• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.225-230
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• 2004

The impact of slash and burning on microbial biomass C, N and P in soils of semi-evergreen tropical deciduous forest were studied from February 1999 to January 2000. The experimental sites were located near Moreh town in the Chandel district of Manipur state (India) along the Indo-Myanmar border between 23° 49' N-24°28'N latitude and 93°45'E-94°16'E longitude. Microbial biomass C ranged from 319.50 ㎍ g/sup -1/ 905.50㎍ g/sup -1/ in the slash and burnt site and from 209.50 ㎍ g/sup -1/ to 708.80 ㎍ g/sup -1/ soil in the forest site. Microbial N ranged from 19.30 ㎍ g/sup -1/ to 99.45 ㎍ g/sup -1/ in the slash and burnt site and from 16.08㎍ g/sup -1/ to 88.90 ㎍ g/sup -1/ in the forest site. Microbial P varied from 10.90 ㎍ g/sup -1/ to 32.21 ㎍ g/sup -1/ in the slash and burnt site and from 2.50 ㎍ g/sup -1/ to 17.60 ㎍ g/sup -1/ in the forest site in different months throughout the year. Microbial biomass C, N and P were recorded to be higher in the slash and burnt site compared to the forest site The conversion of forest into slash and burnt site for agriculture - the traditional shilling cultivation practiced by tribal people in the north- eastern India leads to addition of large amount of organic matter in the soil thereby exhibiting higher values of microbial biomass C, N and P in the recent slash and burnt site than that of the forest site. Relationship between the soil moisture, soil organic C and microbial biomass C, N and P were found to be correlated significantly in both the sites.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.189-200
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• 2014

The tropical wet evergreen, tropical semi evergreen and moist deciduous forest types are projected to be impacted by climate change. In the Western Ghats region, a biodiversity hotspot, evergreen forests including semi evergreen account for 30% of the forest area and according to climate change impact model projections, nearly a third of these forest types are likely to undergo vegetation type change. Similarly, tropical moist deciduous forests which account for about 28% of the forest area are likely to experience change in about 20% of the area. Thus climate change could adversely impact forest biodiversity and product flow to the forest dependent households and communities in Uttara Kannada district of the Western Ghats. This study analyses the distribution of non-timber forest product yielding tree species through a network of twelve 1-ha permanent plots established in the district. Further, the extent of dependence of communities on forests is ascertained through questionnaire surveys. On an average 21% and 28% of the tree species in evergreen and deciduous forest types, respectively are, non-timber forest product yielding tree species, indicating potential high levels of supply of products to communities. Community dependence on non-timber forest products is significant, and it contributes to Rs. 1199 and Rs. 3561/household in the evergreen and deciduous zones, respectively. Given that the bulk of the forest grids in Uttara Kannada district are projected to undergo change, bulk of the species which provide multiple forest products are projected to experience die back and even mortality. Incorporation of climate change projections and impacts in forest planning and management is necessary to enable forest ecosystems to enhance resilience.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.207-211
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• 2008

We investigated the leaf demography of a temperate woody liana, Akebia trifoliata, in a temperate forest in Japan, Akebia is semi-evergreen: some leaves are shed before winter, while others remain through the winter. Previous studies of semi-evergreen species found that variation in leaf life span was caused by variation in the timing of leaf emergence, Leaves that appeared just before winter over-wintered, while leaves appearing earlier were shed, However, it is unclear whether leaves of the same cohort (i.e., leaves that appear at the same time within a single site) show variation in life span under the effect of strong seasonality. To separate variation in life span among the leaves in each cohort from variation among cohorts, we propose a new method - the single leaf diagram, which shows the emergence and death of each leaf. Using single leaf diagrams, our study revealed that Akebia leaves within a cohort showed substantial variation in life span, with some over-wintering and some not. In addition, leaves on small ramets in the understory showed great variation in life span, while leaves on large ramets, which typically reach higher positions in the forest canopy, have shorter lives, As a result, small ramets were semi-evergreen, whereas large ramets were deciduous, The longer lives of leaves on small ramets can be interpreted as a shade-adaptive strategy in understory plants.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.90 no.2
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• pp.197-209
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• 2001

