This study was conducted to reveal the effects of local climatic conditions on reproductive growth in a mature stand of Korean white pine based on climatic estimates. For this, the reproductive growth such as production and characteristics of cone and...
This study was conducted to reveal the effects of local climatic conditions on reproductive growth in a mature stand of Korean white pine based on climatic estimates. For this, the reproductive growth such as production and characteristics of cone and seed were first measured and summarized for seven years from 1974 to 1980. The local climatic conditions in the study site were also estimated by both a topoclimatological method and a spatial statistical technique. The local climatic conditions were then correlated with and regressed on the growth factors to reveal the relationships between the climatic estimates and the reproductive growth. Average number of conelet formation per tree showed highly negative correlation with some climatic variables related to minimum temperature in the year of flower bud differentiation. Especially, the most significant negative correlation were found between average of the minimum temperature for June and July of flower bud differentiation year and the number of conelet formation. There was no significant correlation between the number of cone production and climatic variables. However, total precipitation from December of the flowering year to February of the cone production year showed the most high correlation (r=0.6036) with the number of cone production. It was found that significant climatic variables affecting the amount of cone drop and cone drop percentage were the sum of cloudy days from June of the flowering year to August of the cone production year. Positive correlation was significantly recognized between the average weight of empty seed per cone and total precipitation from December of the flowering year to February of the cone production year. For the percentage of empty seed, five climatic variables among 19 variables were significantly correlated at 10% level. The average weight of a cone showed negative correlation with total precipitation from June of the flowering year to August of the cone production year. It was also found that average weight of a seed had highly negative correlation with total precipitation from December of the flowering year to February of the cone production year. The average weight of cone coat was negatively correlated with two climatic variables derived from clear days, which are sum of clear days from November of the flowering year to March of the cone production year and sum of clear days from December of the flowering year to February of the cone production year. On the other hand, it showed positive correlation with mean temperature of May in the flowering year. The exactly same results were obtained in correlation analysis for the percentage of cone coat.