Characterization of the Butterfly Community of a Fragmented Urban Forest, Hongneung Forest

Abstract

Fragmented urban forests, as green islands within urban area, are the primary habitats for a vast number of different organisms inhabiting large cities. The areas of the urban forests are usually small, and hence, the proportion of the forest edge is relatively high. It is therefore expected that overall butterfly diversity may be lower than that of suburban or rural forests, and that those of grassland species, forest edge species, and generalist species with a wider niche breadth may be richer. Butterflies were surveyed weekly by the line transact method in order to characterize the butterfly community of the Hongneung Forest, a fragmented urban forest in Seoul. Butterfly richness of the study forest is much lower than those of main forests around or in Seoul. Grassland species, forest edge species, and generalist species were found to be richer, which was in agreement with the expected patterns of urban butterfly communities. Also, an endangered species, Spindasis takanonis, was observed in the Hongneung Forest, showing that urban forests play important roles for conservation of rare species. 현재, 전세계적으로 도시지역이 증가하고 있다(UNFPA, 2007; Mcdonald et al., 2008; Vimal et al., 2012). 도시지역의 확 대는 다른 생물들의 생존에 적합한 서식처를 감소시켜 생물다 양성의 감소를 초래한다(McKinney, 2002; Lee and Ishii, 2009). 따라서, 도시지역에 있으면서 다양한 서식처를 유지하고 있는 도시숲은 생물다양성 보존을 위해 중요성이 증가하고 있다 (Imai, 1998; Cornelis and Hermy, 2004). 그러나, 양서류, 조류, 나비, 잠자리 등과 같은 많은 연구에서 도시숲을 교외의 숲과 비 교했을 때 개체수가 적거나 종구성이 다른 것으로 나타났다 (Ishii et al., 1991; Osawa and Katsuno, 2005; Kawase and Natuhara, 2007; Motegi and Yanai, 2005). 어떤 지역의 환경상태를 파악하기 위해서는 지표생물을 대 상으로 하여 조사하는 것이 널리 행해지고 있다(Pearce and Venier, 2006; Maleque et al., 2009). 나비는 조사가 쉽고 다양성 이 높으며 생활사가 잘 알려져 있으며, 환경변화에 민감하기 때 317