• Journal of Practical Agriculture & Fisheries Research
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.137-150
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• 2010

Traditionally, like many people in mountain region of the Himalaya, the Lwang communities depend on mix of subsistence agriculture, animal husbandry, and seasonal migrant labor for their livelihoods. These traditional systems are characterized by low productivity, diverse use of available natural resources (largely for home consumption), limited markets, and some aversion for innovation. The potential to generate wealth through commerce has largely been untapped by these mountain residents and thus is undervalued in local and national economies. Introduction of organic tea farming is a part of Lwang community's several initiatives to break the vicious poverty cycle Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) played facilitating roles in all their efforts since beginning. In five years, the tea plantation emerged as a new means for secured a livelihood. This study aims to analyze the current practices in tea farming both in terms of farm management and soil nutrient status(technical) and the prosperity of the tea farmers (social). The technical aspect covers the soil and tea leaf analysis of various nutrients contents in the soil and tea leaf. Originally, the technical aspect of the study was not planned but later during the consultation with the advisor it was taken into consideration which added value to the research study. The sample were collected from different locations and analyzed on the field itself. The other part of the study i.e. the social aspect was done through questionnaire survey and focus group discussion. the tea farming provided them not only a new opportunity but also earned an identity in the region. This initiative was undertaken as a piloting measure. Now that the tea is in production with processing unit established locally, more serious consideration has to be given for better yield and economic prosperity. This research finding will help the community to analyze their efforts and make correction measures in tea garden management and application of fertilizer. It is also expected to fill up the gaps of knowledge and information required to reduce economic stresses and enhance capacity of farmers to make the tea farming a sustainable and beneficial business. The findings are expected to Sustainability of organic tea farming has direct impacts on biodiversity conservation compared to the other traditional farming practices that are more resource intensive. The study will also contribute to identify key action points required for reducing poverty while conserving environment and enhancing livelihoods

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.337-348
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• 2012

The Yellow Sea Ecoregion Conservation Project is a joint international project which is carried out under the purposes of conserving the habitats in the Yellow Sea Ecoregion and biodiversity from various threats that damage ecosystems, informing the importance and value of the Yellow Sea Ecoregion, and promoting the understanding and interests of Korea, China and Japan. Subsequent to the Yellow Sea Ecoregion Planning Programme which had been performed during the period from 2002 to 2006, the Yellow Sea Ecoregion Support Project has been performed over 7 years in total from 2007 to 2014. Panasonic is sponsoring the financing of the project, and the organizations in charge of the project by country are Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology for Korea and World Wide Fund for Nature branches for China and Japan. While the Yellow Sea Ecoregion Planning Programme was focused on the biological assessment and the selection of potential priority area by scientific review, the Yellow Sea Ecoregion Support Project is oriented toward practical activities targeting more diversified stakeholder. Especially, this project plans to support direct conservation activities in the region and participation and cooperation from local residents. The project plan is comprised of 3 phases. During the first period from 2008 to 2009, small grant projects were operated targeting 16 institutions of Korea and China, and for the second period from 2010 to 2012, one place each was selected as demonstration site for habitat conservation in Korea and China respectively and supported for three years to introduce the conservation method based on international standards such as the management of marine protected areas, ecosystem-based management and community-based management and simultaneously to develop habitat conservation activities suitable for national and regional characteristics. During the period from 2013 to 2014 which is the last phase, the project plans to distribute the performance of small grant projects and demonstration site activities through a series of forums among stakeholder. Through the activities described above, the recognition of general public on the conservation of the Yellow Sea Ecoregion was changed positively, and community-based management began to be reflected in the policies for the marine protected areas of central and local government.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.34 no.4 s.117
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• pp.69-83
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• 2006

Nature rehabilitation has become a major theme in river management in South Korea. An analysis and evaluation of the landscape is a crucial step to select the suitable tracts for developing or conserving land use in the process of landscape planning. The purpose of this paper is to establish a hierarchical procedure for the setting of the landscape units on the various scales at which field biologists performed their observations and to select the preserves through by a suitability model for synthesizing the ecological empirical, and biophysical data. An evaluation process needs to be performed according to the landscape scales: site, local, and regional scales, at which the environmental data were collected, analyzed, and synthesized. Introducing of three level scales was crucially necessary for evaluating the various multi level ecological data for zoning of preserves in river corridors. The evaluation level at different scales are hierarchically established into three phases. The first evaluation phase can be performed by the long length units defined by the ranges of stream widths at regional scale. Secondly, each of these long units can be divided into two or more segments according to its landscape homogeneity at local level. Finally the segments at the last phase can be designated according to the location of the reservoir weirs and bridges at site level. The conceptual model components are adopted for collecting, evaluating, and interpreting the biological and abiotic data at site level. Three preserves are selected, having high potentials for being intensely managed as the Ecological Education Areas in the river. Despite a lot of assumption the results are expected to facilitate discussion and decision making about which frameworks of evaluation are desirable and adaptable for integrating the ecological data into the rehabilitation design process in South Korea.

