• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.335-352
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• 2014

In this study, we investigated and analysed the water quality, distribution of the vegetation and the wildlife to seven wetlands in Donghae city. As a result, most of the wetlands was found to be very poor water quality and some specific pollutants from entering the wetland. A total of 234 taxa on vegetation were identified including 207 species, 24 varieties, 3 formaes, 168 genera and 69 families. 2 species were recorded as designated rare plant of Korea Forest Service. The naturalized plants were 27 species. The urbanization rate of naturalization index was 8.4% and 11.6% respectively. The number of benthic macroinvertebrate taxa was 35 species, 26 families, 12 orders, 5 classes and 3 phylums. Rare species were recorded 3 species. Taxa for fishes were 5 family and 5 species. Endangered wildlife was found 1 species. Most wetlands in Donghae city were the relatively small in size, and some wetlands were separately located from forest and river ecosystems. It was limited inflow and outflow of species into a wetland from the outside. However, various vegetation were found at whole wetlands and some special species also inhabited. The wetlands performed the role as a habitat of wild life.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.148-159
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• 2020

This study investigated the seasonal and inter-annual changes in vertical distribution and size spectrum of walleye pollock, Gadus chalcogrammus inhabiting middle eastern coast of Korea (hear after pollock). Pollock was distributed between 50 m and 600 m depth range, and body size (total length) ranged from 16.6 cm to 81.5 cm. The trends of population body size were increased in autumn and winter and decreased in spring and summer. Vertical distribution of pollock showned depth-dependent patterns with distributing smaller individuals mainly in the upper layer (shallower depth), while larger fish in deeper habitats. Those patterns in vertical distribution of pollock population is probably due to be the results of energy-saving strategy, metabolic effects, and changes in prey selections according to pollock growth, derived from spatial and temporal changes in oceanic condition in habitat grounds. When water temperature in upper layer were increased and that of below thermocline depth became decreased in 2017, the ratio of smaller (<35 cm) and larger (≥35 cm) individuals was biased toward larger fishes, extending their distribution into shallow depth, and consequently main fishing ground was formed in far from coastal area. In addition, the ratio of smaller individual distributing between 100~300 m was increased with decreasing temperature gradient between below thermocline and bottom layer. Changes in spatial and temporal distributions of pollock population likely be related with vertical and horizontal changes in oceanic conditions and, consequently food supplies.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.413-422
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• 1997

To know the food chain of an intertidal community, feeding habits of Acanthogobius elongata were studied by analyzing stomach contents. A. elongata were monthly collected and the environment conditions of the habitat were investigated in the intertidal zone of Naecho-do, Kunsan from July 1993 to June 1994. Ratio of stomach contents to weight of A. elongata was $1.78\%$, and fullness of stomach showed a similar value to ratio of stomach contents to weight. Fullness of stomach was increased twice a day in the morning and the afternoon. The most important food item was copepods amounting to $54\%$ of the total stomach contents. Of these, Paracalanus parvus was most abundant in spring, Calanus sinicus in summer, Acartia sp. in autumn, and Calanus sinicus in winter. Degree of overlapping for the food items between seasons was not very high, except between spring and summer. There were little differences in feeding habits among the size groups. For all size groups of A. elongata, the occurrence rates of copepods, decapods, molluscs and cirriped larvae were high. As the fish grows, those of amphipods, polychaete larvae, isopods, cumaceans and stomatopods increased gradually. The importance index of the major food items was in the order of Calanus sinicus, Corycaeus affinis and Acartia sp..

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.101-110
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• 2000

Population ecology of Rhynchocypris keumgangensis have been investigated at upper part of the Han River in Korea from January to December, 1995. The habitat was low water temperature and clean area, and stream form was Aa. The major cohabitation fish was Phoxinus phoxinus. The total lengths in this population indicated that below 40 mm group is one year old, 40~65 mm group is two years old, 65~80 mm group is three year and the 80 mm longer group is regarded over four years old. There were no differences in total length distribution between the female and the male. The males became sexually mature, when longer than 45 mm and females longer than 65 mm in total length. Spawning season was from April to mid May with the water temperature in $11{\sim}14^{\circ}C$ and the properous period was April. The mean number of eggs in ovary was 1,616. The sex ratio all the year round of the female to the male was 1 : 0.75. The current velocity of the spawning ground was 44 (20~80) cm/sec and water depth was 35 (5~70) cm. Eggs were laied in 5~15 cm deep underneath the immaculate pebbles (2~6 cm). Sex ratio of the female to the male was 1 : 6.90 for spawning behavior.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.503-524
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• 2021

A largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) is an ecosystem disturbance fish species at the highest rank in the aquatic ecosystem, causing a serious imbalance in freshwater ecosystems. Although various attempts have been made to eradicate and control largemouth bass, no effective measures were found. Therefore, it is necessary to find an approach to maximize the effective population reduction based on the unique characteristics of largemouth bass. This study used the transcriptome analysis to derive 182,887 unigene contigs and select 12 types of final target sequences for applying the CRISPR/Cas9 system in the genes of IZUMO1 and Zona pellucida sperm-binding protein, which are proteins involved in sperm-egg recognition. After synthesizing 12 types of sgRNA capable of recognizing each target sequence, 12 types of Cas9-sgRNA ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes to be used in subsequent studies were prepared. This study searched the protein-coding gene of sperm-egg through the Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and edited genes through the CRISPR/Cas9 system to induce infertile individuals that produced reproductive cells but could not form fertilized eggs. Through such a series of processes, it successfully established a composition development process for largemouth bass. It is judged that this study contributed to securing the valuable basic data for follow-up studies to verify its effect for the management of ecological disturbances without affecting the habitat of other endemic species in the same water system with the largemouth bass.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.108 no.2
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• pp.241-258
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• 2019

