SPECIAL FEATURE
Climate Change and Biodiversity Conservation in East Asia
as a token of memory for the 7th EAFES in Daegu, Korea
Chi Hong Lim
•
Ji Hong An
•
Song Hie Jung
Chang Seok Lee
Allogenic succession of Korean fir (
Abies koreana Wils.
) forests
in different climate condition
Received: 3 February 2017 / Accepted: 2 February 2018 / Published online: 6 March 2018
Ó The Ecological Society of Japan 2018
Abstract This study was conducted to clarify the changes
in vegetation that occurred due to changing environ-
mental factors, especially climate, at Korean fir (Abies
koreana) stands with different climatic conditions
established on Mt. Halla, which is located on a southern
island of South Korea. The difference of species com-
position between sites was large and depended on ele-
vation and slope aspect at lower elevations, whereas not
as much among stands or between sites at the highest
elevations of each slope aspect. It was interpreted that
differences and similarities among sites were dominated
by the microclimate determined by the topographic
conditions of each site. The result of vegetation
dynamics analysis predicted that the Korean fir forests
would be replaced by temperate forests such as Mon-
golian oak (Quercus mongolica) forests or shade intol-
erant forests composed of early successional species such
as Korean cherry (Prunus maximowiczii) and Spreading
yew (Taxus cuspidata) at lower elevations, while would
continuously persist at the highest elevations. We
interpreted the vegetation changes appeared at the lower
elevations as an allogenic succession, as the recent rapid
climate changes directly and indirectly dominated the
change. The species distribution modeling predicted that
the distributional range of Korean fir would decrease to
13.4 and 10.1% of the current distribution in 2050 and
2070, respectively. Further, the distribution modeling
showed that the sites located at lower elevations would
no longer be within the distributional range of Korean
fir forest, and those at the highest elevations would be
sparsely scattered in fragmented states.
Keywords Allogenic succession Æ Climate change Æ
Korean fir forest Æ Species distribution modeling Æ
Vegetation dynamics
Introduction
A key feature that determines the response of vegetation to
climate change is whether the vegetation is in equilibrium
withtheclimate(Prentice1986;Webb1986). If so, changes
in climate are matched by changes in vegetation (Sykes
2009). Alternatively, time lags may occur if the rate of cli-
mate change exceeds the timescale over which plants grow,
reproduce, and migrate (Neilson et al. 2005; Thuiller et al.
2008). This is particularly true of long-lived vegetation such
as forests (Davis 1989;Chenetal.2011). Some species dis-
appear quickly from the community as the existing indi-
viduals die under the changing climate. However, climate
differentially affects various aspects of a tree’s life cycle. Seed
production, germination, and seedling establishment have
different sensitivities to climate from growth (Finch-Savage
and Bassel 2015). The existing individuals of some species
may be able to tolerate changing conditions, but they may
not be able to reproduce. Hence, established vegetation can
show inertia to climate fluctuations (Bonan 2002).
The ability of vegetation to colonize new sites is limited
by differences in migration rates. Most tree species have
poor migration rates on the order of 4–50 km per century
(Davis 1981; Van Minnen et al. 2000). For example, in
eastern North America, spruces migrated over a period of
3000–4000 years from their refuge during the last glacial
maximum in the Appalachian Mountains to their present-
day southern range limit (De Lafontaine et al. 2010).
Therefore, the species that compose the vegetation in a
given area would compete with each other for survival as
the environment is altered by climate change. In this re-
spect, analyzing vegetation dynamics in different climate
conditions could provide important information for
interpreting and predicting vegetation change that will
occur due to climate change in the future.
Vegetation is a dynamic entity, changing with time in
response to the life history patterns of species, compe-
tition among plants for light, water, and nutrients, and
disturbances that disrupt the equilibrium in the ecosys-
tem (Huston and Smith 1987). Among the plants that
C. H. Lim Æ J. H. An Æ S. H. Jung Æ C. S. Lee (&)
Department of Bio and Environmental Technology, Seoul Wo-
men’s University, 621 Hwarang-no, Nowon-gu, Seoul 01797, South
Korea
E-mail: leecs@swu.ac.kr
Ecol Res (2018) 33: 327–340
DOI 10.1007/s11284-018-1592-2
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