• Title/Summary/Keyword: Ecological quality

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Evaluation of Riverine Microbial Diversity using the Culture-Independent Genetic Fingerprinting Technique (T-RFLP) (유전자지문분석법(T-RFLP)을 이용한 하천 미생물의 다양성 평가)

  • Jeong, Ju-Yong;Lee, Kyong-Hee
    • Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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    • v.24 no.2
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    • pp.195-200
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    • 2008
  • To analyze the riverine microbial community structure, genetic fingerprints and ecological indexes such as species abundances, diversity, evenness, dominance of targeted rivers in Gyeonggi Province were acquired and evaluated using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) technique. Genetic fingerprinting technique such as T-RFLP, which is able to show the microbial community clearly unlike traditional culture-dependent techniques, was thought to be useful to analyse the riverine microbial ecosystem under various factors. Riverine ecosystem evaluation using visible organisms would give biased results with time, targeted organism and researcher. But, T-RFLP, which can exclude the subjected biases such as culture condition and identification, would be an option to understand natural ecosystem by including the microorganisms that defy culture but perform important functions.

Physicochemical tolerance ranges and ecological characteristics in two different populations of Carassius auratus and Cyprinus carpio

  • Kang, Seung Gu;Choi, Ji-Woong;An, Kwang-Guk
    • Journal of Ecology and Environment
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    • v.38 no.2
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    • pp.195-211
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    • 2015
  • The objectives of this research were to determine mean and maximum tolerance ranges of Carassius auratus ($C_a$) and Cyprinus carpio ($C_c$) populations on various physico-chemical parameters and ecological indicator metrics. Little is known about chemical tolerance ranges of the two species, even though these species are widely distributed species in aquatic ecosystems. Maximum tolerance ranges of $C_a$-population to total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) were $20.3mgL^{-1}$ and $2.0mgL^{-1}$, respectively. Optimal ranges of TN and TP in the $C_a$-population were $1.7-5.0mgL^{-1}$ and $0.06-0.30mgL^{-1}$, respectively. Such nutrient regimes of the $C_a$-population were evaluated as hypereutrophy, indicating high tolerance limits. The $C_c$-population had similar ecological characteristics to $C_a$-population, but the mean tolerance ranges of TN, TP, BOD, and COD were significantly (p < 0.05) greater than the $C_a$-population. Ecological patterns of trophic composition and tolerance guilds in the $C_a$-population were similar to those of the $C_c$-population. The model value of Index of Biological Integrity (IBI) of the habitat where C. auratus and C. carpio co-occurred averaged $15.0{\pm}4.3$ and $12.9{\pm}3.6$, respectively. Based on the modified criteria of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (Klemm et al. 1993), it indicated poor ecological health of both species. These results suggest that both species are highly tolerant to chemical and physical habitat conditions of waterbodies, and that the chemical tolerance range of $C_c$-population was higher than $C_a$-population.

A Study on Recognition of Land Acquisition for Ecology Restoration Project in Ecological and Landscape Conservation Area of Donggang River Basin. (동강유역 생태·경관보전지역 내 매수토지 생태복원사업 인식도 연구)

