• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.206-215
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• 2015

Predicting the changes in the potential distribution of invasive alien plants under climate change is an important and challenging task for the conservation of biodiversity and management of the ecosystems in streams and reservoirs. This study explored the effects of climate change on the potential future distribution of Paspalum distichum var. indutum in the Korean Peninsula. P. distichum var. indutum is an invasive grass species that has a profound economic and environmental impact in the waterfronts of freshwater ecosystems. The Maxent model was used to estimate the potential distribution of P. distichum var. indutum under current and future climates. A total of nineteen climatic variables of Worldclim 1.4 were used as current climatic data and future climatic data predicted by HadGEM2-AO with both RCP 2.6 and RCP 8.5 scenarios for 2050. The predicted current distribution of P. distichum var. indutum was almost matched with actual positioning data. Major environmental variables contributing to the potential distribution were precipitation of the warmest quarter, annual mean temperature and mean temperature of the coldest quarter. Our prediction results for 2050 showed an overall reduction in climatic suitability for P. distichum var. indutum in the current distribution area and its expansion to further inland and in a northerly direction. The predictive model used in this study appeared to be powerful for understanding the potential distribution, exploring the effects of climate change on the habitat changes and providing the effective management of the risk of biological invasion by alien plants.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.35-46
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• 2010

This study was conducted for searching the fauna, altitudinal distribution, and food patterns of the aquatic insects on Jeju island. The samples were collected from 102 freshwater wetlands during 2004 to 2008. The identified species were 100 belonged to 73 genera, 32 families, and 7 orders. One species of the genus Ephemeroptera, 23 of the Odonata, 1 of the Plecoptera, 23 of the Hemiptera, 47 of the Coleoptera, 3 of the Trichoptera, and 2 of the Diptera were identified in this study. The most widely distributed species was Sigara substriata, which was followed by Crocothemis servilia, Orthetrum albistylum, Gerris latiabdominis, and Anisops ogasawarensis. Sixteen species including Gynacantha japonica were very restrictedly distributed, which were sampled from only one site, respectively. The restrictedly distributed species (R) were classified into three altitudinal ranges, low (L), middle (M), and high (H). Ten species including Ranatra unicolor were RL type, only one species, Berosus japonicus, was RM, and 6 species including Nemoura KUb were RH. Narrowly distributed species (N) were 44 including Lethocerus deyrollei and intermediately distributed species (I) were 18 including Hesperocorixa distanti, and widely distributed species (W) were 21 including Nepa hoffmanni. According food uptake patterns, 75 species were carnivores, 18 herbivores, 5 omnivores, and 2 detritivores. Especially almost W were carnivores. From these results, we could concluded that the most aquatic insects species of Jeju island were characterized by their very limited altitudinal distribution range and carnivorous preference.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.375-381
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• 2018

The monitoring of phytoplankton biomass and community structure is essential as a first step to control the harmful cyanobacterial blooms in freshwater systems, such as seen in rivers and lakes, due to the process of eutrophication and climate change. In order to quantify the biomass of phytoplankton with a wide range in size and shape, the measurement of cell biovolume along with cell density is required for a comprehensive review on this issue. However, most routine monitoring programs preserve the gathered phytoplankton samples before analysis using chemical additives, because of the constraint of time and the number of samples. The purpose of this study was to investigate the cell biovolume change characteristics of six cyanobacterial species, which are common bloom-causing cyanobacteria in the Nakdong River, after the preservation with Lugol's iodine solution. All species showed a statistically significant difference after the addition of Lugol's iodine solution compared to the live cell biovolume, and the cell biovolume decreased to the level of 34.0 ~ 56.3 % at maximum in each species after the preservation. The nonlinear regression models for determining the shrinkage ratio by a preservation period were derived by using the cell biovolume measured until 180 days preservation of each target species, and the equation to convert the cell biovolume measured after preservation for a certain period to the cell biovolume of viable cell was derived using that formula. The conversion equation derived from this study can be used to estimate the actual cell biovolume in the natural environment at the time of sampling, by using the measured biovolume after the preservation in the phytoplankton monitoring. Moreover this is expected to contribute to the final interpretation of the water quality and aquatic ecosystem impacts due to the cyanobacterial blooms.

