Budget and distribution of organic carbon in Quercus serrata Thunb. ex Murray forest in Mt. Worak

Abstract

The carbon cycle came into the spotlight due to the climate change and forests are well-known for their capacity to store carbon amongst other terrestrial ecosystems. The annual organic carbon of litter production, forest floor litter layer, soil, aboveground and belowground part of plant, standing biomass, net primary production, uptake of organic carbon, soil respiration, etc. were measured in Mt. Worak in order to understand the production and carbon budget of Quercus serrata forest that are widely spread in the central and southern part of the Korean Peninsula. The total amount of organic carbon of Q. serrata forest during the study period (2010-2013) was 130.745 ton C ha . As a result, the net ecosystem production of Q. serrata forest estimated from carbon fixation and soil respiration was 0.963 ton C ha -1 yr -1. Therefore, it seems that Q. serrata forest can act as a sink that absorbs carbon from the atmosphere. The carbon uptake of Q. serrata forest was highest in stem of the plant and the research site had young forest which had many trees with small diameter at breast height (DBH). Consequentially, it seems that active matter production and vigorous carbon dioxide assimilation occurred in Q. serrata forest and these results have proven to be effective for Q. serrata forest to play a role as carbon storage and NEP.

Organic carbon distribution and budget of dominant woody plant community in the subalpine zone at volcanic Jeju Island, Korea

“…Also, in subalpine zone at Mt. Halla, Korea, NEP was relatively low compared to other low altitude forests (Brown et al 2009;Jeong 2015;Lee et al, 2013a, b;Lee et al 2015;Pyo et al 2003;Hong 2012). This is because the height of the vegetation is small due to the strong wind effect and low effective soil depth.…”

“…The study period was from January 2014 to October 2016. The tree layer forest and shrub land were used with a quadrate of 100-200 m 2 and 9-25 m 2 size, respectively (Yeocheon Ecological Research Society 2005;You et al 2015;Barbour et al 1999). As the height of the A. koreana forest and T. cuspidata forest in the subalpine zone of Mt.…”