Effects of Deforestation Practice on the Distribution and Abundance of Herpetofauna in Mt. Gariwang, South Korea

To know if deforestation practice affects the distribution and abundance of herpetofauna in Mt. Gariwang, South Korea, we conducted field surveys over 12 times both at deforested (n=9 sites) and un-touched (control, n=12 sites) forest areas from March to October, 2017. Each survey site was approximately $100m\;long{\times}20m$ wide area, which in the middle of the site, mountain road presented. During each survey, we recorded the species and the number of amphibians and reptiles which identified. To compare environments between the two areas, we analyzed eight environmental variables, extracted from digital sources. Overall, we found one amphibian and four reptile species at deforested area, while each five amphibian and reptile species at un-touched area. The number of amphibian species significantly tended to be smaller at deforested area. The number of the survey sites where amphibians found and the number of amphibian individuals showed the same trend. For reptiles, although the number of reptile individuals showed some increases, all variables investigated were not significantly changed by deforestation practice. Our results imply that deforestation practice negatively affects amphibians, but effects of that on reptiles are not evident.