## 2 Materials and Methods
### Study Sites  
To cover the MLE in Northeast Asia, we selected five pilot sites from each of the southern parts of the selected sites, including oak (_Quercus_ spp. ), pine (_Pinus sylvestris_ and _Pinus Densiflora_), and larch (_Larix Mongolica and Larix Sibirica_) stands [35; 36; 37; 38] (Figure 1). The study sites were distributed along latitudinal (vertical) transects. They were also located near the borders of forests with other land covers and different forest densities [7; 39]. In addition, various human effects due to different management of forest activities were found from literature [6; 40]. Therefore, this region has ecological and socio-economic transitions that vary according to each tree species and nation. Figure 1: Study sites ( oak, pine, and larch stands) along the mid-latitude cectone (MLE) of Northeast Asia. Oak forests are distributed in the Korean Peninsula, Japan, and Far East Russia. The Kasuya stand, located in Kyushu, Japan, is one of 34 long-term monitoring forest sites of JaLTER (Japan Long Term Ecological Research Network), so forest disturbance has been very limited here in comparison with the other forests [35; 41]. Based on the literature review, its forest age is around 140 years. The Gwangneung stand in South Korea has been well-preserved as it is a national arboretum, therefore it has a very old forest stand age, around 80-200 years [16; 36; 42]. In addition, many field studies by the National Institute of Forest Science (NIFoS), as well as individual previous studies, have monitored forest changes. The Seolmacheon stand in South Korea was also recently added to the AsiaFlux network [43; 44]. This forest stand is young, aged around 20-40 years, and some forest hydrology experiments have been conducted here. Detailed forest characteristics of the Sohung stand in North Korea, one of the degraded and partially restored areas, were assumed based on a previous case study for Reducing Emission from Deforestation and land Degradation (REDD+) [45]. Bikinsky is located in Far East Russia, near the border of China, and forest fires are common in the surrounding forests [46]. Pine forests are widespread around the Korean Peninsula, Northeast China, and near Lake Baikal. Gwangneung also has old protected pine forests for royal timber production, and presently has well-preserved natural forests [47; 38; 48]. Its forest age is more than 80 years. Wonsan, which is located on the east coast of North Korea, is one of the focus areas for restoring deforested North Korean forests [11; 49]. Honghuaerji forest is located in a sandy area with a relatively young forest stand age. This site was established by Chinese government projects to restore the sandy lands and reduce soil desertification [50; 51]. One of the Russian forest stands, named Oblast, is located on the western side of Lake Baikal near Irkutsk, and the other, named Pribaykalsky, is located on its eastern side. Both forest stands experience forest fires and they are some of the coldest among the pine tree sites [46]. The larch trees in Laoshan, China were planted in 1969 as an experimental forest, and various studies have been conducted in this site [26; 37]. In Mongolia, the Tsenkhermandal and Khentei sites were selected for our simulation. Tsenkhermandal is located in the high mountains with a 110-year-old forest, and the Khentei site represents typical Mongolian larch forests near Ulaanbaatar. There have been different estimates of its forest age from previous studies, but it is estimated to be as old as 64-146, according to tree ring surveys [52; 53; 54]. Yeravninsky is a 100-year-old forest and is located on the eastern side of Lake Baikal across the mountains there. Buryatia is the northernmost site and comprises a 100-year-old high mountain forest. Both forest stands experience forest fires [46]. From these previous studies, a site information table, especially including information on species, forest age, and location with management history, was constructed (Table 1).