• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.151-160
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• 2019

The study of spiders that function as predators in agroecosystem can broaden the understanding of agroecosystems. This study investigated the effect of heterogeneity at different spatial scales on richness and abundance of spiders in upland and paddy fields. We collected 48 samples using pitfall traps at upland and paddy fields, respectively. The total species richness of spiders estimated by sample- and coverage-based rarefaction and extrapolation curves. The total species richness was high in the upland fields at the total study sites, whereas the average species richness per study site was high in the paddy fields. We confirmed that the diversity enhancement of spiders was influenced by the structural complexity of habitat at field-scale, and crop diversity at broader scale.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.684-693
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• 2016

Daemyung retarding basin located near the confluence floodplain of the Nakdong and Kumho River is a large spawning site for the endangered Kaloula borealis, and needs for protecting the habitat of the endangered species are increasing. However, scientific studies are rarely conducted on the population characteristics and ecological knowledge on the species in the basin. This paper aims to estimate the population size and spatial distribution of the species that inhabited at the Daemyung retarding basin, using the capture-recapture method. Also, pitfall traps were installed in each habitat types classified with micro-topographic features, slope aspects, and vegetation communities to identify the spatial distribution characteristics of the Kaloula borealis of each habitat in the retarding basin. Field survey on the species was conducted from May 2013 to October 2014, showing that the species emerged in May, became more active during July and August and started to hibernate at the end of October. Using capture-recapture method, the first survey was carried out from July to August, 2014. Ninety-eight toads were captured, marked, and released back into the site. In the second survey, 68 toads including 5 marked toads of the previous survey were captured. Based on these two-sample surveys, around 535-2,131 individual toads are estimated to inhabit the Daemyung retarding basin. Fifty-seven pitfall traps were installed in four habitat types: mounded and vegetated flatland, lowland swamps, and slope areas of both the southern and western parts of the basin in order to delineate spatial abundance of the endangered Kaloula borealis during the rainy season when the species is actively spawning. Pitfall traps at the spatially explicit array indicated that the species gradually move to the slope areas near the Daemyung stream, showing high occurrence density of the Kaloula borealis compared to the lowland swamps after the spawning season. The emergence of Kaloula borealis in the lowland swamps appeared to be comparatively higher during the spawning season. However, after the spawning season the toads species rapidly moved into the neighboring land of relatively high elevation such as the slope area towards the Dalsung protected wetlands and Daemyung River. These results are closely related to the migration patterns that toads tend to return to the sheltering sites and/or hibernating grounds after the spawning season. Also, the Kaloula borealis moved to the nearest high-level vegetated areas as the lowland swamps of their spawning grounds deteriorated with the expansion of permanent ponds due to the rise in the groundwater level.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.185-198
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• 2016

