Earticle

Spatial point-patterns analyses were conducted to provide insight into the ecological process behind competition and mortality in two lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud. var. latifolia Engelm.) stands, one in the Lower Foothills, and the other in the Upper Foothills natural subregions in the boreal forest of Alberta, Canada. Spatial statistical tests were applied to live and dead trees and included Clark-Evans nearest neighbor statistic (R), nearest neighbor distribution function (G(r)), and a variant of Ripley’s K function (L(r)). In both lodgepole pine plots, the results indicated that there was significant regularity in the spatial point-pattern of the surviving trees which indicates that competition has been a key driver of mortality and forest dynamics in these plots. Dead trees generally showed a clumping pattern in higher density patches. There were also significant bivariate relationships between live and dead trees, but the relationships differed by natural subregion. In the Lower Foothills plot there was significant attraction between live and dead tees which suggests mainly one-sided competition for light. In contrast, in the Upper Foothills plot, there was significant repulsion between live and dead trees which suggests two-sided competition for soil nutrients and soil moisture.

Extractable iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) contents and their distribution with depths in soils of forested and adjacent deforested areas at Jahazpura, Teknaf, Cox’s Bazar of Bangladesh were studied. The soils under forest showed higher levels of DTPA-extractable micronutrients in all three layers of soil in comparison to those of the deforested areas. The differences between forested and deforested sites were, in most cases, significant.. The top soils of forested sites had the higher contents of micronutrient and generally decreased with depth in forested soils, while there was no regular trend of distribution in deforested soils. The study also revealed that contents of extractable Fe, Mn and Cu were sufficient in all depths and sites but Zn was deficient in bottom layer of forested and all three layers of deforested sites. The results suggested that organic matter, clay and soil pH could play important roles in concentrations and distributions of micronutrients in soils of the study areas.

Phenological events of four Rhododendron tree species (viz. R. arboreum, R. arboreum ssp. delavayi var. delavayi, R. barbatum and R. kesangiae) was monitored in temperate mixed broad-leaved forests of Arunachal Pradesh, India. Phenological events like flower bud formation, flowering, fruit setting, fruit maturing, seed dispersal, leaf bud formation, leaf flushing, and leaf shedding were recorded. Indices i.e., phenophase sequence index (PSI), active phenophasic period of the species (APS) and index of reproductive/vegetative activity (RVA) were also calculated. Present study revealed that bark consistency, growth form and leaf pattern of the studied species have showed variations among the species. Rhododendron species exhibited the phenological events overlapping with other phenophases. The peak flower bud formation was observed during the winter; R. arboreum ssp. delavayi var. delavayi start flowering from December, while the flowering in rest three species exhibited during February to April. Fruit setting occurred during summer to autumn while fruit maturation revealed peak during November. Leaf bud formation illustrated two peaks in April and May, leaf flushing exhibited peak in June, while leaf shedding peaked during October to November. Active phenophasic period of the species were found 12 months, which revealed that species engage in various phenophase activities throughout the year. Phenophase sequence index ranged between 0.8 to 0.9 (PSI ≥0.6), signifies that species have a sequential arrangement of phenophases. Index of reproductive/vegetative activity of the species exemplified ＞1, indicate that the reproductive phenophases were dominance over vegetative phenophases. The study have provided substantial insight on the life cycle events of Rhododendron species and ecological approaches for further scientific study with recent climate change and effective management and conservation.

The use of single component distribution to describe the irregular stand structure of degraded forest often lead to bias. Such biasness can be overcome by the application of finite mixture distribution. Therefore, in this study, finite mixture distribution was used to characterise the irregular stand structure of the Gmelina arborea plantation in Omo forest reserve. Thirty plots, ten each from the three stands established in 1984, 1990 and 2005 were used. The data were pooled per stand and fitted. Four finite mixture distributions including normal mixture, lognormal mixture, gamma mixture and Weibull mixture were considered. The method of maximum likelihood was used to fit the finite mixture distributions to the data. Model assessment was based on negative loglikelihood value (-ΛΛ), Akaike information criterion (AIC), Bayesian information criterion (BIC) and root mean square error (RMSE). The results showed that the mixture distributions provide accurate and precise characterisation of the irregular diameter distribution of the degraded Gmelina arborea stands. The -ΛΛ, AIC, BIC and RMSE values ranged from -715.233 to -348.375, 703.926 to 1433.588, 718.598 to 1451.334 and 3.003 to 7.492, respectively. Their performances were relatively the same. This approach can be used to describe other irregular forest stand structures, especially the multi-species forest.

Mushroom survey was conducted in the Phou Khao Khuoay National Protected Area (PKKNPA) located at east direction 65km from Vientiane, the capital city of Lao-PDR from September 2015 to November 2016. During this periods, mushroom specimens were collected from 10 different survey sites, and then were identified and classified into 149 species, 113 genera, and 55 families by morphological and molecular analyses. The mushrooms belongs to Ascomycota were classified into 13 species, 7 genera, 5 families, and 5 orders, while those belongs to Basidiomycota were classified into 136 species, 113 genera, 55 families, and 18 orders, respectively. Among these mushrooms, the most species-rich families were Polyporaceae (18.1%), Marasmiaceae (11.0%), Ganodermataceae (8.6%), Xylariaceae (5.8%), Russulaceae (5.4%), Agaricaceae (4.7%), Boletaceae (4.7%), Hymenochaetaceae (3.9%), and Amanitaceae (3.6%), and comprised 65.8% of the total specimens identified.

