• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.216-227
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to propose the rational mountain stream management strategy considering the natural conditions and social needs of the Republic of Korea. We reviewed domestic and overseas studies related to mountain streams, identified the study areas by text mining and co-word analysis using the VOSviewer program, and then analyzed the spatial and temporal study trends and topics of each study area. The results showed that domestic studies on mountain streams are still in an initial stage compared to overseas studies. Overseas studies on mountain streams can be classified into four groups: (i) habitat and species composition of fish and invertebrates, (ii) hydrological phenomena and nutrient migration, (iii) transport of sediment and organic materials and the relevant morphological changes by runoff flows, and (iv) plant species composition in mountain streams. Of these study subjects, domestic studies belonging to the (i) group mainly focused on macroinvertebrates while domestic studies belonging to the (iii) group regarded transport of sediment and organic materials as not the ecological disturbance but the source of sediment-related disasters. We then analyzed the rate of each research group to all papers by period and country. The results showed that the overseas studies belonging to (iii) and (iv) groups have increased with time, and the increase was mostly due to the studies in the United States, Brazil, Canada, and China. On the other hand, domestic studies belonging to (i) and (iii) groups increased somewhat with time, but there was a slight lack of correlation between the two subjects. Therefore, the hybridity studies to complement the shortage is necessary for the future.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.311-318
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• 2019

We analyzed the preliminary survey data (2014-2016) of macrobenthic community biomass (n = 112) from the wind farm area located in the southern part of the west coast of Korea and compared this data with data from the entire west coast (n = 369; 2006-2008). Modal classes from frequency distributions were 6 times higher in the latter (5 vs. 32 g/㎡). The mean and median values of the latter were 1.3 and 1.7 times higher (mean, 20.7 vs. 27.8 g/㎡; median, 17.1 vs. 29.5 g/㎡), and the maximum value was 3.4 times higher. Mood's median test showed significant difference at p-value = 0.01. We estimated the biomass-to-depth relationships from each data set by using Akaike Information Criterion and regarded the non-overlap of the 95% confidence intervals as indicating significant difference. The biomass was different from a 10 m depth below, and 3 times higher in the west coast at around 20 m compared with the maximum depth of the wind farm area. A local event of catastrophic sedimentation ranging from 1 to 2 m was observed in the wind farm during winter surveys. This could be a probable source of the lower biomass, but information on biomass seasonality and a natural experimental approach seem to be needed for the conduct of further studies. This study is meaningful in that it provided the background to assess future changes by understanding the lower level of benthic productivity in the area. We expect this study will contribute to the preparation of measures that can remove or mitigate the source of the lower biomass and improve the productivity of fishery resources in the area.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.143-151
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• 2016

Shoreline armoring is a globally used engineering strategy to prevent shoreline erosion along stream, lake and reservoir coastlines. Armoring alters the land-water interface and has the potential to affect shoreline vegetation by changing nearshore geomorphology, hydrology, sediment composition and water quality. We quantified the effects of the artificial disturbances and alternation of the land-water interface on the community structure and distribution of shoreline vegetation in a large reservoir, Uiam Reservoir, Korea. More than 60% of shorelines were disturbed by armoring with retaining wall of concrete block, riprap and gabion in the Uiam Reservoir. The results of detrended correspondence analysis showed that the vegetation structures of the shoreline modified by armoring changed from hydrophyte-dominated to hygrophyte-dominated ecosystems. The shoreline armoring caused the disruption of gradual continuity in the water-land interface and the biological invasion by alien plants. The changes in distribution area of shoreline vegetation showed that the area of hydrophytic vegetation decreased and that of hygrophytic vegetation increased from 2010 to 2013. In conclusion, the human disturbance such as armoring, road construction, recreation etc. could lead to terrestrialization, the loss of transverse continuity and biological invasion in the shoreline vegetation of the Reservoir Uiam. Our findings suggest that redesigning or removing shoreline armoring structures may benefit nearshore hydrophytic vegetation for the conservation of novel shoreline ecosystems.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.408-415
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• 2016

Small fishing ports and coastal structures installed in a relatively low sea water depth disturb the wave induced current and cause the collapse of equilibrium state of sediment transport. These structures creates diffracted waves and matter the concentration of waves to cause the beach erosion. In order to mitigate these eroding problems on the beach, many counter measurements were proposed such as detached breakwater, groin or headland; however, these methods interrupt the aesthetic view of sandy beach due to the exposed structures above the sea level and have difficulty of applying to those beaches with the good scenery. Furthermore, some of these methods create secondary environmental problems after the installations. To eliminate these problems, one of the countermeasures, artificial reefs have been selected and used worldwide to minimize the disturbance of the scenery and secondary effects on the environment. Meanwhile, it is important to set the design elements for installing the artificial reefs such as that of length, opening width, clearing distances from the shoreline and more. Nevertheless, there are no construction manuals or standards for designing the artificial reefs with these important design elements yet. In this study, different conditions of artificial reefs were used with various cases throughout hydraulic model test to precisely analyze the changes of waves and currents to propose the standards of design elements to install the artificial reefs.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.168-177
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• 2008