Korea has put in significant efforts to increase the number of wildlife crossings between fragmented habitats to prevent loss of biodiversity and to encourage the habitat connectivity in Korea. However, there is a lack of biological data on the effect of vegetation structure in these wildlife crossings and guidelines for design and management of wildlife crossing structures in Korea. Therefore, we selected ground beetle assemblages as model organisms to compare the effect of vegetation structure in wildlife crossings, i.e. bare ground- and shrub-type corridors, in agro-forested landscapes. For this study, 4,207 ground beetles belonging to 33 species were collected through pitfall trapping along the northern forest-corridor-southern forest transects from late April to early September in 2015. Dominant species, abundance, and species richness of ground beetles were significantly higher in the shrub-type corridors than the bare ground-type corridors. Also, the species composition of bare ground-type corridor was significantly different compared to the other habitats such as shrub-type corridor and forests. Similarly, environmental variables were also influenced by vegetation management regimes or trap locations. Collectively, our study clearly indicates that the movement of forest associated ground beetles between forest patches can increase as the vegetation in wildlife crossings becomes complex. Although further studies are needed to verify this, there are indications that the current wildlife crossings that comply with the guidelines may be unfriendly to the movement of ground dwelling arthropods as well as ground beetles. To enhance the ecological function of wildlife crossings, the guidelines need to be rectified as follows: 1) Shrubs or trees should be planted along the corridor verges to provide refuge or movement paths for small mammals and ground dwelling arthropods, and 2) Open spaces should be provided in the middle of the corridors to be used as a path for the movement of large mammals.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.172-179
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to analyze the current original habitat and to conserve the narrow-mouthed toad populations. For this study, we used 240 pitfall traps (30 cm height ${\times}$ 20 cm width) to catch the narrow-mouthed toads that inhabit in Myeongji-dong, Gangseo-gu, in Busan metropolitan city from August 2, 2013 to November 7, 2013. We measured the environmental characteristics (soil composition factors, soil moisture, Humidity, soil temperature) for the seven habitat patterns of narrow-mouthed toads based on vegetation types. Main habitats of narrow mouthed toads were flat grassland where grass and false acacia grew and there was wetland all over the place. When analyzing habitats that main habitats of narrow-mouthed toads prefer after selecting representative seven vegetation, it was found that the most narrow-mouthed toads were caught in amur silver grass colony while the least narrow-mouthed toads were caught in bare land. Totally, we caught 846 narrow-mouthed toads over 68 times, and released them into the newly constructed habitat after injection VIE-tag. It seems that the reason for which the least narrow mouthed toads were caught in bare land is that bare land is not suitable for narrow mouthed toads to protect themselves from strong sunlight and to hide themselves from natural enemy. We found that temperature had the greatest influence on activities of narrow mouthed toads and at temperature of less than $15.6^{\circ}C$. We also found that the activities of narrow mouthed toads were remarkably low and then temperature was below $15.6^{\circ}C$. It meant that narrow mouthed toads seemed to go into hibernation. From this research, we could find the prefer habitat after analyzing habitats for the narrow-mouthed toads and could suggest for construction for the better habitat of narrow-mouthed toads.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.147-153
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• 2018

There are few available studies for insect diversity in relation to coastal dune despite the unique landscape features and high conservation value. Therefore, this study compared ground beetle assemblages inhabiting between windbreak forests and sand dunes in the Taeanhaean National Park. It investigated five windbreak forests and three coastal dunes using pitfall traps from middle of June to middle of October in 2014. A total of 2,335 ground beetles belonging to 30 species of 15 genera were collected. Synuchus arcuarticollis (158 individuals) and Dolichus halensis halensis (153 individuals) were dominant of 25 specifies collected from sand dunes while Synuchus arcuarticollis (1,630 individuals), Synuchus nitidus (130 individuals), and Synuchus cycloderus (42 individuals) were dominant of 14 species collected from windbreak forests. The similarity of ground beetles compositions in sand dunes and windbreak forests was significantly low at 27.4%. The results of this study showed that sand dune geographical features found in the Taeanhaean National Park had different insect assemblages from windbreak forests. It will be the useful information for conservation of insects in the future.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.102 no.1
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• pp.97-106
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• 2013

The present study is aimed to evaluate forest health in a fragmented urban forest using characteristics of insect communities. Ants (Formicidae) and ground beetles (Carabidae) surveyed by pitfall trap method in the Hongneung forest located in the urban area of Seoul were compared with those in the Gwangneung forest. The Gwangneung forest is supposed to be health due to its high biodiversity and well-conserved nature. Ants of the Hongneung forest was much more abundant compared with those of the Gwangneung forest. However, ground beetles showed the opposite patterns; much more abundant in the Gwangneung forest than in the Hongneung forest. Species richness was higher in the Gwangneung forest than in the Hongneung forest, but species diversity was higher in the Hongneung forest. In the Hongneung forest, forest specialist species and generalist species were balanced, whereas few forest specialists dominated in the Gwangneung forest. This dominance decreased species diversity in those Gwangneung forest. Thus, characteristics of insect community in the Hongneung forest were greatly different with those in the Gwangneung forest.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.267-278
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• 2011

This study was conducted to estimate the effects of fire intensity and recovery methods on coleopteran communities in three burned forests, Goseong, Gangneung, and Samcheok in Gangwon province, Korea. Four sampling sites were selected in each study area according to disturbance degree (DD) caused by fire intensity and recovery methods. DD in the study sites were categorized as 0 (no fire), 1 (weak fire), 2 (strong fire), and 3 (strong fire followed by human disturbance). Beetles collected by pitfall traps were classified into 3 functional guilds: detritivore, herbivore, and carnivore. Diversity and abundance were slightly higher in the burned sites (DD = 1-3) than in the unburned sites (DD = 0), although there was no statistical significance. Coleopteran communities differed according to fire intensity and recovery method. This suggests that recovery of burned forests using both natural recovery and reforestation may increase the diversity of coleopteran communities.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.106 no.4
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• pp.509-517
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• 2017

