Status and Distribution of Riparian Vegetation in the Geum River, Korea

Riparian vegetation gives basic habitats for animal and other biological organisms. It is one of essential landscapes in river ecosystem. This floral study was conducted to give basic information for management of the Geum river ecosystem. We discovered total 69 plant communities out of 40 sites studied and mean 8 plant communities were analysed per study site. Salix koreensis and Salix subfragilis community were dominant of all communities at tree layer and Salix gracilistyla and Rubus parvifolius were dominant communities at shrub layer. Phalaris arundinacea, Phragmites japonica, Miscanthus sacchariflorus and Artemisia princeps var. orientalis appeared most as perennial grasses and Humulus japonicus, Persicaria thunbergii and Persicaria hydropiper appeared most as annual grasses. Robinia pseudoacacia, Amorpha fruticosa and Bidens frondosa were frequently present as exotic species. Grass communities were higher than tree communities because of human disturbance by artificial banks. The number of species was 182 appeared as 53 families 144 species, 34 varieties and 4 forma and mean species number was 25.5 per site. The most abundant site was Yanggang bridge site (14 vegetation association, 49 species) and the least abundant site was Namdaechon, Muju site (3 vegetation association, 12 species). We suggest that continuous riparian vegetation monitoring should be carried out to manage water environment ecologically.

금강 유역의 수변 식생 현황과 분포