• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.125-132
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• 2007

We estimated the distribution of predator-prey interaction strengths for 12 species of herbivores (including amphipods, isopods, gastropods, and sea urchins) and made a regression model that may be applicable to other species. Laboratory experiments were used to determine per capita grazing rate (PCGR; g seaweeds/individual/day). Relationship between the biomass of individual grazers and fourth-root transformed PCGR was fitted to power curve ($y=0.2310x^{0.3290}$, r=0.8864). This finding supported that the grazing efficiency was not even as individual grazers increase in size (biomass). Therefore, the biomass-normalized PCGR was estimated and revealed that smaller size herbivores were more effective grazers. Grazing impact considering density of each taxon was calculated. The sea hare Aplysia kurodai had greatest grazing impact on the seaweed bed and the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus nudus and S. intermedius were ranked in descending order of the impact. The amount of seaweed grazed by the amphipod Elasmopus sp. (>4,000 $ind./m^2$) and Jassa falcata (>2,000 $ind./m^2$) were 3.435 and $1.697mg/m^2/day$ respectively. The combined grazing amount of herbivores was $5,045mg/m^2/day$ in the seaweed bed. Although sea hare and sea urchin had strong impacts on seaweeds, the effects of dense, smaller species could not be seen as negligible. Surprisingly, the calculated grazing potential of sea urchins with a mean density of 3 $ind./m^2$ exceeded the mean production of seaweed cultured in domestic coastal waters in Korea (ca., 5 ton/ha). Small crustaceans were also expected to consume up to 16% of the seaweed production if their densities were rising under weak predation conditions. Considering that the population density of herbivores are strongly controlled by fish, human interference like overfishing may have strong negative effects on persistence of seaweeds communities.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.297-309
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• 2023

The degradation of coastal ecosystems and fishery environments is accelerating due to the recent phenomenon of invertebrate grazers. To effectively monitor and implement preventive measures for this phenomenon, the adoption of remote sensing-based monitoring technology for extensive maritime areas is imperative. In this study, we compared and analyzed the robustness of deep learning-based object detection modelsfor detecting and monitoring invertebrate grazersfrom underwater videos. We constructed an image dataset targeting seven representative species of invertebrate grazers in the coastal waters of South Korea and trained deep learning-based object detection models, You Only Look Once (YOLO)v7 and YOLOv8, using this dataset. We evaluated the detection performance and speed of a total of six YOLO models (YOLOv7, YOLOv7x, YOLOv8s, YOLOv8m, YOLOv8l, YOLOv8x) and conducted robustness evaluations considering various image distortions that may occur during underwater filming. The evaluation results showed that the YOLOv8 models demonstrated higher detection speed (approximately 71 to 141 FPS [frame per second]) compared to the number of parameters. In terms of detection performance, the YOLOv8 models (mean average precision [mAP] 0.848 to 0.882) exhibited better performance than the YOLOv7 models (mAP 0.847 to 0.850). Regarding model robustness, it was observed that the YOLOv7 models were more robust to shape distortions, while the YOLOv8 models were relatively more robust to color distortions. Therefore, considering that shape distortions occur less frequently in underwater video recordings while color distortions are more frequent in coastal areas, it can be concluded that utilizing YOLOv8 models is a valid choice for invertebrate grazer detection and monitoring in coastal waters.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.5_3
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• pp.913-924
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• 2022

In this paper, we presented a database construction of undersea images for the Habitats of Ecklonia cava and Sargassum and conducted an experiment for semantic segmentation using state-of-the-art (SOTA) models such as High Resolution Network-Object Contextual Representation (HRNet-OCR) and Shifted Windows-L (Swin-L). The result showed that our segmentation models were superior to the existing experiments in terms of the 29% increased mean intersection over union (mIOU). Swin-L model produced better performance for every class. In particular, the information of the Ecklonia cava class that had small data were also appropriately extracted by Swin-L model. Target objects and the backgrounds were well distinguished owing to the Transformer backbone better than the legacy models. A bigger database under construction will ensure more accuracy improvement and can be utilized as deep learning database for undersea images.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.237-250
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• 2022

