• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2022

Among the 13 species of otters in the world, only one Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) is found in South Korea. In the Korean Peninsula, otter pelts were historically valuable and expensive commodities used for international trade, and otters have long been poached as hunting animals. Recent rapid economic development in South Korea has increased habitat fragmentation and loss, creating a continuing threat to the natural environment. Otters live only in the area of rivers and streams as a family group and are territorial (linear habitat). Due to these limited conditions of otter habitat, the population size of otter is lower than that of onshore mammals. According to recent research, DNA analyses using microsatellite markers have shown that only approximately 7-21 otter individuals inhabit river systems for a length of 50-230 km. Korea's urban streams are associated with many threats that hinder otters from inhabiting them. Many areas around the urban streams are surrounded by high concrete riverbanks, and the risk of roadkill is also high. Nevertheless, ecological restoration projects in the urban rivers will contribute greatly to the stable inhabitation of otters. Detailed otter conservation strategies, such as the elimination of threat factors, improvement of habitat environment, and restoration of food resources and shelter, will provide a positive restoration effect on otter and river ecosystems as well.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.29 no.11
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• pp.1033-1054
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• 2020

Repeated use of land is depleting future resources and causing many ecological problems, prompting the need for a natural resource policy focusing on effective conservation. This study aims to identify methods based on international cases useful for introducing sustainable conservation of domestic natural resources. Currently, South Korea has developed and enforced many management and evaluation strategies for natural resources. However, due to limitations on policies and management, they show signs of strain. Therefore, this study compares and analyzes international conservation policies for nature and scenery, such as Germany's impact mitigation regulation, the USA's HEA (habitat equivalency analysis) and REA (resource equivalency analysis) policies, and Japan's three laws for landscape and greenery, to achieve the following three goals: first, find natural resources suitable for South Korea and define them. Second, plan goals for mitigation of total natural resources and build a basis for them. Third, establish effective complete plans for evaluating the total amount of natural resources.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.176-181
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• 2015

Biodiversity is plummeting worldwide, and the major causes of such decline include habitat degradation and climate change. While cities do contribute to the negative impact to the environment, they can also serve as strategic centres for conservation programs. Sites qualifying as biogeographic islands within metropolitan Seoul were studied for the occurrence of two hylid species: the endangered Hyla suweonensis and the abundant H. japonica. This study demonstrates that neither habitat diversity nor surface area, but solely the occurrence of aggregated rice paddies is a requisite for H. suweonensis, hypothetically due to its strict breeding requirements. On the contrary, H. japonica occurrence was not affected by any of these factors, and all types of habitats studied were adequate for this species. The presence of an endangered species within the boundaries of one of the most populated metropolises suggests a strong natural resilience, which should be enhanced with appropriate actions. We emphasize that the management plans therein can, and should, be used as the first step in the conservation of H. suweonensis in metropolitan Seoul.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.103 no.3
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• pp.321-338
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• 2014

In the Natural Monument (No. 432) Jeju Sanghyo-dong Cymbidium kanran Habitat (39 ha), flora, vegetation diversity, stand structure, mirco-climate, canopy openness, light environment and soil temperature and moisture were quantified from Oct. 2013 to Feb. 2014. Compare to Seogwipo-si, daily mean temperature ($5.7^{\circ}C$) and moisture (75.8%) in study area were lower at $3.3^{\circ}C$ and 15%, respectively. Mean soil temperature and moisture were $16.5^{\circ}C$ and 37.3%, respectively, and mean litter layer depth (n = 81) was 4.3 cm. Mean canopy openness and light availability at forest floor were 15.5% and $8.5mol{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}day^{-1}$, respectively. Total of 22 species including vascular and bryophyte plants and 6 vegetation group were observed. Castanopsis siebildii was dominant species in study area, and density and basal area were 1,777 stem/ha and $90.3m^2/ha$.

• 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.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.377-389
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• 2010

Understanding the factors relevant to endangerment and the patterns of habitat locations in relation to protected areas is critically important for the conservation of rare species. Although 64 plant species have recently been listed as endangered species in Korea, this information has, until now, not been available, making appropriate management and conservation strategies impossible to devise. Thus, we collected information on potentially threatening factors, as well as information on the locations in which these species were observed. The potentially threatening factors were classified into seven categories. National parks, provincial parks, ecosystem conservation areas, and wetland conservation areas were defined as protected conservation areas. Korean digital elevation model data, along with the maps of all protected areas were combined with the maps of endangered plant species, and analyzed via Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Excluding the category of "small population", endangered plant species in Korea were associated more frequently with extrinsic factors than intrinsic factors. Considering land surface only, all conservation areas in Korea totaled 4.9% of the land, far lower than International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN)'s 10% coverage target. At the species level, 69% of the endangered plant species were detected in conservation areas, mostly in national parks. However, this result demonstrates that 31% of endangered species inhabit areas outside the conservation zones. Furthermore, at the habitat level, a large proportion of endangered species were found to reside in unprotected areas, revealing "gaps" in protected land. In the face of rapid environmental changes such as population increases, urbanization, and climate changes, converting these gap areas to endangered species' habitats, or at least including them in habitat networks, will help to perpetuate the existence of endangered species.

