Initial Development of Forest Structure and Understory Vegetation after Clear-cut in Pinus densiflora Forest in Southern Gangwon-do Province

Abstract

Open-to closed canopy stage and it's ecological characteristics in vegetation succession are commonly described, but poorly understood in Korea. Vegetation development on structure, environment and understory abundance were studied for 16 yr in post-clearcut Pinus densiflora forests in the southern Gangwon-do province by applying space-for-time approach. We sampled 210 plots (10 for structure and 200 for understory) for four seral stages (1yr, 3yr, 10yr and 16yr). After clear-cut, mean stem density increased gradually to 5,714±645 stems/ha after 16 years and mean basal area was also from 5.5±0.7 m 2 /ha after 10 years and doubled at 10.0±1.6 m 2 /ha in 16 years. Woody debris and bared soil on the forest floor peaked at 11% after 10 years and at 10.3% after 3 years, respectively. In understory mean cover declined with all growth form groups following succession, but in richness, forb specie increased with structural development during 16 years. Our study suggested that overstory development did not suppressed whole understory properties especially in richness, thus appeared to act as a filter selectively constraining the understory characteristics. However only long-term studies are essential for elucidating patterns and processes that cannot be inferred form short-term or space-for-time researches. Strong negative relationship between overstory and understory characteristics in conventional models surely reexamined.

Viability and integrity of Pinus densiflora seeds stored for 20 years at three different temperatures

“…Due to these factors, the silvicultural demand remains consistently high, leading to its inclusion in 15.0% of South Korea’s total reforestation area over the last five years ( Korea Forest Service, 2023 ). Despite being one of the most important economic and cultural tree species in Korea, its distribution area is decreasing due to increasing frequency of diseases such as pine wilt, wildfire and ecological succession ( Bae et al. , 2012 ).…”