Finding topographical connectivity for sustainable forest ecosystem: Considering ecological characteristics

Background/Question/Methods

Many researchers have been studied regarding the forest ecosystem which takes up a large space among natural ecosystems for several decades, and have been discussed the sustainability to maintain present forest’s structures and functions. However, anthropogenic developments have caused the habitat fragmentation and habitat loss. Therefore many strategies to alleviate the negative impact of the development have studied. Among diverse strategies for maintaining sustainable ecosystems, securing ecological connectivity is known to be the most actively studied field.

To secure ecological connectivity, abiotic variables such as temperature and topography,   have been considered to be the significant factors. Topographical variables among abiotic variables, which are the basic physical factors of biological environment, are more stable than climate and the other factors. For that, many researchers have studied the correlation between topography and vegetation property and distribution.

The objective of this study is to establish topographical connectivity considering ecological features to maintain forest ecosystems. First, this research tried to analyze the correlation between topographic variables and ecological characteristics such as the distributions of coniferous forest and amphibians. Second, the research aimed to find more suitable topographical classification considering ecological characteristics, and to establish the linkage area by applying topographic characteristics against morphometric and generic topographic classification.

Results/Conclusions

As a result, topographic characteristics influence on vegetation habitat conditions found by using correlation analysis between vegetation distribution and topographic characteristics. Both topographical classifications are related to ecological features like coniferous forest and amphibian distribution. In order to establish the linkage area by applying topographic characteristics, generic topographic classification was shown to be more suitable than morphometric topographic classification. The all linkage areas except the ridge line found by applying topographic characteristics were not included in the boundary of present protected area, especially, the linkage area at the lowland.

To conclude, topographic characteristics should be considered as important criteria like species distributions in establishing a protected area. The methodologies introduced, could be used to complement the regions with lacking species distribution data. The linkage area found by applying topographic characteristics has a potential to be used in maintaining forest ecosystem sustainability in response to fragmentation and climate change.