In this study, we propose a method to estimate the biomass of invertebrate grazers from the videos with underwater drones by using a multi-object tracking model based on deep learning. In order to detect invertebrate grazers by classes, we used YOLOv5 (You Only Look Once version 5). For biomass estimation we used DeepSORT (Deep Simple Online and real-time tracking). The performance of each model was evaluated on a workstation with a GPU accelerator. YOLOv5 averaged 0.9 or more mean Average Precision (mAP), and we confirmed it shows about 59 fps at 4 k resolution when using YOLOv5s model and DeepSORT algorithm. Applying the proposed method in the field, there was a tendency to be overestimated by about 28%, but it was confirmed that the level of error was low compared to the biomass estimation using object detection model only. A follow-up study is needed to improve the accuracy for the cases where frame images go out of focus continuously or underwater drones turn rapidly. However,should these issues be improved, it can be utilized in the production of decision support data in the field of invertebrate grazers control and monitoring in the future.

• The Korean Journal of Malacology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.185-199
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• 2010

Correlation between community structure of herbivore and succession of macro-algal flora was examined in subtidal area of Dang-Sa Province, eastern coast of Korea from April 2008 to December 2009. For examination, the authors hypothesized that there are significant correlation between the foregoing two variables. Samplings were conducted every two months quantitatively with SCUBA diving at -3, -6 and -10 depth in the two line transects (barren and forest grounds). As results, rhodophyts was predominated in the algal flora based on the number of species and biomass; molluscs was predominated in the herbivores based on the number of species and echinoderms was predominated in that based on the biomass. There was no significant correlation between the foregoing two variables in the whole survey area and barren/forest grounds. Consequently, the hypothesis was rejected. The authors proposed that examination of correlation between the foregoing two variables should focus on the specific herbivore group(s) (e.g., amphipods) afterward.

• Proceedings of the Korean Aquaculture Society Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.97-97
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• 2003

유용 수산생물인 전복, 소라, 성게 등 무척추동물의 종묘생산에 있어 부착 규조류는 수서 생태계의 일차 생산자로서 유생의 변태와 변태 후의 초기 먹이생물로 활용되고 있으며 최근에는 단일 부착규조류의 실내 배양을 통해 유용 수산생물 종묘의 대량 생산을 유도하고 있다. 부착규조류의 생물량 및 종 조성에 따라 이들 조식동물의 성장과 먹이 효율성에 커다란 영향을 끼친다. 이 연구는 종묘생산의 환경 조건과 동일한 현장에서 유수식 수조에 투명 플라스틱 부착파판(30$\times$40cm)을 설치하여 1997년 10월부터 1999년 4월까지 실내수조에 설치한 부착파판을 10일 간격으로 회수하여 부착된 규조류의 생물량과 환경적 특성을 조사하였다. 실험기간 동안 자연광을 55~75% 차단한 상태에서 실험을 진행하였고 수온과 염분은 각각 14.1$^{\circ}C$~28.6$^{\circ}C$와 32.5$\textperthousand$~35.3$\textperthousand$의 범위를 보였다. 실험기간 동안 부착규조류의 총 출현종수는 27종(17속 25종 2미동정종)으로 중심규조류(centric diatom)가 4종 그리고 우상규조류(pennate diatom)가 23종이었다. 현존량의 30% 이상을 점유하는 부착 규조류들은 Bacillaria paxillifera, Cocconeis scutellum, Diatoma hyalina, Navicula mollis, Nitzschia sp., Synedra tabulta 등 6종이 우점하였다. 부착규조류의 현존량은 2.5$\times$$10^3$~ 5.0$\times$$10^{5}$ cells $cm^{-2}$ 의 분포 범위로 1999년 4월에 가장 높고 1997년 10월에 가장 낮았다. Chlorophyll $\alpha$량 ($\mu\textrm{g}$ chl $\alpha$ $cm^{-2}$)은 0.02 ~ 1.72 $\mu\textrm{g}$ chi $\alpha$ $cm^{-2}$의 범위로써 부착규조류의 현존량과 유사한 분포 특성을 보였다. 유수식 실내수조에 부착된 부착규조류의 부착 형태, 우점종과 현존량은 배양 시기에 따라 종간 특이성을 보였다.다.

