• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.112-122
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• 2023

To restore the ecological function of contaminated soil and maximize the ecological services provided by the soil, besides the toxicity orrisk caused by pollutants, the functional aspects of the soil ecosystem should be considered. In this study, a method for evaluating the health of cleaned soil was presented, and the applicability of the proposed evaluation method was examined by applying it to soil treated with washing and landfarming. Productivity, habitat, water retention capacity, nutrient cycling, carbon retention capacity, and buffering capacity were used as soil health evaluation indicators. The results showed that the soil health was not completely recovered after remediation, and even in the case of the washed soil, the health was lower than before remediation. On the other hand, there was no significant change in soil quality due to oil pollution, but soil health deteriorated. Unlike the slightly improved soil quality after landfarming treatment, soil health was not completely restored. Therefore, the results of this study indicate that it is desirable to consider both soil quality and health when evaluating the remediation effect. The soil health evaluation method proposed in this study can be usefully utilized for the sustainable use of cleaned soil and to promote ecosystem services.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.239-243
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• 2001

One of the most important justifications of conservation of ecosystem and biodiversity is that diversity begets stability. Impact of biodiversity on community and ecosystem function has long been debated in science. Here we report the stability analysis of soil oribatid mite communities from environmentally stressed habitat(Namsan) and relatively well preserved habitat (Kwangreung) with the perspective of consistency as a primary criteria of stability. Stability of oribatid mite communities were evaluated with turnover rate, constancy analysis, b diversity index, and absolute abundance, abundance ranking, and the presence or absence of species over time. Out of 6 criteria, three consented that oribatid community from Kwangreung was more stable than that from Namsan. Those are turnover rate in litter layer, constancy analysis, and absolute abundance. Feasibility of stability analysis using oribatid mites was further discussed, rendering further study.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.310-318
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• 2013

In territorial ecosystem, soil has stored considerable amount of carbon, and it is vulnerable to weakness release much of the carbon to atmosphere. In this study, we have been effort realization and discussion to the error between inter-instruments and measurement methods, time and special variations, gap filling and separation from each source included in soil respiration, used to collect soil respiration data in various ecosystems in Korea. In conclusion, it have to collect calibration data throughout comparison test between methods and instruments because accumulated data from past and accumulating data in present did not calibrated. In predicting change of soil carbon dynamic using the model method, it needs important data such as longterm and short-term data, artificial handling data of major factor, data from various ecosystem, soil texture, soil depth etc. In company with, we should collect highly qualified data through deep consideration of present problems.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.33-39
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• 2019

The upsurge of population, internal migration, economic activities and developmental works has brought significant land use and land cover (LULC) change over the period of 1990 and 2010 in the Bagmati basin of Nepal. Along with alteration on various other ecosystem services like water yield, water quality, soil loss etc. carbon sequestration is also altered. This study thus primary deals with evaluation of LULC change and its impact on the soil carbon storage for the period 1990 to 2010. For the evaluation, InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs) Carbon model is used. Residential and several other infrastructural development activities were prevalent on the study period and as a result in 2010 major soil carbon reserve like forest area is decreased by 7.17% of its original coverage in 1990. This decrement has brought about a subsequent decrement of 1.39 million tons of carbon in the basin. Conversion from barren land, water bodies and built up areas to higher carbon reserve like forest and agriculture land has slightly increased soil carbon storage but still, net reduction is higher. Thus, the spatial output of the model in the form of maps is expected to help in decision making for future land use planning and for restoration policies.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.417-425
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• 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
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.87-99
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• 2009

We evaluated modified Soil-Plant-Atmosphere model's performance to simulate the seasonal variation of net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of carbon and examined the critical controlling mechanism on carbon exchange using the model over a deciduous forest at Gwangnung in 2006. The modified Soil-Plant-Atmosphere (mSPA) model was calibrated to capture the mean NEE during the daytime (1000-1400 LST) and used to simulate gross primary productivity (GPP). Ecosystem respiration ($R_e$) has been estimated using an empirical formula developed at this site. The simulation results indicated that the daytime mean stomatal conductance was highly correlated with daily insolation in the summer. Low stomatal conductance in high insolation occurred on the days with low temperature rather than with high vapor pressure deficit. It suggests that the forest rarely experienced water stress in the summer of 2006. The model captured the observed bimodal seasonal variation with a mid-season depression of carbon uptake. The model estimates of annual GPP, $R_e$ and NEE were $964\;gC\;m^{-2}\;yr^{-1}$, $733\;gC\;m^{-2}\;yr^{-1}$, and $-231\;gCm\;^{-2}\;yr^{-1}$, respectively. Compared to the observed annual NEE, the modeled estimates showed more carbon uptake by about $140\;gC\;m^{-2}\;yr^{-1}$. The uncertainty of the estimate of annual NEE in a complex terrain is discussed.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2023

