• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.582-590
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• 2018

Although there are many studies of the effect of climate change on the breeding phenology and community diversity of amphibians, the studies of variations in reproductive population size of individual species according to climate change are still lacking. We examined the effect of climate change on the reproductive population size of Rana huanrenensis and Hynobius leechii, which bred in mountain valleys, by surveying the reproductive population of the two species between 2005 and 2012 and analyzing the correlation between the variation of the outdoor population and the surrounding climate change factors, obtained from a meteorological observatory located at 5.6 km from the study site. The size of the reproductive population of the two species commonly fluctuated with aan pproximately 3.5-year cycle. That of H. leechii, in particular, decreased significantly over eight years. The air temperature tended to more closely relate with the reproductive population size of R. huanrenensis as was the case of the precipitation with that of H. leechii. The yearly mean highest temperature and spring mean temperature variation consistently decreased over the eight years, and the latter was related with the significantly decreased size of H. leechii reproductive population. These results showed that recent climate change directly could affect the reproductive population size of amphibians, particularly H. leechii, which breeds in mountain valleys.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.432-445
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• 2018

Vegetation and water characteristics of an eco-technological water purifying biotope were investigated at five years after the wetland construction. A total of 91 vascular plant species in 36 families were recorded. Initially planted emergent macrophytes such as Phragmites australis, P. japonicus, Zizania latifolia, Typha latifolia, and T. angustifolia mainly comprised the vegetational components of the wetland. The effect of water purification was observed markedly in most indicators such as electric conductivity (P < 0.01), $NO_3-N$ (P < 0.05), $NH_4-N$ (P < 0.001), $K^+$ (P < 0.05), $Na^+$ (P < 0.01), and $Mg^{2+}$ (P < 0.01). In particular, $NO_3-N$ and $NH_4-N$ concentrations decreased to about 60% and 30%, respectively, via the purification process of the wetland. Separativeness and curvature from the meandering structure of 15 units (multi-cell wetland system) seemed likely to make the wetland continuously play a role as an eco-technological water purifying biotope. We recommend that eco-technological design factors should be included in wetland constructions for efficient and continuous functioning, thus enhancing ecological values of wetlands.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.108 no.3
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• pp.277-289
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• 2019

This study was designed to analyze vegetation units using a phytosociological method and to identify the ecological characteristics of each vegetation unit, for forest vegetation from Misiryeong to Danmokryeong of Baekdudaegan, in which, in total, 150 plots were surveyed during May to October 2016. Using community classification according to phytosociology, the Quercus mongolica community group was classified at the top level of a vegetation hierarchy that was classified into an Abies koreana community and a Carpinus cordata community. The A. koreana community was divided into Thuja koraiensis and A. koreana typical groups. The T. koraiensis group was subdivided into Pinus pumila and Betula chinensis subgroups. The C. cordata community was divided into Sasa borealis and C. cordata typical groups. Thus, this forest vegetation comprised one community group, two communities, four groups, and two subgroups and indicated five vegetation units. After analyzing the correlations among the five vegetation units classified by this plant sociological method and the environmental factors like altitude, bare rock, number of present species, and coverage of tree layer with a coincidence method, the A. koreana community and C. cordata typical group were found to be distributed above 1,000 m in altitude, and the S. borealis group was distributed below 1,000 m in altitude. Except for vegetation unit 1, vegetation units tended to be mainly distributed where there was less than 20% bare rock. There was no typical tendency in the number of species present; vegetation unit 5 showed the most abundance among the vegetation units. Coverage by the tree layer mostly exceeded 60%, except for vegetation unit 1.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.108 no.2
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• pp.189-199
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• 2019

