• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.1-16
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to quantitatively evaluate the amount of carbon storage for trees in forest ecosystem to support the foundation for carbon neutrality implementation in Korea National Park. It targeted 22 national parks designated and managed as national parks in Korea, and conducted research on forest trees in the terrestrial ecosystem among various natural and ecological carbon sink. The survey and analysis method followed the IPCC guidelines and the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory in Korea. The amount of tree carbon storage in the forest ecosystem of Korea National Park was confirmed to be about 218,505 thousand CO₂-ton and the amount of carbon storage per unit area was 570.8 CO₂-ton per hectare. Compared to 299.7 CO₂-ton per hectare, the average carbon storage per unit area of the entire Korean forest, it was found that about twice as much carbon was stored when assuming the same area. In other words, it means that the tree carbon storage function of the national park is about twice as high as that of the average tree carbon storage function of entire Korean forest. It has great implications in Korea National Park not only provides biodiversity promotion and exploration services as a national protected area, but also performs excellent functions as a carbon sink.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.10-26
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• 2018

This paper reviews the soil conservation policies (SCP) in the global community and suggests the improved options in SCP in Korea. Soil Environment Conservation Act in Korea states soil is a valuable natural resource and it's value should be enhanced to provide the benefits that soil ecosystem can offer to people. However, SCP in Korea limits its application to not only the scope of soil environment but also the issues on soil pollution. The SCPs in the advanced countries have shifted their scopes from soil environment to soil ecosystem, put emphasis on the conservation of soil health rather than soil quality, and set the goals to optimize the soil ecosystem services to people while minimizing the soil threats. In this context, the soil security initiative was recently proposed to accomplish this goal while employing the nexus concept to bridge the soil ecosystem services with water, atmosphere, climate and biodiversity. Therefore, the key policies in soil conservation in Korea should expand the scope from soil environment to soil ecosystem, focus on soil health management, and develop the holistic governance among diverse stakeholder to maximize the soil ecosystem services. Soil ecosystem should be secured by national soil policies for human health.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.21-32
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• 2009

Coastal sand dune area is the important ecosystem as an ecotone which located between coastal area and terrestrial area. Moreover, it is very complicate landscape that have geomorphological interaction between erosion and accumulation of sand. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the sand dune ecosystem in view point of landscape scale including background landscape affecting origin of sand dune. Landscape ecological approach in the complicate ecosystem already started in developed countries, and it is applied to land management and biodiversity conservation strategies even in national scale. In this paper, landscape ecological analysis using landscape pattern analysis was carried out on 7 study areas (Yellow Sea : Hakampo and Doksan, South Sea : Namyeol and Balpo, East Sea : Hosan, Hupo and Goraebul) in Korean coastal sand dune ecosystem. Landscape elements were composed by 9 elements in these study areas. Major background landscape elements was the forest land and agricultural field. Namyeol (S06) has larger patch landscape compare to other areas. In patch shape indices, Hupo (E10) shows more complicate patch shapes. The high landscape heterogeneity showed in the Doksan sand dune area and that of Hosan. It shows that these areas were composed by various patch types. However, using landscape indices have to use very carefully because several variables have influence to the result such as scale and spatial pattern of study areas. Although landscape analysis through landscape indices shows sometimes difficult to explain the ecosystem, landscape scale approach on ecosystem assessment still useful to interpret in ecological process in large range of habitat.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.46-60
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• 2023

