%0 Journal Article
%T Feasibility of seed bank for restoration of salt marsh: a case study around the Gwangyang Bay, southern Korea
%A Seonmi Lee
%A Yong-Chan Cho
%A Chang Seok Lee
%J Journal of Ecology and Field Biology
%D 2012
%I 
%X Salt marsh is an important transitional zone among terrestrial, riverine, and marine ecosystems and is a productive habitatthat interacts extensively with adjacent landscape elements of estuarine and coastal ecosystems. Nowadays, in additionto various human activities, a variety of natural processes induce changes in salt marshes. This study aims to providebackground information to restore disturbed salt marshes and to propose their ecological restoration using seed banks.The study area is a prepared area for the Gwangyang Container Port located in the southern Korea. This area was formedby accumulating mud soils dredged from the bottom of the forward sea. This land was created in a serial process of preparingthe Gwangyang container port and the salt marsh was passively restored by seeds buried in mud soil dredged fromseabed. As a result of stand ordination based on vegetation data collected from the land, stands were arranged accordingto tolerance to salinity in the order of Suaeda maritima, Salicornia europaea, and Phragmites communis communities onthe Axis 1. Landscape structure of the projected area was analyzed as well. Edges of the projected area were divided fromthe marginal waterway by the dike. Four types of vegetation appeared on the dike: Alnus firma plantation, Robinia pseudoacaciaplantation, Lespedeza cyrtobotrya plantation, and grassland. In the more internal areas, two types of vegetationsequences appeared: Aster tripolium community-Suaeda glauca community-Salicornia europaea community sequenceand Aster tripolium community-Suaeda maritima community-S. europaea community sequence. Mixed communityshowed the highest species diversity (H¡ä = 0.86) and S. europaea community showed the lowest (H¡ä = 0.0). Evenness isthe highest in Mixed community (J¡ä = 2.26) and the lowest in S. maritime-S. europaea community (J¡ä = 0.0). Several plantcommunities were successfully established on the land created by mud soil dredged from the bottom of Gwangyang Bay.Moreover, community diversity in this area approached a similar level with those from other studies involving natural saltmarshes. Therefore, restoration effect based on community diversity obtained in our study can be evaluated as a successfulachievement. In this respect, although most salt marshes in Korea and other places worldwide have been destroyed ordisturbed by excessive land use, feasibility of seed bank as a restoration tool is greatly expected.
%K Gwangyang bay
%K halophyte
%K restoration
%K salt marsh
%K seed bank
%U http://ocean.kisti.re.kr/is/mv/showPDF_ocean.jsp?method=download&pYear=2012&koi=KISTI1.1003%2FJNL.JAKO201216646854699&sp=123&CN1=JAKO201216646854699&poid=kesk&kojic=STHHCL&sVnc=v35n2&sFree=