Trafficablility of a miner and potential environmental impacts due to mining activities should be considered in the selection of a commercial manganese nodule mining site. These two factors can be evaluated comparatively with physical properties and shear strength of sea-bed sediments. For the qualitative comparison of potential minig sites in terms of these two factors, physical properties such as water contents, void ratios, porosities, and grain densities, and shear strengths of surface sediments were determined for the three potential manganese nodule mining sites(KR1, KR2, and KR5) in the Korean manganese nodule contract area, northeast Pacific. For the study, sediment samples were collected from 107 stations from 2004 to 2006. The physical properties of surface sediments showed more significant differences between northern(KR1, KR2) and southern(KR5) blocks than between northern blocks(KR1 vs. KR2). Water content, void ratio, and porosity of sediments from KR5 were relatively higher than those from KR1 and KR2. Grain density of sediments from KR5 was relatively lower than those from KR1 and KR2. Shear strengths of the top 10cm sediments were higher in KR1 and KR2, whereas those of the deeper part were highest in KR5 block. Generally, sediments of high water contents are less suspendible than those of the low water contents by benthic disturbances, thus less disturbance is expected in the sediments of high water content by mining activities. In terms of trafficability, the shear strength of sediment below 10 cm deep is more important than shallower part because miner will disturb at least top 10 cm interval of the surface sediments. Base on these results, we conclude that KR5 area will be the best site for commercial mining among three investigated sites in this study.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.287-304
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• 2007

This study was carried out to investigate spatio-temporal variations of benthic environment and macrobenthic polychaete communities in Gamak Bay where excessive organic matters from untreated sewage effluents and fish and shellfish farming activities have been accumulated in certain regions. Such environmental variables as sediment composition, organic content, acid volatile sulfide and dissolved oxygen content etc. were measured and polychaete specimens were taken in September 1999 and February 2000. In September 1999, organic contents were up to three times higher in the northwestern part of the bay and the area closed to Gukdong harbor than in the rest of the bay. In particular, benthic environment of the northwestern part of the bay was extremely deteriorated by the occurrence of hypoxia and highly concentrated sulfide. Of 28 stations investigated in summer, 5 stations located in the northwestern part were azoic. In the rest of the stations, a total of 119 polychaete species were sampled with a mean density of 900 $ind./m^2$. While species richness was higher in the entrance and central part of the bay where water exchanges with open sea were relatively active, density was higher in the moderately enriched stations neighbouring Gukdong harbor and fish farms where such potential indicators of organic pollution as Aphelochaeta monilaris, Lumbrineris longifolia were largely dominant. In February 2000, a total of 81 polychaete species appeared with a mean density of 2,802 $ind./m^2$ from 12 stations sampled in winter. Azoic areas were recolonized by Capitella capitata, Pseudopolydora paucibranchiata and Dipolydora socialis which showed maximum density in the innermost station. On the other hand, the rest of the stations were dominated by Euchone alicaudata and Praxillella affinis. The configuration of the stations sampled in summer and winter on the multidimensional scaling plots reflected the position of each stations within the bay in which there were great differences in organic content, sulfide concentration and oxygen content rather than in sediment composition. Therefore, heterogeneities in polychaete community structure in Gamak Bay were primarily influenced by the degree of the disturbance depending on the position within the bay.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.270-282
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• 2012

This study was conducted to investigate the impact of sand addition to an intertidal for the development of the Manila clam habitat on benthic community structure. For this, we focused on the spatio-temporal changes in the surface sediment condition and benthic community structure before and after the event. Study site was an sandbank in Gonam-myeon, Taean-gun where sand added to on July 2010. We set three stations at each of sand adding area (experimental plot) and non sand-adding area (control plot) and did sampling works ten times from June 2010 to October 2011. Directly after the event, surface sediments changed to very coarse sand, but the state was not maintained over four months because of seasonal sedimentation and finally got back to very fine sand in eight months. The number of species and density were temporarily reduced right after the event and crustacean species such as Apocorophium acutum, Photis sp. were most negatively affected by the event. However, the number of species recovered from the reduction in three months and density did in four months due to the recolonization by the existing species and species in the vicinity of the plot. During the study period, dominant species continuously changed from the species such as A. acutum, Photis sp. at the time before the event, through the species such as Heteromastus filiformis, Macrophthalmus japonicus at the time right after the event, to the species such as Musculista senhousia, Ruditapes philippinarum, Mediomastus californiensis in the latter part of the study period. Although surface sediment properties and ecological indices recovered within a certain period after the event, the recovery of community structure has never been observed up to the end of the study.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.40 no.4 s.109
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• pp.428-440
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• 2005

