• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.103-111
• /
• 2010

Wetlands perform various functions of vital socio-ecological significance playing fundamental role in moderating monsoon tidal floods and coastal protection and generate goods and products such as fish and forest resources. The depletion of mangroves is a cause of serious environmental and economic concern to many developing countries. Problems of sustainability of mangrove ecosystems are not only technical but also socio-economic. Functions played by mangrove wetlands are of fundamental importance for society. The present study aims to identify the challenges of the mangrove wetlands of Southeast coast of Chittagong, their uses and socio-economic influence on local people, and the value of ecosystem services, and to suggest how to conserve this ecosystem in a more equitable way.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.45 no.4
• /
• pp.228-236
• /
• 2021

Background: A review of the literature was carried out to study dust and sandstorm (DSS) in terms of its ecosystem processes and relationship to other dryland disasters in Northeast Asia. Drylands are ecosystems that include grasslands, semi-deserts, and deserts, and these types of ecosystems are vulnerable due to their low primary productivity that depends on a small amount of precipitation. Results: Drought, dust, desertification, and winter livestock disasters (called dzud) are unique natural disasters that affect the region. These disasters are related in that they share major causes, such as dryness and low vegetation cover that combine with other conditions, wind, cold waves, livestock, and land-surface energy, to dramatically impact the ecosystem. Conclusions: The literature review in this study illustrates the macroscopic context of the spatial and temporal patterns of DSS according to geography, climate, and vegetation growth in the drylands of Northeast Asia. The effects of ocean climates and human activities were discussed to infer a possible teleconnection effect of DSS and its relations to desertification and dzud.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.59-71
• /
• 2009

The goals of this study were to development Natural Ecosystem Value Assessment Model, to suggest the practical applicability of the Natural Ecosystem value assessment for development areas, and to assess natural ecosystem quantitatively using GIS. The Model can evaluate Natural Ecosystem Value between before and after land developments. To select indicators for the model, we conducted the literature reviews. and six indicators and the standard of evaluation had been developed through the expert interviews and literature reviews. the relative importance of the evaluation index throught two times expert questionnaires was found out. the Natural Ecosystem Value Assessment Model has been established, The results demonstrate that although the suggested six indicators are arranged by priority, to maintain quantitative and qualitative the natural ecosystem value, all indicators are desirable to be maintained complementarily. The findings of this study suggest that the natural ecosystem value assessment model appears to be effective an assessment for damaged natural environment value and possible to assign a score value. Also, this model can be applied to research areas and has implications to help maintain the natural ecosystem in land development districts.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.315-325
• /
• 2014

Valuation of ecosystem services through organic carbon distribution and cycling in the Quercus mongolica forest at Mt. Worak national park were investigated from May 2012 through April 2013. The amount of carbon allocated to above and below ground biomass was 81.94 and 20.53 ton C/ha. Amount of organic carbon in litter layer was 6.49 ton C/ha. Amount of organic carbon within 50 soil depth was 141.23 ton C $ha^{-1}$ $50cm-depth^{-1}$. Total amount of organic carbon in this Quercus mongolica forest was estimated to 250.19 ton C $ha^{-1}$. The estimated amount of won in this Quercus mongolica forest in terms of total organic carbon was about 5.27 million won $ha^{-1}$. The amount of carbon evolved through soil respiration was 7.31 ton C $ha^{-1}yr^{-1}$. The amount of carbon evolved through microbial respiration and root respiration was 3.58 and 3.73 ton C $ha^{-1}yr^{-1}$, respectively. The amount of organic carbon absorbed from the atmosphere of this Quercus mongolica forest was 1.61 ton C $ha^{-1}yr^{-1}$ when estimated from the difference between net primary production and microbial respiration. This amount will come to about 33,000 won $ha^{-1}yr^{-1}$ in Korean currency.

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

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.122-131
• /
• 2010

This paper introduces the concept of a virtual ecosystem and reports the following three mathematical approaches that could be widely used to construct such an ecosystem, along with examples: (1) a molecular dynamics simulation approach for animal flocking behavior, (2) a stochastic lattice model approach for termite colony behavior, and (3) a rule-based cellular automata approach for biofilm growth. The ecosystem considered in this study consists of artificial organisms and their environment. Each organism in the ecosystem is an agent that interacts autonomously with the dynamic environment, including the other organisms within it. The three types of model were successful to account for each corresponding ecosystem. In order to accurately mimic a natural ecosystem, a virtual ecosystem needs to take many ecological variables into account. However, doing so is likely to introduce excess complexity and nonlinearity in the analysis of the virtual ecosystem's dynamics. Nonetheless, the development of a virtual ecosystem is important, because it can provide possible explanations for various phenomena such as environmental disturbances and disasters, and can also give insights into ecological functions from an individual to a community level from a synthetic viewpoint. As an example of how lower and higher levels in an ecosystem can be connected, this paper also briefly discusses the application of the second model to the simulation of a termite ecosystem and the influence of climate change on the termite ecosystem.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.33-47
• /
• 2021

