Decadal Succession Process in Five Forest Types in Cool-Temperate Odaesan National Park

Abstract

The succession process in terms of species composition and stand structure was directly tracked for 10 years in permanent plots of five Korean cool-temperate forests having different stand ages and topography: Pinus-Quercus forest (PQ), Quercus-Tilia forest (QT), Broadleaved-Abies mixed forest (BA), Populus-Salix forest (PS), and subalpine forest (SA). Although the 10-year change in mature forests was small, succession was detected by applying the pre-developed climax index. The species composition based on the climax index implied that PQ is at pioneer stage, QT and PS are at intermediate stage, while BA and SA are at the late-successional stage. The stems were regulated in a density-dependent manner; severer in forests such as PQ and QT with high initial densities, and severer in the dense mid-story than in the upper-story. Consequently, the basal area increased in the upper-story and decreased in the mid-story. As the abundance of species with higher climax index increased, succession exhibited a progressive direction. However, SA suffered chronic disturbances, and showed fluctuations. During the study, BA and PS were also damaged but they were resilient to site-related natural disturbances. Our findings through a 10-year permanent-plot study may have meaningful implications for explaining mature forest succession in other regions of Korea.