Change Analysis of Subalpine Coniferous Forest Area over the Last 20 Years using Time-series Landsat Images

The purpose of this study is to identify the long-term area changes in the subalpine coniferous forests in Korea as a basic step to understand the changes and decline in the subalpine forest ecosystems vulnerable to climate change. We analyzed time-series Landsat satellite images (mid 1990s, mid 2010s) for change detection of coniferous forest area in nationwide subalpine areas. As a result, the area of coniferous forests in the study sites decreased by 25% over last 20 years. The sites with the largest changes are Seoraksan, Baegunsan, Jirisan, and Hallasan. The site shown the largest decrease area was Baegunsan (reduced area: 542ha), and the site with the largest rate of decrease of clustered forest was Hallasan (rate of decrease: 33.3%). This national and long-term information on the change of coniferous forests in the subalpine region can be utilized as base data for the detailed survey of endangered subalpine coniferous trees in the future.