There is currently no agreement among archaeologists, environmental historians, and paleoecologists as to the relative significance of pre- and post-Conquest human impact on the environments of Highland Mexico. This paper presents the results of pollen, microscopic charcoal, dung fungal spore, isotope, and magnetic susceptibility analyses on ca. 4m sediment core. The coring site is Hoya Rincon de Parangueo, one of the seven maar lakes in the Valle do Santiago. Amaranthaceae pollen, one of important disturbance indicators and Zea mays pollen obviously indicate two periods of agricultural activities. The first period begins ca. 400 B.C. and ends ca. A.D. 850. The second begins around A.D. 1550 and continues to the present. During the first period, the degree of agricultural activities was related to periodical sunspot cycles and the most intense activities were present between ca. A.D. 150-ca. A.D. 400. The abrupt increase of $\delta^{18}O$ around 280cm may reflect that an important transition to a dry phase took place around A.D. 450. People probably stopped cultivating crops due to dry conditions prevailing since ca. A.D. 450. The second period, the post-Conquest, exhibits a dramatic increase of sporormiella, dung fungal spores resulted fron the introduction of cattle. Low Poaceae frequency and charcoal production and high $\delta^{13}C$ values, magnetic susceptibility, and organic contents all indicate the arrival of the Spanish. Most importantly, it seems that mesquite (Prosopis juliflora) could have benefits from declined fire frequencies caused by cattle grazing. The study area is now entirely dominated by woody plants like mesquite, which clearly demonstrates that serious vegetation change occurred in the study area.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.194-205
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• 2022

Sandbars formed by sediment transportation and sedimentation are some of the most important habitats for specific wildlife and they provide an aesthetic landscape in streams. The purpose of this study was to understand the successional process of the colonization and development of early vegetation over time on sandbars exposed by the opening of a gate at a downstream weir. We selected the following four study sites in the Geumgang River, South Korea: three weir-upstream sites with different gate-opening times and a control site that was not affected by weir operation. Changes in the structural characteristics and spatial distribution of the riparian vegetation on the sandbars exposed after opening the gate at the weir were surveyed according to the different exposure periods of the sandbars at the study sites. The newly formed sandbars accounted for more than 33% of the area of the existing floodplain in the three weir-upstream sites of the Geumgang River after opening the gate at the weir. Nine main plant communities were distributed on the exposed sandbars. These communities were classified as annual mesophytic, perennial hydrophytic, perennial hygrophytic, subtree, and tree vegetation based on their species traits. As the duration of exposure of the sandbar increased, the area of the bare sandbar and the annual herbaceous and perennial hydrophytic communities decreased, and the areas occupied by perennial hygrophytic, subtree, and tree communities increased. Changes in vegetation on the sandbar were classified into three types of succession according to the condition of the aquatic habitat before the gate-opening and the degree of physical disturbance caused by the water flow after the gate-opening. The types of succession were: 1) succession starting from hydrophytes in the lentic aquatic zone, 2) succession starting from annual herbaceous hygrophytes in the lotic aquatic zone, and 3) willow-dominated succession in the disturbed channel side. Our results suggested that the dynamics of successional changes in vegetation should be considered during weir operation to ecologically manage the habitats and landscape of the fluvial landforms, including sandbars in streams.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.262-266
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• 2016

We investigated the characteristic demographics for visitors to Mujechi bog on Mt. Jungjok, with the purpose of developing a management strategy for the conservation and wise use of the montane wetland. Using daily visitor data from 2007, 2011, and 2015 we extracted and analyzed; visitation date, age, residential areas, purpose of visitation and the time allotted for the visit. The largest age cohort was the decade of the fifties(36.8%/total number of visitors) and followed by the decade of the forties(30.4%). The majority of visitors were from Ulsan(67%), Busan(16.6%), and Yangsan(10.8%). The visitors' primary objectives were to hike Mt. Jungjok(39-64.4%) or view Mujechi bog(18.7-51.8%) during the weekend. People visited more during the weekend than weekdays(F=6.19, p<0.002). In addition, there was a clear seasonality obvious in the monthly visits. The proportion of visitors were present in spring and fall, the month with the highest visitation rate was May at $15.6{\pm}2.8%$($mean{\pm}S.D.$). This increase in May was partly due to the desire to see the Korean azalea in bloom in the spring. Montane bog, like Mujechi, could be highly affected by disturbance(e.g. stamping, sediment inflow) caused by visitors. Therefore, it is suggested, based on the level of visitation that to reduce possible human disturbance effects, that either a seasonal restriction or a yearly alternation of trails be established. Visitors to the wetland should be restricted access to certain areas of the wetland, or be required to go in the accompaniment of a ranger or warden.