The aim of this study was to analyze the factors that affect the habitat of fishes and amphibians in a mountain stream that is part of an experimental forest at Kongju National University, Gongju, Chungcheongnam, Korea, and examine the differences in the presence of fishes and amphibians in the stream before and after construction of an erosion control dam. The results showed that the factors that affect the presence of fishes are pH, electrical conductivity (EC), dissolved oxygen (DO), flow velocity, and step-pool number, and that the factors that affect the presence of amphibians are monthly rainfall, pH, EC, DO, and crown density. Of these factors, pH, EC, flow velocity, and monthly rainfall were significantly different before and after dam construction; however, the differences among the other three factors from dam construction, except EC, might not have been enough to affect the presence of fishes and amphibians. Our results suggest that the difference in the frequency of fishes and amphibians surveyed before and after dam construction in the upper and lower stream sections were not statistically significant. One exception to this was the presence of amphibians in the lower stream section during and after dam construction, which could have been the result of a large amount of sediment produced by excavation that led to high EC.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.287-296
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• 2021

This study was conducted to investigate the species composition collected by fyke net and characteristics of the Erythroculter erythropterus population in the Asan Lake and Chungju Lake from June to September, 2021. The collected fish in Asan lake were identified as 4,977 individuals of 13 species from a total of six families and in Chungju lake were identified as 2,436 individuals of 18 species from a total of eight families. The dominant species in Asan lake, both the individuals and biomass were E. erythropterus with 4,470 (89.8%) and 498,424g (84.5%). The dominant species in Chungju lake, both the individuals and biomass were E. erythropterus with 1,327 (54.5%) and 301,818 g (77.5%). The results of the community analysis showed that a dominant index value of Asan lake was 0.93, higher than 0.71 of Chungju lake, and a diversity, evenness, and richness index value of Chungju lake were higher than of Asan lake. The frequency distribution of the total length analysis of the E. erythropterus population showed the appearance rate of 1~2 year olds was high in Asan lake, and the appearance rate of more than 2 years old were high in Chungju lake. The length-weight analysis of E. erythropterus in Asan Lake and Chungju Lake showed a regression coefficient b of 3.06 and 3.04, a condition factor (K) of 0.000128 and 0.000051 with a positive slope. This study could be served as baseline data for assessing habitat characteristics based on the species composition of fishes, and identifying health conditions of E. erythropterus in Asan Lake and Chungju Lake, artificial lakes.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.38 no.1 s.110
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• pp.83-94
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• 2005

The objective of the study was to elucidate early life history of Rhinogobius brunneus, based on laboratory observations and field works, along with its courtship and spawning behaviors. The male and female fish matured were sampled for the lab experiments from Gap-Stream, which is one of the tributaries of Geum-River, Korea. The spawning behaviors and courtship of matured adults had a typical pattern; matured males of Rhinogobius brunneus built up spawning nests and had their own territory before the spawning, and the behavior then triggered the egg spawning of female with active courtship. The females attached elliptic egg mass as a single layer, on the stones below the spawning nest. After the spawning, the egg mass was guarded by males only until the hatching. The size of egg fertilized, measured by microscope was about 1.5${\pm}$0.1mm in length and 0.7${\pm}$0.1 mm in the egg's width. According to the lab experiments conducted under four temperature regime, the lapsed time for the hatching was shortened as temperatures increased in the treatments. On the contrary to the hatching time, the average length of newly hatched larvae showed a reverse relation with water temperature. The larvae, considered a final stage of the early life history was about 3.6 mm in total length for water temperature of $18^{\circ}C$, whereas they were between 3.1 mm and 3.2 mm for over $25^{\circ}C$. This indicates that higher water temperature may decrease the growth rate in the early life history. These results may provide valuable information for the population conservation and ecosystem protection under accelerated water pollution and habitat degradations in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.39 no.2 s.116
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• pp.145-156
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• 2006

The objective of this study was to evaluate biological health conditions and physicochemical status using multi-metric models at five sites of the Keum-Ho River during August 2004 and June 2005. The research approach was based on a qualitative habitat evaluation index (QHEI), index of biological integrity (IBI) using fish assemblage, and long-term chemical data (1995 ${\sim}$ 2004), which was obtained from the Ministry of Environment, Korea. For the biological health assessments, regional model of the IBI in Korea (An,2003), was applied for this study. Mean IBI in the river was 30 and varied from 23 to 48 depending on the sampling sites. The river health was judged to be "fair condition", according to the stream health criteria of US EPA (1993) and Barbour et al. (1999). According to the analysis of the chemical water quality data of the river, BOD, COD, conductivity, TP, TN, and TSS largely varied epending on the sampling sites, seasons and years. Variabilities of some parameters including BOD, COD, TP, TN, and conductivity were greater in the downstream than in the upstream reach. This phenomenon was evident in the dilution by the rain during the monsoon. This indicates that precipitation is a very important factor of the chemical variations of water quality. Community analyses showed that species diversity index was highest (H=0.78) in the site 1, while community dominance index was highest in the site 3, where Opsariichthys uncirostris largely dominated. In contrast, the proportions of omnivore and tolerant species were greater in the downstream reach, than in the upstream reach. Overall, this study suggests that some sites in the downstream reach may need to restore the aquatic ecosystem for better biological health.