This study was conducted to investigate the influence of eco-friendly restoration in forested bog on the structure of benthic macroinvertebrate community. The benthic macroinvertebrates collected from the surveyed sites were composed of 1,071 individuals, 60 species, 40 families, 13 orders, 6 classes and 5 phyla. At the control and Site 3(small dam), the number of species and individuals were larger than that of other sites, and EPT group ratio was same as well. Considered by index, the dominance index (DI) was found the highest at the biotope area. The diversity index (H') and richness index (RI) were the highest at the control and Site 3. In addition, the ecological score of benthic macroinvertebrate (ESB) showed the highest at site 3, while the lowest at biotope area. The stability and recovery of benthic macrointebrates showed different according to restoration types at forested bog. After restoration project, the benthic macroinvertebrates were observed to get recovery at Site 3, and to have the highest communities stability at control and Site 3. At biotope areas (Site 4, Site 5 and Site 6) communities stability were the lowest, but showed different community stability values according to the presence of water. It is confirmed that the eco-friendly restoration projects indeed provided the better environment for the inhabitation of benthic macroinvertebrate community. The change of community index depending on the restoration projects suggests that the eco-friendly restoration can provide a more suitable environment for benthic macroinvertebrate ecosystem that prefers the stream environment.

• Proceedings of The Korean Society of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology Conference
• /
• 2017.11a
• /
• pp.90-91
• /
• 2017

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.159-169
• /
• 2012

The purpose of this study was to assess the vulnerability of forest ecosystem to climate change in South Korea using socio-environmental indicators and the results of two vegetation models named as Hydrological and Thermal Analogy Group(HyTAG), and MAPSS-Century 1(MC1). The changing frequency and direction of biome types estimated by HyTAG model was used for quantifying sensitivity and adaptive capacity of forest distribution. Similarly, the variation and changing tendency of net primary production and soil carbon storage estimated by MC1 model was used for quantifying sensitivity and adaptive capacity of forest function. As socio-environmental indicators, many statistical data such as financial autonomy rate and the number of forestry officer was prepared. All indicators were standardized, and then calculated using the vulnerability assessment equation. The period of vulnerability assessment was divided into the past(1971-2000) and the future(2021-2050). To understand what policy has a priority to climate change, distribution maps of each indicators was depicted and the vulnerability results were compared among administrative districts. Evident differences could be found in entire study area. These differences were mostly derived from regionalspecific adaptive capacity. The result and methodology of this study would be helpful for the development of decision-making supporting system and policy making in forest management with respect to climate change.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.42 no.1
• /
• pp.20-29
• /
• 2018

Background: For various reasons such as agricultural and economical purposes, land-use changes are rapidly increasing not only in Korea but also in the world, leading to shifts in the characteristics of local carbon cycle. Therefore, in order to understand the large-scale ecosystem carbon cycle, it is necessary first to understand vegetation on this local scale. As a result, it is essential to comprehend change of the carbon balance attributed by the land-use changes. In this study, we attempt to understand accumulated soil carbon (ASC) and soil respiration (Rs) related to carbon cycle in two ecosystems, artificially turned forest into pastureland from forest and a native deciduous temperate forest, resulted from different land-use in the same area. Results: Rs were shown typical seasonal changes in the alpine pastureland (AP) and temperate deciduous forest (TDF). The annual average Rs was $160.5mg\;CO_2\;m^{-2}h^{-1}$ in the AP, but it was $405.1mg\;CO_2\;m^{-2}h^{-1}$ in the TDF, indicating that the Rs in the AP was lower about 54% than that in the TDF. Also, ASC in the AP was $124.49Mg\;C\;ha^{-1}$ from litter layer to 30-cm soil depth. The ASC was about $88.9Mg\;C\;ha^{-1}$, and it was 71.5% of that of the AP. The temperature factors in the AP was high about $4^{\circ}C$ on average compared to the TDF. In AP, it was observed high amount of sunlight entering near the soil surface which is related to high soil temperature is due to low canopy structure. This tendency is due to the smaller emission of organic carbon that is accumulated in the soil, which means a higher ASC in the AP compared to the TDF. Conclusions: The artificial transformation of natural ecosystems into different ecosystems is proceeding widely in the world as well as Korea. The change in land-use type is caused to make the different characteristics of carbon cycle and storage in same region. For evaluating and predicting the carbon cycle in the vegetation modified by the human activity, it is necessary to understand the carbon cycle and storage characteristics of natural ecosystems and converted ecosystems. In this study, we studied the characteristics of ecosystem carbon cycle using different forms in the same region. The land-use changes from a TDF to AP leads to changes in dominant vegetation. Removal of canopy increased light and temperature conditions and slightly decreased SMC during the growing season. Also, land-use change led to an increase of ASC and decrease of Rs in AP. In terms of ecosystem carbon sequestration, AP showed a greater amount of carbon stored in the soil due to sustained supply of above-ground liters and lower degradation rate (soil respiration) than TDF in the high mountains. This shows that TDF and AP do not have much difference in terms of storage and circulation of carbon because the amount of carbon in the forest biomass is stored in the soil in the AP.