• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.179-188
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• 1995

Death patterns of gap-makers and changes of environmental factors in gaps formed by disturbance were studied in Pinus densiflora forests of Youngwol, Mt, Mansu, Mt. Songni, Uljin, and Mt, Obong in Korea. Death pattern of gap-makers showed that standing deat type was the most frequent in all the study areas. Longevity of Pinus densiflora was about 140 years, which was about half of that of the temperate deciduous broad-leaved trees. size of gaps were distributed from $20m^2$ to $235m^2$, more than 80% of those were gaps created by death of two or more trees. Relative light intensity and water content of soil in gap area were higher than those in non-gap area and those in the central part of gap were the highest.

• Journal of Plant Biology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.147-150
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• 1990

Different species with similar niches can coexist in the same community if disturbances prevent compeptitive exclusion of competitively inferior species. Disturbances which open up gaps are common in all kind of community. Even in virgin forests without any artificial disturbance, there exist a significant proportion of trees of early successional shade-in-tolerant species in addition to the dominant late successional shade-tolerant species. In forest ecosystems, most canopy tree species including shade-tolerant ones require one or more gaps in their life-time to reach the canopy. Because of these frequent disturbances, forests can be considered of dynamic mosaics of patches of different ages and with different species composition which are in certain stages of recovery from disturbances. Disturbances temporarily increase the availability of resources such as light, water and soil nutrient for other in dividuals through the death of one or more canopy trees.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2007.10a
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• pp.98-100
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• 2007

Tropical forests have variety of biodiversity values, which provide invaluable services to the living being on earth. In the recent years, tropical forests are regarded as valuable global resources that act as sink for carbon dioxide in order to mitigate global climatic change. In many parts of the world, tropical forests are being rapidly cleared by various means. Soil organic carbon (SOC) is concentrated in the upper 12 inches of the soil. So it is readily depleted owing to the degradation activities. In the present study, it was aimed to assess the magnitude of disturbance in the availability of SOC in a semi- evergreen forest, situated in the Eastern Ghats of Tamil Nadu, India. The forest density of this region was mapped with QuickBird satellite data. Intensive field soil sampling and floristic study were conducted to estimate the SOC status in different density classes and to identify the species availability. The SOC density ranged from 274.06 t/ha to 147.84 t/ha in the very dense and degraded semi-evergreen forest respectively. The SOC content was also varied from 3.70 to 1.83 % in the very dense semi-evergreen and medium semi-evergreen forests respectively. The species composition in different density classes was also varied considerably. As a result of this study, it was identified that the disturbance to forests by various means not only affect the density of forests but also affect the below ground SOC status proportionately.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.35-53
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• 2021

A field survey was carried out targeting 59 pine wilt disease control areas distributed in Andong, and the ecological characteristics of the areas affected by pine wilt disease were analyzed using vegetation information, ecological information, and land use information. Vegetation characteristics of Pine wilt disease affected forest area showed a 3-layer vegetation structure, high percentage of accidental occurrence species (37%) and secondary vegetation species (59.6%), appearing 12 taxa naturalized plants and 3 taxa ecosystem disturbance organisms designated by the Ministry of Environment. Ecological information of Pine wilt affected area showed frequent occurrence of water stress in south and west slopes, low lying grounds in mountains, and in well-drained soils. Also, surrounding the area has been used as roads, tombs, and cultivation where intensive human activities were the cause of disturbance and stress to the pine forest. It was analyzed that the pine forest in Andong city suffered extensive damage due to the onset of pine wilt disease while the pine trees were weakened due to continuous human activities. Conclusively, the spread and onset of pine wilt disease are worsened by artificial factors than natural environmental conditions.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.275-285
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• 2020

