• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2009

This study used a mesocosm which presumes movement of the nutrient (especially $PO_{4^-}P$) in the wetland. After setting up the mesocosm inside the wetland and adding the $PO_{4^-}P$, observed the movement of the $PO_{4^-}P$ every hour. We analyzed the variables which had the possibility of affecting $PO_{4^-}P$ concentration in the wetland-flora, absorbing rate of algae, settling rate, release rate. Immediately after adding $PO_{4^-}P$, the concentration of the TP in water column at each mesocosm was 0.48, 12.4, 20.4, $23.6\;mg\;L^{-1}$, after 21 days they were 0.6, 1.92, 6.97 and $6.94\;mg\;L^{-1}$ respectively. The concentration of the TP in water column at the mesocosm decreased on average 73.7%. The concentration of the $PO_{4^-}P$ inside reed, algae and sediment in the mesocosm was increased from $0.73mg\;gDW^{-1}$, $3.81mg\;gDW^{-1}$, $466.1mg\;kg^{-1}$ to $0.83mg\;gDW^{-1}$, $4.57mg\;gDW^{-1}$ and $813.3mg\;kg^{-1}$ respectively. Algae is more sensitive than reeds in absorption of the nutrient. TP removal by settling was highest. Budgeting of TP indicated that P moved from particulates in the water column to sediment and algae. Immediately after adding $PO_{4^-}P$, water column (24.2%) and sediment (49.0%) dominated TP storage, with algae (10.3%) and reed (16.4%) holding smaller proportions of TP. After 21 days, Sediment (59.0%) and algae (17.9%) dominated TP storage, with water column (7.1%) and reed (15.8%) holding smaller proportions of TP. Estimation of phosphate movement using mesocosms is an appropriate method because wetlands have many controlling factors. Analysed data can be compared to background data for wetland construction and management.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.515-524
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of artificial disturbance by analyzing and comparing the survey data of the Yeongju dam located in Yeongju-si, Gyeongbuk before and after impoundment. We surveyed four sites between the downstream of sediment control to the downstream of Yeongju Dam four times between April and October 2018. The macroinvertebrate data before the survey were gathered from the literature. The total number of benthic macroinvertebrates we observed was $35,037ind./m^2$, including 77 species, 48 families, 14 orders, 7 classes, and 3 phyla. The result of the community analysis showed that the dominant index increased from 0.44(${\pm}0.11$) before impoundment to 0.62(${\pm}0.16$) after impoundment. The diversity index increased from 2.26(${\pm}0.30$) to 1.75(${\pm}0.45$), the evenness index from 0.75(${\pm}0.10$) to 0.66(${\pm}0.14$), and the richness index from 3.11(${\pm}0.98$) to 2.25(${\pm}0.81$). The most dominant species changed from Hydropsychidae spp. to Chironomidae sp. The result of the Principal Components Analysis (PCA) based on Axis 1 showed that the sites of 2014 and Hydropsychidae spp. had a negative value, while the sites of 2018 and Chironomidae sp. had a positive value. In all study sites, the dominance increased while the diversity decreased. The community change was the largest in St. 2. The results of the functional group analysis showed that the scrapers increased while gathering-collectors increased among the functional feeding group and that the clingers decreased while borrows increased among the habitat oriented group. The Benthic Macroinvertebrate Streambed Index (BMSI) decreased from an average of 57.1(${\pm}8.0$, C class) to an average of 30.0(${\pm}12.1$, C class). St. 3 and St. 4, in particular, showed a high reduction rate.

• The Korean Journal of Malacology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.107-114
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• 2011

The manila clam (Ruditapes philippinarum) is mainly distributed in the coastal area which consist of mud, sand and gravel, but they rarely live on the upper and down reaches of river. For a long time the manila clam has been inhabited in Taehwa river which has been exploited as a traditional earning resources and has become as a major object by neighborhood fishermen. This study was undertaken to evaluate stock assessment and to build management implications with the ecological parameters in Taehwa river from June 2009 to June 2010. The maximum age of manila clam was determined to 6 years old from observing ring radius of shell, the length and weight relationship was TW = $0.0002SL^{3.063}$ ($R^2$ = 0.925). K and $L_{\infty}$ were respectively estimated 46.64 mm and 0.341/year by von Bertalanffy growth. The instantaneous total mortality was estimated to be 1.171/year and the age at first capture was 1.37 years by the Pauly's method using shell length composition. The current total biomass of manila clam was calculated 1,483 mt over study area $1.46\;km^2$ by swept area method. ABC (Acceptable Biological Catch) estimates of manila clam showed 512 mt with using $F_{0.1}$. It's desirable to determine the optimum harvesting time as after main spawning season, as well as it's required to manage fisheries resources considering capture age and biomass through adjusting a first age at capture.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.303-320
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• 2019