Background: The positive effects of Arctic plants on the soil environment and plant-species co-occurrence patterns are known to be particularly important in physically harsh environments. Although three dominant plants (Cassiope tetragona, Dryas octopetala, and Silene acaulis) are abundant in the Arctic ecosystem at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, few studies have examined their occurrence patterns with other species and their buffering effect on soil-temperature and soil-moisture fluctuation. To quantify the plant-species co-occurrence patterns and their positive effects on soil environments, I surveyed the vegetation cover, analyzed the soil-chemical properties (total carbon, total nitrogen, pH, and soil organic matter) from 101 open plots, and measured the daily soil-temperature and soil-moisture content under three dominant plant patches and bare soil. Results: The Cassiope tetragona and Dryas octopetala communities increased the soil-temperature stability; however, the three dominant plant communities did not significantly affect the soil-moisture stability. Non-metric multidimensional scaling separated the sampling sites into three groups based on the different vegetation compositions. The three dominant plants occurred randomly with other species; however, the vegetation composition of two positive co-occurring species pairs (Oxyria digyna-Cerastium acrticum and Luzula confusa-Salix polaris) was examined. The plant species richness did not significantly differ in the three plant communities. Conclusions: The three plant communities showed distinctive vegetation compositions; however, the three dominant plants were randomly and widely distributed throughout the study sites. Although the facilitative effects of the three Arctic plants on increases in the soil-moisture fluctuation and richness were not quantified, this research enables a deeper understanding of plant co-occurrence patterns in Arctic ecosystems and thereby contributes to predicting the shift in vegetation composition and coexistence in response to climate warming. This research highlights the need to better understand plant-plant interactions within tundra communities.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.390-399
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• 2019

Background: The Northern Hemisphere forest ecosystem is a major sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide, and the subalpine zone stores large amounts of carbon; however, their magnitude and distribution of stored carbon are still unclear. Results: To clarify the carbon distribution and carbon budget in the subalpine zone at volcanic Jeju Island, Korea, we report the C stock and changes therein owing to vegetation form, litter production, forest floor, and soil, and soil respiration between 2014 and 2016, for three subalpine forest ecosystems, namely, Abies koreana forest, Taxus cuspidata forest, and Juniperus chinensis var. sargentii forest. Organic carbon distribution of vegetation and NPP were bigger in the A. koreana forest than in the other two forests. However, the amount of soil organic carbon distribution was the highest in the J. chinensis var. sargentii forest. Compared to the amount of organic carbon distribution (AOCD) of aboveground vegetation (57.15 t C ha^-1) on the subalpine-alpine forest in India, AOCD of vegetation in the subalpine forest in Mt. Halla was below 50%, but AOCD of soil in Mt. Halla was higher. We also compared our results of organic carbon budget in subalpine forest at volcanic island with data synthesized from subalpine forests in various countries. Conclusions: The subalpine forest is a carbon reservoir that stores a large amount of organic carbon in the forest soils and is expected to provide a high level of ecosystem services.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.217-227
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• 2010

This paper was studied $CO_2$ respiration rate with physicochemical properties of soils at wetland, paddy field and forest in Nongju-ri, Haeryong-myeon, Suncheon city, Jeollanam-do. Soil temperature and $CO_2$ respiration rate were measured at the field, and soil pH, moisture and soil organic carbon were analyzed in laboratory. Field monitoring was conducted at 6 points (W3, W7, W13, W17, W23, W27) for wetland, 3 points (P1, P2, P3) for paddy field and 3 points (F1, F2, F3) for forest in 10 January 2009. $CO_2$ concentrations in chamber were measured 352~382 ppm for wetland, 364~382 ppm for paddy field and 379~390 ppm for forest, and the average values were 370 ppm, 370 ppm and 385 ppm, respectively. $CO_2$ respiration rates of soils were measured $-73{\sim}44\;mg/m^2/hr$ for wetland, $-74{\sim}24\;mg/m^2/hr$ for paddy field and $-55{\sim}106\;mg/m^2/hr$ for forest, and the average values were $-8\;mg/m^2/hr$, $-25\;mg/m^2/hr$ and $38\;mg/m^2/hr$. $CO_2$ was uptake from air to soil in wetland and paddy field, but it was emission from soil to air in forest. $CO_2$ respiration rate function in uptake condition increased exponential and linear as soil temperature and soil organic carbon. But, it in emission condition decreased linear as soil temperature and soil organic carbon. $CO_2$ respiration rate function in wetland decreased linear as soil moisture, but its in paddy and forest increased linear as soil moisture. $CO_2$ respiration rate function in all sites increased linear as soil pH, and increasing rate at forest was highest.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.363-370
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• 2014

Various ecosystem carry out fundamental function of material circulation and energy flow through interrelationship with many environmental factors. Therefore, it is crucial to scientifically understand the value of nature to deduce correlation between environmental factor and change of ecosystem function. In this study, we determined the accumulated ecosystem carbon and characteristics of soil respiration on grassland vegetation in Namahangang basin in Namhangang Basin. It was found that the rate of soil respiration was highly correlated with the soil temperature in all communities. The measured soil respiration rates were $1,539mgCO_2\;m^{-2}h^{-1}$, $1,200mgCO_2\;m^{-2}h^{-1}$, $1,215mgCO_2\;m^{-2}h^{-1}$ in Miscanthus sacchariflorus, Phragmites japonica, Salix koreensis communities, respectively. Also, carbon quantities accumulated in litter and soil layers were $40.6tCha^{-1}$ (1.9+38.7), $46.9tCha^{-1}$ (43.0+3.9), $31.2tCha^{-1}$ (28.9+2.3) in M. sacchariflorus, P. japonica, S. koreensis communities, respectively.