Some 30 animal and plant species previously not known to exist there have been found in the Dokdo islets.
The Environment Ministry on Tuesday said it monitored the ecosystem on Dokdo on three occasions between April and October last year and found a total of 237 species -- 51 plant species, 45 bird species, 71 bug species, and 70 marine invertebrate species -- living there. Thirty are new species that had not been found in earlier surveys.
Biota on Dokdo is more diverse than in the past, but some experts are worried that Dokdo's indigenous ecosystem might be damaged by nonnative plants brought from the mainland.
The ministry said of the 51 plant species, 45 are nonnative plants, bringing potential threat to Dokdo's indigenous ecosystem. It said it will consider removing the nonnative plants after continuing to monitor the ecosystem there until 2014.
