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Climate change has been intensifying and affecting forest ecosystems. Over the years, the intensity and frequency of climate change have increased and the effects of climate change have been aggravating due to cumulative greenhouse gases such as CO2, which has resulted in several negative consequences, drought being the main threat among all. Drought affects forest ecosystems directly and indirectly. Insufficient soil moisture, due to drought, may affect the growth of plants and soil respiration (SR), and soil temperature may increase because of desiccated soil. In addition, the mortality rate of plants and soil microorganisms increases. As a result, these effects could reduce forest productivity. Thus, in this article, we have presented various research studies on artificial drought using throughfall exclusion, and we have mainly focused on SR, which is significantly related to forest productivity. The research studies done worldwide were sorted as per the main groups of Köppen-Geiger climate classification and intensively reviewed, especially in tropical climates and temperate climates. We briefly reviewed the properties among the exclusion experiments about the temperate climate, which mostly includes Korean forests. Our review is not a proof of concept, but an assumption for adequate investigation of drought effects in the Korean forest.

Castanopsis indica (Sil Batna) is an ecologically valuable multipurpose indigenous tree species of Bangladesh. Considering its high value but poor natural regeneration due to seed dormancy, the authors conducted an experiment at the Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences Chittagong University (IFESCU) during 2012-2013 to find out effective pre-sowing treatments. Ten pre-sowing seed treatments were applied on mature, even-sized seeds namely–control; sandpaper rubbing; nail clipping; immersion in normal water (at room temperature: 24°C) for 24 hrs., 48 hrs. and 72 hrs.; immersion in hot water (80°C) for 1 minute; soaking in 10% dilute H2SO4; soaking in 10% HCl for 5 minutes; and sowing in propagator house. Seeds sown after sandpaper rubbing at the distal end revealed best performances by providing highest germination percent (66.7%), germination energy (30%), germination index (0.17), germination rate (0.0145), germination value (30%) and plant percent (66.7%) within shortest period (38 days). The treatment also produced most vigor seedlings with 20.9 cm shoot height, 15 node number, and largest leaves (11.1 cm×2.9 cm). Hence, it is recommended to adopt sandpaper rubbing method for maximum germination and quality seedlings.

This study was carried out to establish an efficient selection condition for cold-tolerant individuals among evergreen Quercus spp. To select higher cold-tolerant individuals among four species of evergreen Quercus spp. (Q. acuta, Q. glauca, Q. myrsinaefoila, and Q. salicina), an-year-old seedlings of each species were exposed to low temperature in serial, and then examined for the death of cell tissue and the surface temperature was monitored. It was shown that the higher numbers of seedlings of Q. myrsinaefolia were survived than the others when those seedlings are exposed to cold stress. Thus, selection of the cold tolerant individuals was conducted on Q. myrsinaefolia seedlings. The limit low temperature condition for selecting cold-tolerant individuals was -6°C for 24 hrs because no seedling of Q. myrsinaefolia was survived after exposed to -7°C for 24 hours. It was shown that the leaf surface temperature of the selected individuals was higher than those of the non-selected individuals when they were exposed to cold-stress while monitoring them using thermal graphic camera. The results in this study can be used for expanding afforestation area of tree species of the warm temperate zone for preparation of climate change.

This study quantified carbon reduction services through direct harvesting of Ilex rotunda and Machilus thunbergii, which are the typical urban landscape tree species in southern Korea. A total of 20 open-grown tree specimens (10 specimens for each species) were selected reflecting various sizes of stem diameter at breast height of 1.2 m (DBH) at a regular interval. The study measured biomass for each part of the tree specimens including roots to compute total carbon storage per tree. Annual carbon uptake per tree was also calculated analyzing the DBH growth rate of stem disk specimens. Quantitative models were developed using DBH as an independent variable to easily estimate storage and annual uptake of carbon by tree growth for each species. All the models had a high goodness-of-fit with R2=0.95-0.99. The difference in carbon reduction services between DBH sizes increased with increasing DBH. The storage and annual uptake of carbon from a tree with DBH of 10 cm were 13.5 kg and 2.4 kg/yr for I. rotunda, and 19.1 kg and 3.6 kg/yr for M. thunbergii, respectively. The tree of this size stored the amount of carbon equivalent to that emitted from a gasoline use of approximately 24 L for I. rotunda and 34 L for M. thunbergii, respectively. The study provides actual measurement data to quantify carbon reduction services of urban open-grown landscape trees for the warm-temperate species that have been little known until now.

