세계지리 과목에서 쾨펜의 무수목 기후에 대한 오해 풀기 = Resolving a Misunderstanding about the Treeless Climate of Köppen’s Classification in the World Geography Subject

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The purpose of this study is to resolve a public misunderstanding about the treeless climate of Köppen’s classification in Korea. Köppen explained that trees couldn’t grow in polar climates (E), but could grow depending on the conditions in arid climates (B). It is quite contradictory to describe that the arid climates are treeless and at the same time that trees such as date palms grow well in the world geography textbooks. Desert ironwoods in the Sonoran Desert in North America, gum arabic trees in the Sahel region of Africa, and date palms in the Arabian Desert in Southwest Asia are trees that actually inhabit dry climate environments. In conclusion, an alternative explanation is suggested that the arid climate is the one where trees grow but are limited. To apply this in the field, three approaches were introduced. First, the method of limiting the use of the treeless climate to the polar climate; second, the method of modifying the term to nontree instead of the treeless; third, the method of keeping the classification of the treeless climate, but adding the explanation that trees grow in arid climates.