This study was conducted to investigate the determinants of moth diversity in southern Korea based on vegetation composition and other abiotic factors such as soil characteristics and altitude. Moth community data were obtained from seven sites of Mt. Jirisan National Park, South Korea from 2007 to 2008. Data of soil characteristics (pH, organic matter, TN, P₂O₅, CEC, K⁺, Na⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, EC, NaCl) and plants were obtained from 20×20m quadrat at every moth sampling site. We generated PCA scores for plant and soil data to avoid multicollinearity. Multiple stepwise regression was produced using the scores of the principal components as predictor variables.

Results/Conclusions

Overall, the total numbers of moth species we've collected from the surveyed sites in 2007 and 2008 were 673 species and 8974 individuals. Forty-eight tree species were observed. Moth species richness had no predictor variable while moth abundance was explained by plant axis 1 and soil axis 3 (R² = 0.93, F_2,4 = 26.84, P <0.05). We will further examine the causal factors on the richness and abundances of moths based on different levels of moth families.