Plants interact with various biotic and abiotic environmental factors. It requires much information to understand the traits of a plant species. A shortage of information would restrict the assessment, especially in the evaluation of what kind of factors influence a plant species to face extinction. Polygonatum stenophyllum Maxim. is one of the northern plants of which Korea is the southern distribution edge. The Korean Ministry of Environment had designated it to be the endangered species until December 2015. Although it is comparatively widespread, and a large population has recently been reported, it is assessed to be vulnerable due to the low population genetic diversity. This study evaluated the current distribution of Polygonatum stenophyllum Maxim. We investigated the vegetational environment, population structures, phenology, soil environment, and self-incompatibility based on the results. Lastly, we evaluated the current threats observed in the habitats. The habitats tended to be located in the areas where the masses at the edge of the stream accumulated except for those that were located on slopes of some mountainous areas. Most of them showed a stable population structure and had re-established or recruited seedlings. Polygonatum stenophyllum Maxim. had the difference in time when the shoots appeared above the ground depending on the depth of the rhizome located in the underground. In particular, the seedlings and juveniles had their rhizome located shallow in the soil. Visits by pollinator insects and success in pollination were crucial factors for bearing of fruits by Polygonatum stenophyllum Maxim. The threats observed in the habitat of Polygonatum stenophyllum Maxim. included the expansion of cultivated land, construction of new buildings, and construction of river banks and roads. Despite such observed risk factors, it is not likely that there would be rapid population reduction or extinction because of its widespread distribution with the total population of more than 2.7 million individuals and the new populations established by the re-colonization.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.105-117
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• 2019

In order to investigate the characteristics of benthic macroinvertebrate communities in the Gihwa stream, a tributary of the Dong River, we surveyed the community and environmental factors in April and November 2013 at 6 sites. The benthic macroinvertebrate taxa represented total 63 species belonging to 29 families, 12 orders, 5 classes and 4 phyla. Total 48 (10~28 in each site) species were collected in April and 44 (13~24 in each site) in November. The number of individuals increased slightly from $560{\sim}2,290m^{-2}$ in April to $806{\sim}3,674m^{-2}$ in November. Chironomidae spp. was dominant species in April and Stenopsyche bergeri was dominant species in November. In the Functional Feeding Groups, Gathering-collector(53.9%) was dominant in April, while Filtering-collector (44.3%) increased in November. Intolerant order category (i.e. EPT species richness) in St.1, St.5 and St.6 increased in November compared to April due to the increase of Trichoptera. St.2, St.3 and St.4, which were located near the fish farm, were low EPT as a whole, but Benthic macroinvertebrate index (BMI) was good state in November than April due to decrease of Chironomidae spp.. The environmental factors in the survey site showed similar tendency except for St.1 between both seasons, and electrical conductivity, salinity, and water width showed seasonal differences. Cluster analysis and Nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) based on benthic macroinvertebrate community data were divided into two groups according to season. Electrical conductivity, salinity and substrate composition were the most influential factors determining the distribution patterns of macroinvertebrate communities.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.71-80
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• 2019