  • Li, Lan;Koo, Bon-Hak
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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    • v.20 no.4
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    • pp.15-28
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    • 2017
  • A protected area means a space designated and protected by law from development pressure and environmental pressure. It is mainly designated to protect specific ecosystems, natural landscapes, and cultural resources from irrational development (or damage), and involves policies of the public sector such as central and local governments. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has conducted conservation and restoration projects for preserving natural ecosystems and genetic resources. In order to conserve the ecosystem in the protected area, national and public organizations purchase private land and use it ecologically; in addition, ecological restoration project is carried out for the purpose of creating waterside ecological belt or preserving ecosystem. Land acquisition refers to the land where highly influenced by the water quality and need to restore, and purchased by negotiating with the landlord. Although the nation and public institution carried out ecosystem restoration project for partial purchase land in order to conserve ecosystem, it is below the expected effect due to lack of comprehensive management system and have some problems in restoration project and unification of management institutions. Land acquisition in Donggang River Basin Ecological Conservation area is initiated in 2005 for creating income of local residents and ecological restoration. However, the lack of overall management and awareness resulted in poor vegetation growth and poor response by local residents due to terrain exposure. As such, there is insufficient research on the current situation and systematic integrated management although the number of land acquisition is increasing year after year. Futhermore, overall recognition and follow-up monitoring of eco-restoration are still inadequate. Therefore, the survey on the awareness of the purchase land ecosystem restoration project is necessary for the efficient restoration project and establishment of the management strategy for land acquisition in the future. Therefore, in this study, we provide fundamental materials on further research projects by carrying out research on the awareness of ecological restoration projects in the Donggang River basin ecological preservation area.

Development Needs and Direction of an Ecological Grading System of Korean Tidal Flats (한국 갯벌 생태 등급도의 개발 필요성과 방향)

  • Yoo, Jae-Won;Lee, Chang-Gun;Kho, Byung-Seol;Lee, Si-Wan;Han, Dong-Uk;Choi, Keun-Hyung;Kim, Chang-Soo;Hong, Jae-Sang
    • Ocean and Polar Research
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    • v.32 no.2
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    • pp.137-144
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    • 2010
  • There is a host of habitat assessment systems available to evaluate and grade tidal flat ecosystems in Korea. Nevertheless, we recognize the need to develop a better ecological scheme to improve reliability and accuracy given the importance of using an empirical approach in assigning grades to indicators and the limitation of current systems which evaluate tidal flats on a regional basis. A preferable system would be one that enables habitat mapping within a tidal flat, provides a diagnosis of ecological stress/health, has a high level of ecological relevance, communicability, and statistical robustness, and enables evaluation of diverse habitats within a tidal flat. The following points should be considered in framing such a system. Indicators should discriminate habitat quality into five to seven grades accomodating diverse characteristics and conservation value of a habitat, and the grading should be made from frequency distribution of indicators based on nationwide data.We suggest the following tasks in crafting such a system: i) The decision on selection of indicators should be made based on accuracy of assessment and practical application; ii) effects of physical habitat conditions on variability of indicators should be reflected; and, iii) further works on stress/health indicators should be addressed for adopting a multiple-indicator approach which reduces misdiagnosis.

An influence of mesohabitat structures (pool, riffle, and run) and land-use pattern on the index of biological integrity in the Geum River watershed

  • Calderon, Martha S.;An, Kwang-Guk
    • Journal of Ecology and Environment
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    • v.40 no.2
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    • pp.107-119
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    • 2016
  • Background: Previous studies on the biological integrity on habitat and landuse patterns demonstrated ecological stream health in the view of regional or macrohabitat scale, thus ignored the mesoscale habitat patterns of pool, riffle, and runs in the stream health analysis. The objective of this study was to analyze influences on the mesohabitat structures of pool, riffle, and run reaches on the fish guilds and biological integrity in Geum-River Watershed. Results: The mesohabitat structures of pool, riffle, and run reaches influenced the ecological stream health along with some close relations on the fish trophic and tolerance guilds. The mesoscale components altered chemical water quality such as nutrients (TN, TP) and BOD and these, then, determined the primary productions, based on the sestonic chlorophyll-a. The riffle-reach had good chemical conditions, but the pool-reach had nutrient enrichments. The riffle-reach had a predominance of insectivores, while the pool-reach has a predominance of omnivores. Also, the riffle-reach had high proportions of sensitive fish and insectivore fish, and the pool-reach had high proportions of tolerant species in the community composition. The intermediate fish species in tolerance and omnivorous fish species in the food linkage dominated the community in the watershed, and the sensitive and insectivorous fishes decreased rapidly with a degradation of the water quality. All the habitat patterns were largely determined by the land-use patterns in the watershed. Conclusions: Trophic guilds and tolerance guilds of fish were determined by land-use pattern and these determined the stream health, based on the Index of Biological Integrity. This study remarks the necessity to include additional variables to consider information provided by mesohabitats and land-use distributions within the selected stream stretch. Overall, our data suggest that land-use pattern and mesohabitat distribution are important factors to be considered for the trophic and tolerance fish compositions and chemical gradients as well as ecological stream health in the watershed.