The forest management paradigm has recently shifted from focusing on commercial production to focusing on ecosystem management. Accordingly, a natural seedling regeneration method that has a naturally high affinity has attracted much attention in recent years. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship among various environmental factors, lower stratum vegetation, and seedling regeneration in Pinus densiflora forests. The survey site comprised 50 sectors divided using the line transect method, and the survey data were divided into those from wet habitat (19 sites) and dry habitat (31 sites), depending on the soil humidity, and were analyzed separately to show the close relationship between soil humidity and natural seedling regeneration. As a result, the dry habitat exhibited high seedling density (157,419 trees/ha), with the main species being Quercus serrata, Zanthoxylum piperitum, Smilax china, and Pueraria lobata, while wet habitat exhibited low seedling density (57,895 trees/ha), with the main species being Stephanandra incisa, Castanea crenata, Lespedeza maximowiczii, Lysimachia barystachys, Aralia elata, and Styrax japonicus. The height and root-collar diameter under wet conditions exhibited faster growth than those under dry conditions. Height growth by the root-collar diameter in dry habitat increased faster than that in wet habitat. It was also confirmed that seedling regeneration in wet habitat exhibited a rapid growth pattern 5 years after germination. These results suggest that the seedlings begin to grow more rapidly after a period of suppression by competition with surrounding plants. Considering an ecosystem or ecological management approach, specific practices, such as bush control and vine clearing in wet habitats, should be more intensively conducted, especially at the beginning of the management operations.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.242-247
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• 2019

Biological factors (e.g. microorganism activity) in wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) play essential roles for degradation and/or removal of organic matters. In this study, to understand the microbial functional roles in WWTP, we tried to isolate and characterize a bacterial strain from activated sludge sample. Strain S16 was isolated from the activated sludge of a municipal WWTP in Daejeon metropolitan city, the Republic of Korea. The cells were a Gram-stain-positive, non-motile, facultative anaerobe, and rod-shaped. Strain S16 grew at a temperature of $15{\sim}40^{\circ}C$ (optimum, $30^{\circ}C$), with 0~9.0% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 1.0~2.0%), and at pH 5.5~9.0 (optimum, pH 7.0~7.5). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain S16 was most closely related to the unique species Miniimonas arenae NBRC $106267^T$ (99.79%, 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity) of the genus Miniimonas. The cell wall contained alanine, glutamic acid, serine, and ornithine. Although the isolation source of the type strain NBRC $106267^T$ which considered as a marine microorganism is sea sand, that of strain S16 is terrestrial environment. It might raise an ecological question for habitat transition. Therefore, comparative genome analysis will be valuable investigation for shedding light on their potential metabolic traits and genomic streamlining.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2015.05a
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• pp.221-221
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• 2015

Sustainable use of water resource and conservation of water quality are essential problems in the world. Especially, problems of water quality are serious one for human health as well as ecological system of all creatures on the earth. Recently, the importance of total effluent load as well as the concentrations of pollutant materials has been recognized not only for the conservation of water quality but also for sustainable water use in watersheds. However, the measurement or estimation of total effluent load from non-point source area such as farm lands or forests may be more difficult because both of concentration and discharge of the water are greatly changed depending on various factors especially metrological conditions such as rainfall, while the measurement from a point source area may be easy because the concentration of pollutant materials and amount of discharge water are relatively steady. Therefore, the total effluent load from a non-point source is often estimated by statistical relationships between concentration and discharge, which is called as L-Q equation. However, a lot of work and time are required to collect and analyze water samples and to get the accurate relationship or regressive equation. So, we proposed a new system for direct measurement of total effluent load of water quality from non-point source areas to solve the problem. In this system, the overflow depth at a hydraulic weir is measured with a pressure gage every hourly interval to calculate the amount of hourly discharge at first. Then, the operating time of a small electric pump to collect an amount of water which is proportional to the discharge is calculated to intake the water into a storage tank. The stored water is taken out a few days later in a case of storm event or several weeks later in a case of non-rainfall event and the concentrations of water quality such as total nitrogen and phosphorous are analyzed in a laboratory. Finally, total load of the water quality can be calculated by multiplying the concentration by the total volume of discharge. The system was installed in a small experimental forestry watershed to check the performance and know the total load of water quality from the forest. It was found that the system to collect a proportional amount of water to actual discharge operated perfectly and a total load of water quality was analyzed accurately. As the result, it was expected that the system will be very available to know the total load from a non-point source area.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.320-330
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• 2022