• Journal of Marine Life Science
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.53-62
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• 2019

Heterotrophic bacteria are a major member of the microbial loop in the marine ecosystem and play an important role in the biogeochemical cycle decomposing organic matter. Therefore study of bacterial variation is important to understand the material cycle and energy flow of marine ecosystems. We investigated the monthly variations of bacteria and environmental factors in the Youngsan River estuary, and the correlation between bacteria and phytoplankton biomass (chlorophyll-a) including size-structure. As a result, bacteria of the Youngsan River estuary were higher in the surface than in the bottom layer, and higher in the summer than in winter. And the closer to the dike, the abundance increased, and it increased to the peaks in August, September, and June 2019 at the station closest to the dike. The chlorophyll-a also increases at the stations and time when the bacterial abundance was high and they correlates positively displaying no difference between size fractions. The results indicate that organic matter derived from phytoplankton has an effect on bacterial variation but no size-dependent effects. In addition, the seasonal pattern of bacteria increasing in proportion to the water temperature suggests the effect of water temperature on the growth of bacteria. No association of bacterial abundance variation with nutrient supply due to freshwater input was observed. In this study, dissolved oxygen was depleted and hypoxia was observed for a short time when a strong stratification was not developed. This may be resulted from the supply of organic matter from phytoplankton and the consumption of oxygen due to bacterial decomposition.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.212-220
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• 2022

An estuary is a water ecosystem with a high abundance of the species diversity, due to a variety of complex physicochemical factors of the area where freshwater and ocean mixed. The identification of Corbicula species in the estuary environments is difficult because of various morphological characteristics. In this study, we provide taxonomic information on Corbicula species with taxonomic difficulties using morphological and genetic analysis. This study was conducted on clams from the Seomjin River-Gwangyang Bay, one of the major production area of marsh clam in Korea. As a result, we characterized Cytocrome C Oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences of the Corbicula. The 636 bp nucleotide sequences of COI have 98% homology among Corbicula species collected from 2 sites of Seomjin River-Gwangyang Bay. The phylogenetic analysis with 17 species of Corbicula indicated that most of the species collected from Seomjin River-Gwangyang Bay were brackish water clam (Corbicula japonica), and only one Asian clam (Corbicula fluminea). The evolutionary distance between C. japonica and C. fluminea was less than 0.003. Therefore, it was confirmed that C. japonica is phylogenetically closely related to C. fluminea. In 9 species of Cyrenidae, phylogenetic tree was classified into three lineages. These results will be used as an important data for an identification of clam species by providing genetic information for Corbicula species with a morphological diversity.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.138-144
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• 2023

The main factor of biodiversity decline in major biological populations around the world is invasion of alien species. To protect native species, it is necessary to manage alien species. Recently, to eradicate ecosystem disturbance caused by alien species in Korea, many efforts have been made to capture individuals using nets and purchase captured individuals. However, there is no standard for classifying species due to the form of nest site or external characteristics of eggs of freshwater turtles. Thus, Mauremys reevesii eggs might be discarded due to mistaking as eggs of alien turtles. Based on more data, this study aims to compare and analyze external differences among eggs of Trachemys scripta elegans, Pseudemys concinna, and M. reevesii and use them as reference materials in the process of eradicating alien turtles. This study measured characteristics of eggs of the three turtle species. As a result of comparison, all variables of external characteristics of alien turtles and M. reevesii eggs showed significant differences. The shape of egg was also different, with eggs of T. scripta elegans and P. concinna showing a bicone shape and those of M. reevesii showing an ellipsoid shape. In conclusion, based on results of previous studies and the present study, eggs of M. reevesii, T. scripta elegans, and P. concinna are different in shape and structure. Thus, it is possible to distinguish between M. reevesii and invasive alien turtle using their eggs.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.161-171
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• 2023

The medium-large cladoceran species Simocephalus spp. predominantly occur in habitats with developed aquatic vegetation. Accordingly, due to Simocephalus' high contribution to zooplankton community biomass in the lake's littoral zone and wetland habitats, estimating their biomass is important to understand the matter cycling based on biological interactions within the aquatic food web. In this study, we reviewed the length-weight regression equations used previously to estimate Simocephalus biomass, directly measured S. serrulatus' body specification (length, width and area) and their biomass(dry weight) using instruments such as a microscopic digital camera and a microscale, and performed regression analysis between each other. When S. serrulatus biomass was estimated using the equation (Kawabata and Urabe, 1998) presented in 『Biomonitoring Survey and Assessment Manual』, Korea, errors between estimates and measures were relatively large compared to the S. serrulatus species-specific biomass estimate equation developed by Lemke and Benke (2003). In addition, both equations showed not only increasing trends in error (estimate-measure) with increasing S. serrulatus' body length, but also in error variance among similar-sized individuals. The results of regression analysis with dry weight by body specifications indicated that the most appropriate equation for estimating the biomass of S. serrulatus was derived from the width-dry weight exponential regression equation (R²=0.9555). The review and development study of such species-specific biomass estimation equations for zooplankton can be used as a tool to understand their role and function in aquatic ecosystem food webs.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.339-347
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• 2023

