- KOREAN
- P-ISSN2287-8327
- E-ISSN2288-1220
- SCOPUS, KCI
ISSN : 2287-8327
Vol.31 No.3
Abstract
Atmospheric N deposition has far-reaching impacts on forest ecosystems, including on-site impacts such as soil acidification, fertilization, and nutrient imbalances, and off-site environmental impacts such as nitrate leaching and nitrous oxide emission. Although chronic N deposition has been believed to lead to forest N saturation, recent evidence suggests that N retention capacity, particularly in the forest floor, can be surprisingly high even under high N deposition. This review aims to provide an overview of N retention processes in the forest floor and the implications of changing C-N interactions for C sequestration. The fate of available N in forest soils has been explained by the competitive balance between tree roots, soil heterotrophs, and nitrifiers. However, high rates of N retention have been observed in numerous N addition experiments without noticeable increases in tree growth and soil respiration. Alternative hypotheses have been proposed to explain the gap between the input and loss of N in N-enriched, C-limited systems, including abiotic immobilization and mycorrhizal assimilation, both of which do not require additional C sources to incorporate N in soil N pools. Different fates of N in the forest floor have different implications for C sequestration. N-induced tree growth can enhance C accumulation in tree biomass as observed across temperate regions. C loss from forests can amount to or outweigh C gain in N-saturated, declining forests, while another type of ‘C-N decoupling’ can have positive or neutral effects on soil C sequestration through hampered organic matter decomposition or abiotic N immobilization, respectively.
Abstract
Recently, the evolutionary study of human psychology and behavior has undergone rapid growth, diversifying into a few distinct sub-disciplines. One fundamental issue over which researchers in Human Behavioral Ecology and Evolutionary Psychology (EP) have different views is the role of formal optimality modeling for making hypotheses and deriving predictions about human adaptations. The study of EP typically rests on informal inferences and rarely uses optimality modeling, a strategy which human behavioral ecologists have severely criticized. Here I argue that EP researchers have every reason to make extensive use of optimality modeling as its research method. I show that optimality modeling can play an integral role in identifying the functional organization of human psychological adaptations.
Abstract
To determine the age structure of a Hynobius leechii breeding population and analyze relationships between the order of entrance to breeding ponds and physical parameters and age, we studied a wild population of the species in the Research Forests of Kangwon National University in Chuncheon, Kangwon, South Korea from March 16 to April 13, 2005. The age of breeding males ranged one to nine years old and that of females ranged from three to nine years old. The asymptotic sizes of males and females were 6.36 and 6.51 cm, respectively, and the growth coefficients of males and females were 0.71 and 0.81, respectively. The snout-vent length (SVL), head length, and body mass of males were all positively correlated with their age, but female age did not show a significant relationship with any physical parameter. The tail depth, body mass, and condition factors (SVL/body mass × 100) of both males and females were negatively related with the order of entrance to the breeding pond. The head width and SVL of males were also negatively correlated with the order of entrance, but the SVL of females was positively related with the order of entrance. These results suggest that physical parameters are more important determinants of breeding migration patterns than age. We discuss which of two hypotheses, the mate opportunity hypothesis and the susceptibility hypothesis, is better able to explain the order of entrance to breeding ponds for male and female H. leechii.
Abstract
We obtained quantitative information on leaf unfolding and leaf shedding by observing 45 species of cool temperate deciduous trees in an arboretum over 5 growing seasons. These trees were in leaf (the foliage period) for 207 days on average after 1 April; 50% of leaves had been shed by 192 days after 1 April. Duration from the start of leaf unfolding to 50% leaf shedding was 157 days on average. Leaf unfolding began 35 days on average after 1 April. For leaf unfolding to begin, a 51℃․day of cumulated daily mean air temperature above 5℃ from 1 January (modified Kira's warmth index) was needed. Fifty-nine days elapsed between initiation and the final stage of leaf unfolding. The period of net photosynthetic assimilation was 157 days. The species with succeeding- type leaf unfolding associated with the anemochore seed type dominated the early stage of succession, while the species with flush-type leaf unfolding tended to dominate the late stage of succession. Few species were found in regions where late frosts occur after the day when the cumulative temperature for leaf unfolding is achieved. Biological characteristics include time of leaf unfolding, which affects the life history of each species, so that each species occupies its own niche in the stand. We conclude that that leaf phenology, such as timing of leaf unfolding and leaf shedding, is one of the components of each species' ecological characteristics.
