• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.98 no.5
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• pp.593-601
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• 2009

Forest disturbances including forest fire, insect pests and diseases, landslides, and forest conversion from 1976 to 2005 were investigated to trace the changes of major forest disturbance agents and their characteristics over time in accordance with changes in natural and social environment in South Korea. While the damaged area by insect pests and diseases continuously decreased for the past 30 years, damaged areas by forest fire and landslide were fluctuating through years. The interval of large forest fires has become shorter with increased tree volume. The precipitation between January and April were significantly correlated with large fire occurrences as Pearson's correlation coefficient -0.400 (P=0.029). The composition of major insect pests and diseases damaging Korean forests has been changed continuously, and become more diversified. While damages by pine caterpillar (Dendrolimus spectabilis) and pine needle gall midge (Thecodiplosis japonensis) decreased, damage by introduced pests has been more serious recently. The change of precipitation pattern that brought more localized heavy rain or powerful typhoon resulted in the recent increase in landslide areas. The major land uses to induce forest conversion have been changed, reflecting the changes in industrial structure in South Korea as agriculture and mining in 1970s, mining and golf ranges classified in pasture in 1980s, and road and housing construction in 1990s and 2000s. Changes in forest disturbance patterns in South Korea show that a country's industrial development is jointly working with global warming on forest stand dynamics. Altering energy structure and land use pattern induced by industrial development accumulates forest volume and reforms microenvironments on forest floor, interacting with climate change, inducing shorter interval of large forest fire and changes in major species composition of forest insect pests and diseases.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.337-341
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• 2014

The changes in the area and standing crop of forests and the understory vegetation structure of various plantations were investigated by literature survey to predict the changes in the structure of forest ecosystems of the Korean Peninsula in the future. The greater part of forest was severely destroyed in 1950's in the Korean Peninsula. The forest standing crop has been dramatically increasing since the nationwide plantation was actively performed in 1970's and 1980's in the Republic of Korea. The area of forest was incessantly decreased at the rate of $5,500ha\;yr^{-1}$. The results of regression analysis on the changes in forest standing crop of the Republic of Korea showed that the forest might approach to the maturity stage in around 2150. It was predicted that the potential natural vegetation of Quercus mongorica, Fraxinus rhynchophyllus, Prunus sargentii, etc. would establish in the plantations of Larix leptolepsis, Pinus koraiensis and Robinia pseudoacacia in the future.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.130-135
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• 2017

In temperate monsoon regions, extensive shallow landslides triggered by heavy rainfall are recurrent phenomena in mountainous areas. 1,357 landslides over Jinbu area, Korea that totaled 127 km2 were identified from aerial photographs and field survey. We examined characteristics of rainfall-induced shallow landslides and casual factors affecting landslide distribution with respect to topographic and forest settings, and land use. Most landslides occurred in the study area were the results of a complex combination of precondition, preparatory factors and triggering factors. Cumulative rainfall and high intensity rainfall during short period of time made the study area very sensitive to landslides and played as catalysts to enable other factors including topographic and forest settings, and land use to act more effectively. In addition, some landslides at lower elevation involved channel incision or bank erosion influenced by land use changes such as deforestation and intensification of agriculture surrounding riparian forests or hillslopes. The results suggest that most of landslide were triggered by heavy rainstorms while topographic, forest settings, and land use affected landslide distribution occurred in the study area.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.145-152
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• 1988

The potential natural vegetation of Naejangsan national park area, southwestern Korea, was inferred from the actual vegetation. With the phytosociological classification, ordinatins and field surveys, the actual vegetation map of the area was made in scale 1:25, 000, including ten communities of Pinus densiflora, quercus mongolica, Quercus variabilis, Carpinus laxiflora, Daphnipyllum macropodum, Carpinus tschonoskii, Quercus aliena-Carpinus tschonoskii, Cornus controversa-Lindera erythrocarpa, Torreya mucifera-Zelkova serrate and Acer mono-Zelkova serrata community. The analyses of species richness, age structure and various informations on vegetation changes suggest the three pathways of late stage succession from P. densiflora forest to climatic climax. The first of them is through Q. variabilis forest to Q. monogolica forest in the upper parts of the mountain, the second through Q. variabilis and Q. serrata forest to C. laxiflora forest in the middle parts and the third through Q. aliena forest to C. tschonoskii forest in lower parts. Considering the actual vegetation and informations on the vegetation changes including human activities, the potential natural vegetation of the mountain mainly composed of Q. monogolica, C. laxiflora, C. tschonoskii, P. densiflora and Z. serrata forest as climatic climax and/or edaphic climax was inferred. The present situration of nature conservation in the area was estimated by the examination on the actual vegetation and potential natural vegetation map.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.57-65
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• 2016

