## 3 Results and Discussion  
Exploring Spatiotemporal Vegetation Dynamics Surrounding LMO Confined Fields: Insights from Comprehensive Wild Plant Surveys  
According to the Transboundary Movement, Etc. of LMOs Act (henceforth \"the LMOs Act\"), seven government ministries have managed LMOs in South Korea. The MOE performs the risk review and safety management of LMOs for environmental remediation and consultative review on the risk posed to the natural ecosystem by LMOs for other purposes. Since 2018, the MOE has been operating a confined field for LMO research at the National Institute of Ecology (NIE), an institute of LMO risk assessment to promote scientific and systematic safety management by standardizing the evaluation criteria for LMOs under the jurisdiction of the MOE.  
The pivotal aim of this study was to forge innovative safety management systems tailored for LMO confined fields under the regulatory purview of the MOE. This objective was realized through meticulously evaluating the interplay between LM crops and the surrounding plant ecosystem. A hybrid approach, fusing traditional survey techniques with cutting-edge drone-based monitoring systems, was judiciously employed, casting a critical spotlight on their efficacy (Figure 1). Our rigorous exploration spanned a comprehensive three-year period, traversing three distinct ecological areas: the encompassing forest, the adjacent non-forest expanse, and the core confined field. This endeavor encompassed three essential activities, including intensive vegetation surveys, rigorous analyses of biodiversity indexes, and the harnessing of drone-enabled aerial observations to dissect the intricate shifts in topography.  
Before initiating the environmental release assessment for LMOs, a comprehensive survey was conducted on the communities of wild plants surrounding the LMO confined field, and the spatiotemporal dynamics of vegetation were carefully analyzed. Table 1 presents a representative list depicting the spring flora in the herbaceous strata of the study area encircling the LMO confined field from 2020 to 2022 (Figure 2). Notably, the plant species within the surveyed confined field exhibited consistent classification ratios across the years. Nonetheless, divergences in plant growth forms were evident among distinct locations. Specifically, herbs constituted 41.7% to 67.7% of observed plants in the confined field and non-forest areas, whereas, within the forest area, this range extended from 22.0% to 46.9%. Further, the forest area encompassed a tree proportion ranging from 3.1% to 16.0%, while confined fields and non-forest domains had a lower range of 0.0% to 3.7%. Intriguingly, the forest located at a 50 m distance from the field exhibited the highest tree proportion among all locations. In contrast, the non-forest region at a 100 m distance boasted the most incredible abundance of graminoids. Noteworthy disparities were observed in the distribution of life forms, where annual plants predominated in confined fields and perennials held sway in forested expanses. The non-forest regions  
Figure 1: Scheme of the newly developed management system for the living modified organisms (LMO) confined fields under the Ministry of Environment (MOE).  
contained an annual plant proportion ranging from 33.3% to 50.0%, whereas, in the forest areas, this ratio ranged from 7.6% to 33.9%. Conversely, the forest domain displayed a perennial proportion range of 59.7% to 80.3%, while the non-forest area spanned 37.5% to 56.5%. The proportion of native plants spanned from 61.3% to 97.0%, whereas foreign plants accounted for 3.0% to 38.7%. These results underscore the disparities in plant species composition between forested and non-forest locales, attributable to variances in habitat features like light availability, soil nutrients, and moisture content [31]. The forested regions harbored species like tree seedlings, shade-tolerant herbs, and understory shrubs, unlike the non-forest sectors, which featured abundant light-demanding herbs and grasses [32].