There are dumbeongs which have a function as reservoir in the Civilian control zone (CCZ) of Western part in South Korea. The United Nations Military Armistice Commission established the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in 1953, with a 4 km width between North and South Korea and the 1,370 km2 CCZ, which is south of the DMZ, after the Korean War. In the 1972 and 1990s, the central government constructed agriculture villages in CCZ. Until now, they still use traditional irrigation pond, dumbeong, because modern irrigation systems are not yet settled. Dumbeongs in other places have handed over their irrigation function to large scale reservoirs and modern irrigation system and were converted to rice paddy. Since the 2008 Ramsar Convention in Korea (COP10), scientists have regarded rice paddy fields as wetlands and the dumbeong has come to the forefront of biodiversity interests in rice paddy fields. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship wetland plant and aquatic insect in dumbeong. Dumbeongs were selected 20 randomly. The percentage cover of wetland plants and the flora were recorded in 2016 and calculated by AutoCAD. The aquatic insects were sampled with a 1-mm mesh O-frame net.
Results/Conclusions
115 taxa aquatic insect and average 24.57 taxa per dumbeong were recorded. Dumbeong average area 462.31m2 and there was no correlation between dumbeong size and species richness (p > 0.05). Wetland plant structure complex was also no correlation with the number of aquatic insect (p > 0.05). But Leersia japonica coverage was influence on the number of aquatic insect (p< 0.05). Our results show that a very weak correlation with area and species richness unlike general result that large area related with high species richness. But specific plant which is covered open water area would be influence on species richness like L. japonica. L. japonica would provide insects with hiding places from predators as well as oviposition sites. The number of species Aquatic insect of dumbeong in the studies area was 112% of Wopo wetland, which is a Ramsar wetland, a very well-known wetland with high biodiversity. Thus, dumbeong is key-role maintained biodiversity in agriculture ecosystem like rice paddy; furthermore the specific plant would be help improved the aquatic insect biodiversity in irrigation pond.