Effects of environmental factors on phytoplankton succession and community structure were studied in Lake Chuncheon located in Bukhan River, South Korea. The data were sampled at three sites such as CC1 (lower side), CC2 (middle side), and CC3 (upper side of Lake Chuncheon) from 2014 to 2017. The annual average precipitation in Lake Chuncheon was 992 mm during the study period (2014~2017), and the annual precipitation was lower than 800 mm in 2014 and 2015. The annual average water temperature, total phosphorus (TP), and total nitrogen (TN) ranged from 17.0 to $21.1^{\circ}C$, 0.012 to $0.019mg\;L^{-1}$, and 1.272 to $1.922mg\;L^{-1}$, respectively. The TN concentration was relatively high in 2015 compared with the other study years, as a drought continued from 2014 to 2015. When comparing the correlation between precipitation and environmental factors, water temperature (p<0.01) and TP(p<0.05) showed positive correlations with rainfall. The average numbers of phytoplankton cells by branch were 2,094, 2,182, and $3,108cells\;mL^{-1}$ in CC1, CC2, and CC3, respectively. CC3 is considered advantageous for phytoplankton growth, even in small pollution sources due to low water depth. As a result of analyzing the relationship between precipitation and phytoplankton, the correlation between the two was shown to be high for 2016 (p<0.01) and 2017 (p<0.05), which is when precipitation was high. However, the correlation was not clear to 2014 and 2015. The relationship between water temperature and phytoplankton indicated a negative correlation with diatoms (p<0.01), yet positive correlations with green algae (p<0.01) and cyanobacteria (p<0.01). Diatoms increased in spring and autumn, which are characterized by low water temperature, and green algae and cyanobacteria increased in summer, when the water temperature is high. Our findings provide a scientific basis for characteristics of phytoplankton and water quality and management at the Lake Chuncheon.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.210-220
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• 2019

Population growth and the increase of energy consumption due to civilization caused global warming. Temperature on the Earth rose about $0.7^{\circ}C$ for the last 100 years, the rate is accelerated since 2000. Temperature is a factor, which determines physiological action, growth and development, survival, etc. of the plant together with light intensity and precipitation. Therefore, it is expected that global warming would affect broadly geographic distribution of the plant as well as structure and function ecosystem. In order to understand the effect of global warming on the ecosystem, a study about the effect of temperature rise on germination and growth in the plant is required necessarily. This study was carried out to investigate the effects of experimental warming on the germination and growth of two oak species(Quercus mongolica and Q. serrata) in temperature gradient chamber(TGC). This study was conducted in control, medium warming treatment($+1.7^{\circ}C$; Tm), and high warming treatment ($+3.2^{\circ}C$; Th) conditions. The final germination percentage, mean germination time and germination rate of two oak species increased by the warming treatment, and the increase in Q. serrata was higher than that in Q. mongolica. Root collar diameter, seedling height, leaf dry weight, stem dry weight, root dry weight, and total biomass were the highest in Tm treatment. Butthey were not significantly different in the Th treatment. In the Th treatment, Q. serrata had significantly higher H/D ratio, S/R ratio, and low root mass ratio (RMR) compared with control plot. Q. mongolica had lower RMR and higher S/R ratio in the Tm and Th treatments compared with control plot. Therefore, growth of Q. mongolica are expected to be more vulnerable to warming than that of Q. serrata. The main findings of this study, species-specific responses to experimental warming, could be applied to predict ecosystem changes from global warming. From the result of this study, we could deduce that temperature rise would increase germination of Q. serrata and Q. mongolica and consequently contribute to increase establishment rate in the early growth stage of the plants. But we have to consider diverse variables to understand properly the effects that global warming influences germination in natural condition. Treatment of global warming in the medium level increased the growth and the biomass of both Q. serrata and Q. mongolica. But the result of treatment in the high level showed different aspects. In particular, Q. mongolica, which grows in cooler zones of higher elevation on mountains or northward in latitude, responded more sensitively. Synthesized the results mentioned above, continuous global warming would function in stable establishment of both plants unfavorably. Compared the responses of both sample plants on temperature rise, Q. serrata increased germination rate more than Q. mongolica and Q. mongolica responded more sensitively than Q. serrata in biomass allocation with the increase of temperature. It was estimated that these results would due to a difference of microclimate originated from the spatial distribution of both plants.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.106-127
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• 2019