Background: In Korea, Symplocos prunifolia Siebold. & Zucc. is only found on Jeju Island. Conservation of the species is difficult because little is known about its distribution and natural habitat. The lack of research and survey data on the characteristics of native vegetation and distribution of this species means that there is insufficient information to guide the management and conservation of this species and related vegetation. Therefore, this study aims to identify the distribution and vegetation associated with S. prunifolia. Results: As a result of field investigations, it was confirmed that the native S. prunifolia communities were distributed in 4 areas located on the southern side of Mt. Halla and within the evergreen broad-leaved forest zones. Furthermore, these evergreen broad-leaved forest zones are themselves located in the warm temperate zone which are distributed along the valley sides at elevations between 318 and 461 m. S. prunifolia was only found on the south side of Mt. Halla, and mainly on south-facing slopes; however, small communities were found to be growing on northwest-facing slopes. It has been confirmed that S. prunifolia trees are rare but an important constituent species in the evergreen broad-leaved forest of Jeju. The mean importance percentage of S. prunifolia community was 48.84 for Castanopsis sieboldii, 17.79 for Quercus acuta, and 12.12 for Pinus thunbergii; S. prunifolia was the ninth most important species (2.6). Conclusions: S. prunifolia can be found growing along the natural streams of Jeju, where there is little anthropogenic influence and where the streams have caused soil disturbance through natural processes of erosion and deposition of sediments. Currently, the native area of S. prunifolia is about 3300 ㎡, which contains a confirmed population of 180 individual plants. As a result of these low population sizes, it places it in the category of an extremely endangered plant in Korea. In some native sites, the canopy of evergreen broad-leaved forest formed, but the frequency and coverage of species were not high. Negative factors that contributed to the low distribution of this species were factors such as lacking in shade tolerance, low fruiting rates, small native areas, and special habitats as well as requiring adequate stream disturbance. Presently, due to changes in climate, it is unclear whether this species will see an increase in its population and habitat area or whether it will remain as an endangered species within Korea. What is clear, however, is that the preservation of the present native habitats and population is extremely important if the population is to be maintained and expanded. It is also meaningful in terms of the stable conservation of biodiversity in Korea. Therefore, based on the results of this study, it is judged that a systematic evaluation for the preservation and conservation of the habitat and vegetation management method of S. prunifolia should be conducted.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.341-348
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• 2001

Population dynamics of the oldest relic stand of Pinus densiflora for. erecta which remains as a status of patch in Sokwang-Ri area, Uljin-Gun, was studied to provide the basic data for conservation of the oldest pine stand in Korea. The upper slope site and ridge site including total 12 plots mainly represented Pinus densiflora for. erecta and Quercus mongolica. These two tree species showed reverse J-shaped distribution. From this information, it was concluded that intensive interspecific competition between two species could be occurring. Age distribution of P. densiflora for. erecta on the sites above middle slope area was indicated bi-modal type or tri-modal type which was known as an age structure of climax forest. Therefore, it was estimated that Pinus densiflora for. erecta population could be continuously maintained in the each patch above middle slope area. In the valley sites, hardwood species such as Q. mongolica, Q. variabilis, Styrax obassia and Acer pseudosieboldianum occupied most part of the under crown-cover area and their seedlings and saplings were developing into the closed upper layer crown because the height of upper layer crown reached about 35 meters and such a high crown height was more suitable for light utilization by plants of under layer. The growth patterns were mainly fluctuated for the entire life time of the oldest tree caused by frequent disturbance. And the initial growth curves of the mature trees and suppressed juvenile trees showed different tendencies along the sites.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.305-320
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• 1996

It is necessary to obtain information about the productivity of the human-influenced forest and to understand the consumption of biomass resources in secondary forest in order to examine the resource flux by human activity in rural landscape. Thus the aims of this study were to elucidate the biomass and their use of secondary Pinus densiflora forests and to discuss sustainable utilization of secondary forests in rural landscape system. This study was carried out in Yanghwa-ri, Kongjugun, Chungcheongnam-do, central Korea. The changes of growth rate and aboveground biomass of a pine forest for 2 years were analyzed to understand forest management regimes in rural pine forests. Through allometric equations deduced from 25 sample trees, biomass was estimated. The biomass increase of pine forest was approximately 16.36 t/ha/yr in the unexploited stand and 12.24 t/ha/yr in the exploited stand. These were nearly equal to those of natural pine forests in central Korea. This result proved that human-influenced pine forest in rural landscape as well as the natural one has high potentiality to provide forest products. Making graveyard in forest-land was the important disturbance and land-use which currently occurring in rural landscape in the study area. Finally, we presented some forest management for stutainable and positive uses of secondary forests as one of the local energy resources in terms of the holistic landscape-ecological view.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.735-747
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• 2023

