• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.385-392
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• 2011

The otter (Lutra lutra) in Korea is classified as a first grade endangered species and is managed under state control. We performed a phylogenetic analysis of the otter that inhabits the Changnyeong, Jinju, and Geoje areas in Gyeongsangnamdo, Korea using mtDNA and microsatellite (MS) markers. As a result of the analysis using the 676-bp D-loop sequence of mtDNA, six haplotypes were estimated from five single nucleotide polymorphisms. The genetic distance between the Jinju and Geoje areas was greater than distances within the areas, and the distance between Jinju and Geoje was especially clear. From the phylogenetic tree estimated using the Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis by the MrBays program, two subgroups, one containing samples from Jinju and the other containing samples from the Changnyeong and Geoje areas were clearly identified. The result of a parsimonious median-joining network analysis also showed two clear subgroups, supporting the result of the phylogenetic analysis. On the other hand, in the consensus tree estimated using the genetic distances estimated from the genotypes of 13 MS markers, there were clear two subgroups, one containing samples from the Jinju, Geoje and Changnyeong areas and the other containing samples from only the Jinju area. The samples were not identically classified into each subgroup defined by mtDNA and MS markers. It could be inferred that the differential classification of samples by the two different marker systems was because of the different characteristics of the marker systems used, that is, the mtDNA was for detecting maternal lineage and the MS markers were for estimating autosomal genetic distances. Nonetheless, the results from the two marker systems showed that there has been a progressive genetic fixation according to the habitats of the otters. Further analyses using not only newly developed MS markers that will possess more analytical power but also the whole mtDNA are needed. Expansion of the phylogenetic analysis using otter samples collected from the major habitats in Korea should be helpful in scientifically and efficiently maintaining and preserving them.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.11-46
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• 2022

This study was carried out to examine vascular plants and invasive alien plants in Gyodong Island, located at the northwestern Civilian Control Line (CCL) of Ganghwa-gun, Incheon, and to use them as basic data for systematic management of identified plants and establishing biodiversity conservation measures. The survey was conducted 13 times from April 2019 to August 2021. The vascularflora in Gyodong Island was identified as 109 families, 378 genera, 641 species, 15 subspecies, 49 variants, 8 forma, a total of 713 taxa. This was found to be about 15.36% of the total 4,641 taxa of vascular plants in Korea. The northern linage plants on the Korean Peninsula appearing in the Gyodong Island area were identified in 83 classification groups, including Red-based leaf edge (Carex erythrobasis H.Lev. & Vaniot). Korea endemic plants were identified as 16 taxa such as Seoul wild-ginger [Asarum heterotropoides var. seoulense (Nakai) Kitag.], and a total of 20 taxa of rare plants designated by IUCN were observed, including the endangered grade Beardless iris (Iris ruthenica Ker Gawl.). Floristic target species were classified with a total of 99 taxa. For V grade, Beardless iris 1 taxon was found. and also IV grade and III grade were identified in 8 taxa and 20 taxa respectively. The invasive alien plants identified as 75 taxa, such as Verbesina alternifolia (L.) Britton ex Kearney. The naturalization rate was 10.51%, and the urbanization index was calculated as 23.29%. Since large-scale construction has been currently underway on Hwagae Mt. in Gyodong Island as the target of survey area, the influx of invasive plants will be expected to promote. Therefore, it is urgent to establish in-situ protection and conservation measures for notable plants such as Beardless iris and Water smartweed [Persicaria amphibia (L.) S.F.Gray].

• Strategy21
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• s.46
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• pp.239-276
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• 2020

