• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.117-128
• /
• 2023

Tree dieback in Geumgang pine forest has occurred in Uljin and Bonghwa since the 2010s. In order to identify status of tree dieback and prevent further damages, a monitoring project for tree dieback in Geumgang pine forest had been launched by Southern regional office of forest service in 2020. This study was conducted to understand the characteristics of tree dieback occurrence and assess the high risk areas using the occurrence data in the project. Pine tree dieback occurred frequently in areas with mountain ridges in high elevation, dry south-facing slopes, mature stands, and high temperature rise in winter. Furthermore, the result of risk assessment showed that 6.2 percent(5,294ha) of Geumgang pine forest(85,000 ha) in total study area are at high risk of tree dieback. As the pine trees in the high risk area are prone to experience the dieback due to temperature and drought-related extreme weather events, regular forest management activities are needed to reduce the drought stress of pine trees. Forest health management for the pine forest with high protection priority can be also useful strategy to counter the risk of decline. This results can be used as the basic information for the adaptive forest management to climate change.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.10-18
• /
• 2017

Korean Red Pine (Pinus densiflora) has been protected and used as the most ecologically and socio-culturally important tree species in Korea. However, as dieback of Korean red pines has occurred in the protected area of the forest genetic resources. The aims of this study is to identify causes for dieback of pine tree by investigating topographical characteristics of pine tree dieback and its correlation to meteorological factors. We extracted the dead trees from the time series aerial images and analyzed geomorphological characteristics of dead tree concentration area. As a result, 1,956 dead pine trees were extracted in the study region of 2,600 ha. Dieback of pine trees was found mostly in the areas with high altitude, high solar radiation, low topographic wetness index, south and south-west slopes, ridgelines, and high wind exposure compared to other living pine forest area. These areas are classified as high temperature and high drought stress regions due to micro-climatic characteristics affected by topographic factors. As high temperature and drought stress are generally increasing with climate change, we can evaluated that a risk of pine tree dieback is also increasing. Based on these geomorphological characteristics, we developed a pine tree dieback risk map using Maximum Entropy Model (MaxEnt), and it can be useful for establishing Korean red pine protection and management strategies.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.109 no.3
• /
• pp.259-270
• /
• 2020

Extreme weather events, such as heat and drought, have occurred frequently over the past two decades. This has led to continuous reports of cases of forest damage due to physiological stress, not pest damage. In 2014, pine trees were collectively damaged in the forest genetic resources reserve of Sogwang-ri, Uljin, South Korea. An investigation was launched to determine the causes of the dieback, so that a forest management plan could be prepared to deal with the current dieback, and to prevent future damage. This study aimedto 1) understand the topographic and structural characteristics of the area which experienced pine tree dieback, 2) identify the main causes of the dieback, and 3) predict future risk areas through the use of machine-learning techniques. A model for identifying risk areas was developed using 14 explanatory variables, including location, elevation, slope, and age class. When three machine-learning techniques-Decision Tree, Random Forest (RF), and Support Vector Machine (SVM) were applied to the model, RF and SVM showed higher predictability scores, with accuracies over 93%. Our analysis of the variable set showed that the topographical areas most vulnerable to pine dieback were those with high altitudes, high daily solar radiation, and limited water availability. We also found that, when it came to forest stand characteristics, pine trees with high vertical stand densities (5-15 m high) and higher age classes experienced a higher risk of dieback. The RF and SVM models predicted that 9.5% or 115 ha of the Geumgang Pine Forest are at high risk for pine dieback. Our study suggests the need for further investigation into the vulnerable areas of the Geumgang Pine Forest, and also for climate change adaptive forest management steps to protect those areas which remain undamaged.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.242-252
• /
• 2016

