Journal of Ecology and Environment

The Ecological Society of Korea (한국생태학회)
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Assessing the potential invasiveness of transgenic plants in South Korea: a three-year case study on sunflowers

  • Han, Sung Min (Division of Ecological Safety, National Institute of Ecology) ;
  • Nam, Kyong-Hee (Division of Ecological Safety, National Institute of Ecology)
  • Received : 2022.05.23
  • Accepted : 2022.07.01
  • Published : 2022.09.30
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Abstract

Background: The introduction of new living modified (LM) crops may pose a latent threat to the biodiversity of each country. Here, we used sunflowers (Helianthus annuus L.) as a study system to investigate the potential for invasiveness of LM crops under different environmental conditions when released into a natural ecosystem in South Korea. We examined the seed germination, survival, and flowering of sunflowers under competition with wild plants at different sowing dates (March-December) and plot sizes (1 m × 1 m and 2 m × 2 m). Results: The germination rate showed a significant difference according to the sowing date. In addition, several sunflowers survived in plots with a high germination rate, which also led to a higher flowering rate. We found that the smaller the plot, the smaller the area available for inter-species competition, and the higher the number of surviving sunflower plants. The relative dominance and importance value of the species varied significantly between the sowing dates; in particular, sunflowers sown in March could compete with wild plants for longer than those sown on other sowing dates. Conclusions: These observations indicate that the potential for invasiveness of sunflowers differs depending on the environmental conditions and seed density at the time of release.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

We thank Dr. Jung-Hyo Lee and Dr. Jeong-Soo Park at National Institute of Ecology for identifying wild plant species.

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