• Advances in pediatric surgery
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.15-25
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• 1999

Injured spleens have been successfully managed without operation in a number of children; however, splenectomy or splenic-conserving surgery may not be avoided because of exsanguinating hemorrhage. This study was performed to evaluate the efficacy of splenic arterial embolization (SAE) to control hemorrhage from injured spleens in children. We compared the outcomes of two groups of children with splenic injury. The first group (G1) consisted of eighteen children who were managed with conventional selective nonoperative treatment between 1993 and 1994. The second group (G2) consisted of 23 children prospectively studied from 1996 to 1997 after SAE was added in the management protocol of splenic injury. The criteria for SAE were grade III or IV injury, extravasation of contrast material revealed by CT, or unstable vital signs without evidence of associated injuries. Laparotomy was performed in 6 patients of G1 (33.3 %), 2 of whom had associated injuries. Five underwent splenectomy and the overall salvage rate in G1 was 72.2 % (13/18). In G2, eight patients (34.8 %) had SAE, which stopped bleeding successfully in all patients. Two of G2 (8.7 %) had laparotomy because of associated injuries. Only one patient underwent splenectomy and the salvage rate was 95.6 % (22/23). No patients required transfusion after SAE. In conclusion, the SAE effectively controlled hemorrhage from injured spleens. More spleens were salvaged with a reduced laparotomy rate after application of SAE in splenic injury.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.185-192
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• 2013

BACKGROUND: As a result of rural exodus, aging of rural population, development of high-yield rice varieties and so on, abandoned paddy fields of South Korea have generally increased. The phytosociological studies are needed to recommend the effective vegetation management methods of abandoned paddy fields. The current study performed an analysis of vegetation characteristics by classifying plant communities for abandoned paddy fields in South Korea. METHODS AND RESULTS: A comparative analysis of syntaxonomy, synecology, and syndynamics was performed by using the Z.-M. method of phytosociology and vegetation survey which was obtained from an enumeration district of total 203 phytosociological releves of 5 regions in Gangwon-do, 5 regions in Gyeonggi-do, 2 regions in Chungcheong-do, 18 regions in Gyeongsang-do, and 10 regions in Jeolla-do. Alopecurus aequalis community, Juncus effusus var. decipiens community and Salix koreensis community were, respectively, identified as successional plant communities of the early stage, the middle stage, and the late stage in the vegetation of abandoned paddy field. Sere of abandoned paddy field can be classified, developmentally, into annual plant stage, perennial plant stage, shrub plant stage, and forest tree stage. Several kinds of dominant species rather than a distinct species were found in the middle stage of abandoned paddy field. CONCLUSION(S): In this study, changing pattern in vegetational communities of abandoned paddy field were understood. These results will provide important information for restoring and conserving the ecology of fallow ground.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.37-48
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• 2015

Soil nutrient management is important to maintain the constant productivity of seedling production in the nursery for successful forest restoration. This study investigated the effects of organic manure and chemical fertilizer application levels on the growth, soil properties, and nutrient concentrations of yellow poplar seedlings. One-year-old yellow poplar seedlings were treated with the combination of 3 level organic manures(0, 5 Mg/ha, 10 Mg/ha; mixture of poultry manure, cattle manure, swine manure, and sawdust) and 3 level nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium(NPK) chemical fertilizers(0, 1x(urea, $30g/m^2$; fused superphosphate, $70g/m^2$; potassium chloride, $15g/m^2$), 2x). Organic manure significantly increased the soil pH and the concentrations of nitrogen, available phosphorous, exchangeable potassium, calcium, and magnesium. In contrast, the NPK chemical fertilizer decreased the soil pH and exchangeable calcium concentration, did not affect the soil concentrations of nitrogen and magnesium, and increased the concentrations of available phosphorous and exchangeable potassium. Both organic manure and NPK chemical fertilizer treatments increased the seedling height, root collar diameter, and dry weight by 39% and 25%, respectively. The treatment with manure 5 Mg/ha and NPK 2x chemical fertilizer mostly increased seedling dry weight by 2.6 times more than that of the control. Compared to the effects of the fertilization treatments on the soil properties, the effects on nutrient concentrations in the leaves were relatively small. These findings indicate that organic manure that was derived from livestock byproducts and sawdust can be utilized with chemical fertilizer to improve seedling production as well as conserving soil quality.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.875-901
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• 2017