Abstract
This study was conducted to determine clutch size and habitat usage of Kentish plovers (Charadrius alexandrinus) breeding on Sinja-do Islet in the Nakdong Estuary from 22 April to 12 July in 1995 and from 21 April to 20 June in 1996. The Kentish plover preferred grasslands and damp sands to dry dunes as nesting sites. The difference in hatching success among these microhabitats was attributed to high tides, which washed away many nests on damp sands, and strong winds, which frequently shifted the sand to bury eggs on dry dunes. The main mortality factor in grasslands was predation by magpies Pica pica. Each clutch contained one to four eggs, with a mode of three eggs. Hatching success was highest in two-egg clutches and lowest in one- and four-egg clutches. The mean interval for egg laying was 1.8 days between the first and second eggs and 2.1 days between the second and third eggs. The average incubation period was about 24.2 days.
Abstract
We investigated the leaf demography of a temperate woody liana, Akebia trifoliata, in a temperate forest in Japan. Akebia is semi-evergreen: some leaves are shed before winter, while others remain through the winter. Previous studies of semi-evergreen species found that variation in leaf life span was caused by variation in the timing of leaf emergence. Leaves that appeared just before winter over-wintered, while leaves appearing earlier were shed. However, it is unclear whether leaves of the same cohort (i.e., leaves that appear at the same time within a single site) show variation in life span under the effect of strong seasonality. To separate variation in life span among the leaves in each cohort from variation among cohorts, we propose a new method - the single leaf diagram, which shows the emergence and death of each leaf. Using single leaf diagrams, our study revealed that Akebia leaves within a cohort showed substantial variation in life span, with some over-wintering and some not. In addition, leaves on small ramets in the understory showed great variation in life span, while leaves on large ramets, which typically reach higher positions in the forest canopy, have shorter lives. As a result, small ramets were semi-evergreen, whereas large ramets were deciduous. The longer lives of leaves on small ramets can be interpreted as a shade-adaptive strategy in understory plants.
Abstract
The increasing area of abandoned rice fields could provide new opportunities for wetland restoration in Asia. However, it is unknown how quickly or completely abandoned rice fields will recover from agricultural disturbances. We assessed water quality and plant community succession in abandoned rice fields with different hydrology in a mountain valley to understand the effects of hydrological regime on recovery. Water level, soil redox potential, water quality, plant composition, and primary production were measured. The sites, coded as D6, N13, and N16, had been recovering for 6, 13, and 16 years by 2006. N13 and N16 have been recovering naturally whereas D6 has been drained with a nearby dike and was tilled in 2001. The typical hydroperiods of D6, N13, and N16 were no surface water, permanently flooded, and seasonally flooded, respectively. The major change in vegetation structure of both D6 and N13 was the replacement of herbaceous species by woody species. Drawdown accelerated this change because Salix koreensis grew better in damp conditions than in flooded conditions. Phragmites japonica reduced plot-level plant species richness. The removal efficiency of NH4-N, NO3-N, and PO4-P from water varied seasonally, ranging between -78.8 to 44.3%, 0 to 97.5%, and -26.0 to 44.4%, respectively. In summary, abandoned rice fields quickly became suitable habitat for native wetland plant species and improved regional water quality. Variation among our sites indicates that it is likely possible to manage abandoned rice fields, mostly through controlling hydrology, to achieve site-specific restoration goals.
