The Trend of Wildlife Habitat Isolation due to the Development on Adjacent Areas of the Jirisan National Park in Korea

Abstract

Abstract Background/Objectives/Methods Jirisan national park (IUCN status 2) is the first national park (1967) and the biggest national park (472km^2^) in Korea. In the first trial on the species restoration, since 2004, Asiatic Black Bears (Ursus thibetanus ussuricus) reintroduced from North Korea and Russia have been conserved in the park. Development activities around the Jirisan national park (JNP) have been isolating the habitat for many wildlife species. The objectives of this study are to identify the trend of wildlife habitat isolation caused by the development activities in areas adjacent to the JNP, analyze the trend of habitat fragmentation by using selected fragmentation indices and discuss landscape ecological implications of habitat fragmentation around the JNP. We use satellite data to estimate the extent of forest habitat and loss for the period 1991-2007 within the park and in a 5km peripheral buffer. The temporal trends of habitat fragmentation of five counties in the study area were analyzed and compared using selected fragmentation indices of FRAGSTATS. The implications of the loss of forest within JNP and adjacent buffer were discussed through the calculation of the species richness capacity (SRC). Results/ConclusionThe percentages of forest lost during the 1991-2007 inside of and adjacent buffer of the JNP were 4.8% and 0.2%, respectively. The degree of fragmentation of remnant forest habitats has also drastically increased. The number of forest patches has increased and the patch size and core area have decreased . This is mainly due to the road construction and second-home construction from 1991 to 2007 for all counties. The potential capacity to conserve species richness of the JNP has been decreasing in recent years due to the development activities such as road and 2nd home construction in areas adjacent to the JNP. Core areas used by the reintroduced Asiatic Black Bears have also been negatively effected. Wise control of development activities in the peripheral buffer of the JNP is essential to the biodiversity conservation and the future expansion of bear habitat to the national backbone ecological corridor, or Baekdudaegan.