• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.93-105
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• 2004

The Shihwa wetland, a newly developed constructed wetland prototype in Korea with an area of approximately 104 ha, was established to improve the water quality severely polluted inflow streams into Lake Shihwa. Because this wetland could play a role as an ecological park in addition to improving the water quality, an ecological impact of the Shihwa constructed wetland has been a national concern. This paper focused on reporting the survey results for fauna among the entire investigation results for 3 years. A total of 129 terrestrial insect species have been observed from August 2001 to June 2002. Among them, Ischnura asiatica (Brauer) (order Odonata), Scymnus species (order Coleoptera) and Orthopteran species were frequently found in the reed bushes. A total of 77 bird species were recorded in a seasonal count, the maximum number of species was 34 in winter and the maximum number of individuals was 4,599 in summer. For the freshwater fish, only 4 species were found in 2000, however in 2001 and 2002, 12 species and 459 individuals were collected at four survey points. Among these 12 species, the dominant species were Mugil cephalus(36%), followed by Carassius auratus (25%) and Rhinogobius brunneus (22%). Meanwhile,12 individuals of Oryzias latipes were observed nearby, mostly downstream of the wetland. For the Herpetofauna at four survey areas, 3 species of amphibians and 3 species of reptiles were recorded. Because of remaining salinity in the soil of the Shiwha constructed wetland, Herpetofauna inflow to the wetland was scanty and mainly inhabited the upstream area. A total of 8 mammal species were recorded. Small-sized species were the striped field mouse, the Ussurian harvest-mouse, the Manchurian reed vole and the brown rat. Middle- and large-sized species were Korean water-deer, Korean raccoon dogs, Korean yellow weasels and feral cats.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.61-79
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• 2009

This study discusses developing ecological trails and route alignment in mountainous rural area. Through a process of ecological resources survey, ecological trails and route alignment has been established. Mainly, by focusing on ecological resources in rural areas, it was indifferent to their own ecological resource and charm to make it unique strengths. Based on survey the results, Natural ecology resources, there were the climate factor, surface, geological, terrain analysis. Furthermore, ecological resources were researched and analyzed the elements of it, distribution of resources, types, location, semantic analysis. The results are expressed on the map and recorded by taking pictures. Plant ecosystem, there were actual vegetation, land use, flora analysis. Wild animal ecosystem, it was checked and recorded on 1/1,000 map partition the emergence of wild birds, the number of species distributed by foraging guild, the emergence of amphibians, reptile, mammals and insect species. The site is chosen as rural theme village in 2007, base on their own rich ecological and landscape resources. Therefore, we carried out ecological trails and route alignment plan in accordance with analyzed the natural ecological resource and after setting up the basic goal, ecological trail has been composed and planting has done and direction.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.209-220
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• 2021

Pacific herring, Clupea pallasii, a keystone species with significant ecological and commercial importance, is declining globally throughout much of its range. While traditional fishing equipment methods remain limited, new sensitive and rapid detection methods should be developed to monitor fisheries resources. To monitor the presence and quantity of C. pallasii from environmental DNA (eDNA) extracted from seawater samples, a pair of primers and a TaqMan^® probe specific to this fish based on mitochondrial cytochrome b (COB) sequences were designed for the real-time PCR (qPCR) assay. The combination of our molecular markers showed high specificity in the qPCR assay, which affirmed the success of presenting a positive signal only in the C. pallasii specimens. The markers also showed a high sensitivity for detecting C. pallasii genomic DNA in the range of 1 pg~100 ng rxn^-1 and its DNA plasmid containing COB amplicon in the range of 1~100,000copies rxn^-1, which produced linear standard calibration curves (r²=0.99). We performed a qPCR assay for environmental water samples obtained from 29 sampling stations in the southeastern coastal regions of South Korea using molecular markers. The assay successfully detected the C. pallasii eDNA from 14 stations (48.2%), with the highest mean concentration in Jinhae Bay with a value of 76.09±18.39 pg L^-1 (246.20±58.58 copies L^-1). Our preliminary application of molecular monitoring of C. pallasii will provide essential information for efficient ecological control and management of this valuable fisheries resource.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.49-58
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• 2021

