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Vol. 52, 2013
Local change of butterfly species in response to global
warming and reforestation in Korea
Tae-Sung
Kwon1, Sung-Soo Kim2 and Cheol Min Lee1*
1Division
of Forest Ecology, Korea Forest Research Institute, 57 Hoegi-ro,
Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-712, Republic of Korea
2Research Institute for East Asian Environment and
Biology, 4-301 Hyundai Prime Apartment, Gu-ui 3dong, Seoul 143-203,
Republic of Korea
Abstract
Background: It is expected that the
successful nationwide reforestation and global warming will greatly
change the butterfly fauna in South Korea. We compared current data
(2002 to 2007) regarding the abundance and presence of butterfly
species at two sites in the central portion of the Korean Peninsula
with similar data from the late 1950s and early 1970s for the same
sites. The expected changes were documented by an abundance change of
butterflies at the two study sites in a previous study. Using the same
data, the most greatly changed species and the change of species
presence were analyzed.
Results: Population changes of 99 butterfly
species which occurred at both sites were significantly correlated
between the two sites. The greatly increased species included three
southern (S) species and one northern (N) species. However, the species
showing great decline included five N species and no S species.
Conclusions: This change is
consistent with the expectation of northward movement of butterfly
species due to global warming. The current status of the greatly
changed species is discussed along with other studies. The binary data
(presence/absence) in the present study support the expected changes of
butterfly species based on global warming and reforestation. The
interactive effect of two environmental changes was also recognized, as
well as the change of abundance in the previous study.
Key words: Climate change; Habitat change;
Species change; Binary data; Korea.
*Correspondence: E-mail: leecheolmin77@gmail.com
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