Abstract
Through the past 60 years, forests, now of various age classes, have been established in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula through nationwide efforts to reestablish forests since the Korean War (1950–53), during which more than 65% of the nation's forest was destroyed. Careful evaluation of long-term changes in vegetation growth after reforestation is one of the essential steps to ensuring sustainable forest management. This study investigated nationwide variations in vegetation phenology using satellite-based growing season estimates for 1982–2008. The start of the growing season calculated from the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) agrees reasonably with the ground-observed first flowering date both temporally (correlation coefficient, r = 0.54) and spatially (r = 0.64) at the 95% confidence level. Over the entire 27-year period, South Korea, on average, experienced a lengthening of the growing season of 4.5 days decade−1, perhaps due to recent global warming. The lengthening of the growing season is attributed mostly to delays in the end of the growing season. The retrieved nationwide growing season data were used to compare the spatial variations in forest biomass carbon density with the time-averaged growing season length for 61 forests. Relatively higher forest biomass carbon density was observed over the regions having a longer growing season, especially for the regions dominated by young (<30 year) forests. These results imply that a lengthening of the growing season related to the ongoing global warming may have positive impacts on carbon sequestration, an important aspect of large-scale forest management for sustainable development.
Highlights
Most of the forest in South Korea was devastated during the Japanese occupation (1905–1935) and the Korean War (1950– 1953)
To understand the success of the nationwide reforestation effort, previous studies have evaluated changes in forest biomass, area, and growing stock [2,3,4]. These studies concurrently reported that the nationwide effort has resulted in massive young forests with various and almost continuous ages [2,3,4], which account for 72% of the total forest biomass in South Korea, changes in the seasonal cycle of vegetation growth remain poorly understood
To understand the satellite-retrieved phenology in relation with ground observations, this study examined the changes in vegetation growing season over South Korea using the Global Inventory Monitoring and Modeling Studies (GIMMS) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from NOAA satellites and the ground-observed first flowering date (FFD) of cherry
Summary
Most of the forest in South Korea was devastated during the Japanese occupation (1905–1935) and the Korean War (1950– 1953). To understand the success of the nationwide reforestation effort, previous studies have evaluated changes in forest biomass, area, and growing stock [2,3,4] These studies concurrently reported that the nationwide effort has resulted in massive young forests with various and almost continuous ages [2,3,4], which account for 72% of the total forest biomass in South Korea, changes in the seasonal cycle of vegetation growth (e.g., phenology) remain poorly understood. This massive and organized nationwide reforestation effort, unique in the world’s history, provides us with an opportunity to investigate the temporal variations in the characteristics of the ecosystem over the course of vegetation growth
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