TOPMODEL, semi-distributed hydrological model, is frequently applied to predict the amount of discharge, main flow pathways and water quality in a forested catchment, especially in a spatial dimension. TOPMODEL is a kind of conceptual model, not physical one. The main concept of TOPMODEL is constituted by the topographic index and soil transmissivity. Two components can be used for predicting the surface and subsurface contributing area. This study is conducted for the validation of applicability of TOPMODEL at small forested catchments in Korea. The experimental area is located at Gwangneung forest operated by Korea Forest Research Institute, Gyeonggi-do near Seoul metropolitan. Two study catchments in this area have been working since 1979 ; one is the natural mature deciduous forest(22.0 ha) about 80 years old and the other is the planted young coniferous forest(13.6 ha) about 22 years old. The data collected during the two events in July 1995 and June 2000 at the mature deciduous forest and the three events in July 1995 and 1999, August 2000 at the young coniferous forest were used as the observed data set, respectively. The topographic index was calculated using $10m{\times}10m$ resolution raster digital elevation map(DEM). The distribution of the topographic index ranged from 2.6 to 11.1 at the deciduous and 2.7 to 16.0 at the coniferous catchment. The result of the optimization using the forecasting efficiency as the objective function showed that the model parameter, m and the mean catchment value of surface saturated transmissivity, $lnT_0$ had a high sensitivity. The values of the optimized parameters for m and InT_0 were 0.034 and 0.038; 8.672 and 9.475 at the deciduous and 0.031, 0.032 and 0.033; 5.969, 7.129 and 7.575 at the coniferous catchment, respectively. The forecasting efficiencies resulted from the simulation using the optimized parameter were comparatively high ; 0.958 and 0.909 at the deciduous and 0.825, 0.922 and 0.961 at the coniferous catchment. The observed and simulated hyeto-hydrograph shoed that the time of lag to peak coincided well. Though the total runoff and peakflow of some events showed a discrepancy between the observed and simulated output, TOPMODEL could overall predict a hydrologic output at the estimation error less than 10 %. Therefore, TOPMODEL is useful tool for the prediction of runoff at an ungaged forested catchment in Korea.

• The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.123-128
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• 2003

This study was conducted to examine the water use efficiency (WUE) in five species of one-year-old seedlings grown in a field nursery in Mongolia. Larix sibirica and Pinus sylvestris are the most dominant coniferous species while Ulmus pumila is an important deciduous species known well-adapted in harsh conditions such as in semi-arid forests and Gobi desert regions. Caragana arborescens (Siberian pea shrub) and Hippophae rhamnoides are N-fixing shrubs in Mongolia. Thirty one-year-old seedlings were sampled from each of the five species (a total of 150 samples) and measured for net photosynthetic rate (Pn) and transpiration rate (E). The Pn and E were used to calculate and compare the WUE of each species. Pn differed significantly among the five species (p < 0.05). However, there was no significant difference in Pn between L. sibirica and H. rhamnoides (p > 0.05). C. arborescens showed the highest Pn whereas U. pumila did the poorest. E differed significantly among the five species (p < 0.05). L. sibirica and U. pumila showed considerably lower E than other species. Thus, WUE values of coniferous species such as L. sibirica and P. sylvestris were significantly greater than deciduous or shrub species such as U. pumila, C. arborescens and H. rhamnoides (p < 0.01). It may result that conifers showed relatively high water use efficiency than deciduous or shrub trees due to their lower transpiration rates, which resulted in morphological and physiological characteristics of their leaves. This may indicate that L. sibirica and P. sylvestris can be widely used for rehabilitation works in Mongolia attributed to their dominant distributions but also their high drought-resistance properties.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.37 no.9
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• pp.737-744
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• 2004

In this study, to evaluate the effect of forest vegetation on the long-term water balance in a watershed, semi-distributed and physically based parameter model, SWAT was applied to the Bocheong watershed, and the variation of hydrological components such as evapotranspiration, surface flow, lateral flow, base flow, and total runoff was investigated with coniferous and deciduous forests, respectively. First, SWAT model was modified to simulate the actual plant growth pattern of coniferous trees which have the uniform value of leaf area index all the seasons of the year. The modified model was applied to the watershed that is assumed to have only one land cover in the whole watershed, and the variation of the water balance components was investigated for each land cover. It was found that coniferous forest affected the increase in evapotranspiration and decrease in runoff more than deciduous forest. However, the age and the density of stand, the location, and soil characteristics and meteorological conditions including the tree species should be also considered to examine the effect more quantitatively and to reduce the uncertainties in simulated output from the hydrological model.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.292-303
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• 2021