Development of Lakes Benthic Macroinvertebrate-based Multi-metric Index (LBMMI) for Biological Integrity Assessment of Korean Lake (국내 호소의 온전성 평가를 위한 저서성 대형무척추동물 다중계량지수(LBMMI)의 개발)

  • Geun-Yong Park;Myoung-Chul Kim;Dongsoo Kong
    • Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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    • v.40 no.5
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    • pp.243-257
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    • 2024
  • Although lakes are an important part of freshwater, research on biological methods for assessing ecological integrity of Korean lakes is insufficient. Therefore, this study aimed to develop Lakes Benthic Macroinvertebrates Multi-Metric Index (LBMMI) to assess the ecological integrity of lakes in Korea to further understand Korean lake's ecosystem. We used biological data from 388 sampling units of national lake monitoring programs from 2022 to 2023 and water quality data from Water Environment Information System (WEIS). As a result, firstly, reference points and disturbed points were selected through Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Secondly, six core metric elements (Pielou's Evenness index (J), Total number of taxa (To.t), Percent of taxa in insecta (% I.t), Percent of individuals in Oligochaeta and chironomidae(tuble) (% OliCht.i), Percent of taxa in Predator (% Pe.t), and Percent of taxa in Clingers (% CL.t) were selected through discriminant analysis and relationship-test. Lastly, LBMMI was calculated for each sampling point by scoring using core metric elements and five grades were assigned for LBMMI scores using a Beta probability distribution model, with the suitability of LBMMI reviewed by comparing it with TSIKO. LBMMI developed in this study is expected to appropriately assess ecological integrity of Korean lakes and provide a basis for further research on lake environment conservation.

Preliminary Diagnosis for Pulsing Simulation of Low Trophic Ecosystem by Environmental Changes in Coastal Area (연안해역의 환경변화에 따른 저차 생태계 Pulsing Simulation 예비 진단)

  • Lee, Dae-In
    • Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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    • v.21 no.3
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    • pp.461-468
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    • 2012
  • In general, long-term changes of ecological factors take a pulse form in which they interact with other factors and go through a repeated increasing and decreasing cycle. The coupling of the two approaches the grid model and the box model in ecological modeling can lead to an in-depth understanding of the environment. The study analyzes temporal variations of major storages with an energy system model that formulizes effectively the relationships among nutrients, phytoplankton, and zooplankton in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea. An increase of light intensity and standing stock of nutrient increase the magnitude and frequency of pulsing. Also, an immense reduction of nutrient concentration can cause extinction of the pulsing and bring about a steady state. It is concluded that the nutrient loads in freshwater discharge from the Yangtze affect the cycles of major ecological components as well as water quality variables and play an important role in the marine ecosystem.

Ecological Consideration for Restoration of the Degraded Urban River

  • Lee, Chang-Seok;You, Young-Han
    • 한국생태학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 2002.08a
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    • pp.113-118
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    • 2002
  • Vegetation and riverine structures were compared among urban and several semi-natural rivers by applying direct gradient analysis and ordination method. Urban rivers showed different species composition from the semi-natural ones. Species composition of semi-natural rivers depended on the geographical positions, such as the upstream, midstream, and downstream and on micro-topographies, such as the waterside, flooding bed, and embankment. Semi-natural rivers showed gentle change in micro-topography, whereas urban one did not so. Our restoration plan to improve the ecological quality of the degraded urban river by imitating semi-natural river was prepared based on those data.

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