Authors: Soo Hyun Kim¹ and Jinyoung Park²

¹Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Anthropocene Studies, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

² Lead Scientist, Protected Area Research Team, Department of Ecological Monitoring and Assessment, Korea National Institute of Ecology

The DeMilitarized Zone (DMZ) is a 4-km-wide strip of land extending 2 km on either side of the military demarcation line between North and South Korea. Since when the DMZ was established in 1953, no civilian has lived in most DMZ areas, and access to the DMZ has been very limited. Human land-use activities for agriculture, urbanization, and settlements have been almost ceased in the buffer zone. Although trails, roads, facilities, and iron fences for military purposes have been built, their number and locations are highly constrained by the geopolitical tension in the Korean Peninsula. The suppression of human land use would have derived significant differences between the pre- and post-war disturbance regimes affecting DMZ ecosystems and diversity. Novel or underrepresented disturbances would have shaped DMZ ecosystems while threats from human-induced habitat removal or human-introduced invasive alien species were greatly reduced over the past 69 years. Identifying and characterizing changes occurring to DMZ disturbance regimes are pivotal in understanding of Anthropocene ecological history in the DMZ.

Fire is likely to be one of the most prominent disturbances destroying the stability of DMZ ecosystems. Having no human dweller, the DMZ lost infrastructures that could suppress fires immediately, but the DMZ did not lose anything that could cause a fire. Burning the DMZ had been routinely conducted to maintain the open field for shooting before the restraint of burn-clearing was agreed at the 5^th Military Armistice Commission (MAC) meeting held in 2000. In addition, as drier environments are formed due to global warming, more natural fires may have occurred. Fire management for the DMZ, however, is highly challenging for two reasons. The military tensions between two Koreas are obstacles to having discussions necessary for fire prevention, and numerous landmines are also barriers to access of fire and restoration services. Although the Korean Forest Service (a government agency of South Korea) started running firefighting helicopters and others to extinguish DMZ blazes in 2005, a number of uncontrolled fires are still spreading and burning in forests and other vegetation located in the DMZ.

Fire regime is composed of various fire traits–cause, burn season, occurrence interval, severity, interactions with different disturbance(s), and etc. The DMZ fire regime has been changing depending on natural and human drivers. For instance, during the Cold War Era, early spring was the burn season preferred by North Korean troops stationed in the western part of the DMZ. In spring, the northwest wind prevails, and the relative humidity is lower than other seasons. Accordingly, springtime fires had often spread from north to south in the western DMZ until the aforementioned 5th MAC meeting was held in 2000. Since then, the frequency of human-caused fire might have decreased, instead more wildfires might occur due to on-going climate changes. These alterations in the western DMZ fire regime suggest that fire activities across the DMZ can also vary with interactions between natural and societal changes. If so, how can we characterize or quantify the diversity of fire in the DMZ? How can we interpret spatiotemporal changes in DMZ fire regimes along with the climate, human, and ecological history of the DMZ? What are ecological consequences of the changing fire regimes in the DMZ?

The DMZ has been known as one of the most important nature sanctuaries in Asia¹, but it has not been designated as a natural preserve in South Korea. In addition, as 102 endangered species were discovered in the DMZ, its status as a repository of biodiversity seems more emphasized, and the resilience of DMZ ecosystems has also drawn a lot of attentions. However, there may be only a handful of historical ecosystems preserved in the DMZ. In particular, natural- or human-driven changes in fire disturbance regimes in the DMZ would create new ecosystems by disrupting ecological memory and altering post-fire recovery processes². The novel ecosystem would consist of both original and new components or only new elements³. In order to untangle the ecological role of fire in forming non-historical ecosystems, we need to understand long-term dynamics in fire regimes, vegetation, and ecosystems in the DMZ.