This study's purpose was to provide basic data for the monitoring of ecological changes caused by change of vegetation structure of Abies koreana forest in a study site susceptible to climatic change in Yeongsil area of Hallasan Mountain, Jeju Island. Surveys revealed this: in Yeongsil area of Hallasan Mountain, per 1 ha of A. koreana forests, total number 1,781, and A. koreana number 989, accounting for 55.5% of the total number of trees. 190 A. koreana or 19.2% were found to be dead. For the number of individual trees by DBH, trees standing 5 cm - 10 cm tall formed the largest portion at 39.9%, and in the case of other trees except A. koreana, the number of individual trees below 5 cm accounted for 23.5% of the total number of trees. The survey of importance by height revealed this: at the top level, the importance of A. koreana was the highest at 106.23, but the sum of importance of temperate deciduous broad-leaved trees (Prunus maximowiczii, Quercus mongolica, and Taxus cuspidata) was higher at 142.84 than that of A. koreana. The analysis of species diversity revealed 0.645 species diversity for the tree layer and 0.817 for the shrub layer; for evenness, 0.549 for the tree layer and 0.664 for the shrub layer; for dominance value; 0.451 for the tree layer and 0.336 for the shrub layer. The analysis of tree vitality revealed that for the A. koreana forests in Yeongsil, the composition ratio of A. koreana by type is AS type>AL type>DS type>DB type, and that of the other trees is AL type>AS type>AF type>AB type. Compared with the forests in other areas, the A. koreana forests in the Yeongsil area have a very high occurrence rate of dead trees, and a high importance of trees is shown in the deciduous broad-leaved tree forests. Compared with the A. koreana forests in the Jindallaebat area, with the same level above sea, the vegetation structures are fast changing. Also, due to dryness and other non-physical environmental changes caused by a lack of rainwater and dry winds in winter, dead trees are fast increasing in number. Environmental changes such as climate change diversely affect the maintenance of A. koreana in individual areas, and if environmental changes are fast and continue long, of the A. koreana forest areas in the Hallasan Mountain, the A. koreana forests in the Yeongsil area will decrease fastest in number and will experience changes in the vegetation structure. Thus, it is necessary to survey the vegetation changes in A. koreana forests, which are distributed in all directions but are centered on Hallasan Mountain, and to thus conduct long-term monitoring and research.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.167-179
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• 2023

The extent of change in the Land use/Land cover (LULC) of Okomu National Park (ONP) and fringe communities was evaluated. High resolution Landsat imagery was used to identify the major vegetation cover/land use systems and changes around the national park and fringe communities while field visits/ground truthing, involving the collection of coordinates of the locations was carried out to ascertain the various land cover/land use types identified on the images, and the extent of change over three-time series (2000, 2010 and 2020). The change detection was analyzed using area calculation, change detection by nature and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The result of the classification and analysis of the LULC Change of ONP and fringe communities revealed an alarming rate of encroachment into the protected area. All the classification features analyzed had notable changes from 2000-2020. The forest, which was the dominant LULC feature in 2000, covering about 66.19% of the area reduced drastically to 36.12% in 2020. Agricultural land increased from 6.14% in 2000 to 34.06% in 2020 while vegetation (degraded land) increased from 27.18% in 2000 to 38.89% in 2020. The magnitude of the change in ONP and surroundings showed the forest lost -247.136 km² (50.01%) to other land cover classes with annual rate change of 10%, implying that 10% of forest land was lost annually in the area for 20 years. The NDVI classification values of 2020 indicate that the increase in medium (399.62 km² ) and secondary high (210.17 km² ) vegetation classes which drastically reduced the size of the high (38.07 km² ) vegetation class. Consequent disappearance of the high forests of Okomu is inevitable if this trend of exploitation is not checked. It is pertinent to explore other forest management strategies involving community participation.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.128-137
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• 2014

