Kyo-Moon Shim

Evaluation of Agro-Climatic Indices under Climate Change

The increase in average air temperature over the past 100 years in northern Asia including Korea is the greatest (about ) among the various regions of the world. Considering a further warming projected by the IPCC, fluctuations of agro-climatic indices under climate change must precede an evaluation of vulnerability. The purpose of this study is to analyze how climate changes represented by global warming have altered agro-climatic indices in Korea over various time scales. Drought index during the rice-transplanting period of 15 May to 5 June has changed toward the favorable with recently increased precipitation in the Taebaek Alpine and Semi-Alpine Zone, and Yeongnam Basin and Inland Zone. The frequency of low temperature occurrence below during the rice transplanting has decreased, while climatic production index (CPI) has fallen because of the decreased sunshine hour and increased temperature during the rice ripening period. We therefore concluded that the recent change of climate conditions was against the rice productivity in Korea.

Correlation Coefficients between Pine Mushroom Emergence and Meteorological Elements in Yangyang County, Korea

The relationships between pine mushroom emergence and meteorological factors were analyzed with three years (from 2003 to 2005) of measurement data at Yangyang site, in order to evaluate the effect of micrometeorological environment on pine mushroom production. fine mushroom was daily monitored and collected in the survey area during the its producing period (approximately one month). Pine mushroom production was highest in 2005 with the meteorological conditions of high temperature and frequent rainfalls in October. The production was lowest in 2004 due to dry conditions from mid September to late October, The meterological factors related to humidity (i.e., relative humidity, soil water content, and precipitation) were better correlated than those related to temperature (i.e., air and soil temperature, soil heat flux and solar radiation) with pine mushroom production. However, all of the correlation coefficients were statistically insignificant with values ranging from 0.15 to 0.46. Such poor correlations may be attributed to various other environmental conditions (e.g., topography, soil, vegetation, other fungi, the relationship between pine mushroom and pine forest) affecting pine mushroom production. We found that a mycelium requires a stimulation of low temperature (of three-day moving average) below , in order to farm a mushroom primordium which grows to pine mushroom after 16 days from the stimulation. We also found that the pine mushroom production ended when the soil temperature (of three-day moving average) fell below .

Land Suitability Assessment by Combining Classification Results by Climate and Soil Information Using the Most Limiting Characteristic Method in the Republic of Korea

Land suitability assessment for apples and pears was conducted with soil and climate information in South Korea. In doing so, we intended to preserve land and increase the productivity by providing valuable information regarding where more suitable areas for apples or pears are located. We used soil classification driven by soil environmental information system developed by National Institute of Agricultural Science, RDA, and also used climate classification in digital agro-climate map database for which is made by National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science. We combined both soil and climate classification results using a most-limiting characteristic method. The combined results showed very similar patterns with the results by classification based on soil information. Such results seem to come from the fact that the classification results by soil relatively lower than those by climate information. The results by soil classification seem to be too downgraded and checking if the final classification ranges in soil are reasonably made is strongly required. Although the most limiting characteristic method had been used widely in land suitability assessment, adapting the method based on results by soil and climate can be influenced by one downgraded factor. Therefore, alternative ways should be carefully considered for increasing the accuracy.