Monitoring of herbivore's feeding activity in three different elevations of Mt. Jirisan National Park, a Korea long‐term ecological research site

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to monitor diverse herbivore's feeding activity in Mt. Jirisan National Park, a Korea LTER site in a part of investigation of plant‐insect‐bird interactions. We selected nine tree species at three survey sites in three different elevations (300 m, 900 m, and 1200 m). We measured the herbivore's feeding activity by an indirect method that calculates feeding area per leaf by diverse but unknown herbivores (ankertrass area) every two weeks from April to June. We found that the peak and duration differ along the elevation: at a low elevation site (300 m), pattern of ankertrass area increased continuously from 16thJulian week to 22nd week; at middle elevation site (900 m), pattern of ankertrass area increased continuously from 20thJulian week to 25th week; andat high elevation site (1,200 m), pattern of ankertrass area sharply increased from 22nd Julian week to 23rd week. It showed that late May (22∼23 Julian week) was the peak timing of ankertrass in all elevation site. We expected that the peak or duration of herbivore activity can be changed followed by environmental change and this can be monitored in a long term ecological monitoring.