Christmas tree, fir tree, death crisis...We overcome it with our hands!

[Anchor]
I'm sure there are people preparing Christmas trees at this time of the year.

The bulbous tree, famous for its Christmas tree, is actually a native tree species that grows only in Korea.

However, recently, climate change is endangered, and domestic researchers have developed a technology to increase the immunity of fir trees for the first time and have begun restoring them.

Reporter Lim Null-sol covered it.

[Reporter]
a popular Christmas tree,

Korea is the only native habitat in the world, and it is distributed in a total of nine places, including Hallasan Mountain, Jirisan Mountain, and Deogyusan Mountain.

It grows mainly in high mountains, and the bulbous tree is endangered due to global warming.

In particular, the situation of fir trees in Hallasan, the largest habitat, is serious.

The leaves of the green leaves went nowhere, they were gray, but they remained bare.

In fact, the forest area of Hallasan Mountain in 2021 was 48.1% lower than in 1918.

About half of it has disappeared in about 100 years.

In order to save endangered bulbous trees, domestic researchers have developed a technology that enhances the immunity of bulbous trees for the first time.

First of all, through genetic analysis and inoculation experiments of young fir trees that have died, we found two pathogens that are fatal to young fir trees.

Based on this, bacteria were added to pathogen-infected bulbous trees and compared to untreated seedlings, and the survival and growth rate of bulbous trees with bacteria increased by up to 1.8 times.

[An Ji-young / Researcher of the National Institute of Forest Science: DNA was used to evaluate genetic diversity. To perform the technique of selecting genetically diverse individuals from the genetic diversity evaluation.]

It is 2,000 fir seedlings planted for the restoration of the bulbous tree.

The bulbous tree, which was half the size of a ballpoint pen three years ago, is now more than 20cm tall, larger than a ballpoint pen.

The research team will transfer more than 2,000 pathogen-resistant fir seedlings to the restoration site and use them to restore the bulbous tree community.

In addition, based on the results, he explained that he will make efforts to restore forests by expanding it to other conifers in danger of dying.

[Lim Hyo-in / Researcher at the National Institute of Forest Science: (This technology) is meaningful because it can be applied not only to bulbous trees but also to spruce and snow pine trees, which are endangered alpine conifers that we protect by the Korea Forest Service.]

The fir tree is on the verge of collective death as it slowly gets sick due to the climate crisis.

We hope that we can grow healthy young bulbous trees to escape the danger of extinction with the immune enhancement technology we have discovered this time.

I'm YTN Science Lim Neul-sol.

Video recording: Hwang Yu-min

Design: Eun