The failure of early economic sanctions aimed at hurting the overall economies of targeted states called for a more sophisticated design of economic sanctions. This paved way for the advent of 'smart sanctions,' which target the supporters of the regime instead of the public mass. Despite controversies over the effectiveness of economic sanctions as a coercive tool to change the behavior of a targeted state, the transformation from 'comprehensive sanctions' to 'smart sanctions' is gaining the status of a legitimate method to impose punishment on states that do not conform to international norms, the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction in this particular context of the paper. The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council proved that it can come to an accord on imposing economic sanctions over adopting resolutions on waging military war with targeted states. The North Korean nuclear issue has been the biggest security threat to countries in the region, even for China out of fear that further developments of nuclear weapons in North Korea might lead to a 'domino-effect,' leading to nuclear proliferation in the Northeast Asia region. Economic sanctions had been adopted by the UNSC as early as 2006 after the first North Korean nuclear test and has continually strengthened sanctions measures at each stage of North Korean weapons development. While dubious of the effectiveness of early sanctions on North Korea, recent sanctions that limit North Korea's exports of coal and imports of oil seem to have an impact on the regime, inducing Kim Jong-un to commit to peaceful talks since 2018. The purpose of this paper is to add a variable to the factors determining the success of economic sanctions on North Korea: preventing North Korea's evasion efforts by conducting illegal transshipments at sea. I first analyze the cause of recent success in the economic sanctions that led Kim Jong-un to engage in talks and add the maritime element to the argument. There are three conditions for the success of the sanctions regime, and they are: (1) smart sanctions, targeting commodities and support groups (elites) vital to regime survival., (2) China's faithful participation in the sanctions regime, and finally, (3) preventing North Korea's maritime evasion efforts.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.87-95
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• 2005

Vegetation structure of the vascular plants was investigated from March 2003 to October 2003 in Haepyeong wetland, Gumi-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea. Actual vegetation of Haepyeong wetland largely can be classified by floristic composition and physiognomy into 18 communities; Xanthium strumarium-Digitaria sanguinalis, Humulus japonicus, Persicaria perfoliata-Humulus japonicus, Phragmites japonica-Miscanthus sacchariflorus, Persicaria hydropiper-Phragmites communis, Persicaria hydropiper, Phragmites japonica-Persicaria hydropiper, Miscanthus sacchariflorus- Phragmites japonica, Persicaria hydropiper-Phragmites japonica, Miscanthus sacchariflorus-Salix glandulosa, Salix nipponica-Salix glandulosa, Salix nipponica-Salix koreensis, Salix nipponica, Miscanthus sacchariflorus-Salix nipponica, Phalaris arundinacea-Salix nipponica, Salix glandulosa-Salix nipponica, Trapa japonica, and Ceratophyllum demersum-Trapa japonica. Among them, the area of the Salix nipponica-Salix koreensis community was the largest as 122.2ha(9.23%). The dominant vegetation type was Miscanthus sacchariflorus-Persicaria hydropiper community based on phytosociological method, and it was was classified into three subcommunities; Salix glandulosa-Salix nipponica subcommunity, Digitaria sanguinalis subcommunity, and Cyperus amuricus subcommunity. Differential species of Salix glandulosa-Salix nipponica subcommunity were Salix nipponica, S. glandulosa, S. koreensis, Scirpus radicans, Persicaria maackiana, and Achyranthes japonica; differential species of Digitaria sanguinalis subcommunity were D. sanguinalis, Setaria viridis, Ambrosia artemisiifolia var. elatior, and Cyperus orthostachyus; differential species of Xanthium strumarium subcommunity were X. strumarium, Acalypha australis, Erigeron canadensis, Echinochloa crus-galli, and Vicia tetrasperma. Zonation of vascular hydrophytes and hygrophytes was as followers: Salix glandulosa, S. koreensis, S. nipponica were distributed in the region of land which water table is low, and Persicaria maackiana, Persicaria hydropiper, Scirpus radicans were distributed in the understory. And emergent plants such as Phragmites communis and Scirpus karuizawensis, floating-leaved plant such as Trapa japonica, submersed plant such as Ceratophyllum demersum, and free floating plant such as Spirodela polyrhiza formed the zonation from shoreline to water. The specified wild plants designated by the Korean Association for Conservation of Nature, Ministry of Forest, and Ministry of Environment were not distributed in the study area. It was expected that Haepyeong Wetland worthy of conservation contributed purifying water pollution, giving habitats of many lifes, and providing beautiful scenes of the river.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.55-66
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• 2018

