Endangered plant species under differing anthropogenic interventions: how to preserve Pterygopleurum neurophyllum in Wondong wetland?

• Published in: PeerJ (San Francisco, CA) CA), 2022-09, Vol.10, p.e14050-e14050, Article e14050
• Main Authors: Kim, Seongjun, Park, Hwan-Joon, Lee, Chang Woo, Kim, Nam Young, Hwang, Jung Eun, Lee, Byoung-Doo, Park, Hyeong Bin, An, Jiae, Baek, JuHyoung
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Biodiversity; Conservation Biology; Conservation ecology; Coverage; Ecology; Ecosystem; Endangered & extinct species; Endangered Species; Extinction (Biology); Flowers & plants; Habitats; Humans; Influential factor; Keystone species; Land reclamation; Methods; Plant conservation; Plant Science; Plants; Protection and preservation; Reclamation of land; Soil - chemistry; Soil compaction; Soil fertility; Soil structure; Species richness; Threatened species; Vegetation; Vegetation coverage; Wetland disturbance; Wetlands
• ISSN: 2167-8359; 2167-8359
• DOI: 10.7717/peerj.14050

Endangered wetland plants are important as the potential keystone species and mediators for plant-soil interactions. Establishing conservation strategies for endangered plants is also prioritized because of the elevating extinction risk by human-induced wetland disturbances. The present study examined the factors controlling the incidence of , the endangered wetland plant experiencing severe habitat loss throughout Northeast Asia. Here, populations and their surrounding environments were addressed in the last natural Korean habitat to assess the possible influential factors (vegetation coverage, species richness, exotic plant species, coarse rock content, soil bulk density, and soil electroconductivity and pH) under anthropogenic wetland interventions (with or without soil disturbance). Our results showed that occurred 6 out of 32 plots in the study area. All were found in -dominated area, but preferred microhabitats featuring reduced vegetation coverage, increased species richness, and undisturbed soils under vegetation removal. Multimodel inference also indicated that vegetation coverage (relative importance = 1.00) and coarse rock content (relative importance = 0.70) were the major influential factors for population size, and the surviving were strictly limited to where both of them were kept lowered. Furthermore, the wetland intervention with soil disturbance had a negative effect on by creating the rocky and compacted soil surface as a result of land reclamation treatments. Conversely, the wetland intervention without soil disturbance enhanced the incidence by decreasing vegetation coverage of the overcrowding competitive plants. Overall findings reflect that the strategies to counteract habitat loss and manage the overly dense competitive plants should be necessary for conserving , as well as other wetland plants threatened by the human-induced disturbances and excessive competition intensities.