Abstract
To find out the status and characteristics of exotic plants in the Gwangreung Forest, a representative forest ecosystem in central Korea, we surveyed the species composition, coverage, and habitat illuminance of exotic plant species in a set of quadrats established along roads and trails in and around the Gwangreung Forest and buffer zone areas. In 1932, only five species of exotic plants were found along paths and roads in the Gwangreung Forest. However, the number of species in the forest has dramatically increased since 2000, when Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. and A. trifida L. were first recorded, and in 2007, 38 species of exotic plants were recorded. Among the 11 families, 23 genera and 25 species of exotic plants recorded in the quadrats, Compositae was the most common family (11 species), and perennial herbs, 42%, were the most frequently occurring life type, followed by annual herbs (31%) and biennial herbs (19%). Plants of North American origin comprised 48% of exotic species identified in our surveys. Exotics were found most frequently in quadrats along roads in the forest, followed by the buffer zones and hiking trails. The number of species and individuals of exotic plants decreased as we moved deeper into the forest, but Aster pilosus Willd. and Erigeron annuus (L.) Pers. were identified along hiking trails in the interior, and appeared to be capable of spreading further and more rapidly into the forest than other species.
Abstract
Functional feeding groups (FFGs) of benthic macroinvertebrates are guilds of invertebrate taxa that obtain food in similar ways, regardless of their taxonomic affinities. They can represent a heterogeneous assemblage of benthic fauna and may indicate disturbances of their habitats. The proportion of different groups can change in response to disturbances that affect the food base of the system, thereby offering a means of assessing disruption of ecosystem functioning. In this study, we used benthic macroinvertebrate communities collected at 650 sites of 23 different water types in the province of Overijssel, The Netherlands. Physical and chemical environmental factors were measured at each sampling site. Each taxon was assigned to its corresponding FFG based on its food resources. A multilayer perceptron (MLP) using a backpropagation algorithm, a supervised artificial neural network, was applied to evaluate the influence of environmental variables to the FFGs of benthic macroinvertebrates through a sensitivity analysis. In the evaluation of input variables, the sensitivity analysis with partial derivatives demonstrates the relative importance of influential environmental variables on the FFG, showing that different variables influence the FFG in various ways. Collector-filterers and shredders were mainly influenced by Ca²+ and width of the streams, and scrapers were influenced mostly with Ca²+ and depth, and predators were by depth and pH. Ca²+ and depth displayed relatively high influence on all four FFGs, while some variables such as pH, %gravel, %silt, and %bank affected specific groups. This approach can help to characterize community structure and to ecologically assess target ecosystems.
Abstract
Jeon and Buss (2007) found that human altruistic tendencies towards different categories of cousins are adaptively regulated as a consequence of paternity uncertainty. Since the study sample was drawn from a large US city where the effects of patrilineality may be week, the question of whether descent systems also independently affect cousin-directed altruism remained unanswered. We replicated the cousin-directed altruism study in a population of urban Korean college students, who have lived in a highly patrilineal society. As predicted, mother’s sister’s children were favored the most, followed by both mother’s brother’s and father’s sister’s children. Contrary to our predictions, however, father’s brother’s children was more, not less, favored than either mother’s brother’s or father’s sister’s children. We discuss why this cross-cultural difference may be observed with regard to the highly patrilineal culture in Korea.
Abstract
We conducted field and laboratory observations of the life histories and fungal hosts of the darkling beetle, Platydema nigroaeneum Motschulsky. P. nigroaeneum, a fungivorous tenebrionid beetle, was a widespread inhabitant of fungi on deciduous trees (Quercus, Salix, Alnus and Carpinus etc.) in Korea. Development from egg to adulthood took 4~11 months in nature and about 66 days in the laboratory at 25.5~26.1℃ and 63.5~64.5% relative humidity. Both larvae and adults overwintered in their host fungi or beneath the bark of the host tree near the host fungi. Sporophores of Coriolus Quélet, Bjerkandera Karst., Daedaleopsis Schroet. and Merulius were common feeding and breeding sites in Korea.