This study examines the appropriateness of indicators and methodologies through the evaluation of cultural services in border areas and uses them as basic data for the ecosystem service-based management of border areas, which are key domestic ecological assets. Accordingly, in this study, seven border cities and counties were evaluated and compared based on the evaluation indicators and methods presented by the National Institute of Ecology. As a result of the cultural service evaluation, it was found that Paju City was superior in leisure and tourism, Inje-gun was best in scenic beauty and heritage, and Yanggu-gun was strongest in education, and Inje-gun in heritage. Accordingly, through this study, future tasks for comprehensive cultural service evaluation were presented as follows. First, in order to evaluate ecosystem services at the national and regional levels, it is necessary to establish an indicator system for cultural service evaluation and monitoring. Second, when building a cultural service evaluation index system, it is necessary to review upper and lower conceptual units and the consistency between indicators according to the scale of the evaluation region. Third, a specific review of DB utilization for cultural service evaluation should be conducted depending on the type of ecosystem. Lastly, given the significant lack of domestic cultural service research, additional basic research must be conducted to evaluate cultural services including non-material and qualitative perceptions. In order to evaluate cultural services in the future, additional basic research is needed for each ecosystem type, and a process of finding appropriate evaluation indicators and methods through research is necessary.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.203-213
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• 2014

In Korea, a cooperation charge on conservation of ecosystem is imposed to prevent indiscriminate development. The total amount of this charge is determined by multiplying the size of the destroyed area by a value per unit area and the area index within 5 billion won. Since 2001, the charge per unit area has been determined to be $250won/m^2$. In this study, we estimated the unit value of ecosystem services per year using benefit transfer method, with a focus on forest resources. According to our results, forest resources have a value of about $3,500won/m^2$ per year. When the non-use value is subtracted, that figure becomes approximately $1,300won/m^2$. If this value incorporates the unit value of the cooperation charge on conservation of ecosystem, it will increase. To comply with the original intent of the cooperation charge on conservation of ecosystem, the fund must be used to improve ecosystem services, including the restoration of a destroyed area or the purchase of new land.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.99-112
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• 2020

This study aims to propose biotope field datasheet and biotope type classification based on habitat-based by analyzing the German biotope system. The German system began in 1976 and has established a habitat-based national biotope classification system. On the other hand, Korea institutionalized in 2018 to build a classification system based on land use and land cover, which is a classification system that does not fully reflect ecosystem in Korea. Germany operates 44 biotope classification systems and 40 biotope field datasheet. Korea uses a single biotope field datasheet regardless of the biotope type. This classification system may not reflect the characteristics of Korea's biotope ecological habitat. The biotope classification system of Korea was proposed by dividing it into five categories: mountain ecology, freshwater ecology, land ecology, coastal ecology, and development area to reflect ecosystem habitat. The biotope type was designed as a system of large-classification-middle-small classification and subdivided into medium-classification and subdivided in each biotope system. The major classifications were classified into 44 categories according to the mountainous biotope(11), freshwater biotope(8), terrestrial biotope (12), coastal biotope(6), and development biotope(7). Unlike Germany, Korea's biotope field datasheet was proposed in five ways according to the classification of major ecosystem types. The results of this study are expected to contribute to the policy suggestion and the utilization of ecosystem conservation because the biotope classification system is classified to reflect the characteristics of ecosystem habitats.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.194-207
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• 2021

It is necessary to assess and manage the different elements of the marine ecosystem, such as climate change, habitat, primary and secondary production, energy flow, food web, potential yield, and fishing, to maintain the health of the ecosystem as well as support sustainable development of fishery. We set up an ecosystem model around the Korean peninsula to produce scientific predictions necessary for the assessment and management of marine ecosystems and presented the usability of the model with scenario experiments. We used the Atlantis ecosystem model based on the marine food web; Atlantis is a three-dimensional end-to-end model that includes the information and processes within an entire system, from an abiotic environment to human activity. We input the ecological and biological parameters, such as growth, mortality, spawning, recruitment, and migration, to the Atlantis model via functional groups using existing research and local measurements. During the simulation period (2018-2019), we confirmed that the model reproduced the observed data reasonably and reflected the actual ecosystem characteristics appropriately. We thus identified the usability of a marine ecosystem model with experiments on different environmental change scenarios.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.21 no.10
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• pp.1275-1286
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• 2012

