Plant Communities in Estuarine Wetland of Korea

초록

Estuarine wetlands are salt and brackish marshes associated with tidal estuaries located along coastal rivers. We tried to classify the estuarine wetlands of Kumjang River, Mankyungkang River, Tongjinkang River, Nakdongkang River, and Somjinkang River with emphasis on theri plant communities and soil environments. Major wetland types was estuarine emergent wetlands such as brackish tidal marshes and salt marshes. These wetlands were dominated by grass or grasslike herbaceous plants. In the brackish tidal marshes, Pharagmites australis and Carex scabrifolia were abundant along the water's edge of river. The salt marshes were regularly or irregularly flooded and exposed by the tides. Characteristic plants in this zone included Phacelurus latifolius which was usually appeared in brackish water and diverse halophytes such as Suaeda maritime, Suaeda japonica, Salicornia herbacea and Carex scabrifolia. Detrended canonical correspondence analysis revealed that major environmental factors controlling vegetation structure were particle size, cation exchange capacity, and electric conductivity of soil which were mainly affected by tidal inundation. In Korea a variety of wetlands therefore develop in estuarines because of differences in salinity and duration and frequency of tidal inundation.