Sasa spp., monocarpic dwarf bamboos, are known to form recalcitrant understories, lower species diversity, and hinder forest development. Sasa borealis distributed throughout Korea showed a phenomenon of synchronized dieback after large-scale synchronized flowering nationwide around 2015. Therefore, we conducted this study to take advantage of the rare event and add prevailing activity of wild boars and culm removal to elucidate whether they promote the regeneration of a long-term suppressed forest. We set permanent plots in forests with different understory types, and tracked the vegetation change in 5 years with respect to species composition, tree regeneration, and S. borealis reestablishment. This study focused on comparison between plots established after mass flowering. In flowering stands, we found the species diversity increased significantly with increase in species evenness, but not with recruitment of new species. Furthermore, the seeds of mass-produced bamboo germinated, and the seedling abundance was found to increase considerably. In stands rooted by wild boar, species diversity increased through the recruitment of new species, including tree species. It increased the abundance of shrub and perennial herbs, while it suppressed the reestablishment of S. borealis. Although rooting effect was independently significant regardless of flowering, the synergistic effect of rooting and flowering on forest regeneration was outstanding. Wild boar seemed to function as a remover of dead culms and a breaker of remaining underground mats as well as a seed disperser. Consequently, the species composition became similar to the reference stands. However, culm cutting caused negative effects by facilitating S. borealis to re-occupy or resprout. Overall, as the wild boar population increases, the positive effect can be expected to enhance. At landscape scale, considering several factors such as flowering and non-flowering, and population size of wild boar, the long-term suppressed forests by S. borealis are projected to regenerate with mosaic forests.

Yeonsook Choung, Kyu Song Lee, Hyun Kyung Oh, Soyeon Cho, Youngjin Kim, Kyungeun Lee, Jaeyeon Lee and Sangyeop Jung. J Ecol Environ 2024;48:. https://doi.org/10.5141/jee.24.089

Aims: This study examines how burn severity and postfire initial regeneration shape long‐term forest recovery and successional trajectories in cool‐temperate Pinus densiflora forests of Korea. Location: Samcheok‐si, Gangwon Province, Republic of Korea, affected by the large‐scale East Coast Fire of 2000. Methods: Permanent plots were established in five stand types representing unburned (UB), light‐burn (LB), and severe‐burn (SB) conditions and, within SB stands, high (H), intermediate (I), and low (L) initial regeneration levels. Vegetation structure and species composition were monitored repeatedly over 20 years and analyzed using generalized additive mixed models and ordination techniques. Results: Postfire vegetation developed along distinct successional trajectories that were established shortly after fire and persisted throughout the 20‐year monitoring period. Temporal changes in vegetation structure and species richness differed consistently according to burn severity and postfire initial regeneration pattern. Tree regeneration played a central role in vertical stratification and canopy development. SB stands with high initial regeneration rapidly developed early‐stage forest structure and showed increasing dominance of Quercus and associated deciduous species. In contrast, stands with low regeneration exhibited delayed canopy development and prolonged dominance of shrub and herbaceous layers. LB stands followed a distinct recovery pathway, retaining P. densiflora dominance through the persistence of surviving canopy trees. Variation in regeneration level among SB stands resulted in divergent trajectories, ranging from Quercus ‐dominated stands to mixed Quercus – P. densiflora forests, indicating a successional shift away from prefire pine dominance. Species richness exhibited hump‐shaped temporal dynamics following fire. Conclusions: Postfire initial regeneration provides a strong and persistent signal of long‐term forest structure and successional trajectories. In particular, within SB stands, differences in early regeneration level further constrained recovery pathways for at least two decades. These findings highlight early postfire regeneration as a practical indicator for anticipating long‐term forest development and guiding postfire management strategies.

Climate change have increased the necessity for developing climate adaptation strategies. Ecological restoration projects have been implemented to restore the structure and function of degraded natural environments, thus enabling adaptation to the climate crisis. However, due to the lack of subsequent monitoring and evaluation, the effectiveness and success of these restoration efforts remain unverified. Verification of restoration effectiveness is essential for establishing ecological restoration and adaptation policies. Therefore, this study catalogs 338 cases of ecosystem restoration projects (including Ecosystem Conservation Fund Return Projects, Jayeon Madang Restoration Projects, and Urban Ecological Corridor Restoration Projects) conducted between 2010 and 2023 to effectively select monitoring sites. Using satellite-based spatial data, we quantified the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), normalized difference built-up index (NDBI), normalized difference moisture index (NDMI) and land surface temperature (LST). This study shows that higher NDVI values significantly lower LST and NDMI, indicating that the more vegetation restored in ecosystems, the more effectively it reduces surface temperatures. The NDVI across all land cover types averaged above 0.2, corresponding to a high vegetation cover density. Specifically, forests exhibited significantly higher NDVI and NDMI, whereas bare land and used area showed significantly higher NDBI and LST. Over the time series, NDVI and NDMI increased, and NDBI decreased, suggesting the positive effects of restoration. The ranges of NDVI, NDBI, NDMI and LST values by land cover type for the 338 restoration project sites provided in this study can be utilized for selecting specific monitoring sites and verifying effectiveness.