• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.143-160
• /
• 2023

This study applied the stream physical habitat assessment system to obtain basic information for river restoration and watershed management in high-gradient and mid-gradient streams in the Naeseongcheon basin. The total length of high-gradient and mid-gradient streams in the Naeseongcheon basin is about 273 km, and as a result of the assessment, it was analyzed that suboptimal reach was about 8.2 km, normal reach was 180.3 km, and marginal reach was 84.7 km. In addition, the physical habitat quality of high-gradient streams was analyzed to be normal condition with an average of 106 points (53%), and in particular, the score of channel/hydraulic category, which is the most important for the habitat of aquatic animals, was analyzed to be normal, close to the limit, with an average of 54 points (45%). The physical habitat quality of mid-gradient streams was found to be in normal condition with an average of 90 points (45%), and the score of channel/hydraulic category was in marginal condition with an average of 39 points (32%). Overall, among 165 reaches of high-gradient and mid-gradient streams in the Naeseongcheon basin, 4 reaches (3%) were evaluated as suboptimal, 119 reaches (72%) were normal, and 42 reaches (25%) were considered marginal. These results showed that the physical habitat of Naeseongcheon was significantly disturbed. Disturbance of stream physical habitat in the Naeseongcheon basin occured due to farmland around stream, urbanization, reservoir construction, and river maintenance.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.27 no.5
• /
• pp.584-593
• /
• 2021

The sediment makes up the sea floor and plays an important role as a habitats for living things in the sea. However, pollution of coastal sediment due to internal and external factors such as inflow of contaminants from land and self-pollution becoming more serious, the needs for management of sediment that play an important role in ecology, is increasing. In particular, the review and evaluation of the effects of sediment in marine development projects including reclamation and dredging, have significance in terms of proactive protection and management of surrounding ecosystems. This study proposed the improvement measures for marine sediment management standards on the sea area utilization consultation for the development of public water. For the purpose, The evaluation and management standards of domestic and overseas marine sediments were reviewed and compared. The sediment environment guidelines under the Marine Environment Management Act of Korea were reviewed. Accordingly, the cases of Canada and NOAA, which have various evaluation standards consist of comprehensive factors, were analyzed. For analysis of operational cases, the port and fishing port development projects for the last five years (2016-2020) that are considered to have the greatest impact on sediments among the sea area use consultations were also reviewed. Finally, this study suggested that the assessment factors for ecological hazards and potential human risks should be considered in the sediment environmental standards in the sea area utilization consultation system.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.322-332
• /
• 2012

The objectives of this paper were to investigate home range, habitat selection, and threat factors of leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis) living in rural area of Korea. The results based on radio tracking of three leopard cats (two males and one female) can be summarized as follows. First, the average home range of leopard cats were $2.64{\pm}1.99km^2$ (Kernel 95) and $3.69{\pm}1.34km^2$ (MCP 100), and the average size of core areas was $0.64{\pm}0.47km^2$ (Kernel 50). The home range of a male leopard cat that radio-tracked in winter was the largest ($5.19km^2$, MCP 100). Second, the Johnson's habitat selection model based on the Jacobs index showed that leopard cats preferred meadows and paddy fields avoiding forest covers at the second level, whereas they preferred meadows adjacent to streams and avoided paddy fields at the third level. Finally, roadkill could be prime threat factor for the cat population. Therefore, habitats dominated by paddy fields, stream corridors with paved roads, and human settlements with insufficient forest patches could threaten the long-term viability of leopard cat populations. Thus the habitat managements for the leopard cat conservation should focus on the prevention of road-kill and the installation of wildlife passages in rural highways adjacent to stream corridors.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.34 no.5
• /
• pp.436-445
• /
• 2020

The number of protected areas has been steadily increased in Korea to achieve Aichi Target 11, and there are studies on potential protected areas that required additional designation. However, there has been an insufficient assessment of the complementarity of protected areas to conserve biodiversity effectively. This study identified the potential habitat areas using the species distribution model for plant species from the 3rd National Ecosystem Survey and compared the plant species abundance in the existing protected area and the potential protected areas using the similarity indices, such as the Jaccard index, Sorenson index, and Bray-Curtis index. As a result, we found that the complementarity of the existing protected areas and most potential protected areas were low, leading to the preservation of similar plant species. Only the buffer zone for Korea National Arboretum had high complementarity and thus is important to conserve some species with the other protected areas. This study confirmed that it was necessary to select additional protected areas outside the existing or potential protected areas to protect plant species with a low inclusion ratio of potential habitats within the protected area. This study is significant because it identified the ecological representativeness of each protected area to examine if the individual protected area can conserve unique and various species and proposed a method of finding candidate areas for additional conservation spatially. The findings of this study can be a valuable reference for the qualitative improvement of protected areas through the complementarity assessments, including animals and the effectiveness assessment study of protected areas using the National Ecosystem Survey data in the future.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
• /
• v.38 no.4
• /
• pp.705-713
• /
• 2020

