Identifying Distribution Areas and Population Sizes for the Conservation of the Endangered Species Odontobutis obscura (멸종위기종 남방동사리의 보전을 위한 상세 분포 지역 및 개체군 크기 파악)
-
- Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
- /
- v.57 no.2
- /
- pp.102-110
- /
- 2024
This study presents a fine scale distribution of the endangered species, Odontobutis obscura, through field surveys and literature reviews. Using the mark-recapture method, the population size in major habitats was determined. Field surveys conducted on 18 streams in Geoje Island revealed that the O. obscura was only found in the main streams and tributaries of the Sanyang, Gucheon, and Buchun Streams, which are part of the Sanyang Stream watershed. The O. obscura exhibited relative abundances ranging from 0.5% to 35.3% at different locations, with certain spots showing higher relative abundances (18.8% to 35.3%), indicating major habitat areas. A review of six literature studies confirmed the presence of the O. obscura, although there were differences in occurrence status depending on the purpose, scope, and duration of the studies. Combining the results of field and literature surveys, it was found that the O. obscura inhabits the main and tributary streams of the Sanyang, Gucheon, and Buchun Streams, from the upper to lower reaches. Currently, the O. obscura population in the Sanyang Stream watershed maintains a stable habitat, but its limited distribution range suggests potential issues such as genetic diversity deficiency in the long term. The population size of the O. obscura was confirmed at two specific locations, with densities of 0.5 to 1.5 individuals per m2. The average movement distance from the release point was 13.1 m, indicating the limited mobility characteristic of ambush predators. Understanding the distribution and population size of endangered species is the first step towards their conservation and protection. Based on this information, further research could significantly contribute to the conservation of the O. obscura.
The detail survey on the Songsanri tomb site including the Muryong royal tomb was carried out during the period from May 1 , 1996 to April 30, 1997. A quantitative analysis was tried to find changes of tomb itself since the excavation. Main subjects of the survey are to find out the cause of infiltration of rain water and groundwater into the tomb and the tomb site, monitoring of the movement of tomb structure and safety, removal method of the algae inside the tomb, and air controlling system to solve high humidity condition and dew inside the tomb. For these purposes, detail survery inside and outside the tombs using a electronic distance meter and small airplane, monitoring of temperature and humidity, geophysical exploration including electrical resistivity, geomagnetic, gravity and georadar methods, drilling, measurement of physical and chemical properties of drill core and measurement of groundwater permeability were conducted. We found that the center of the subsurface tomb and the center of soil mound on ground are different 4.5 meter and 5 meter for the 5th tomb and 7th tomb, respectively. The fact has caused unequal stress on the tomb structure. In the 7th tomb (the Muryong royal tomb), 435 bricks were broken out of 6025 bricks in 1972, but 1072 bricks are broken in 1996. The break rate has been increased about 250% for just 24 years. The break rate increased about 290% in the 6th tomb. The situation in 1996 is the result for just 24 years while the situation in 1972 was the result for about 1450 years. Status of breaking of bircks represents that a severe problem is undergoing. The eastern wall of the Muryong royal tomb is moving toward inside the tomb with the rate of 2.95 mm/myr in rainy season and 1.52 mm/myr in dry season. The frontal wall shows biggest movement in the 7th tomb having a rate of 2.05 mm/myr toward the passage way. The 6th tomb shows biggest movement among the three tombs having the rate of 7.44mm/myr and 3.61mm/myr toward east for the high break rate of bricks in the 6th tomb. Georadar section of the shallow soil layer represents several faults in the top soil layer of the 5th tomb and 7th tomb. Raninwater flew through faults tnto the tomb and nearby ground and high water content in nearby ground resulted in low resistance and high humidity inside tombs. High humidity inside tomb made a good condition for algae living with high temperature and moderate light source. The 6th tomb is most severe situation and the 7th tomb is the second in terms of algae living. Artificial change of the tomb environment since the excavation, infiltration of rain water and groundwater into the tombsite and bad drainage system had resulted in dangerous status for the tomb structure. Main cause for many problems including breaking of bricks, movement of tomb walls and algae living is infiltration of rainwater and groundwater into the tomb site. Therefore, protection of the tomb site from high water content should be carried out at first. Waterproofing method includes a cover system over the tomvsith using geotextile, clay layer and geomembrane and a deep trench which is 2 meter down to the base of the 5th tomb at the north of the tomv site. Decrease and balancing of soil weight above the tomb are also needed for the sfety of tomb structures. For the algae living inside tombs, we recommend to spray K101 which developed in this study on the surface of wall and then, exposure to ultraviolet light sources for 24 hours. Air controlling system should be changed to a constant temperature and humidity system for the 6th tomb and the 7th tomb. It seems to much better to place the system at frontal room and to ciculate cold air inside tombs to solve dew problem. Above mentioned preservation methods are suggested to give least changes to tomb site and to solve the most fundmental problems. Repairing should be planned in order and some special cares are needed for the safety of tombs in reparing work. Finally, a monitoring system measuring tilting of tomb walls, water content, groundwater level, temperature and humidity is required to monitor and to evaluate the repairing work.