We chose the Mt. Dalum area (located in Gijang-gun, Busan, Korea) for our survey, particularly The pine wilt disease zone and the non-permanent control area. This study investigates the effect of pine wilt disease on the distribution of beetle species in the process of ecosystem change due to insect control; pine forests treated for pine wilt disease were divided into insect control and non-control sites, respectively. The results of this study are as follows. Twen tyseven species belongs to 12 families were identified from 969 ground beetles collected from this sites. Species richness was the highest in Coleoptera (6 species, 469 individuals). In the control site, 21 species belongs to 10 families were identified from 228 individuals, while 24 species of 11 families from 533 individuals in the non-control area. The highest number of species were noted in June and July from the non- control and control sites, respectively. The highest number of insects in control and non-control sites was observed in July, while the lowest in September. Sipalinus gigas gigas, Spondylis buprestoides, Plesiophthalmus davidis, Calosoma maximowiczi, Damaster jankowskii jankowskii, and Damaster smaragdinus were captured in both study sites. Episomustur ntus and Glischrochilus ipsoides were only captured in the control site, while Macrodorcas rectus rectus and Pheropsophus javanus were only captured in the non-control site. Six beetles and five species (such as Calosoma maximowiczi) were found in the control site and six species (including Damaster smaragdinus) in the non-control site. The species distributions by altitude were 163, 518, and 258 individuals, at 100, 200 and 300 m sites, respectively. The diversity, evenness, and dominance indices in the control area were 0.764, 0.812, and 0.367, respectively. The diversity, evenness, and dominance indices in the non-control area were 0.927, 0.837, and 0.352, respectively. The similarity index between the control and non-control area was 80%.

This study was aimed to clarify the morphological and ecological characteristics of Dolichomitus cephalotes and Dolichomitus curticornis in order to provide basic data to be used for biological control against Monochamus saltuarius. D. cephalotes and D. curticornis are univioltine in the central region of Korea and overwinters as larval stage inside the cocoon. Both species are ectoparasitoid, and a solitary parasitoid. D. cephalotes adults are emerged from the beginning of April to the middle of May, while D. curticornis adults are emerged from late April to mid-May.

Two newly recorded small orb weavers, Araneus yasudai Tanikawa, 2001 and Neoscona flavida sp. nov., with characteristic epigynal scape belonging to Araneidae are described with measurements and morphological illustrations from Korea. Both species were collected with sweep net between shrubs and bushes in mountain forest and between reeds in reclaimed land, respectively.

Mushroom survey and collection were conducted in the Phousabous National Protected Area (PNPA), which is located at the Northeastern area 230km from the capital city of Lao-PDR, Vientiane, from April 2017 to September 2018. During this periods, mushroom specimens were collected from 8 different locations, and then they were identified and classified into 284 species, 142 genera, 56 families, 20 orders and 7 classes by morphological and molecular analyses. The mushrooms belongs to Ascomycota were classified into 10 species, 5 genera, 5 families, 4 orders and 3 classes, while those belongs to Basidiomycota were classified into 274 species, 137 genera, 51 families, 16 orders, and 4 classes, respectively. Among these mushrooms, the most species-rich families are Boletaceae (16.06%), Polyporaceae (10.12%), Russulaceae (9.94%), Amanitaceae (7.68%), Agaricaceae (4.54%), Marasmiaceae (4.36%), Cortinariaceae (3.66%), Entolomataceae (3.66%), Mycenaceae (2.79%), Xylariaceae (2.44%), Physalacriaceae (2.09%), Omphalotaceae (2.09%), Hydnangitaceae (2.09%), Lyophyllaceae (1.92%), Tricholomataceae (1.75%) and comprised 75.19% of the total specimens identified.

Forest medicinal resources, which constitute one of the non-timber forest products, have been regarded as healthy and highly valued products. To meet the increasing demand of the medicinal resources, it is necessary to improve the propagation methods of medicinal plants. In vitro propagation not only allows an opportunity for propagating plants in large numbers but also allows for enhancing the quality and quantity of the desired functional component of a plant by altering the growth factors, such as medium, carbon source, and plant growth regulators influence plant. There have been several studies of in vitro propagation methods, such as axillary bud culture, shooting, and embryogenesis, on Kalopanax septemlobus, Eleutherococcus sessiliflorus, Hovenia dulcis, and Schisandra chinensis in Korea between from 2000 through 2010. Furthermore, there have been attempts to proliferate callus and plantlets for producing useful natural compounds by using bioreactors. Here, we provide an account of the in vitro propagation methods of medicinal trees in Korea based on a review of several micropropagation studies.

Efficient management of road-kill data is difficult at national scale when there are many organizations that are in charge of different road types. Here, we described the first case to integrate road-kill data through Korea Road-kill Observation System (KROS) by the Korean government. The system was launched in June 2018 to approximately 3,000 road menders. During 15 months, 5,812 road-kill observations were registered on KROS including mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. Of them, about 86 % was occupied by five species (Hydropotes inermis, Felis catus, Capreolus pygargus, Nyctereutes procyonoides, and Canis lupus familiaris) listed in number of occurrences. The observed road-kill frequency rapidly increased until April 2019 and peaked on May 2019. However, as the system is just starting, the results from KROS cannot be treated as the exact representation of road-kill trend in the country. Although the efficient method to manage national road-kill statistic is arranged, still there are some limitations to overcome to make the system stable.