The present study investigated the temporal changes of river habitats caused by construction and operation of the three large weirs (Sejong, Gongju, and Baekje) in the Geum River. High resolution satellite imagery taken during three periods (preconstruction, before and after gate operation) were used for habitat analysis. We divided bar area into eight habitat types in addition to water area. Then, we identified the nine habitat types from the satellite imagery and estimated each habitat area. Our results show that after weir construction, large bar areas were dramatically decreased and bareland was nearly absent post gate-operation in all three weirs. However, total bar area and bareland were again increased distinctively soon after weir opening events, especially in the uppermost weir, the Sejongbo. These results suggest that weir opening operations provide a relatively simple channel of more diverse through the process of increasing bar area in a river channel.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.64-78
• /
• 2021

This study was conducted to find out the effect of the construction and operation of river-crossing structures on the habitat landscape characteristics in the Geum-gang River, South Korea. A total of three study reaches were selected in the downstream of the Daecheong Dam: the Buyong-ri reach, which is a control that is not affected by the construction and operation of the weir of the Four Rivers Project and Sejong-bo Weir reach and Gongju-bo Weir reach of the upper and lower sections of each weir that are affected by the weir construction and operation. The habitat type was classified, and then the structural characteristics of the landscape were analyzed using aerial photographs taken before and after the construction of the Daecheong Dam, before and after the construction of the weir, and before and after the weir gate operation. After the construction of Daecheong Dam in Geum River, the area of the bare land greatly decreased, and the area of grassland and woodland increased in the downstream of the dam. In addition, the patch number in the river landscape increased, the patch size decreased, and the landscape shape index and the habitat diversity increased. Therefore, after the construction of the dam, the bare land habitat was changed to a vegetated habitat, and the habitat was fragmented and diversified in the downstream of the dam. After the construction of the weirs, the area of open water increased by 18% in the Sejong-bo reach and by 90% in the Gongju-bo reach, and the landscape shape index of the open water decreased by 32% in the Sejong-bo reach and by 35% in the Gongju-bo reach, and the habitat diversity index decreased to 25% in the Sejong-bo reach and to 24% in the Gongju-bo reach. Therefore, the open water habitat was expanded, the shape of the habitat was simplified, and the habitat diversity decreased according to the construction of the weirs. After water-gate opening of the weir, the bare land that disappeared after the construction of the weir reappeared, and the landscape shape index and habitat diversity index increased in both terrestrial and open water habitats. Therefore, it was found that the landscape characteristics of the river habitats were restored to the pre-construction of the weir by the operation of the weir gate. The effect of weir gate opening was delayed in the downstream than in the upstream of the weir. Although the characteristics of the landscape structure in the river habitat changed due to the construction of the river-crossing structures, it is thought that proper technology development for the ecological operation of the structures is necessary as the habitat environments can be restored by the operation of these structures.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.38 no.4
• /
• pp.529-536
• /
• 2015

This study was performed to provide important basic data for the preservation and management of Scopura laminata, a species endemic to Korea, by elucidating the spatial characteristics of its present, potential, and future distribution areas. Currently, this species is found in the Odaesan National Park area of South Korea and has been known to be restricted in its habitat due to its poor mobility, as even fully grown insects do not have wings. Utilizing the MaxEnt model, 20 collection points around Odaesan National Park were assessed to analyze and predict spatial distribution characteristics. The precision of the MaxEnt model was excellent, with an AUC value of 0.833. Variables affecting the potential distribution area of S. laminata by more than 10% included the range of annual temperature, seasonality of precipitation, and precipitation of the driest quarter, in order of greatest to least impact. Compared to the current potential distribution area, no significant difference in the overall habitable area was predicted for the 2050s or 2070s. It was, however, demonstrated that the potential habitable area would be reduced in the 2050s by up to 270.3 km from the current area of 403.9 km; further, no potential habitable area was anticipated by the 2070s according to our predictive model. Taken together, it is anticipated that this endemic species could be significantly affected by climate changes, and hence effective countermeasures are strongly warranted for the preservation of habitats and species management.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
• /
• v.22 no.5
• /
• pp.796-804
• /
• 2006