This study was conducted to assess effect of thiacloprid fogging on non-target insect communities in Korean white pine forests. In addition, we assessed effect of thiacloprid fogging on mortality of Monochamus saltuarius as a vector of pine wood nematodes, and Apis mellifera as a non-target species. We compared abundance, species richness, and compostion of insects, and mortality of two insects among four treatment groups (control and thiacloprid-fogged groups with 3 different doses) located in the Kangwon National University Forest. For sampling of insects, 6 pitfall and 2 multi-funnel traps and 3 waterproof cloth sheets were placed in each study plot. In addition, M. saltuarius and A. mellifera were put into each meshed cage which installed at 7 m and 15 m heights in center of each study plot. Thiacloprid was fogged only once (middle May) in each plot using a fogging machine. Overall, thiacloprid fogging was appeared to be low toxicity to the abundance, species richness, and compostion of insects and mortality of A. mellifera, while it seems effectively impact on the mortality of M. saltuarius. However, thiacloprid fogging seems more influenced by microclimates in forests because the mortality of M. saltuarius in mesh cages was different according to heights and spatial locations. To control the population density and dispersal of M. saltuarius using by fogging techniques, therefore, it may be necessary to minimize the uncertainty about the effectiveness of thiacloprid fogging by improving the fogging techniques.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.180-189
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• 2018

Agricultural landscapes in Korea comprise a large cultivation area of rice paddies, other crops, and forests which surround the cropland and the farmers' residential village. The forests in this agricultural landscape play important roles as ecological corridors and refuges for plants and animals in this agroecosystem. The present study investigated the spatial and temporal diversity patterns among these components of the agroecosystem to provide baseline data that describes how fauna change in the studies system. Insect sampling was conducted at four sites in two regions, Chungcheong (Ockcheon and Geumsan) and Jeonnam (Younggwang and Haenam), from March to August of 2014, using an UV light trap for moths and five pitfall traps for beetles. Beetles comprised 225 species and 2,457 individuals in 35 families, while moths consisted of 141 species and 403 individuals in 17 families. Beetles showed higher diversity in Chungcheong than Jeonnam, while moths showed no difference in diversity between regions. Forests showed the highest number of species and individuals, followed by orchards and rice paddies. The food preference of beetles showed that forests contained a higher proportion of herbivores, while orchards and rice paddies had a higher proportion of carnivores. Temporal changes in moths in the two regions were synchronous, while those of beetles were nonsynchronous. Moths increased from spring to summer across all habitats, especially in rice paddies during summer. Beetles also increased from spring to summer in orchards and rice paddies, although the beetles in the forests increased in the middle of summer. A detailed and long-term study is needed to reveal the causes of different diversity patterns of taxa among the different habitats within the agroecosystems.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.21-32
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• 2018

This study was carried out to define the characteristics of the identified ground-dwelling invertebrate communities at Nari basin and Tonggumi area in Ulleungdo Island, designated as a nationally important agricultural heritage. The habitat types were divided into the following categories: crop land, forest, and ecotone, and the soil-dwelling invertebrates were collected according to habitat type. The ground-dwelling invertebrates were collected using a pitfall trap, and a self-organizing map (SOM) was applied to the invertebrates dataset to define the characteristics in invertebrates distribution. The SOM clearly classified the relevant information into four clusters, and extracted ecological information from the invertebrates dataset. The cluster II was composed of invertebrate communities which are collected in the Tonggumi area. The Tonggumi area is where mountainous areas were developed for agricultural purposes, which has geographical features commonly observed in Ulleungdo Island. It is noted that the cluster II has different characteristics as compared other clusters. The results of this study are expected to be used for the preservation of agricultural environment and maintenance of biodiversity by providing basic data, on the biotope of Ulleungdo Island designated as a nationally important agricultural heritage and information on the characteristics of the applicable ground-dwelling invertebrate communities.