The land use of the unit watersheds should be maintained appropriately in order to keep the load allotment stable for the management of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs). This study classified the land area in four types and analyzed the use of each land type and its changing pattern by calculating the occupation and conversion ratios for the unit watersheds in three river basins. The forest land showed the greatest occupation ratio with 63.0%, followed by the farm land with 23%, the other area with 8.0% and the site area with 6.0% in 2003. The occupation ratio of the site and the other area increased by 0.4% and 0.2% respectively, and that of the farm and the forest land decreased by 0.4% and 0.2% respectively in 2007. The conversion ratio for the site area ranged from 1.65% to 1.97%, for the farm land from -0.47% to -0.33%, for the forest land from -0.10% to -0.04% and for the other area from 0.17% to 1.97%. It can be inferred that the decrease in the farm and the forest land contributed to the increase in the site area and that the increase in the other area was mainly made by the decrease in the forest land. It could be more effective to take into account the changes in the site area and in the forest land in the process of developing the TMDL plans.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.809-814
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• 1998

Changes of annual seed production related to climate change were studied for 12 years in Piagol, a riparian valley in Mt. Jiri. Sixty-four seed traps (sized 0.5 ${\times}$ 0.5 $m^{2}$) were set up on the forest floor of surveyed area. Seeds were collected from these traps at an interval of 15 days from September to November since 1984. Vegetation of the study area was mainly consisted of the naturally regenerated Carpinus tschonoskii in the tree layer. Acer mono, Quercus serrata, Carpinus laxiflora and Symplocos chinensis also appeared in the same layer. Maximum production occurred in 1984 and 1994. As a result of comparing seed production with local climate factors for 12 years, seed productivity and the year of maximum production of Carpinus forest were merely related with precipitation, air temperature and duration of sunshine among local climate factors. Duration of sunshine was, however, not contributed to periodically high productivity of seed of riparian valley carpinus forest.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.103 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2014

This study was conducted to investigate the changes understory vegetation composition (shrub and herb layers) in Mt. Gyebang as a northern-temperate deciduous broadleaf forest. Tracheophytes were 146 taxa, consisting 56 families, 93 genera, 124 species, 17 varieties, 3 forma, 2 sub-species and 1 unknown taxa in research subject area. As species area curve analysis, herbaceous layer and shrub species have been decreased over time. As a result of Mantel-test, basal area of upper layer affects to understory vegetation change (p<0.0001). Mean importance value was dominated Lindera obtusiloba (21.585%), Rhododendron schlippenbachii (19.774%) in the shrub layer, identified Sasa borealis (14.082%) and Lindera obtusiloba (7.921%) in the herb layer. According to NMS analysis of shrub layer, Species characterized by strong correlation have been reduced as time goes by. And it reports different species as an increasing in basal area of the upper layer. Herb layer plots of the NMS analysis, Rhododendron schlippenbachii and Rhododendron mucronulatum consistently were affected in shrub layer. In consequence of MRPP-test for changes in vegetation composition, It was analyzed that there are no significant differences for vegetation composition changes on shrub layer in 5-10 years. As a changes of vegetation composition on herb layer were analyzed significantly, composition change of herb layer species was larger than shrub layer species in understory vegetation.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.159-164
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• 1987

The potential natural vegetation of Seonunsan area, southwestern Korea, was inferred from the actual vegetation. In previous two papers the plant communities of actual vegetation of the area is grouped into nine types; Quercus variabilis, Pinus densiflora, Carpinus tschonoskii, Quercus serrata, Camellia japonica (plantation), Quercus aliena, Pinus thunbergii, Zelkova serrata and Carpinus laxiflora forest. With the analysis of species richness, age structure and various informations on vegetation changes of the plant communities, two paths of late stage succession are suggested in climatic climax starting from Pinus densiflora forest in the area. One is through Quercus variabilis forest to Carpinus laxiflora forest in upper parts of the mountain and the other through Quercus aliena forest to Carpinus tschonoskii forest in lower parts of the mountain. With analysis of actual vegetation and the examination of informations including human activities in the area, the potential natural vegetation of the area was inferred. The potential natural vegetation of the area was mainly composed of Carpinus laxiflora, Carpinus tschonoskii, Pinus densiflora and Zelkova serrata forest. The actual vegetation map and potential natural vegetation map (scale, 1:25, 000) and other results from this study might be the useful data for the protection of natural vegetation and restoration of the current vegetation.