A process-based ecosystem model, BIOME-BGC, was applied to simulate seasonal and inter-annual dynamics of carbon and water processes for potential evergreen needleleaf forest (ENF) biome in Korea. Two simulation sites, Milyang and Unljin, were selected to reflect warm-and-dry and cool-and-wet climate regimes, where massive diebacks of pines including Pinus densiflora, P. koraiensis and P thunbergii, were observed in 2009 and 2014, respectively. Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) showed periodic drought occurrence at every 5 years or so for both sites. Since mid-2000s, droughts occurred with hotter climate condition. Among many model variables, Cpool (i.e., a temporary carbon pool reserving photosynthetic compounds before allocations for new tissue production) was identified as a useful proxy variable of tree carbon starvation caused by reduction of gross primary production (GPP) and/or increase of maintenance respiration (Rm). Temporal Cpool variation agreed well with timings of pine tree diebacks for both sites. Though water stress was important, winter- and spring-time warmer temperature also played critical roles in reduction of Cpool, especially for the cool-and-wet Uljin. Shallow soil depth intensified the drought effect, which was, however, marginal for soil depth shallower than 0.5 m. Our modeling analysis implicates seasonal drought and warmer climate can intensify vulnerability of ENF dieback in Korea, especially for shallower soils, in which multi-year continued stress is of concern more than short-term episodic stress.

• Research in Plant Disease
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.101-108
• /
• 2012

In 2006, pinewood nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, was isolated from about 50 years old trees of Pinus densiflora and P. koraiensis showing leaf-wilt and -drying symptoms in Gwangju, Gyeonggi-do and Chuncheon, Gangwon-do. Isolation of pinewood nematodes from sapwood of infected pine trees showed no difference in population density between tree species and among the sampling heights on the main stem. Migration of pinewood nematodes in the host tree were investigated by inoculation of red pine (P. densiflora, 3 years old) seedlings with B. xylophilus. The nematodes seemed to move in red pine seedlings prior to multiplication and it might have taken about 20 days to start multiplication and expression of symptoms including wilt and dieback. In initial time after inoculation, nematodes started migration through the cortical resin canal from inoculated site and further showed upward and downward movements. More nematodes were observed in cortical resin canal during early period of inoculation and later in resin canal of xylem and tracheid also while, the pith still remained free from nematode. The density of B. xylophilus was higher in seedlings of low-vigor with poor root growth than in seedlings of normal root growth. Seedlings showing high density of B. xylophilus exhibited stem discoloration and secondary infection by fungus at the inoculation site.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.280-292
• /
• 2017

Hail is not a frequently occurring weather event, and there are even fewer reports of hail damages to forest stands. Since the 2000s, an increase in hail incidence has been documented in Europe and the United States. In Korea, severe hails occurred in Jeollanam-do province on May 31 and in Gyeongsangbuk-do province on June 1, 2017. Hail size was ranged from 0.5 to 5.0 cm in diameter in Jeollanam-do, and from 1.5 to 3.0 cm in Gyeongsangbuk-do. This study was aimed to analyze the hail damages to forests by species and topography based on damage-categorized maps created by using drones and aerial photographs, and to analyze relationships of the damages with meteorological factors. The total damaged forest area was 1,163.1ha in Jeollanam-do, and 2,942.3ha in Gyeongsangbuk-do. Among the 'severe' damaged area 326.7ha, 91% was distributed in Jeollanam-do, and concentrated in the city of Hwasun which covers 57.2% of the total 'severe' damaged area. The most heavily damaged species was Korean red pine(Pinus densiflora S. & Z.) followed by P. rigida. Most broad-leaved trees species including oaks were recovered without any dead trees found. Liliodendron tulipifera was the most severely damaged in terms of the rate of 'severe' degree individuals which are needed to be checked whether they will die or be recovered. Cause of the death of pines was considered as the combination of physical damage caused by the hail and long-lasting drought with high air temperature that occurred before and after the hail event. No pathogens and insects were found which might have affected to tree deaths. We suggested a dieback mechanism of the pine trees damaged by hail and drought.