The cactus habitat in Jeju Island has a phytogeographically specific distribution in the East Asian region, and forms a unique landscape as the only native cactus (Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill.) habitat in Korea. However, there has been no detailed investigation on the distribution of cacti in the habitat and no investigation on the diversity of the mixed composition of plants in the habitats and their correlation with the distribution of cactus populations. This study attempted to investigate the diversity of vascular plants in the Wollyeong-ri cactus habitat and record the actual distribution and trends of cactus distribution. In addition to the distribution characteristics of cacti, we also discuss the characteristics of species reflecting the characteristics of the habitat among the mixed population of plant species, as well as the biological and environmental factors that threaten the maintenance of cactus populations or require management for preservation of cacti. Considering the phenological character, we conducted the field surveys for flora identification six times between June 2015 and September 2017. The Engler classification system was used for the arrangement sequence and names of plants, and the Korean Plant Names Index was adopted for the Korean name of the species. The study results showed that the Wolryung-ri cactus habitat in Jeju Island has the characteristic physiognomy of an area dominated by cactus. For the vascular plants, a total of 125 taxa were identified, including 53 families, 104 genera, 109 species, 15 varieties and 1 forma. Endangered plants specified by the Ministry of Environment were not found. Two species, Cyrtomium falcatum and Asplenium incisum, were identified as the ferns, and no gymnosperms were found. In addition, 123 taxa of angiosperms, 91 taxa of dicotyledones and 32 taxa of monocotyledons were identified. The distributions of cacti were confirmed in 289 meshes corresponding to 59.3% of the total 487 meshes in the cactus protected area, which showed various coverage distributions ranging from 5% to 95%. Most of the meshes where no cacti were found are coastal areas with exposed basalt rocks where the soil depth has not developed or extremely restricted due to repeated waves, or areas where artificial facilities, grasslands, and observation paths have been constructed. On the other hand, there were 71 lattice points in 14.5% of the total area where the cactus showed 70% or higher dominance. Cacti are randomly distributed in these areas. They have adapted to the microhabitat environment and are found to be opportunistically distributed along the growable locations. Considering that the reproduction of cacti in the habitat is mostly dependent on parthenogenesis, the present distribution seems to reflect the potentially distributable regions of cacti in the habitat. Based on the results of field surveys, a management plan for conservation and protection of the protected areas has been proposed.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.260-269
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• 2009

Hwabuk Dam has been under construction to reduce flood damage in Nakdong River watershed and to supply stable water for middle area of Gyeongbuk Province. Therefore, fish investigation in up and downstream of the dam was conducted from 2004 to 2008 in order to determine any negative effect on fish community due to dam construction and to use as fundamental data for conserving species diversity and maintaining stream health. According to data analysis on water quality, temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, suspended solids, and total E-coli had seasonal variation, but they did not significantly differ in sites. However, biological and chemical oxygen demand, chlorophyll-a, nitrogen, and phosphorus representing organic matter and nutrient concentration were higher in upper site and decreased to lower site so that they differed by site. Concentration of arsenic among the heavy metals was less than 0.05 mg $L^{-1}$, which is regulated for protection of human health in water quality standard, except for 0.092 mg $L^{-1}$ in June 2005. During the study period, the total number of fish caught from the 6 sites was 10,263 representing 7 families 19 species. Among them, dominant and subdominant species were Korean chub (Zacco koreanus, 62.5%) and Chinese minnow (Rhynchocypris oxycephalus, 10.6%) which inhabit mostly in mid and upper streams, Korea. Among the 19 species, Korean endemic species were 9 species (47.4%) including Korean slender gudgeon (Squalidus gracilis majimae), Korean dark sleeper (Odontobutis platycephala), and Korean shiner (Coreoleuciscus splendidus). There was several individuals of the $1^{st}$-class endangered species, Naktong nose loach (Koreocobitis nahtongensis), caught in 2005${\sim}$2007, and no introduced species of fish was found in entire sampling period. According to result of community analysis, dominance index decreased toward lower site, but diversity and richness indices increased toward lower site. The equation of length-weight relationship on the dominant species was TW=0.000003$(TL)^{3.2603}$. The parameter b in the equation was greater than 3.0 indicating good nutritional condition in the populations. Compared to populations of Korean chub in other streams, the population in Hwabuk Dam watershed had higher mean of condition factor by size indicating better growth rate. With fish fauna and multi-metric health assessment model in each sampling attempt, index of biotic integrity (IBI) was evaluated and it resulted mostly in good (26${\sim}$35) and excellent (36${\sim}$40) condition in all sites, and the mean of IBI was the highest in site 5. The results indicate that it is very important to study not only environmental impact assessment with fish composition but also stream health assessment in order to conserve healthy aquatic ecosystem.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.311-338
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• 2021

