Reference ecosystem is a standard ecosystem that can be a model of the target ecosystem to establish the goals in ecological restoration. Yet, in forest ecosystem, reference ecosystem is composed of ideal natural state, it is difficult to diagnose whether it is restored in the right direction because it takes a long time to reach the target. And, the use of the reference ecosystem is limited in the characteristic of the vegetation structure gradually changing with time. As a method, data were constructed through the existing monitoring data and field vegetation survey to quantitatively evaluate the restoration degree by each type of reference forest ecosystem. Based on the constructed data, each reference forest ecosystem type is analyzed to provide quantitative indicators through relative advantage, species diversity index, maximum species diversity, homogeneity domination, vertical structure, similarity analysis, and cluster system analysis.
Results/Conclusions
The number of trees and cover of each layer had the highest number of shrubs and the highest cover of Quercuss accutissima Carruth in ecological restoration than other reference ecosystem types. Relative dominance was high in upper layer and sub-upper layer of each reference ecosystem type in all colonies, with the highest percentage of Pinus densiflora, the sub-layer of secondary forests (68%). Species diversity and fungus are considered to be the most ecologically healthy, as the Quercuss accutissima Carruth of the Natural forest, are high at 0.1595 and 0.2282, and the dominance is low at 0.7718. In similarity index, the Restored forest is 68% of the upper layer, and the vegetation structure is similar to the natural forest. This study can help to quantitatively evaluate the extent of restoration of damaged ecosystems by evaluating the extent of restoration of forest ecosystems using reference ecosystems.
This study is supported by Korea Ministry of Environment (MOE, Project No. 2018000210007) as "Public Technology Program based on Environmental Policy"