• Spatial Information Research
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.135-146
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to ascertain and analyze environmental factors of subgenus Lycoctonum in Korea for conservation and management of rare high land plant species by GIS. We derived the habitat model of Lycoctonum from GPS coordination, habitat factors and digital topology maps. Suitable altitude fur the subgenus Lycoctonum is from 470m to 1320m, and northern slopes(between 15.5 and 36 degrees) are ideal for the Lycoctonum populations. In addition to altitude, slope and aspect, deciduous forest and approximation to water source were found as important factor. Using GIS and the Lycoctonum habitat model, we overlaid elevation, aspect, slope and land cover layers and analyzed buffer from the water source on two topology maps, Yang-Soo and Mock-Dong. After making prediction map for Lycoctonum habitat, we verified the existence of Lycoctonum populations on the predicted sites through field survey. Through this research, we're convinced that GIS software is powerful tool for plants conservation, such as finding unknown habitat or selecting alternative habitat.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.84-101
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• 2004

This study presents an ecological management plan for wildbird habitat conservation, an nature-friendly enhancement of bio-diversity using the riverside of the Tancheon Ecosystem Conservation Area in Seoul by analyzing environmental and ecological characteristics. As a result of analyzing actual vegetation, vegetation type was classified into 34 types. Humulus japonicus association covers an area of 441,568.6㎡(31.44％), and Artemisia princeps var. orientalis association covers an area of 89,690.1㎡(6.39％). Sandy plain as valuable wildbird habitat covers an area of 89,965.9㎡(6.4％). 125 taxa including 34 families, 93 genera, 107 species, and 18 varieties were recorded and the number of naturalized plants were 41 taxa at the survey site. Total naturalized index(NI) and urbanized index(UI) were recorded as 32.8％, and 15.5％. As a result of analyzing the herb plants association structure by surveying 8 belt-transects, the humid native plants was dominant in the partially adjacent revetment edge and damp riverside. On the other hand, naturalized plants was so extensively dominant that it was necessary to establish an ecological management plan. The observed wildbirds belonged to 50 species, 6,118 individuals, and 7 restricted species by law, which were Accipiter gentilis, Falco tinnunculus, Buteo hemilasius, and Buteo buteo. Oriolus chinensis,Hirundo rustica, and Alcedo atthis. The ecological administration plan for Tancheon Ecosystem Conservation Area as follows: in ecological land-use planning, the conservation area(695,518.5㎡) has native woody and herb vegetation and sandy plain with water as an wildbird habitat. The restoration area(653,702.7㎡) has a naturalized plants distribution are with artificial revetment. The nature-friendly Riverside Area(55,414.9㎡) was an easily approached area with damaged riverside vegetation, and a safe area to wildbird habitat. In riverside restoration planning, the artificial riverside should be restored to its natural riverside vegetation, and the artificial embankment should be restored with edge shrubs for wildbird habitat or revegetated for natural riverside landscape. For naturalized plants management planning, we selected naturalized plant species to be weeded out, and suggested an application method for ecological management.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2015

Beginning of the human ecology in 1920s, the efforts for applying the environmental values to a policy have been embodied by the enactments of international agreement and relevant laws. The government has been struggling to adopt the environmental values for the policy by enacting the relevant laws and establishing the environmental value evaluation information (environmental conservation value assessment map, eco-natural map, biotope map). In spite of the efforts to apply the environmental value assessment information for the habitat potential of wildlife, the application is being challenged by the discrepancy in methods and criteria. Thus this study intends to measure the potential of wildlife habitat and apply it to the spatial value classification for the application plan of wildlife habitat potential in policy. Maxent was used for the habitat potential and the land types were classified depending on the surface and land use pattern of cadastral map. As a result, the policy matrix including conservation strategy(CS), restoration strategy(RS), practical use strategy(PS) and development strategy(DS) has been deduced as CS $13.05km^2$(2.38%), RS $1.64km^2$(0.30%), PS $162.42km^2$(29.57%) and DS $8.56km^2$(1.56%). CS was emerged mostly on forest valleys and farmlands, and RS was appeared in the road area near the conservation strategy areas. Boryung downtown and Daecheon Beach were the center of DS, while the forest and farmlands were presented as PS. It is significant that this study suggest the new approaching method by comparing the wildlife habitat potential with the land type. Since this study evaluated the environmental value by one species of leopard cat (Prionailurusbengalensis) with Maxent model, it is necessary to apply the habitat potential measuring method for various target species as further research.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.61-68
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the natural habitat of Hotaria unmunsana Doi, which was first discovered at Mt. Unmun also represents a landscape indicator species for Daegu and Gyeongbuk provinces, and Luciola lateralis Motschulsky, which is the object of experiential activation at festivals in some cities in the region. The spatial range of this study is limited by Daegu City and Gyeongbuk province, and is used to predict the preference of firefly for altitude, slope, direction, shaded relief, riparian buffer zone, river environment, and farmland to analyze the area that best matches the habitat of fireflies. As a result, fireflies are highly influenced by altitude and there may be no large-scale habitats in some areas through the Nakdong and the Baekdu mountain ranges, which occur at high altitude. In most of the cities, we found major habitats around the streams and wetlands. By region, the sites were widely distributed around the cities focused on Nakdong River, and many habitats emerged around the Nakdong River tributary and gentle slopes. In order to preserve and spread the habitat of fireflies, the physical environment as well as their relationship with food chains and symbiotic organisms should be established, and excessive use of pesticides and herbicides in agricultural areas should be avoided.