Relationship between early development of plant community and environmental condition in abandoned paddy terraces at mountainous valleys in Korea

Abstract

In Korea, many paddy fields in mountainous area have been abandoned because of their low accessibility and rice price and the abandoned paddy terraces have changed into natural lentic wetlands. To understand the relationship between characteristics of environmental conditions and early development of plant community in abandoned paddy terraces, we investigated at four well-maintained abandoned paddy terraces in 3 different climatic zones in Korea. Soil texture of abandoned paddy terraces was mostly kinds of loam and electric conductivity of soil was also similar among abandoned paddy terraces. On the other hand, contents of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, magnesium, and calcium in soil were relatively low and significantly different among abandoned paddy terraces. Water depth was different within sites and inter-sites. Although environmental conditions including climate, soil condition and water depth were different among abandoned paddy terraces, the compositions of plant communities were relatively similar in all abandoned paddy terraces. 55 dominant taxa out of 141 recorded species were commonly recorded over sites and they were mostly perennial obligate wetland plants and facultative wetland plants. 8 taxa out of 55 dominant taxa occurred at all abandoned paddy terraces with over 10% coverage. Several site-specific species occurred at site, which have some area with deep water level. This result indicates that early development of plant community in abandoned paddy terraces of similar water regime is similar in the entire area of Korea even though environmental conditions such as climate, biogeographic history and soil are different.