Although some skeptical views arguing that the impact of organic farming is quite limited to sustainable biodiversity, the organic agriculture has been generally accepted to have positive effects on various properties of soils not only on biophysical and ecological properties but also on biodiversity of the field. Therefore, this field investigation has been conducted to examine the effect of organic farming, relative to conventional agriculture, through a comparative investigations of the two systems for conserving local biodiversity of invertebrate animals. For this research, organic and conventional farming locations matched with both of a paddy field and a upland fields in Goesan-gun province (Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea) were selected to compare the species richness of invertebrate biodiversity as follows: location OP (Organic Paddy field), location OU (Organic Upland field), location CP (Conventional Paddy field), and location CU (Conventional Upland field). Among 249 species collected, the numbers of species collected in the locations practicing organic farming were greater than the locations practicing conventional farming both in paddy fields (104 vs. 84 species) and upland fields (108 vs. 77 species). Changes in species richness can be shown in the selected locations depending on the agriculture system with organic (50 species) or conventional (44 species) farming systems in the paddy fields, similarly with organic (42 species) or conventional (35 species) farming in the upland fields, respectively. Our present research clearly shows that a wide range of taxa, including insects, spiders and other invertebrates, benefit from organic management through increases in abundance or species richness. It has been also identified that four orders (Hemiptera, Diptera, Hynemoptera, and Araneae) that are largely intrinsic to organic paddy field, and another three orders (Hemiptera, Coleoptera, and Araneae) that are particularly beneficial for organic crop field regime.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.395-404
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• 2005

A project has recently begun to reintroduce endangered Asiatic black bears to the Jirisan National Park. However, information on home range that is necessary to maintain the Minimum Viable Population (MVP) of those bears does not exist. Based on point data of two bears that were released for trial in Jirisan in 2001, we identified the movement pattern of bears and estimated their home ranges with two different methods Finally, the possibility of conserving the MVP of bears was evaluated by comparing the location and size of the home range with habitats which have been found to be suitable for bears. The frequency of bears' appearance reduced drastically as road densities of both paved roads and legal trails increased. The midpoint of home ranges of the two bears was 376.85 $km^2$ and 50.76 $km^2$ based on 100% MCP (Minimum Convex Polygon) and 95% AK (Adaptive Kernel Home Range Method), respectively, with an overlapped area of 126.0 $km^2$ and 3.99 $km^2$ each. The core areas of their home ranges are located not in the no-entry zone, where major trails were open to the public - despite being designated as no -entry zone - but in areas where most trails were closed to the public. A discrepancy between core areas of home ranges and potentially suitable habitats suggests the effects of vehicles and tracking people through roads within the park. Thus, for the success of in situ conservation of endangered bears, well-planned management of habitats is needed to protect bears and to ensure the home ranges to support the MVP.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.47-56
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• 2020

Decline of pine forests happens in Korea due to various disturbances such as insect pests, forest fires and extreme climate, which may further continue with ongoing climate change. For conserving and reestablishing pine forests, understanding climate-induced future shifts of pine tree distribution is a critical concern. This study predicts future geographical distribution of Pinus densiflora, using Maximum Entropy Model (MaxEnt). Input data of the model are locations of pine tree stands and their environmental variables such as climate were prepared for the model inputs. Alternative future projections for P. densiflora distribution were conducted with RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 climate change scenarios. As results, the future distribution of P. densiflora steadily decreased under both scenarios. In the case of RCP 8.5, the areal reductions amounted to 11.1% and 18.7% in 2050s and 2070s, respectively. In 2070s, P. densiflora mainly remained in Kangwon and Gyeongsang Provinces. Changes in temperature seasonality and warming winter temperature contributed primarily for the decline of P. densiflora., in which altitude also exerted a critical role in determining its future distribution geographic vulnerability. The results of this study highlighted the temporal and spatial contexts of P. densiflora decline in Korea that provides useful ecological information for developing sound management practices of pine forests.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.249-255
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• 2018

This study was carried out to investigate the on the fitness of Polygonatum stenophyllum Maxim. along the coverage of Ambrosia trifida L. We were measured the number of species, death rate of P. stenophyllum, vegetative and reproductive growth of P. stenophyllum and analyzed from June 2015 to October 2016. The coverage gradient of A. trifida was divided none removed control (Control, C), 40 ~ 60% removed treatment (Treatment 1, T1) and 100% removed treatment (Treatment 2, T2) of A. trifida. As a result, When the more than 40% of removal coverage of A. trifida, the number of plant speciecs, the number of P. stenophyllum and vegetative and reproductive growth of P. stenophyllum were higher than none removed the A. trifida during the two years. Therefore, We suggest that the removal of more than 40% coverage of A. trifida from the habitats is effective in preserving the plant species diversity and conserving the populations of P. stenophyllum in this study area.