Abstract

This work aims to select the potentially vulnerable plant species against climate change at alpine and subalpine belts of Mts. Sorak, Jiri, and Halla, from central, southern, southern insular high mountains of the Korean Peninsula, respectively. The selection of global warming related vulnerable plants were performed by adapting various criteria, such as flora, endemicity, rarity, floristically specific and valuable species, species composition at mountain summits, horizontal and vertical ranges of individual species, and their distributional pattern in the Korean Peninsula. Line and quadrat field surveys along the major trails from all directions at height above 1,500 meters above sea level of Mts, Sorak, Jiri and Halla were conducted each year during spring, summer, and autumn from 2010 to 2011. Based upon above mentioned eight criteria, high level of climate change related potentially vulnerable arboral plants, such as Rhododendron aureum, Taxus caespitosa, Pinus pumila, Oplopanax elatus, Vaccinium uliginosum, and Thuja koraiensis are noticed from at subalpine belt of Mt. Sorak. Species of Abies koreana, Rhododendron tschonoskii, Oplopanax elatus, Taxus cuspidata, Picea jezoensis, and Juniperus chinensis var. sargentii belong to climate change concerned vulnerable species at subalpine belt of Mt. Jiri. High level of climate change related species vulnerability is found at alpine and subalpine belts of Mt. Halla from Diapensia lapponica var. obovata, Salix blinii, Empetrum nigrum var. japonicum, Vaccinium uliginosum, Juniperus chinensis var. sargentii, Taxus cuspidata, Rhamnus taquetii, Abies koreana, Hugeria japonica, Prunus buergeriana, and Berberis amurensis var. quelpartensis. Countermeasures to save the global warming vulnerable plants in situ are required.

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