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is a key component in the biogeochemical cycling in freshwater ecosystem. However, it has been rarely explored, particularly complex river watershed dominated by natural and anthropogenic sources, such as various effluent facility and livestock. The current research developed a new analytical method for TOC/TN (Total Organic Carbon/Total Nitrogen) stable isotope ratio, and distinguish DOM source using stable isotope value (δ¹³C-DOC) and spectroscopic indices (fluorescence index [FI] and biological index [BIX]). The TOC/TN-IR/MS analytical system was optimized and precision and accuracy were secured using two international standards (IAEA-600 Caffein, IAEA-CH-6 Sucrose). As a result of controlling the instrumental conditions to enable TOC stable isotope analysis even in low-concentration environmental samples (<1 mgC L^-1), the minimum detection limit was improved. The 12 potential DOM source were collected from watershed, which includes top-soils, groundwater, plant group (fallen leaves, riparian plants, suspended algae) and effluent group (pig and cow livestock, agricultural land, urban, industry facility, swine facility and wastewater treatment facilities). As a result of comparing characteristics between 12 sources using spectroscopic indices and δ¹³C-DOC values, it were divided into four groups according to their characteristics as a respective DOM sources. The current study established the TOC/TN stable isotope analyses system for the first time in Korea, and found that spectroscopic indices and δ¹³C-DOC are very useful tool to trace the origin of organic matter in the aquatic environments through library database.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.200-210
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• 2007

Phytoplankton community was investigated in Asan Bay, South Korea. Samples were collected at 5 stations along Asan Bay axis during wet season from June to August, 2006. In June and July, salinity decreased especially at inside stations. Nutrients were high in June and July, however, decreased in August. We observed the community of phytoplankton including diatoms(62.8%), dinoflagellates(17.3%), cryptophytes(14.8%), euglenophytes(1.0%), cyanophytes (0.9%), chlorophytes(0.4%), and some of unidentified taxa(2.8%) during summer 2006 in Asan Bay. In June, dinoflagellates (mainly Prorocentrum sp.(29.6%)) were dominated, accounting for about 43.5% of total cell number, whereas in July and August diatoms (mainly Leptocylindrus sp.(21.4%), Chaetoceros sp.(27.6%)) were dominated occupying 69.1% and 89.9%, respectively. The results suggest that freshwater inputs affected phytoplankton community in the Asan Bay ecosystem.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.444-452
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• 2012

We conducted a comprehensive monitoring for freshwater food web in a wetland system (Jangcheok Lake), from May to October, 2011. Monthly sampling for zooplankton, fish as well as organic matters, was implemented. In order to understand the food web structure and energy flow, we applied stable isotope analysis to the collected samples, based on ${\delta}^{13}C$ and ${\delta}^{15}N$ values of epiphytic particulate organic matter(EPOM) and particulate organic matter (POM), epiphytic and planktonic zooplankton, fish (Lepomis macrochirus). In the study site, epiphytic and planktonic zooplankton was 24 and 30 species, respectively, and coincidence species between epiphytic and planktonic zooplankton were 20 species. Epiphytic zooplankton were more abundant during the spring and early summer (May to July); however, planktonic zooplankton were more abundant during the autumn (September to October) season. Stable isotope analysis revealed that fish and epiphytic zooplankton had seasonal variations on their food sources. EPOM largely contributed epiphytic zooplankton in spring (May), but increasing contribution of POM in autumn (September) was detected. However, planktonic zooplankton depended on only POM in both seasons. Fish utilized both epiphytic and planktonic zooplankton, but small sized (1~3 cm), fish preferred epiphytic zooplankton, where as larger sized (4~7 cm) fish tended to consume planktonic zooplankton, and epiphytic zooplankton had important role in energy transfer. This pattern was clear when results of spring and autumn stable isotope analysis were compared. From the results of this study, we confirmed that wetlands ecosystem supported various epiphytic and planktonic zooplankton species, they depend on other food items, respectively. L. macrochirus also showed a difference of food source according to the body size, they depend on seasonal density change of zooplankton. In particular, epiphytic zooplankton was very important for growth and development of young fish in the spring.