• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.16.1-16.9
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• 2014

Fatty acids (FA) have recently been used in several studies to infer the diet in a number of species. While these studies have been largely successful, most have dealt with predators that have a fairly specialized diet. In this paper, we used FA analysis as a tool to infer the diet of the nearctic river otter (Lontra canadensis). The river otter is an opportunistic predator known to subsist on a wide variety of prey including, fishes, crayfish, molluscs, reptiles and amphibians, among others. We analyzed the principle components of 60 FA from otters and 25 potential prey species in Illinois, USA. Prey species came from 4 major taxonomic divisions: fishes, crayfish, molluscs and amphibians. Within each division, most, but not all, species had significantly different profiles. Using quantitative FA signature analysis, our results suggest that, by mass, fish species are the most significant component of Illinois River otters' diet ($37.7{\pm}1.0%$). Molluscs ranked second ($32.0{\pm}0.8%$), followed by amphibians ($27.3{\pm}4.3%$), and finally, crayfish ($3.0{\pm}0.6%$). Our analysis indicates that molluscs make up a larger portion of the otter diet than previously reported. Throughout much of the Midwest there have been numerous otter reintroduction efforts, many of which appear to be successful. In regions where mollusc species are endangered, these data are essential for management agencies to better understand the potential impact of otters on these species. Our analysis further suggests that quantitative FA signature analysis can be used to infer diet even when prey species are diverse, to the extent that their FA profiles differ. Better understanding of the otter's metabolism of FA would improve inferences of diet from FA analysis.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.50-56
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• 2012

Kelp grouper ($Epinephelus$ $bruneus$ Bloch 1793) is a commercially important fish in Korea. In recent years, the catch of kelp grouper in the coastal waters of Korea has significantly declined. Despite its importance, little is known about its genetic diversity and conservation efforts are hampered. In this study, we isolated and characterized 12 microsatellite loci using an enrichment method based on magnetic/biotin capture of microsatellite sequences from a size-selected genomic library. All loci were readily amplified and contained TG/CA denucleotide repeats. To characterize each locus, 30 individuals from a natural E. bruneus population in the coastal waters of Jeju Island, Korea, were genotyped. All loci except three, KEm118, KEm154, and KEm219, were polymorphic, with an average of 8.1 alleles per locus (range 2-18). The mean observed and expected heterozygosities were 0.47 (range 0.19-1.00) and 0.61 (range 0.29-0.92), respectively. A significant deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was observed at three loci (KEm134, KEm184, and KEm283). These findings will be useful for effective monitoring and management of genetic variation of kelp grouper as well as for the implementation of a fisheries conservation program.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.745-749
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• 2012

국내 주요하천은 지속적인 산업화와 난개발로 인해 생태계파괴 및 수변생물의 서식처 환경 악화로 하천 생태계에 많은 악영향을 받고 있다. 그러나 1990년대 이후 국내에서는 하천의 기능과 생물의 다양성, 하천환경 및 생태학적인 가치와 중요성에 대한 인식이 매우 커짐에 따라 하천의 생태적 기능을 매우 중요시 하고 있으며, 하천의 난개발로 인한 피해를 복원하기 위해 활발한 연구가 진행되고 있다. 대표적인 연구로 생태계 건전화 개념을 도입하여 담수성 어류 서식처 제공 및 이동에 필요한 유량을 산정한 한국 수자원공사(1995)의 연구가 있으며, 김규호 등(1996a, 1996b)은 물고기 서식처 환경 중 특히 수심과 유속 등 수리조건을 유지하기 위한 최소유량 산정 방법을 제시하였다. 또한 노경범(2011)은 섬진강의 하천환경 회복을 위한 연구대상 구간에서의 대표어종을 선정하여 서식처 특성 파악을 위해 하천 특성을 연구하였다. 이와 같이 현재 국내에서도 하천의 기능과 생태학적 기능을 위한 노력과 연구가 진행되고 있다. 그러나 생태학적 서식처 연구에서는 아직까진 미진한 부분이 많이 있다. 그 예로 보호종이나 멸종위기어종과 같은 생물의 서식처 확보를 위한 연구가 아직까지는 많은 노력과 연구가 필요한 상태이다. 본 연구에서는 환경부에서 지정한 멸종위기 1급 어종인 퉁사리를 대상으로 서식환경 특성 연구를 진행하였으며, 퉁사리의 생태학적 서식특성과 현재 지석천 상류 유역에서 관찰되고 있는 서식구간을 중심으로 MD-SWMS (Multi-Dimensional, Surface Water Modeling System) 모형을 이용하여 수리특성 분석을 수행하였다. 이를 위해 하상재료 입도분석을 실시하였으며, 그 결과 입도가 큰 굵은모래 및 잔자갈, 굵은자갈로 구성되어 있음을 알 수 있었다. 또한, 수리학적 특성분석결과 서식구간 내에서는 비교적 빠른 유속이 나타났다. 이러한 퉁사리의 서식환경의 특성 분석으로 서식구간 내 입도가 큰 하상재료로 구성되어 있으며, 퇴적구간이 생성되지 않을 정도의 유사이송량과 유속이 필요할 것으로 분석되었다. 향후 퉁사리의 장기적인 서식환경 조성과 보존을 위해 대상구간의 유사이송의 연구와 실측 및 수변환경 모니터링을 통한 다양한 연구가 진행되어야 할 것으로 판단된다.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.209-220
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• 2021

