Abstract
The velocity and impact of climate change on forest appear to be site, environment, and tree species-specific. The primary objective of this research is to assess the changes in productivity of five major temperate tree species (Pinus densiflora, PD; Larix kaempferi, LK; Pinus koraiensis, PK; Quercus variabilis, QV; and Quercus mongolica, QM) in South Korea using terrestrial inventory and satellite remote sensing data. The area covered by each tree species was further categorized into either lowland forest (LLF) or high mountain forest (HMF) and investigated. We used the repeated Korean national forest inventory (NFI) data to calculate a stand-level annual increment (SAI). We then compared the SAI, a ground-based productivity measure, to MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) net primary productivity as a measure of productivity based on satellite imagery. In addition, the growth index of each increment core, which eliminated the effect of tree age on radial growth, was derived as an indicator of the variation in primary productivity by tree species over the past four decades. Based on our result from NFI plots and increment core data sets, the productivity of PD, QV, and QM in LLF was relatively higher than those in HMF, while LK and PK in HMF were more productive than lowland ones. Our analysis of the increment core data revealed a contrasting pattern of long-term productivity changes between coniferous and oak tree species. While the productivity of oak tree species tended to increase after the 1990s, the productivity in coniferous forests tended to decrease. These differences across forest types and their altitudinal classes are also noticeable from the MODIS product. The results of our study can be used to develop climate-smart forest management strategies to ensure that the forests continue to be resilient and continue to provide a wide range of ecosystem services in the Eastern Asian region.
Highlights
Forests play an important role in the preservation of a sustainable society, ecosystems, and the environment; this is especially the case considering the risk posed to the environment by global warming (Rudel et al 2005, Lindner et al 2010, Kim et al 2019)
The primary objective of this research is to assess the changes in productivity of major tree species (red pine (Pinus densiflora) Japanese larch (Larix kaempferi), Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis), cork oak (Quercus variabilis), and Mongolian oak (Quercus mongolica; hereinafter referred to as PD, LK, PK, QV, and QM, respectively)) at elevations between 1800 m above sea level in South Korea using terrestrial inventory and MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) derived Net primary productivity (NPP) data
For LK and PK, we found a relatively large difference in the stand-level annual increment (SAI) between lowland forest (LLF) and high mountain forest (HMF)
Summary
Forests play an important role in the preservation of a sustainable society, ecosystems, and the environment; this is especially the case considering the risk posed to the environment by global warming (Rudel et al 2005, Lindner et al 2010, Kim et al 2019). Forests provide a number of ecosystem services including timber production, carbon sequestration, recreation, preservation of biodiversity, water management, and non-wood forest products. These services are closely related to forest productivity (Isbell et al 2009, Liang et al 2016). Productivity estimates are important measures to characterize the mass budget of a forest ecosystem. Understanding changes in spatial patterns of productivity and assessing its sensitivity to changes in the regional and global environment are important first steps in diagnosing or projecting terrestrial ecosystem feedbacks to such changes. Forest productivities have been measured using terrestrial data from long-term inventory and experimental plots and using remotely sensed data (Dong et al 2003, Masek and Collatz 2006, Hilmers et al 2019). Large scale NPP measures are currently provided by remotely sensed methods, such as the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) NPP algorithm
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