EAPSI: Assessing Effects of Urban Proximity on Plant Communities in an Island Ecosystem

岛屿是脆弱的生态系统，特有物种特别容易因环境变化和栖息地被外来物种排斥而灭绝。了解人类对岛屿生态系统植物群落的影响非常重要，因为岛屿往往是生物多样性的热点。该项目旨在确定城市邻近对植物物种组成和多样性的影响。研究将主要在郁陵岛进行，郁陵岛是韩国一个孤立的小火山岛，将重点研究林下植被。该研究将与韩国水原成均馆大学的金承哲博士合作进行。金博士研究植物类群之间的遗传关系，并在郁陵岛进行系统发育和种群研究方面具有丰富的经验。韩国庆尚北道郁陵岛面积约72.9平方公里，拥有41个珍稀植物类群和30个特有植物类群等685个植物类群。岛上高度的生物多样性使其成为生态学研究的绝佳候选者。特别是，研究人类接近对郁陵岛生物多样性的影响，可以阐明当地人口和游客的人为活动对生态多样性的温带岛屿生态系统的影响。该项目包括对距离城市影响不同距离的落叶、混交林和针叶林的林下植被进行采样。收集到的数据将作为未来研究由于人类直接影响（例如生境破坏和外来物种引入）和间接影响（例如气候变化导致的环境因素改变）而随时间变化的基线。该项目将与博士Seung-Chul Kim合作，将植物群落研究与正在进行的系统发育研究联系起来，以更全面地了解郁陵岛独特的植物群和生态。该奖项隶属于“东亚太平洋夏季研究所”项目，由国立科学财团和韩国国立研究财团共同资助，为美国研究生的夏季研究提供支持。

Islands are fragile ecosystems and endemic species are particularly susceptible to extinction from environmental change and habitat exclusion from exotic species. Understanding human impacts on plant communities on island ecosystems is important because islands are often hotspots of biodiversity. This project seeks to determine the effects of urban proximity on plant species composition and diversity. The research will be conducted primarily on Ulleung Island, a small, isolated volcanic island in South Korea and will focus on understory vegetation. The research will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Seung-Chul Kim of Sungkyunkwan University in Suwon, South Korea. Dr. Kim studies genetic relationships among plant groups, and has extensive experience conducting phylogentic and population studies on Ulleung Island. Ulleung Island, Gyeongsanbukdo, South Korea, also known as Ulleungdo, is approximately 72.9 sq km in area and hosts 685 plant taxa, including 41 taxa of rare plants and 30 taxa of endemic plants. The high biodiversity of the island makes it an excellent candidate for ecological study. In particular, studying human proximity impacts on biodiversity on Ulleungdo can illuminate the influence of anthropogenic activity from the local population and tourists on ecologically diverse temperate island ecosystems. The project involves sampling understory vegetation in deciduous, mixed, and coniferous canopy forests of varying distances from urban influence. The collected data will serve as the baseline for future study of change over time due to direct human influence (e.g. habitat disruption and exotic species introduction) and indirect human influence (e.g. altered environmental factors due to climate change). In working with Doctor Seung-Chul Kim, this project will link vegetative community research with ongoing phylogenetic research to create a more complete picture of Ulleungdo's unique flora and ecology.This award under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program supports the summer research of a U.S. graduate student and is funded jointly by the National Science Foundation and the National Research Foundation of Korea.