This study aims to understand spatio-temporal variations of macrozoobenthos community in Han River (HRE), Geum River (GRE), and Nakdong River estuaries (NRE) of Korea, sampled by National Survey of Marine Ecosystem. The survey was seasonally performed at a total of 20 stations for three years (2015-2017). Sediment samples were taken three times with van Veen grab of $0.1m^2$) areal size and sieved through a 1 mm pore size mesh on site. A total of 1,008 species were identified with 602 species in HRE, 612 in GRE, and 619 in NRE, showing similar number of species between estuaries. Mean density was $1,357ind./m^2$, showing the high in NRE ($1,357ind./m^2$), mid in GRE ($1,357ind./m^2$), and low in HRE ($1,127ind./m^2$). Mean biomass was $116.8g/m^2$, showing similar variations to density ($174.2g/m^2$ in NRE, $129.0g/m^2$ in GRE, $49.0g/m^2$ in HRE). Polychaeta dominated in number of species and density in three estuaries. Biomass-dominated taxon was Mollusca in HRE and GRE, and Echinodermata in NRE. Polychaetous species dominated all three estuaries over 4% of density, such as Dispio oculata, Heteromastus filiformis and Aonides oxycephala in HRE, Heteromastus filiformis and Scoletoma longifolia in GRE, and Pseudopolydora sp. and Aphelochaeta sp. in NRE, showing various density between estuaries. Community structure was determined by various environmental variables among estuaries such as mean grain size and sorting (HRE), salinity and mean grain size (GRE), and salinity, dissolved oxygen, loss on ignition and mud content (NRE). Our study demonstrates the application of different measures to manage ecosystems in three estuaries. HRE needs to alleviate sedimentary stressors such as sand mining, land-filling, dike construction. Management of GRE should be focused on fresh water control and sedimentary stressors. In NRE, monitoring of dominant benthos and process study on hypoxia occurrence in inner Masan Bay are necessary.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.49-60
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• 2021

We examined the flow characteristics by direct runoff and base flow in a headwater stream during observed 59 rainfall events of flood season (June~September) from 2017 to 2020 yrs. Total precipitation ranged from 5.0 to 400.8 mm, total runoff ranged from 0.1 to 176.5 mm, and runoff ratio ranged from 0.1 to 242.9% during the rainfall events. From hydrograph separation, flow duration in base flow (139.3 days) was tended to be longer than direct runoff (78.3 days), while the contribution of direct runoff in total runoff (54.2%) was greater than base flow (45.8%). The total amount and peak flow of direct runoff and base flow had the highest correlation (p<0.05) with total precipitation and duration of rain among rainfall and soil moisture conditions. Dominant rainfall events for the total amount and peak flow of base flow were generated under 5.0~200.4 and 10.5~110.5 mm in total precipitation. However, when direct runoff occurred as dominant rainfall events, total amount and peak flow were increased by 267.4~400.8 and 169.0~400.8 mm in total precipitation. Therefore, the unique aspects of our study design permitted us to draw inferences about flow characteristic analysis with the contribution of base flow and/or direct runoff in the total runoff in a headwater stream. Furthermore, it will be useful for the long-term strategy of effective water management for integrated surface-groundwater in the forested headwater stream.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.24-36
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• 2021

Countries around the world, including the Republic of Korea, are participating in efforts to preserve biodiversity. Concerning species, in particular, studies that aim to find potential habitats and establish conservation plans by conducting habitat suitability analysis for specific species are actively ongoing. However, few studies on mid- to long-term changes in suitable habitat areas are based on accumulated information. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the time-series changes in the habitat suitable area and examine the otters' changing pattern (Lutra lutra) designated as Level 1 endangered wildlife in Gangwon-do. The time-series change analysis used the data on otter species' presence points from the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th national natural environment surveys conducted for about 20 years. Moreover, it utilized the land cover map consistent with the survey period to create environmental variables to reflect each survey period's habitat environment. The suitable habitat area analysis used the MaxEnt model that can run based only on the species presence information, and it has been proven to be reliable by previous studies. The study derived the habitat suitability map for otters in each survey period, and it showed a tendency that habitats were distributed around rivers. Comparing the response curves of the environmental variables derived from the modeling identified the characteristics of the habitat favored by otters. The examination of habitats' change by survey period showed that the habitats based on the 2nd National Natural Environment Survey had the widest distribution. The habitats of the 3rd and 4th surveys showed a tendency of decrease in area. Moreover, the study aggregated the analysis results of the three survey periods and analyzed and categorized the habitat's changing pattern. The type of change proposed different conservation plans, such as field surveys, monitoring, protected area establishment, and restoration plan. This study is significant because it produced a comprehensive analysis map that showed the time-series changes of the location and area of the otter habitat and proposed a conservation plan that is necessary according to the type of habitat change by region. We believe that the method proposed in this study and its results can be used as reference data for establishing a habitat conservation and management plan in the future.