Earticle

This study aimed to analyze long-term changes in soil CO2 flux (Rsoil, soil respiration) using a chronosequence approach in forests affected by forest fires on the east coast of Korea. Rsoil was measured seasonally along with soil temperature and moisture to assess its response to environmental variation. Additionally, soil physicochemical properties and fine root (≤2 mm) biomass were analyzed to investigate their correlations with Rsoil. Total carbon (TC) and nitrogen (TN) concentration in soil, and fine root biomass were initially low, peaked during the mid-recovery stage, and then tended to stabilize, whereas soil permeability, sand, silt, and clay contents exhibited distinct patterns. Rsoil increased exponentially with soil temperature, showing higher coefficient of determination (R2) in late recovery stage (0.67) and unburned stands (0.72) than in early stage (0.30). Temperature sensitivity (Q10) of Rsoil showed no significant differences among recovery stages, however the Q10 values exhibited relatively low in early stage compared to other stages. The relationship between soil moisture and Rsoil was weak overall, except in the unburned (R2=0.27, p＜0.01). Rsoil at 20°C (R20, μmol CO2 m-2 s-1) increased with the duration of recovery, with values of 2.38±0.34, 4.11±0.25, 3.14±0.13, and 4.23±0.38 in early-, mid-, late stages, and unburned, respectively. R20 was positively correlated with soil permeability, TC, TN, and fine root biomass (p＜0.05). These findings highlight the importance of Rsoil as an indicator of soil recovery, contribute to the assessment of post-fire soils and the understanding of soil carbon dynamics.

본 연구는 역사적 관점에서 남북한의 분단 이전과 이후 의 산림정책 방향의 전개과정과 북한의 산림황폐지 실태를 고찰하고,앞으로의 과제를 제시하였다. 한국은 1900년대 전반 일제의 강점 하에서 식민지 임정기를 통해 많은 산림이 황폐되었고, 1945년 국토의 분단으로 남․북한은 서로 다른 체제에서 각각의 임정이 전개되었다. 한국(남한)은 1950년대 말까지 한국동란 등 사회경제적 혼란으로 인한 임정의 정체기, 1960년대는 사회경제적 안정과 성장을 배경으로 산림법제의 정비 등 임정기반의 확립기, 1970~80년대는 국토녹화의 성공적 수행으로 녹화임정기, 그리고 1990년대 이후는 지속가능한 산림경영기반의 구축기에 있다. 북한은 분단 후 국유원칙의 사회주의적 소유제도와 계획경제 체제에서 여러 차례의 단기적 계획을 통해, 1960년까지는 녹화조림에, 그 이후는 수종갱신 조림에 주력하여 왔다.그러나1970년대 이후 경제사정의 악화와 함께 그 성과는 부진하였고, 결국 산림관리의 실패로 인하여 근래 산림 의 황폐화 문제가 심각하게 제기되고 있다. 따라서 앞으로 북한의 산림황폐지에 대한 다각적인 복구대책을 비롯하여, 남북한의 상호협력과 교류의 확대가 필요하며, 장기적으로 통일시대에 대비한 산림관리방안의 수립이 요구된다.

This study analyzed on the developmental process of forest policy direction in Korea and present status of forest desolation in North Korea of the pre and post division of the Korean peninsular with historical point of view and indicates future tasks to take. Forests in Korea were destroyed in the early of 1900s while Korean peninsular was under Japanese colonial rule. In 1945, Korea was divided into two parts, which developed its own forest policy under the different political system. South Korea was at Korean war in 1950 and accomplished the greening movement from 1970s to 1980s. After 1990s, the country has aimed to sustainable forest management. North Korea has focused on forestation until 1960. However, the result has been doubtful with North Korean economic depression, and these days North Korea faces forest desolation due to failures of forest management. Therefore, necessary is that recovery measures for forest desolation in North Korea, cooperation and interchange between North and South Korea and plans of forest management in case of unification.

