A distributional study of vascular plants in the Korean Peninsula
Joonhwan SHIN, Youmi LEE & Seunghwan OH
Korea National Arboretum, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea
Since the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity, viewpoints for biological resources have rapidly
changed. In particular, research for conservation and sustainable usage of plants have been steadily conducted through
many years. The Korea National Arboretum has been conducting a long term research on domestic and endemic plants
of Korea to complete a list of plant species and specimen collection. Up to date about 2,600 species, 53% of 4,940
known Korean plant species, have been inventoried through "A distributional study of vascular plants in the Korean
Peninsula" from 2003 to 2010. This national research project has completed surveys in 640 sites during past 8 years.
About 60 researchers from the KNA and 9 universities have participated in the project. In total, about 120,000
distribution data of plant species have been accumulated so far. The species list and distribution data were collected
from references and field surveys. Specimens of every single species identified from the survey sites are collected
as vouchers. All of the voucher specimens collected through the surveys are deposited at KNA and the other
participating universities. The project is now in its second phase. The second project started from 2011 in order
to collect distribution data and specimens of 2,280 species that were not included in the first project. Another
research, a distributional study of Korean rare plants, has also been conducted as wellas the main project.
The project will be completed with all the specimens and distribution data of every vascular plant species of the
Korean Peninsula by 2016. In addition, a distributional research for about 400 species known from North Korea will
be conducted in the near future with help and support from China, Russia and Japan.
|
© 2012 Organizing Committee
| | |