This study investigated the change of community structure over time in order to understand the process of ecosystem change after the road construction. As a results, importance value of the Pinus densiflora and Quercus variabilis on the elapsed 25 yea...
This study investigated the change of community structure over time in order to understand the process of ecosystem change after the road construction. As a results, importance value of the Pinus densiflora and Quercus variabilis on the elapsed 25 years after forest road construction cutting slope was found to be similar to the stand plot in the tree layer and subtree layer. Those results were considered to respond recovering the structures and functions of the original ecosystem after 25 years from the road construction. Species diversity analysis indicated higher evenness and lower dominance in cutting slope and forest road surface, attributed to the high dominance of major species like Arundinella hirta var. ciliata and Miscanthus sinensis var. purpurascens. Community similarity index and detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) showed that the stand, forest edge, and the elapsed 25 years after forest road construction cutting slope groups could be considered the same community. NMS analysis showed that all the forest road surface, the elapsed 1 and 2 years after forest road construction cutting slop were positively correlated with canopy openness and bare soil. The flora analysis revealed theat the entire forest road area cotained a total of 373 taxa, including 91 families, 241 genera, 338 species, 7 subspecies, 24 varieties, 2 forms, and 2 hybrids. The forest road constructed 25 years elapsed has the highest number of 252 taxa. 4 taxa of rare plants, 2 taxa of endemic plants, and 34 taxa of floristic special plants were identified. Among the 27 taxa of naturalized plants, the forest road constructed elapsed 25 years after had the lowest presence of naturalized plants, with 12 taxa identified. In conclusion, it was determined that the forest road area had recovered to the level of the original ecosystem after 25 years. Over time, the occurrence of naturalized plants decreased, and the area around the forest road stabilized. These results could be utilized as fundamental/ecological data tracking the vegetation restoration process after the road opening.