3.47 stem/㎡; the density of each area was 3.95 stems/㎡ in Yanggu, 3.37 stems/㎡ in Chuncheon, and 2.87 stems/㎡ in Hongcheon. The number of fruiting per stem was 0.0038, indicating only 7 fruits out of 1,837 stems and that vegetative reproduction is likely to be more dominant than sexual reproduction. The distribution tendency of population density in the small plots in three surveyed areas showed that the density of E. koreensis tended to decrease toward the center of the forest with low crown openness and around the mountain ridge with high crown openness. It indicated that the quantity of light could be a very important factor for the growth of individuals of this species. The analysis of the heights of individuals present in the surveyed plots showed a range of 2.3 ~ 68.5cm and an average of 20.1cm. An analysis on the stage-structure of the E. koreensis population based on the sieve height found that the appearance frequency decreased with increasing height above 15 ~ 20cm and that the percentage of individuals lower than 10cm, which were presumed to be seedlings, was severely low, indicating a necessity of study on the population sustainability based on the monitored data. The occupied area calculated with the collected species distribution information was 200㎢, indicating the EN category according to the IUCN Red List Reference B.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.109 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2020

In order to evaluate the vertical distribution and distributional pattern of vascular plants in the Samga district of Sobaeksan National Park, vascular plants were surveyed along a hiking trail from the Samga Tour Support Center to the top of a mountain. The elevation range was divided into 11 sections with 100 m intervals from 400 m to 1439 m above sea level.A total of 375 taxa were listed, comprising 92 families, 235 genera, 332 species, 3 subspecies, 37 varieties, and 3 forms. The pattern of species richness along the elevational gradient showed a reverse hump-shaped trend. The species distribution pattern was positively correlated with the soil exchangeable cations Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺, soil pH, available phosphate, and the warmth index. Furthermore, slope, soil moisture content, and soil exchangeable cations were significantly correlated with species distribution. DCA grouped herb species into two groups. Stands of each section were sequentially arranged from 400 m to 1500 m along an altitudinal gradient. Soil moisture content, soil pH, soil K²⁺ and Na²⁺, available phosphate, and slope were significantly correlated with stand distribution. This study provides important data that could be useful for conservation and the sustainable use of biodiversity in the study area. In order to understand the ecological and environmental characteristics and distribution of plant species, it will be necessary to continuously develop relative studies with continuous monitoring.