Abstract
A study on vegetation in the Mangyeong River and Dongjin River basins and the surrounding regions of the Saemangeum Reclaimed Land was conducted in a series of efforts to determine the expected ecological changes in the salt marshes, to restore their vegetation, to explore the restoring force of halophyte, to examine the community mechanism and, ultimately, to rehabilitate marshy land vegetation along the lakeside, coastal dune and salt marshes of the Saemangeum Project Area. The findings of the study may be summed up as follows: Five species such as Suaeda japonica, Salicornia herbacea, Atriplex gmelini, Aster tripolium and Suaeda asparagoides that are mostly distributed in the estuary of the Saemangeum Reclaimed Land were analyzed to examine the mechanism of halophyte to maintain their community. To find out the strategies of plants for survival and the cause of forming community structure, a research was made as for appearance ratio of biomass, root lengths and germination. With regard to biomasses of halophyte, the biomass of Suaeda japonica increases rapidly, while Salicornia herbacea adopts a strategy of unstable growth pattern by which the biomass increases slowly in parallel with its slow speed of growth since initial appearance of young sapling. In contrast, Suaeda asparagoides, Atriplex gmelini and Aster tripolium choose to adapt themselves to environment promptly by being transformed into life form of annual or biennial plant, a pattern that is presumed to be favorable and stable for survival in the later stage of growth. In short, there is a sharp distinction among the 5 species: i.e. Suaeda japonica that begins to grow fast in the length of surface and underground section but slows down from the mid-stage on; Salicornia herbacea that grows slowly in the beginning step but starts to step up from the middle onward; Atriplex gmelini and Aster tripolium growing slowly in the initial stage but fast later on; and Suaeda asparagoides that turns from the constant growth in the beginning to rapid growth in the later period. The outcomes of the analysis into status of growth and influencing factors of Suaeda japonica in the sowing field that is most widely prevalent in the Saemangeum Reclaimed Land as a sort of ecological pioneer in the salt marshes showed that the average size of grass lands, density and number of individuals increase in the natural sowing field as well as in the plowing field regardless of their physical as well as physico-chemical features of the soil as the season progresses from June to October of a year.