Coastal marine ecosystem plays important role of spawning and nursery grounds for fisheries resources. Yongil Bay is one of major coastal marine ecosystems, which is located in the southwestern East Sea of Korea. Species composition and abundance of marine organism in the Yongil Bay were investigated by season from March to November 2009. Gill net and pot fisheries were used for survey of pelagic and demersal species composition, and collected 106 species, 67 families, and 7 taxa of fisheries resources from the coastal ecosystem. Species were included 2 species in Ascidiacea, 2 species in Bivalvia, 6 in Cephalopoda, 22 in Crustacea, 5 in Echinodermata, 12 in Gastropoda, and 57 in Pisces. Diversity indices (Shannon index, H') showed seasonal variation with low value of 2.11 in winter, and high value of 2.63 in autumn. Main dominant species were Asterias amurensis, Pleuronectes yokohamae, Siphonalia spadicea fuscolineata, Trachurus japonicas, Sillago japonica, Conger myriaster, Volutharpa ampullaceal, Engraulis japonicus, Asterina pectinifera, and Portunus (Portunus) sanguinolentus that were occupied over 71.5% of total individuals, and 52.9% of wet weight. Seasonal variations of fisheries resources composition were discussed on correlationships with those of environmental factors in the coastal ecosystem of the Yongil Bay in Korea. Those results from this study will provide scientific data and information to develop the ecosystem-based coastal fisheries assessment and management system in Korea.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.105-116
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• 2021

Background: The creation of the National Institute of Ecology began as a national alternative project to preserve mudflats instead of constructing the industrial complexes by reclamation, and achieve regional development. On the other hand, at the national level, the research institute for ecology was needed to cope with the worsening conditions for maintaining biodiversity due to accelerated climate change such as global warming and increased demand for development. In order to meet these needs, the National Institute of Ecology has the following objectives: (1) carries out studies for ecosystem change due to climate change and biodiversity conservation, (2) performs ecological education to the public through exhibition of various ecosystem models, and (3) promotes regional development through the ecological industry. Furthermore, to achieve these objectives, the National Institute of Ecology thoroughly followed the basic principles of ecology, especially restoration ecology, in the process of its construction. We introduce the principles and cases of ecological restoration applied in the process. Results: We minimized the impact on the ecosystem in order to harmonize with the surrounding environment in all the processes of construction. We pursued passive restoration following the principle of ecological restoration as a process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem degraded for all the space except in land where artificial facilities were introduced. Reference information was applied thoroughly in the process of active restoration to create biome around the world, Korean peninsula forests, and wetland ecosystems. In order to realize true restoration, we pursued the ecological restoration in a landscape level as the follows. We moved the local road 6 and high-voltage power lines to underground to ensure ecological connectivity within the National Institute of Ecology campus. To enhance ecological diversity, we introduced perch poles and islands as well as floating leaved, emerged, wetland, and riparian plants in wetlands and mantle communities around the forests of the Korean Peninsula in the terrestrial ecosystem. Furthermore, in order to make the public aware of the importance of the intact nature, the low-lying landscape elements, which have disappeared due to excessive land use in most areas of Korea, was created by imitating demilitarized zone (DMZ) landscape that has these landscape elements. Conclusions: The National Institute of Ecology was created in an eco-friendly way by thoroughly reflecting the principles of ecology to suit its status and thus the impact on the existing ecosystem was minimized. This concept was also designed to be reflected in the process of operation. The results have become real, and a result of analysis on carbon budget analysis is approaching the carbon neutrality.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2019

This study aims at deriving the implications for adaptation policy and research target regarding climate change risk assessment in ecosystem sector in Korea. The common ground of exemplary cases of "world leaders" in terms of adaptation policies and researches was that they emphasize nationwide study on climate change on biodiversity and ecosystem in target of establishing scientific evidence-bases and reducing uncertainty for their national adaptation policies and plans. In light of this trend, Korean government should settle down more successful adaptation structure by leading adaptation system in further national policy-settings to observe UNFCCC and CBD integratedly and effectively, considering the economic value of adaptation in policy, and strengthening scientific research programs and technology developments. Moreover, risks assessment based on diagnoses and analysis on the risk factors (hazard, exposure, and vulnerability) for climate change in nationwide habitats and species and consolidations with subsequent adaptation strategies could make adaptations in ecosystem sector more effective and successful.