The recent increase in the frequency and severity of forest fires driven by climate change have raised concerns about secondary disasters, such as soil erosion and landslides, in forest-fire-affected areas. Effective restoration, including soil protection and vegetation recovery, is essential for mitigating these risks. In South Korea, most studies have mainly focused on localized changes or the initial stages of post-fire recovery and remain limited in both temporal and spatial scopes. We conducted a bibliometric analysis to examine and compare research trends over the past 45 years regarding post-fire restoration and the application of nature-based solutions (NbS) to fire-affected areas. The results indicated a marked increase in international publications on post-fire restoration since the 2000s, with most studies originating from the United States and European countries where forest fires are particularly frequent. In South Korea, research on post-fire restoration has increased significantly since 2010. However, no studies on NbS applications have been published to date. Our findings highlight that despite ongoing restoration efforts in South Korea, a comprehensive evaluation of restoration techniques is still lacking. To achieve sustainable restoration and management of forest-fire-affected areas, it is essential to systematically monitor changes in soil and hydrological conditions. Based on these data, diverse restoration techniques, including NbS, should be implemented, and their effectiveness should be quantitatively assessed.

The Gran Chaco forest is the second-largest forest in South America after the Amazon forest. It has experienced some of the world's highest deforestation rates, with cattle ranching identified as the primary driver of deforestation in the Paraguayan region of the Chaco. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the costs and benefits of halting deforestation and determine if saving forests would be more profitable than cattle ranching in the Paraguayan Chaco. Data from 80 cattle ranches and national data were analyzed to find the opportunity cost of giving up cattle ranching in the Paraguayan Chaco, and forest valuation and project costs were estimated. Results show that the mean opportunity cost, based on a 30-year project scenario, is 10.82 $/tCO2. The opportunity cost of giving up cattle ranching falls in the low range of carbon prices in the voluntary carbon market, meaning that the profits from preserving forests, especially from selling carbon credits, can exceed the profits of cattle ranching. The overall annual benefits of halting deforestation far outweigh the costs when considering the opportunity cost of cattle ranching and forest preservation project transaction costs for the entire Paraguayan Chaco by at least 115 times. Halting deforestation can be a viable alternative for stakeholders and is important for policymakers to acknowledge.

This research aimed to assess the possibility of detecting forest degradation using time-series satellite imagery and three different deep learning-based change detection techniques. The dataset used for the deep learning models was composed of two sets, one based on surface reflectance (SR) spectral information from satellite imagery, combined with Texture Information (GLCM; Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix) and terrain information. The deep learning models employed for land cover change detection included image differencing using the Unet semantic segmentation model, multi-encoder Unet model, and multi-encoder Unet++ model. The study found that there was no significant difference in accuracy between the deep learning models for forest degradation detection. Both training and validation accuracies were approximately 89% and 92%, respectively. Among the three deep learning models, the multi-encoder Unet model showed the most efficient analysis time and comparable accuracy. Moreover, models that incorporated both texture and gradient information in addition to spectral information were found to have a higher classification accuracy compared to models that used only spectral information. Overall, the accuracy of forest degradation extraction was outstanding, achieving 98%.

There is little information about appropriate greenspace structures to satisfy aesthetic function in Korea. The purpose of this study was to analyze Korean's aesthetic preferences for greenspace structures concerned with urban tree plantings of an areal type to explore desirable greenspace landscapes. The study considered 5 structural variables of greenspace which were species composition, tree density, tree size, vertical and horizontal structure, and tree layout pattern. A photo-questionnaire was prepared through color simulations of different landscape types for each structural variable. Preference responses of an interval-scale rating from 214 respondents were statistically analyzed between landscape types and between respondent groups. Respondents preferred greenspace landscapes with diverse tree species to single species, higher tree density to lower density, larger trees to many smaller trees, multilayered and grouped plantings to single-layered and sparse plantings, and informal pattern to formal pattern. These preferences tended to be relatively higher for educated specialist and student groups than for other generalist group. Thus, multilayered and dense plantings in natural pattern including larger trees of diverse species, which are similar to ecological plantings, are recommended to increase aesthetic function of greenspace.

This study was conducted from April 2012 to June 2012 to analyze breeding status of Black woodpeckers (Dryocopus martius) in the Gayasan National Park. Nest height, tree diameter which a nest built and altitude at the nest site of Black woodpeckers were 17.4 m, 63.8 cm and 587 m, respectively. A pair of Black woodpeckers completed a clutch in 4 eggs on 7 May and 3 of eggs hatched on 24 May 2012. Both female and male incubated eggs and never left eggs without one of parents. A male more contributed to build a nest than a female. Incubation duration was higher in a male than in a female. Nestlings made a begging call in a nest during the growing period. Begging frequency of nestlings increased from 11 days up to 20 days after hatching. After then, nestlings reduced begging and fledged a nest 24 days after hatching. This study provided information of breeding ecology to protect and manage population of Black woodpeckers which are endangered species in South Korea.