The Cypripedium japonicum is a species of orchid, distributed mainly in the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. In Korea, C. japonicum is an extremely rare species and class I endangered plant. However, little is known about the plant-microbe interaction and its ecology, especially rhizosphere bacterial communities in terms of structure and diversity in C. japonicum. In this study, the diversity of bacterial communities was investigated in C. japonicum rhizosphere and bulk soil. Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria and Actinobacteria were the most abundant groups in both rhizosphere and bulk soil. Significantly Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria abundantly inhabited in the rhizosphere when compared with the bulk soil. Conversely, significantly more unclassified bacteria were detected in the rhizosphere soil than in the bulk soil. This work increases our understanding of the rhizosphere bacterial diversity on class I endangered plant, C. japonicum.

This study was conducted to compare species and functional diversity of terrestrial plants among forest types by analyzing the variations in species and functional trait compositions in a large-scale natural forest ecosystem. Plant data were collected at 1,100 plots and a total of 802 plant species from 97 families and 342 genera were found along the ridge of the Baekdudaegan Mountains in South Korea. Forest types were divided into four categories including Quercus mongolica, Pinus densiflora, other deciduous and other coniferous forest types. To analyze the variations in plant diversity among forest types, we used two species diversity indices such as species richness and the Shannon-Weaver index as well as a newly introduced functional diversity such as Rao’s index. In functional trait composition, megaphanerophyte, geophyte and hemicryptophyte were the dominant traits, whereas the relative proportion of helophyte and hydrophyte and epiphyte indicated less than 1%. In diversity patterns among forest types, species richness and diversity for total plants showed the lowest value in P. densiflora forest type, while other deciduous and Q. mongolica forest types had the highest values of species richness and diversity for woody and herbaceous plants, respectively. However, functional diversity did not depict a clear distinction among four forest types for plant groups. This study suggests that although taxonomical richness and diversity may be different among forest types, there may be no differences in functional diversity. Moreover, these indistinct patterns in functional diversity may be a result of disturbance and successional gradients compounded in a forest type in addition to the type of functional traits used for comparison and contrast among forest types. Therefore, a further study with various functional traits and different environmental gradients should be consistently evaluated to achieve a better understanding of the diversity patterns of plant communities in mountain ecosystems.

정도리 해안방풍림은 완도 정남지역으로 바다와 육지 사이에 위치하면서 여름철 강한 남동풍을 막아 줌으로서 육상 경작지나 어촌 마을을 보호하는 육상생물이 서식하는 생태적 천이지역으로서 매우 중요한 곳이다. 정도리 방풍림의 식물상은 93과 250속 335종 42변종 7품종으로 총 384분류군이다. 정도리지역은 식물구계학적으로 남해안아구에 속하고 멸종위기 야생동 식물II급 종인 대흥란이 확인되었다. 희귀식물은 대흥란, 두루미천남성, 말나리, 모감주나무, 수정난풀 및 백량금으로 6분류군, CITES 보호종인 보춘화와 대흥란 2분류군, IUCN 보호종인 생달나무 1종이 분포하는 것으로 확인하였다. 그리고 특산식물은 새포아풀, 죽대, 옥녀꽃대, 소사나무 및 털괴불나무 등 7분류군이 분포하는 것으로 확인하였다. 본 조사지역 귀화식물은 11과 23속 27종 5변종으로 총 32분류군이 조사되어 귀화율은 8.33%이었으며 도시화지수는 11.81%이었다.