Ecological environment

(1) Spatial modeling of natural regenration

Highlights

• The success of natural regeneration in silviculture depends on the complex interactions between interventions of stand structure, the natural seed-dispersal processes, and seedling development.
• The eigenvector spatial filtering (ESF) approach allowed for within-patch scale spatial analysis and modeling for seed dispersal and seedling development.
• The ESF model revealed that gentle slope, moderate soil moisture, and low crown closure were essential in achieving potential seedling establishment and growth.
• Distance dependence occurred in seed dispersal and seedling development; while Density dependence was not detected in seedling development.
• The ESF-based spatially varying coefficient (ESF-SVC) model provided differences in the impacts of environmental factors across the regeneration patches, showing that planting a large number of evenly distributed remnant seed trees in the reserved seed tree patch was effective in improving seed dispersal.

Figure ESF-SVC modeling result for seedling density in 2017, showing local coefficients for each seedling quadrat

(2) Spatial zoning of national park

Highlights

• South Korea has made efforts for the sustainable conservation and use of national parks, but there is a lack of basic data and scientific evaluation system for ecosystem conservation.
• This study aims to develop an ecosystem-based evaluation system to prepare criteria for the 3rd National Park Feasibility Study.
• Essential factors were developed and quantitatively evaluated for each factor, and different weights were applied to each park type for the ecosystem-based evaluation classification criteria.
• The proposed ecosystem-based approach in this study is a scientific and systematic method that considers essential factors for evaluating ecosystem conservation values.