Purpose: The PET of the PET/CT (Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography) quantitatively shows the biological and chemical information of the body, but has limitation of presenting the clear anatomic structure. Thus combining the PET with CT, it is not only possible to offer the higher resolution but also effectively shorten the scanning time and reduce the noises by using CT data in attenuation correction. And because, at the CT scanning, the contrast media makes it easy to determine a exact range of the lesion and distinguish the normal organs, there is a certain increase in the use of it. However, in the case of using the contrast media, it affects semi-quantitative measures of the PET/CT images. In this study, therefore, we will be to establish the reliability of the SUV (Standardized Uptake Value) with CT data correction so that it can help more accurate diagnosis. Materials and Methods: In this experiment, a total of 30 people are targeted - age range: from 27 to 72, average age : 49.6 - and DSTe (General Electric Healthcare, Milwaukee, MI, USA) is used for equipment.
Recently concerns have been raised due to the unbalanced supply of crops: the price of crops has been unstable and at one point the price went up so high that the word Agflation(agriculture+ inflation) was coined. Korea, in particular, is a small-sized country and needs to secure the stable supply of crops by investing in the produce importation at a national level. Investment in foreign produce importation is becoming more important as a measure for sufficient supply of crops, limited supply of domestic crops, weakened farming conditions worldwide, as well as recent changes in the use of crops due to the development of bio-fuels, influence of carbon emission on crops, the price increase in crops, and influx of foreign hot money. However, there are many problems with investing in foreign produce importation: lack of support from the government; lack of farming information and technology; difficulty in securing the capital; no immediate pay-off from the investment and insufficient management. Although foreign produce is originally more price-competitive than domestic produce, it loses its competiveness in the process of importation (due to high tariffs) and poor distribution system, which makes it difficult to sell in Korea. Therefore, investment in foreign produce importation is being questioned for feasibility; to make it possible, foreign produce must maintain the price-competitiveness. Especially, harvest of agricultural products depends on natural and geographical conditions of each country and those products have indigenous properties, so distribution system according to import and export of agricultural products should be treated more carefully than that of other industries. Distribution costs are differentiated into each item and include cost of sorting and wrapping, cost of wrapping materials, cost of domestic transport, cost of international transport and cost of clearing customs for import and export. So transporting and storing agricultural products generates considerable costs compared with other products. Also, due to upgrade of dietary life, needs for stability, taste and visible quality toward food including agricultural products are being raised and wrong way of storage causes decomposition of food and loss of freshness, making the storage more difficult than that in room temperature, so storage and transport in distribution of agricultural products needs specialty. In addition, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. However, existing distribution system of agricultural products is exposed to various problems including problems in distribution channel, making distribution and strategy for distribution and those problems are as follows. First, in case of investment in overseas agricultural industry, stable supply of the products is difficult because areas of production are dispersed widely and influenced by outer factors due to including overseas distribution channels. Also, at the aspect of quality, standardization of products is difficult, distribution system is quite complicated and unreasonable due to long distribution channels according to international trade and financial and institutional support is not enough. Especially, there are quite a lot of ineffective factors including multi level distribution process, dramatic gap between production cost and customer's cost, lack of physical distribution facilities and difficulties in storage and transport due to lack of wrapping containers. Besides, because import and export of agricultural products has been manages under the company's own distribution according to transaction contract between manufacturers and exporting company, efficiency is low due to excessive investment in fixed costs and lack of specialty in dealing with agricultural products causes fall of value of products, showing the limit to lose price-competitiveness. Especially, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. Second, among tangible and intangible services which