In this study, the deforestation and forest degradation areas have been obtained in Myanmar using a land cover lamp (LCM) and a tree cover map (TCM) to get the CO2 potential reduction and the strength of occurrence was evaluated by using the geostatistical technique. By applying a multiple criteria decision-making method to the regions having high strength of occurrence for the CO2 potential reduction for the deforestation and forest degradation areas, the priority was selected for candidate lands for REDD+ project. The areas of deforestation and forest degradation were 609,690ha and 43,515ha each from 2010 to 2015. By township, Mong Kung had the highest among the area of deforestation with 3,069ha while Thlangtlang had the highest in the area of forest degradation with 9,213 ha. The number of CO2 potential reduction hotspot areas among the deforestation areas was 15, taking up the CO2 potential reduction of 192,000 ton in average, which is 6 times higher than that of all target areas. Especially, the township of Hsipaw inside the Shan region had a CO2 potential reduction of about 772,000 tons, the largest reduction potential among the hotpot areas. There were many CO2 potential reduction hot spot areas among the forest degradation area in the eastern part of the target region and has the CO2 potential reduction of 1,164,000 tons, which was 27 times higher than that of the total area. AHP importance analysis showed that the topographic characteristic was 0.41 (0.40 for height from surface, 0.29 for the slope and 0.31 for the distance from water area) while the geographical characteristic was 0.59 (0.56 for the distance from road, 0.56 for the distance from settlement area and 0.19 for the distance from Capital). Yawunghwe, Kalaw, and Hsi Hseng were selected as the preferred locations for the REDD+ candidate region for the deforestation area while Einme, Tiddim, and Falam were selected as the preferred locations for the forest degradation area.

This study was conducted to estimate carbon storage in Quercus mongolica stands based on stand age class, and to provide basic data on the carbon balance of broad-leaved forests of Korea. The research was conducted at the experimental forest of Kangwon National University, Hongcheon-gun County, Gangwon-do Province, Korea. Three plots were set up in each of three Q. mongolica forest stands (III, V, and VII) to estimate the amount of carbon stored in Q. mongolica aboveground vegetation, coarse woody debris (CWD), organic layer, mineral soil, and litterfall. The carbon storage of the aboveground vegetation increased with an increase in stand age, while the carbon storage ratio of stems decreased. The carbon storage of the organic layer, CWD, and litterfall did not show any significant differences among age classes. In addition, the carbon concentration and storage in the forest soils decreased with depth, and there were no differences among age classes for any soil horizon. Finally, the total carbon storage in the III, V, and VII stands of Q. mongolica were 132.2, 241.1, and 374.4 Mg C ha-1, respectively. In order to predict and effectively manage forest carbon dynamics in Korea, further study on deciduous forests with other tree species in different regions will be needed.

In this study, the succession and stand dimension attributes related to the disaster prevention function of Pinus thunbergii coastal forests were examined after damage from Diplodia tip blight. In 2015, 101 years after the Taisho eruption, field investigations were performed on the vegetation, soil thickness, and pH of surface soil of P. thunbergii coastal forests in western Sakurajima (Hakamagoshi plot) and Taisho lava flows in southeastern Sakurajima (Seto plot). The Hakamagoshi plot had more woody plant species with larger basal areas than that in the Seto plot. The mean age and height, maximal age and height of plant species, and H/D ratio were all larger in the Hakamagoshi plot than in the Seto plot. These results may be explained by the relatively smaller effect of volcanic ash and gas on forests in the Hakamagoshi plot compared to the Seto plot, resulting in a more suitable environment for many plant species. Although P. thunbergii coastal forests in Sakurajima are currently recovering from damages owing to Diplodia tip blight, there has not yet been a sufficient recovery compared to the results from a 1997 study. Furthermore, the results of assessment based on the H/D ratio and abundance of trees in P. thunbergii forests indicate that both regions are not yet effective in disaster prevention. Thus, it is necessary to establish Pinus trees, which can adjust to harsh environments like coastal areas and are resistant to volcanic ash and gas, to enhance the disaster prevention function of P. thunbergii coastal forests in volcanic regions. It may also be helpful to establish coastal forests with ectotrophic mycorrhizal fungi and organic matter coverage. Additionally, it is necessary to ensure the continuous maintenance of stand density and soil quality, and further develop efforts to prevent Diplodia tip blight and promote forest recovery.

The present study aimed to identify the importance of forest experience activity by examining what effects forest experience activity has on primary school students. The study population consisted of 108 students enrolled as fourth graders in primary schools in Chuncheon as of November 2017. The study measured the changes in their attitude toward forest and personality from before and after forest experience activity. The results indicated that the primary school students who participated in forest experience activity showed statistically significant increase in attitude toward forest and personality. In other words, the study identified the positive effects of forest experience activity on recognizing the importance of nature and personality building. The present study aimed to test the importance and effects of forest experience through forest experience activity outside of the classroom, as well as to present the validity of promoting forest experience activity.