Pacific herring, Clupea pallasii, a keystone species with significant ecological and commercial importance, is declining globally throughout much of its range. While traditional fishing equipment methods remain limited, new sensitive and rapid detection methods should be developed to monitor fisheries resources. To monitor the presence and quantity of C. pallasii from environmental DNA (eDNA) extracted from seawater samples, a pair of primers and a TaqMan^® probe specific to this fish based on mitochondrial cytochrome b (COB) sequences were designed for the real-time PCR (qPCR) assay. The combination of our molecular markers showed high specificity in the qPCR assay, which affirmed the success of presenting a positive signal only in the C. pallasii specimens. The markers also showed a high sensitivity for detecting C. pallasii genomic DNA in the range of 1 pg~100 ng rxn^-1 and its DNA plasmid containing COB amplicon in the range of 1~100,000copies rxn^-1, which produced linear standard calibration curves (r²=0.99). We performed a qPCR assay for environmental water samples obtained from 29 sampling stations in the southeastern coastal regions of South Korea using molecular markers. The assay successfully detected the C. pallasii eDNA from 14 stations (48.2%), with the highest mean concentration in Jinhae Bay with a value of 76.09±18.39 pg L^-1 (246.20±58.58 copies L^-1). Our preliminary application of molecular monitoring of C. pallasii will provide essential information for efficient ecological control and management of this valuable fisheries resource.

• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.67-72
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• 2022

Ecological research relies on the interpretation of large amounts of visual data obtained from extensive wildlife surveys, but such large-scale image interpretation is costly and time-consuming. Using an artificial intelligence (AI) machine learning model, especially convolution neural networks (CNN), it is possible to streamline these manual tasks on image information and to protect wildlife and record and predict behavior. Ecological research using deep-learning-based object recognition technology includes various research purposes such as identifying, detecting, and identifying species of wild animals, and identification of the location of poachers in real-time. These advances in the application of AI technology can enable efficient management of endangered wildlife, animal detection in various environments, and real-time analysis of image information collected by unmanned aerial vehicles. Furthermore, the need for school education and social use on biodiversity and environmental issues using AI is raised. School education and citizen science related to ecological activities using AI technology can enhance environmental awareness, and strengthen more knowledge and problem-solving skills in science and research processes. Under these prospects, in this paper, we compare the results of our early 2013 study, which automatically identified African cichlid fish species using photographic data of them, with the results of reanalysis by CNN deep learning method. By using PyTorch and PyTorch Lightning frameworks, we achieve an accuracy of 82.54% and an F1-score of 0.77 with minimal programming and data preprocessing effort. This is a significant improvement over the previous our machine learning methods, which required heavy feature engineering costs and had 78% accuracy.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.137-149
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to investigate the dynamics of the Zacco platypus population among streams in the Gongjicheon water system, Korea from December 2010 to October 2011. In this study, fish fauna was collected 27 Species belonged to 9 Families. The legal protection species, such as a natural monument and endangered species was not collected. Korean endemic species was collected 6 species including to Z. koreanus. The ratio of Korean endemic species was 22.6%, and it was lower than 51.3% that average of Korean endemic species in the Hangang water system. About these status, we considered that Gongjicheon water system had lost of the unique characteristics of the Hangang water system by the anthropogenic disturbances. The result of analysis to length-weight relationship and condition factor(K) of Z. platypus population in the Gongjicheon water system, the regression coefficient value(b) to indication of growth degree of the population was 3.04 and the slope of the condition factor(K) to indication of corpulency had positive value, respectively. These results seems to be that the Z. platypus population is maintained to a little unstably. In addition, the values of the degree of growth and corpulence were very low than the other natural streams in the Hangang water system, so it considered that the many artificially stress factors are occurred in this study area. These results are similar to Fish Assessment Index(FAI) in the assessment for health of aquatic ecosystem. Therefore, we are considered to require precise investigation and sustained monitoring for the restorations of stream ecosystem in the Gongjicheon water system.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.10-20
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• 2011

