A landscape ecological evaluation of avian fauna habitats at the wetland minefields of civilian control zone close to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of Korea

Background/Question/Methods

Almost all riparian forests in Korea have been transformed to urban areas in recent years. However, a wide expanse of riparian and lowland forests at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and the civilian control zone (CCZ) have been kept from development. Minefields were located to block possible enemy invasion routes nearly 50 years ago in the CCZ. They have become good preserves for avian community in this heavily populated and industrialized country. In this study, we evaluated the landscape ecological value of selected minefields as a habitat of the forest bird community. The avian fauna of three minefields of 85ha, 174ha, and 406ha were evaluated by comparing that of three control sites. Average number of forest bird species, number of individuals, species diversity index, species richness, and species evenness were analyzed according to the size of patch and environmental characteristics such as the presence of wetland and connectivity. Community similarity was evaluated between test and control plots.

Results/Conclusions

Avian fauna can be summarized as follows. First, 63 species were recorded, and the most common species had 828 individuals. species diversity index was 3.8, and the species richness was 9.2. Species evenness was 93.3. Second, small, isolated forest patch had a low average number of species and individuals as expected. But, small forest patches with streams had higher bird density than patches without water surface. Third, forest patches with marsh wetland were evaluated as lower habitat quality than forest patches with stream wetland in terms of the bird species abundance per unit area, number of individuals per unit area, species diversity index, species richness index, and species evenness. Finally, Community similarity of the small forest patches with streams was similar with large connected forest. As a result, lowland forest patch was shown the good quality for the forest bird community in spite of small extents, and community structure was similar with mountain forest bird community. Thus, riparian forest restoration could improve the biodiversity of the forest bird community.