Preliminary Project of Landscape and Vegetation Restoration on Dongsha Island

Project Duration	2006-12-31 ~ 2007-12-30
Research Title	Preliminary Project of Landscape and Vegetation Restoration on Dongsha Island
Contracted Organization	Sustainable Ecotourism Association of the Republic of China
Principal Investigator	Kuo Cheng-Meng
Keywords	Seed germination, phenology, seedling growth
Abstract	Dongsha Atoll, located in the northern South China Sea, has a unique ecological environment and is Taiwan’s only atoll formation. After the surrounding waters were designated as a national park, active planning for natural resource management was initiated. The native vegetation on Dongsha Island has shown signs of habitat fragmentation due to past development, potentially affecting the survival and reproduction of other species. Areas with abundant seedlings are mainly found in open beach zones, while seedlings are rarely observed within coastal shrublands and coastal forests. The presence of remnant large trees such as Tournefortia argentea and Cordia subcordata in the central region suggests that coastal forests once existed there. To achieve the goals of native vegetation restoration and environmental beautification, ecological greening principles were adopted, using native plant species for restoration and producing the necessary seedlings locally on the island. Results from seed propagation experiments indicate that Ziziphus mauritiana and Tournefortia argentea showed the highest germination rates, while different substrate treatments did not produce significant differences in germination performance.