The Hangang river estuary, which is a natural estuary without structures such as estuary barrage, is an ecological pathway connecting the sea and rivers. Accordingly, Hangang river estuary has various species, and there is very valuable. Sediment classification in Hangang river estuary is three-dimensionally and diversely is distributed. Sediment classification in Hangang river estuary is also sensitively changed according to various factors such as climate change and river development. It is typically cause to landform and to develop a compound cross section. In Janghang wetland, the plant success is remarkable according to the morphological change at river bed. The purpose of this study is to identify the mechanism of wetland formation based on the observation on-site. As a result of the observation, Janghang wetland where was artificially created, has been grown according to the river bed change based on the flow rate and the plant success. The viscous surface layer material(fine grains of wash rod properties), which is not the main material(sand) of the river bed, but sub-materials of river bed, jas been settled on the pioneer plants(bolboschoenus planiculmis, etc.). It is an important role in the growth of a compound cross section and a wetland. After the wetland developed to the compound cross section, it is observed that the pioneer plants are transferred to other plant species.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.122-132
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• 2021

We reviewed the methods employed in Korean tidal flat surveys to measure the local abundance of the endangered wildlife and marine protected species, the fiddler crab, Austruca lactea. A complete census for infinite population is impossible even in a limited habitat within a tidal flat, and density estimates from samples strongly vary due to diverse biological and ecological factors. The habitat boundaries and areas shift with periodicities or rhythmic activities of organisms as well as measurement errors. Hence the local abundance calculated from density and habitat areas should be regarded as transient. This conjecture was valid based on the spatio-temporal variations of the density averages, standard error ranges, and spatial distribution of the crab, A. lactea observed for 3 years (2015-2017) in Songdo tidal flat in Incheon. We proposed the potential habitat areas using the occurrence probability of 50% from logistic regression model, reflecting the importance of habitat conservation value as an alternative to local abundance. The spatial shape of potential habitat predicted from a generalized model would remain constant over time unless the species' critical environmental conditions change rapidly. The species-specific model is expected to be used for the introduction of desired species in future habitat restoration/creation projects.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.133-143
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• 2021

This study aims to classify the plant communities of the Gudam wetland, a riparian wetland in Nakdong River basin, and to identify the characteristics of the communities according to the veritical structure to prepare management plan. In the Gudam wetland, a total of 19 plant communities were found through physiognomical vegetation, and were analyzed by dividing into tree dominant community, shrub dominant community, and herbaceous dominant community according to the vertical structure. When examining the results of the community characteristics analysis, the species diversity index was the highest in the tree dominant communities but there was concern about a decrease in species diversity due to the influx of exotic plants such as Sicyos angulatus. The shrub dominant community tended to have a biased species diversity index on shrub plants. The herbaceous dominant communities ware divided into wetland herbaceous communities and dryland herbaceous communities according to the species diversity index, and measures were needed to reduce the species diversity index due to artificial disturbances. The importance value was the highest in the arboreal Salix genus in the tree dominant communities, and the exotic plants such as Amorpha fruticosa were the highest in the shrub dominant communities. In the herbaceous dominant communities, wetland herbaceous plants such as Phragmites japonicus were high. As a result of the analysis according to ordination the tree dominant communities and shrub dominant communities were differentiated by exotic plant factors, and the herbaceous dominant communities were differentiated by hierarchy number and slope.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.39-48
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• 2021

In order to control algal bloom, which causes environmental problems such as eutrophication in freshwater ecological environments, many attempts have recently been made using biological approaches. Among them is filtration using bivalve. Algae control with filter-feeding bivalves is emerging as an eco-friendly method. In this study, bivalves collected at Baekje weir in Geum River in Korea from Jun to Sep 2020 were tested to find out the possibility of algae control using filter-feeding bivalves through laboratory experiments. The Unio douglasiae, Anodonta woodiana, and Anodonta arcaeformis collected from Baekje weir were put into a water tank (2 L) containing Clorella vulgaris, and as a result, the average filtration rate was 95.9% per animal after 24 hrs. Calculating this with the Chl-a concentration converted to a calibration curve, it was found that the average of 154.84 ㎍ L^-1 of Chl-a was reduced. Based on this calculation, the possibility that one bivalve can eliminate Chl-a in one month is 0.0005%. It is expected that the effect is 20.14% when there are 40,000 animals. These results indirectly showed how effective bivalve's ability to control Chl-a in their habitat is. Although this study was limited to calculating the algae control ability of aquatic ecosystem based on the filtration rate of bivalve and the corresponding Chl-a reduction rate, it is thought that it will be used as basic data for integrated research from various factors and viewpoints (phytoplankton, aquatic plants, benthic organisms, and sediments) through additional research.