Allogenic succession of Korean fir (Abies koreana Wils.) forests in different climate condition

Abstract

This study was conducted to clarify the changes in vegetation that occurred due to changing environmental factors, especially climate, at Korean fir (Abies koreana) stands with different climatic conditions established on Mt. Halla, which is located on a southern island of South Korea. The difference of species composition between sites was large and depended on elevation and slope aspect at lower elevations, whereas not as much among stands or between sites at the highest elevations of each slope aspect. It was interpreted that differences and similarities among sites were dominated by the microclimate determined by the topographic conditions of each site. The result of vegetation dynamics analysis predicted that the Korean fir forests would be replaced by temperate forests such as Mongolian oak (Quercus mongolica) forests or shade intolerant forests composed of early successional species such as Korean cherry (Prunus maximowiczii) and Spreading yew (Taxus cuspidata) at lower elevations, while would continuously persist at the highest elevations. We interpreted the vegetation changes appeared at the lower elevations as an allogenic succession, as the recent rapid climate changes directly and indirectly dominated the change. The species distribution modeling predicted that the distributional range of Korean fir would decrease to 13.4 and 10.1% of the current distribution in 2050 and 2070, respectively. Further, the distribution modeling showed that the sites located at lower elevations would no longer be within the distributional range of Korean fir forest, and those at the highest elevations would be sparsely scattered in fragmented states.

Tropical Cyclone Disturbances Induce Contrasting Impacts on Forest Structure, Plant Composition, and Soil Properties in Temperate Broadleaf and Coniferous Forests

“…Damages to tree canopies by strong typhoons led to intensive insolation of understory vegetation and allogenic succession, as seen in other studies [91]. We found an increased proportion of graminoids due to their vigorous clonal growth [92] in post-disturbance open vegetation, similar to [8,84], and decrease in overall plant diversity and number of woody juveniles (i.e., lower tree regeneration).…”

“…Several studies predicted that oak-dominated broadleaf woodlands will replace the original subalpine A. koreana forests in the coming decades [29,31,91]. These studies found a negative impact of global warming on A. koreana growth in our study site, while the opposite was documented for oak (Quercus mongolica) growth [83].…”

“…In addition, our results show that A. koreana regeneration is suppressed by dense graminoid understory, and its subalpine forests can thus be replaced by dense bamboo vegetation, which provides only limited opportunities for forest regeneration (Figure 1D) [10,76]. Deciduous trees accompanying A. koreana, such as Sorbus commixta, Aria alnifolia, Prunus maximowiczii, and Betula ermanii, belong to pioneer early-to mid-successional species [77,91] with easily germinating seeds distributed by birds and wind over long distances that may better cope with dense bamboo understory filter [76,106]. In particular, members of the Rosaceae family (i.e., Sorbus commixta, Aria alnifolia, and Prunus maximowiczii) can regenerate vigorously by re-sprouting, and/or by flowering and producing seeds in larger quantities.…”

Tree growth response to recent warming of two endemic species in Northeast Asia

“…35°40′ and 33°50′ N, is particularly sensitive and has been listed as an endangered species by the IUCN . The decline of ABKO was previously identified based on short-term observations and is projected to continue into the future (Koo et al 2017;Lim et al 2018). QUMO, on the other hand, is expected to increase its abundance under warming climate scenario (He et al 2005).…”

Establishment, Regeneration, and Succession of Korean Red Pine (Pinus densiflora S. et Z.) Forest in Korea

“…However, other trends are also detected in these days. Climate change expands not only the distributional range of the Korean red pine forest to higher elevation [66] but also growing season beyond the normal growing season from April to early July [67].…”