This study was investigated to find out the distribution of vascular flora and remarkable plants and its factors and management plan in the forest genetic resource reserve of Mt. Munsu, located in the DMZ and DMZ border area in Gimpo, Gyeonggi-do province. The survey was carried out 17 times from April 2019 to October 2020. First of all, in the forest genetic resource reserve of the Mt. Munsu, a total of 444 taxa in 95 families, 276 genera, 395 species, 13 subspecies, 33 varieties and 3 forms. This result was found to be about 9.09% of the total 4,881 taxa of vascular plants in Korea. In addition, endemic plants were classified as 6 taxa. Floristic special and rare plants were identified as 39 taxa and 3 taxa, respectively. Lastly, the invasive alien plants that appeared in Mt. Munsu of the forest genetic resource reserve were observed in 58 taxa. Moreover, the naturalization rate was 13.1% and the urbanization index was calculated to be 18.0%. As a result of comparing the vascular flora at the forest genetic resource reserve on Mt. Munsu identified in this study with previous studies, it was found the number of taxa was decreased compared to the previous studies, despite the fact that the recent survey section was wider and more varies routes were investigated. In particular, it was confirmed that the number of rare and endemic plants decreased significantly, and the number of invasive plants greatly spread to forest roads and hiking trails. Therefore, it is considered that the forest rest year system should be introduced for the conservation and management of native plants in the forest genetic resource reserve.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.530-542
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• 2020

This study surveyed the central mountain area of Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) from March to October 2018 to reveal the appearance patterns of freshwater fish. We collected 7,744 individuals of 43 species in 12 families with skimming nets and cast nets in 12 stations during the survey. The dominant species was Zacco koreanus (30.3%), and the subdominant species was Z. platypus (18.5%), followed by Rhynchocypris oxycephalus (10.0%), R. steindachneri (6.7%), Microphysogobio yaluensis (5.9%), Acheilognathus signifer (4.5%), Pungtungia herzi (4.2%), and Orthrias nudus (2.6%). Among the collected species, four were legally protected. They included Hemibarbus mylodon, which was a natural monument, and Lethenteron reissneri, A. signifer, and Pseudopungtungia tenuicorpa, which were class II endangered wildlife designated by the Ministry of Environment. Twenty Korean endemic species (46.5%) and one exotic species, Micropterus salmoides, were also collected. Additionally, three climate-change sensitive species, R. kumgangensis, Ladislavia taczanowskii, and Cottus koreanus, and three landlocked species, L. reissneri, C. koreanus, and Rhinogobius brunneus appeared. The dominant species in each station were Z. koreanus (15 stations), Z. platypus (four stations), R. oxycephalus (four stations), and C. koreanus (one station). The species dominance index decreased from upstream to downstream (mainstream of Gimhwanamdae Stream), while the species diversity index and the species richness index increased. The community structure of the rivers was divided into the uppermost stream, upper stream, Han River, and Imjin River. Compared to antecedent surveys, this study collected the highest number of species. Two new species (Sarcocheilichthys variegatus wakiyae and Micropterus salmoides) were caught, while six species (Siniperca scherzeri, Leiocassis ussuriensis, Brachymystax lenok tsinlingensis, Rhodeus ocellatus, Abbottina springeri, Aphyocypris chinensis) did not appear. Gimhwanamdaecheon Stream has high biological value with the inhabitation of many species, including species under legal protection and high diversity and richness index scores. This paper also discussed a protection plan for this area.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.134-167
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• 2022

This study conducted monitoring of flora and vegetation in order to utilize basic data for forest wetland conservation targeting outstanding forest wetlands located in the eastern part of Jeonnam Province. The survey was carried out for a total of 54 times from May 2020 to October 2020, 1-2 times each for each season. The vascular plants of outstanding forest wetland in eastern Jeollanam-do were 93 families, 251 genera, 336 species, 5 subspecies, 47 varieties, 7 forma, and a total of 395 taxa. This was about 8.5% of 4,641 species of vascular plants in Korea Peninsula. A total of 8 taxa and 12 taxa were identified Korea endemic plants and rare plants respectively. A total of 68 taxa and 19 taxa of floristic target plants and invasive alien plants were classified each. the naturalized Index was 4.83% and the urbanized Index was 5.90%. As a result of the analysis by wetland type of the forest wetlands, obligate upland plants were the highest in the forest wetlands in the eastern Jeonnam province (61.4%), with unclassified wetland plants 19.1%, facultative wetland plants 8.2%, and obligate wetland plants 4.6%, facultative upland plants 4.5%, and facultative plants 2.3% were confirmed in the order.