This study was conducted to identify the appropriate space requirements for forest healing program for physical and mental health care of female cancer survivors in their 40s and 60s. From September to November 2023, 12 cancer survivors were surveyed at Chungnam National University Forest and Daejeon Healing Forest. One Forest Therapy instructor and two researchers conducted a forest healing program once a week for eight sessions of two hours each, Perceptions and satisfaction with the program and space were assessed using pre and post program questionnaires, and the effect of participation in the forest healing program on mood status was evaluated. The satisfaction survey results were supplemented by qualitative studies conducted through post-interviews. Result of the analysis showed that the satisfaction of the participants was very high (4.8/5.0). There was a notable increase in vigor and a decrease in total mood disturbance after participation in the program. Toilets and water facilities (11), tool boxes (9), pest control facilities (3), deck facilities (3), forest hut (3), electrical outlets (2), shade shelters (2), and shoe hairy (1) were proposed as required facilities for cancer survivors. This study demonstrated that the forest healing program is effective in reducing distress in female cancer survivors in their 40s and 60s and appropriate facility standards for the forest healing space are needed to increase the satisfaction of cancer survivors.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.66-70
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• 2018

Preliminary investigation and analysis of the effectiveness of controlling the number of ecosystem disturbance fishes residing in Togyo reservoir using the native carnivorous fish species were performed. The data were collected from August 2011 to November 2016. The release of native carnivorous fish species was carried out from the end of May, 2012 to the end of July, 2016, considering fishing ban period of Siniperca scherzeri. The comparative abundance of Lepomis macrochirus was found to be 12.8% in the first year and increased a little bit after releasing the native carnivorous fish. However, it decreased to 3.9% in the last year showing a value of less than 5%. On the other hand, the Micropterus salmoides populations tended to increase after the release of native carnivorous fish species. This seems to be the result of the segregation of habitat by interspecific competition with S. scherzeri. The M. salmoides moved from inside of the lake to edges, and to influent tributaries. Stable isotope analysis showed that Channa argus had the highest levels of nutrition, S. scherzeri and M. salmoides were in competition, and L. macrochirus was used as a feed source for released species. Changes of the fish community in the Togyo reservoir was represented by the rank abundance curves based on the results of the fish fauna. As a result, the fish group in incoming tributaries are somewhat disturbed after the release of the native carnivorous species. Similarly, the fish group in the reservoir were disturbed as well but it's gradually stabilizing afterwards. Therefore, the control of the ecosystem disturbance species using the native carnivorous fish of Korea is effective and helps to stabilize the fish community in the lake.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.5-11
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• 2008

This study examined the characteristics of Pinus thunbergii community that forms a windbreak forest around the coast of Gwanmaedo located in Jodo-myeon, Jindo-gun, Jeollanamdo which is located in the south-western areas of Korea from December 2005 to April 2007 and to suggeste the ecological management methods of coastal windbreak areas. P. thunbergii community, a coastal windbreak forest of Gwanmaedo, was classified into disturbance, growth, mixture, stability, and back mountain vegetation according to major companions species and vegetation types. P. thunbergii community of disturbance and growth vegetation needs active management through tree thinning, mowing, weeding out, use of rest space, and felling sick pine trees. P. thunbergii community of mixture, stability, and back mountain vegetation needs active preservation of a coastal windbreak to restore natural vegetation by making a windbreak walk and a forest buffer zone and inducing vegetation succession. Accordingly, in this study, ecological management methods were suggested according to the actual state of distribution by habitat characteristics of coastal windbreak areas such as management of beaches and surrounding area of idle lands, restoration of back wetlands, inhibition of foreign plants, maintenance of diversity of species and habitats, and prevention of aging and spread of damage from insects.