Studies that relate the structure of tropical regrowth vegetation to soil properties are generally lacking in the literature. This study proposes three indices for assessing the structural regeneration of secondary forests. They are: (1) the tree diameter class, (2) the plant life form and (3) the woody/herbaceous plants ratio indices. They were applied to assess the regeneration status of forest regrowth vegetation (aged 1-10 years), derived savanna regrowth vegetation in south western Nigeria, and to secondary forests in different stages of succession in Columbia and Venezuela, Bolivia, Mexico in South and Central America and semi-arid savanna in Ethiopia and seasonal deciduous forest successional stages in India. In all the cases, the indices increased with increasing age of regrowth vegetation and hence, with increasing structural complexity of regenerating vegetation. The tree diameter class index increased from 32.1% in a 9-year secondary forest to 69.0% in an 80-year-old secondary forest in Columbia and Venezuela and from 0.4% in a 1-year fallow to 20.9% in 10-year regrowth vegetation in southwestern Nigeria. In semi-arid savanna in northern Ethiopia, the woody/herbaceous plants ratio index increased from 18.1% in a 5-year protected grazing enclosure to 75.1% in 15-year protected enclosure, relative to the status of 20-year enclosure. The indices generally had correlations of 0.6-0.90 with species richness and Simpson's/Margalef's species diversity, implying that they are appropriate measures of ecosystem development over time. The proposed indices also had strong and positive correlations with soil organic carbon and nutrients. They are therefore, significant indicators of fertility status.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.184-194
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• 2022

Triplochiton scleroxylon K. Schum is the plant species most affected by logging activities in the East Region of Cameroon due to its market value. This logging has impacted the ecological niche of the fern plant for which limited research has been done. The aim of this study is to contribute towards improving knowledge of fern richness and biomass on T. scleroxylon within the Central African sub-region. Fern data collection was done on 20 felled/harvested T. scleroxylon where, in addition to fern inventory, fern biomass was collected by the destructive method. The diameter and height of T. scleroxylon measured were used as explanatory variables in allometric equations for fern biomass estimation. Fern inventory was characterized using diversity index. Eight fern species were recorded on T. scleroxylon (≈5 species/T. scleroxylon). The minimum diameter where fern could be found is 59.4 cm. The average fern biomass found was 23.62 kg/T. scleroxylon. Pearson correlation coefficient showed a positive correlation (r>0.55) between fern biomass and T. scleroxylon diameter. For allometric equation, the logarithmic model improved better the adjustment than the non-logarithmic model. However, the quality of the adjustment is improved more when only the diameter is considered as an explanatory variable. Fern biomass is estimated to 90.08 kg/ha^-1 with 76.02 kg/ha^-1 being lost due to T. scleroxylon exploitation in the study area. This study is a contribution towards increasing knowledge of fern diversity specific to T. scleroxylon, and also fern biomass contribution to climate change mitigation and the potential carbon loss due to T. scleroxylon exploitation.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.1087-1091
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• 2008

Evapotranspiration (ET) is an important factor while simulating daily streamflow in hydrological models. The LAI (Leaf Area Index) value reflecting the conditions of vegetation generally affects considerably in the estimation of ET, for example, when using FAO Penman Monteith equation. Recently in evaluating the vegetation condition as a fixed quantity, the remotely sensed LAIs from MODIS satellite data are avaliable, and the time series values of spatial LAI coupled with land use classes are utilized for ET evaluation. The 4 years (2001-2004) MODIS LAI data were prepared for the evaluation of continuous hydrological model, SLURP (Semi-distributed Land Use-based Runoff Processes). The model was applied for simulating the dam inflow of Chungjudam watershed ($6661.58\;km^2$) located in the upstream of Han river basin of South Korea. From the model results, the FAO Penman Monteith ET was affected by the MODIS LAIs. Especially for the ET of deciduous forest, the Total ET was 33.9 % lager than coniferous forest for the 3.8 % lager of LAI. The watershed average LAI caused a 7.0 % decrease in average soil moisture of the watershed and 14.3 % decrease of ground water recharge.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.309-320
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• 2002

In order to understand the condition of mostly-degraded evergreen broad-leaved forests(EBLF) and to make a restoration plan of EBLF in the Korean warm temperate, the distribution of EBLF and forest vegetation types have been investigated and the categories of degraded levels have been set. The coverage of the EBLF in the Korean peninsula was approximately 10,285ha based on the existing literature review and the actual vegetation map. Forest vegetation types have been investigated at thirty-two area of the south coast and inland in the warm temperate region. As a result, The forest vegetation was classified as 52 types; 26 types of EBLF, 13 types of semi-evergreen broad-leaved forests, 9 types of deciduous broad-leaved forests, 4 types of evergreen coniferous forests. The categories of degraded levels were divided into 8 levels and 14 sub-levels according to the importance percentage(I.P.) and the number of warm temperate species.