Rural and agricultural landscapes are important forms of land use in maintaining biodiversity. In addition humans are provided with various public functions from ecosystems and agricultural ecosystems. But the creation of a facility horticultural complex can be a space that can undermine the public interest function of the agricultural ecosystem. Therefore, this study aims to quantify the function of ecosystem services that land use changes affect biodiversity in Korea's rice paddy fields. The area subject to the study was selected as the largest agricultural complex in Korea due to rice paddy fields and land use changes, and field agriculture was also carried out simultaneously. The survey was conducted only in the fields of vegetation, insects, amphibians, and birds, four areas of biodiversity that are believed to have a high impact on changes in land use in agricultural landscapes. The valuation of ecosystem services in four areas of biodiversity derived from this study was evaluated as non-market value. As a result of quantitative evaluation, about 25 species of vegetation were reduced due to changes in land use. The diversity of about 40 species of aquatic insects that inhabit rice paddies among insects has disappeared due to the creation of a horticultural complex. Birds and amphibian reptiles were also found to have decreased diversity and populations. This research is expected to be used in various ways to develop policies to enhance ecosystem service functions.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.237-254
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• 2021

Background: Some of the introduced alien species introduced settle, multiply, and spread to become invasive alien species (IAS) that threaten biodiversity. To prevent this, Korea and other countries legally designate and manage alien species that pose a risk to the environment. Moreover, 2160 alien species have been introduced in South Korea, of which 1826 animals and 334 plants are designated. The inflow of IAS can have negative effects such as ecosystem disturbance, habitat destruction, economic damage, and health damage to humans. To prevent damage caused by the inflow of IAS in advance, species that could potentially pose a risk to the environment if introduced in South Korea were designated as alert alien species (AAS). Results: The designation criteria were in accordance with the "Act on the Conservation and Use of Biological Diversity" and the "Regulations on the Ecological Risk Assessment of AAS and IAS" by the National Institute of Ecology. The analysis result of risk and damage cases indicated that mammals affect predation, competition, human economic activity, virus infection, and parasite infection. Birds have been demonstrated to affect predation, competition, human economic activity, and health. It was indicated that plants intrude on the ecosystem by competing with native species with their high-population density and capacity to multiply and cause allergic inducement. Interestingly, 300 species, including 25 mammals, 7 birds, 84 fishes, 28 amphibians, 22 reptiles, 1 insect, 32 spiders, 1 mollusk, 1 arthropod, and 99 plants, are included in the list of AAS. Conclusions: AAS designation plays a role in preventing the reduction of biodiversity by IAS in South Korea and preserving native species. Moreover, it is determined to provide considerable economic benefits by preventing socio-economic losses and ecological damage.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.60 no.4
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• pp.289-293
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• 2022

Blastocystis is a genus of unicellular heterokont parasites belonging to a group of organisms known as Stramenopiles, which includes algae, diatoms, and water molds. Blastocystis includes several species that habitat in the gastrointestinal tracts of organisms as diverse as humans, farm animals, birds, rodents, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and cockroaches. It is important to public health and distributed globally, but its prevalence in dogs in Korea has not been reported to date. Here, we collected 787 canine fecal samples and assessed Blastocystis infection by age, sex, region, season, and diarrhea symptoms. We determined Blastocystis subtypes using phylogenetic analyses based on 18S rRNA gene sequences. We identified, 10 Blastocystis positive samples (1.3%). A higher proportion of infected dogs was asymptomatic; however, infection rates did not significantly differ according to region, age, sex, and season. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the Blastocystis sp. identified belonged to 4 subtypes (STs), ST1, ST5, ST10, and ST14, thus revealed the genetic diversity of Blastocystis sp. in dogs Korean. This is first report on the presence of Blastocystis sp. in dogs Korean. This study revealed a lower infection rate than expected and differed from previous studies in STs. Further studies are warranted to observe the national infection status of Blastocystis in dogs and the genetic characteristics of this genus.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.293-304
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• 2020