The objective of this research was to develop ecological multi-metric models using natural fish assemblages for a diagnosis of current stream health condition, and apply the model to nationwide lotic ecosystems of the Geum River, the Youngsan River, and the Sumjin River. The ecological stream health model was based on the index of biological integrity (IBI), which was originally developed in North American streams by Karr (1981), and the Rapid Bioassessment Protocol (RBP), which was scientifically established by the US EPA (1999). The metric numbers and metric attributes were partially changed for the regional applications, so the scoring criteria was modified for the assessment. Overall, metric values, based on the IBI calculations, reflected conventional water quality characteristics, based on nutrient regime, and agreed with results of staticeco-toxicity tests. Some stations impaired in terms of stream health were identified by the IBI approach, and also major key stressors affecting the stream health were identified by additional evaluations of physical habitats. Our preliminary results suggested that biological integrity in stream ecosystems was largely disturbed by habitat degradation as well as chemical pollutions. This new approach would be used as a key tool for ecological restorations and species conservations in the degraded aquatic ecosystems in Korea and applied for elucidating major causes of ecological disturbances. Ultimately, this approach provides us an effective management strategy of stream ecosystems through establishments of ecological networks in various watersheds.

• Advances in environmental research
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.15-35
• /
• 2012

Mercury (Hg) is a global environmental pollutant that has been the cause of many public concerns. One particular concern about Hg in aquatic systems is its trophic transfer and biomagnification in food chains. For example, the Hg concentration increases with the increase of food chain level. Fish at the top of food chain can accumulate high concentrations of Hg (especially the toxic form, methylmercury, MeHg), which is then transferred to humans through seafood consumption. Various biological and physiochemical conditions can significantly affect the bioaccumulation of Hg-including both its inorganic (Hg(II)) and organic (MeHg) forms-in fish. There have been numerous measurements of Hg concentrations in marine and freshwater fish worldwide. Many of these studies have attempted to identify the processes leading to variations of Hg concentrations in fish species from different habitats. The development of a biokinetic model over the past decade has helped improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the bioaccumulation processes of Hg in aquatic animals. In this review, I will discuss how the biokinetic modeling approach can be used to reveal the interesting biodynamics of Hg in fish, such as the trophic transfer and exposure route of Hg(II) and MeHg, as well as growth enrichment (the increases in Hg concentration with fish size) and biomass dilution (the decreases in Hg concentration with increasing phytoplankton biomass). I will also discuss the relevance of studying the subcellular fates of Hg to predict the Hg bioaccessibility and detoxification in fish. Future challenges will be to understand the inter- and intra-species differences in Hg accumulation and the management/mitigation of Hg pollution in both marine and freshwater fish based on our knowledge of Hg biodynamics.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.41 no.11
• /
• pp.310-317
• /
• 2017

Background: Many studies about climate-related range shift of plants have focused on understanding the relationship between climatic factors and plant distributions. However, consideration of adaptation factors, such as dispersal and plant physiological processes, is necessary for a more accurate prediction. This study predicted the future distribution of marlberry (Ardisia japonica), a warm-adapted evergreen broadleaved shrub, under climate change in relation to the dispersal ability that is determined by elapsed time for the first seed production. Results: We introduced climate change data under four representative concentration pathway (RCP 2.6, 4.5, 6.0, and 8.5) scenarios from five different global circulation models (GCMs) to simulate the future distributions (2041~2060) of marlberry. Using these 20 different climate data, ensemble forecasts were produced by averaging the future distributions of marlberry in order to minimize the model uncertainties. Then, a dispersal-limited function was applied to the ensemble forecast in order to exam the impact of dispersal capacity on future marlberry distributions. In the dispersal-limited function, elapsed time for the first seed production and possible dispersal distances define the dispersal capacity. The results showed that the current suitable habitats of marlberry expanded toward central coast and southern inland area from the current southern and mid-eastern coast area in Korea. However, given the dispersal-limited function, this experiment showed lower expansions to the central coast area and southern inland area. Conclusions: This study well explains the importance of dispersal capacity in the prediction of future marlberry distribution and can be used as basic information in understanding the climate change effects on the future distributions of Ardisia japonica.