• Journal of Aquaculture
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.401-419
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• 1998

The structure of benthic algal flora and feeding behavior of sea urchins (Anthocidaris crassispina and Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus), were investigated from the eight different locations along the coast of Cheju Island, Korea. Biomass distribution and dominance of the algal communities were studied in relation to the gut contents and population parameters of the sea urchins. As a result, although the largest algal biomass and biological characteristics of sea urchins, such as test diameter, test hight, body weight, gonad weight, etc. This inhdicated that sea urchins would not be dependednt sorely on the abundance of algal foods, and they might feed on other food items. In order to know such a trend with regard to food selectivity, the diets consumed by sea urchins were analyzed, and it was found that they were composed of benthic and drifted algae, various animal components (sponges, bryozoans, crustaceans, and various unidentified capsulated eggs, etc.) and biets turned out to be smaller than might be expected, and it is postulated that sea urchins were not likely to be the major grazing animals for the formation of algal bed and also canopy deterioration, so-called "white incrustation."

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.212-219
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• 2019

This study was conducted to investigate marine algal community characteristics and the status of barren ground in the summer at study sites on Jeju Island, Korea. Sampling was carried out from July to September 2017 using a qualitative and quantitative survey (including coverage of non-geniculated coralline algae and density of grazer) by scuba diving. A total of 121 species were identified, including 11 (9.1 %) green algae, 24 (19.8 %) brown algae, and 86 (71.1 %) red algae. Hyeongjeseom had the greatest diversity, with 60 species, and Harye the least, with 18 species. The mean biomass at the study sites was $1,503.0g{\cdot}m^{-2}$, while the mean for the neighboring islets ($3,268.7g{\cdot}m^{-2}$) was higher than that of the main island ($914.7g{\cdot}m^{-2}$). Also, dominant species was identified: Sargassum macrocarpum at the neighboring islets, and Ecklonia cava at the main island, with differences showing not only in biomass but also species composition. In conclusion, the marine algal community status in summer at the study sites was evaluated based on the algal community characteristics (species composition, biomass, biomass ratio of kelp species), coverage of non-geniculated coralline algae, and density of grazer. As a result, both Hyeongjeseom and Marado require preservation and management to maintain their excellent marine algal communities, and other sites on the main island require the creation and/or restoration of marine algal communities. In addition, as the generation of barren ground accelerates, it is urgent not only to grasp existing monitoring research but also to identify the status of the marine algal community where it is not known at present.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.338-346
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• 2017

Natural seaweed beds and habitat environments were investigated using quantitative and qualitative methods from May to December 2015 at 3 sites in Gangneung, Uljin, and Busan along the eastern coast of Korea. In total, 9 green, 23 brown, and 64 red algal taxa were identified. The biomass of the seaweed at Gangneung was 173.2 to $613.8wet\;wt.g/m^2$ of Dictyota divaricata, 360.8 to $520.4wet\;wt.g/m^2$ of Symphyocladia linearis, and 25.9 to $470.8wet\;wt.g/m^2$ of Undaria pinnatifida. At Uljin, these numbers were 5.5 to $256.2wet\;wt.g/m^2$ of Plocamium telfarirae and 46.8 to $241.5wet\;wt.g/m^2$ of Agarum clathratum. The biomass of Sargassum coreanum and Ecklonia cava were 388.1 to $6,972.4wet\;wt.g/m^2$ and 194.9 to $958.5wet\;wt.g/m^2$, respectively, at Busan. S. coreanum and E. cava showed higher biomass compared to other seaweed at Busan. The biomass rate represented an average of 19.2 percent of the total population, ranging from 0.0 to 55.5 percent in Gangneung. In Uljin, the average was calculated as 63.8 percent, and this figure was 48.5 percent in Busan. The percentage of barren ground averaged 46.7 percent in Gangneung and 91.1 percent in Uljin. Uljin showed the highest percentage of barren ground compared to other regions. Sea urchin density appeared to be $6.0ind./m^2$ in Gangneung, $7.0ind./m^2$ in Uljin, and $2.0ind./m^2$ in Busan, with the lowest sea urchin density being that of Busan. In conclusion, the composition of species, appearance ratio, and abundance of vegetation found were similar to previous studies, but it is thought that continuous monitoring is needed due to concerns about physical and chemical pollution caused by global warming, climate change, and coastal development.