Background and objective: This study was carried out to assess the relationship between the internal and external environments and the ecological items in five sites with a high level of artificial use intensity prior to the establishment of Geumgang River riparian ecological belts. Methods: The sites were classified into forest type, cultivated land type and urbanized type in accordance with their respective locational types. Ecological items including plant ecology such as proportion, naturalization index and urbanization index of native species were analyzed and animal ecology such as the number of species and population of wild birds, amphibians and reptiles, mammals, and butterflies and dragonflies, which are indicator insects, were investigated. In addition, species diversity indices of wild birds, butterflies and dragonflies found in all the subject lands were computed. Results: Among the plant ecological items, the ratio of native species in the forest type was higher than 90%, which was a satisfactory level, while the naturalization and urbanization indices were less than 10%. The number of species in the animal ecological characteristics was reduced in the order of forest type, cultivated land type and urbanized type. As the results of correlation analysis, the internal area of the planted area showed a negative correlation with the total of individuals. The area of grasslands showed a positive correlation with the number of dragonfly species and the total number of individuals, thereby illustrating that wet grasslands have positive effects. The area of surrounding forests, as an external environment, had a negative correlation with the urbanization index (UI) but a positive correlation with the inhabitation of butterflies and the total number of species. Conclusion: The results confirmed the need for more diversified special compositions including planted land, grassland, wetland, bodies of water and waterways within the subject land in the wetland ecological belt along with the need for surrounding forest location and preservation from the perspective of purchase and restoration of land for enhancement of wider biodiversity in the future.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.257-266
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• 2023

Amphibian populations are declining globally, pushing many species to the brink of extinction. To promote biodiversity and sustainable management, countries are actively researching amphibian reproductive ecology. Sperm cryopreservation is a crucial assisted reproductive technology that aids in preserving the genetic diversity of amphibians. However, because amphibian sperm cells are sensitive to osmotic stress, the optimal cryopreservation method therefore differs from species to species. This literature review offers an overview of the significance of developing cryopreservation techniques for amphibian conservation and highlights the need to create optimal cryopreservation methods and the introduction of long-term monitoring (e.g., fertilization success and offspring reproduction) to advance cryopreservation technology development. This review can be used as basic research data for amphibian conservation methods.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.205-220
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• 2023

This study aimed to analyze the needs and interests of the public on endangered wildlife using complaint big data. We collected 1,203 complaints and their corresponding text data on endangered wildlife, pre-processed them, and constructed a document-term matrix for 1,739 text data. We performed LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) topic modeling and network analysis. The results revealed that the complaints on endangered wildlife peaked in June-August, and the interest shifted from insects to various endangered wildlife in the living area, such as mammals, birds, and amphibians. In addition, the complaints on endangered wildlife could be categorized into 8 topics and 5 clusters, such as discovery report, habitat protection and response request, information inquiry, investigation and action request, and consultation request. The co-occurrence network analysis for each topic showed that the keywords reflecting the call center reporting procedure, such as photo, send, and take, had high centrality in common, and other keywords such as dung beetle, know, absence and think played an important role in the network. Through this analysis, we identified the main keywords and their relationships within each topic and derived the main issues for each topic. This study confirmed the increasing and diversifying public interest and complaints on endangered wildlife and highlighted the need for professional response. We also suggested developing and extending participatory conservation plans that align with the public's preferences and demands. This study demonstrated the feasibility of using complaint big data on endangered wildlife and its implications for policy decision-making and public promotion on endangered wildlife.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.15-32
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• 2003

The ecological study on seven wetlands of Haman area in Kyungsangnamdo, Korea, was carried out. In especial, the biological data of the sites were unknown. In this study, water quality including water temperature, pH, DO, COD, T-N, T-P, SS were tested. On the survey of plants and animals, vegetation and flora were investigated and the fauna of insects, fish, and amphibians were studied on each wetland. Water of wetland Oksu was heavily polluted and wetlands Pyungy and Dodulyangy were relatively clean. The water pollution was most severe in winter at all of the wetlands. Plant communities were classified into 9 natural communities and 1 artificial community. On the vegetation, wetland Sugok showed the highest plant taxa, and 41 families, 78 species and 16 varieties were classified. There was remarkable difference in number of plant taxa. The difference may be caused by the variances of wetland sizes, the influence from terrestrial environment. Wetland Sugok showed most rich insect fauna, and 10 orders, 76 families 224 species and 1082 individuals were identified. The species diversity was 2.05 and the species richness was 73.49. Wetland Ddun showed poor insect fauna, and 6 orders, 23 families, 29 species and 81 individuals were identified. Total collected fish were 4 orders, 7 families and 11 species. The fish fauna was most rich in wetlands Oksu and Pyungy, but poor in wetland Unan. Total collected amphibians were 2 orders, 3 families and 4 species.