promote the efficiency of the whole distribution, a function building distribution environment which includes distribution information, system for standard and inspection, distribution finance, system for diversification of risks, education and training, distribution administration and tax system is wanted. In general, such a function building distribution environment is difficult to be changed and supplement innovatively because its effect compared with investment does not appear immediately despite of its necessity. Especially, in case of distribution of agricultural products, as a function of collecting and distributing is performed individually through various channels, the importance of distribution information and standardization is getting more focus due to the problem of repetition of work and lack of specialty. Also, efficient management of distribution is quite difficult due to lack of professionals in distribution, so support to professional education is needed. Third, though effort to keep self-sufficiency ratio of staple food, rice is regarded as important at the government level, level of dependency on overseas of others crops is high. Therefore, plan for stable securing food resources aside from staple food is also necessary. Especially, governmental organizations of agricultural products distribution in Korea are production-centered and have unreasonable structure whose function at the aspect of distribution and consumption is quite insufficient. And development of new distribution channels which can deal with changes in distribution environment and they do not achieve actual results of strategy for distribution due to non-positive strategy for price distribution. That is, it implies the possibility that base for supply will become vulnerable because it does not mediate appropriate interests on total distribution channels such as manufacturers, wholesale dealers and vendors by emphasizing consumer protection excessively in the distribution of agricultural products. Therefore, this study examined fundamental concept and actual situation for our investment to overseas agriculture, drew necessities, considerations, problems, etc. of overseas agricultural investment and suggested improvements at the level of distribution for price competitiveness of agricultural products cultivated in overseas under five aspects; government's indirect support, distribution's modernization and distribution information function's strengthening, government's political support for distribution facility, transportation route, load and unloading works' improvement, price competitiveness' securing, professional manpower's cultivation by education and training, etc. Here are some suggestions for foreign produce importation. First, the government should conduct a survey on the current distribution channels and analyze the situation to establish a measure for long-term development plans. By providing each agricultural area with a guideline for planning appropriate production of crops, the government can help farmers be ready for importation, and prevent them from producing same crops all at the same time. Government can sign an MOU with the foreign government and promote the importation so that the development of agricultural resources can be stable and steady. Second, the government can establish a strategy for an effective distribution system by providing farmers and agriculture-related workers with the distribution information such as price, production, demand, market structure and location, feature of each crop, and etc. In order for such distribution system to become feasible, the government needs to reconstruct the current distribution system, designate a public organization for providing distribution information and set the criteria for level of produce quality, trade units, and package units. Third, the government should provide financial support and a policy to seek an efficient distribution channel for foreign produce to be delivered fresh: the government should expand distribution facilities (for selecting, packaging, storing, and processing) and transportation vehicles while modernizing old facilities. There should be another policy to improve the efficiency of unloading, and to lower the cost of distribution. Fourth, it is necessary to enact a new law covering exceptional cases for importing produce in order to maintain the price competitiveness; currently the high tariffs is keeping the imported produce from being distributed domestically. However, the new adjustment should be made carefully within the WTO regulations since it can create a problem from giving preferential tariffs. The government can also simplify the distribution channels in order to reduce the cost in the distribution process. Fifth, the government should educate distributors to raise the efficiency and to modernize the distribution system. It is necessary to develop human resources by educating people regarding the foreign agricultural environment, the produce quality, management skills, and by introducing some successful cases in advanced countries.