Genetic determinant for metallothionein (MT), a cysteine-rich protein playing essential roles in metal detoxification and homeostasis, was characterized in the Korean bitterling (Acheilognathus signifer, Cyprinidae), an endemic fish species. The full-length A. signifer MT (AsMT) cDNA (551 bp) is composed of a single open-reading frame (ORF) to encode a polypeptide of 60 amino acids containing 20 cysteine residues whose positions are conserved in most cypriniform MTs. At the genomic level, the AsMT (2,593 bp spanning the 5'-flanking region to the 3'-untranslated region) represented a conserved tripartite (three exons interrupted by two introns) structure with AT-rich introns. The upstream regulatory region (-1,914 bp from the ATG initiation codon) of AsMT displayed various sites and motifs for transcription factors involved in the metal-mediated regulation and stress/immune responses. The AsMT transcript was ubiquitously detected in various organs with variable expression levels, where the ovary and intestine showed the highest expression, while the heart and skeletal muscle represented the lowest level. During an exposure to copper (immersion in $0.5\;{\mu}M$ Cu for 48 h), the levels of AsMT transcripts were significantly elevated in the liver (more than 3.5-fold), moderately in the gill, kidney, and spleen (ranging from 1.5- to 2.5-fold), and barely in the brain and intestine. Results of this study could form a useful basis to explore the metal-related stress physiology of this endangered fish species.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.179-190
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• 2019

In this study, a fish survey was conducted to investigate the habitat status of black shinner (Pseudopungtungia nigra) designated as endangered species level from the lower part of Yongdam Dam to the upper part of Daecheong Dam. Biodiversity analysis was performed on the basis of the number of fish emerged, and biological health and physical habitat environment were quantitatively analyzed using collected P. nigra. According to the survey, the habitat range of P. nigra was found from Banguri-myeon, Buri-myeon, Geumsan-gun, downstream of Yongdam Dam. The biodiversity analysis results of all species appeared to be low in overall dominance index and relatively high in species diversity and uniformity index. In addition, P. nigra collected in this study was confirmed to have normal growth and nutritional status by the full-length-weighted relativities and condition factor. The physical habitat environment of P. nigra was 0.3 - 0.6 m in depth, 0.3 - 0.7 m/s in flow rate, and bed materials showed high frequency of occurrence in the range of cobbles (64.0 - 256.0 mm) to boulders (>256.0 mm). These results are expected to be used as data for habitat restoration and management in the future as basic data on the spatial range and preferred physical habitat environment of P. nigra in Geumgang.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.255-262
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• 2008

The endemic Korean stumpy bullhead Pseudobagrus brevicorpus is a first-grade endangered wild fish as designated by the Ministry of Environment of Korea. As part of its restoration and proliferation effort, a histological study of this fish was carried out to investigate sex differentiation and gonadal development based on F1 generation individuals obtained by artificial breeding. On days 4~5 after hatching, a pair of genital ridges including clusters of primordial germ cells was observed between the gut and the mesonephric duct. On days 20 after hatching, the ovary began to initially differentiate and contained early oocytes with chromatin-nucleolus and peri-nucleolus stages on days 30~40 after hatching. As yolk material accumulated after day 80 from hatching, the oocytes grew increasingly large and were surrounded by a distinct follicular layer. On days 306 after hatching, the oocytes grew toward a mature ovum. In the males, the testis was distinguished by emergence of spermatogonium cells on 25 days after hatching, and day 40 after hatching it contained a small number of seminal lobes forming cysts. From 173 days after hatching, the testis consisted of numerous enlarged seminal lobes including spermatocytes and spermatids. Over 14 months after hatching, some seminal lumens were filled with spermatozoa.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.232-238
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• 2020

The objective of the present study was to investigate fish farm and growth performances of Chinese muddy loach (Misgurnus mizolepis) under indoor and outdoor aquaculture conditions for the domestic loach aquaculture industry. The investigation was conducted from August 2017 to October 2019 at one indoor farm (D-site) and two outdoor farms (P1-site and P2-site). Results showed that WG (weight gain), DWG (daily weight gain), and SWG (specific weight gain) based on growth measurements were 175.27±36.2%, 7.98±3.3%, and 0.94±0.2% at D-site, 320±34%, 4.07±0.6%, and 0.55±0.1% at P1-site, and 295.9±53%, 4.15±0.5%, and 0.62±0.1% at P2-site, respectively. WG was higher in outdoor farms (P1-site and P2-site), while DWG and SWG were higher in the indoor farm (D-site). Such differences of the present study might be due to differences in growth, water quality, plant and sale frequency depending on aquaculture types. In particular, outdoor farms takes more than a year to have sales whereas indoor farms can have sales three times in a year.