• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.363-370
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• 2014

Various ecosystem carry out fundamental function of material circulation and energy flow through interrelationship with many environmental factors. Therefore, it is crucial to scientifically understand the value of nature to deduce correlation between environmental factor and change of ecosystem function. In this study, we determined the accumulated ecosystem carbon and characteristics of soil respiration on grassland vegetation in Namahangang basin in Namhangang Basin. It was found that the rate of soil respiration was highly correlated with the soil temperature in all communities. The measured soil respiration rates were $1,539mgCO_2\;m^{-2}h^{-1}$, $1,200mgCO_2\;m^{-2}h^{-1}$, $1,215mgCO_2\;m^{-2}h^{-1}$ in Miscanthus sacchariflorus, Phragmites japonica, Salix koreensis communities, respectively. Also, carbon quantities accumulated in litter and soil layers were $40.6tCha^{-1}$ (1.9+38.7), $46.9tCha^{-1}$ (43.0+3.9), $31.2tCha^{-1}$ (28.9+2.3) in M. sacchariflorus, P. japonica, S. koreensis communities, respectively.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.25-56
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• 2006

We reviewed and compared nationwide surveys conducted in advanced countries (i.e., Japan, Germany, USA, and UK) with those in Korea, including the third Nationwide Survey of Natural Environments, which began in 2006 and will proceed until 2010. Based on this comparative analysis, we suggest alternatives to the nationwide survey of natural environments that are suited to Korea. Given the focus on species abundances and distributions in previous nationwide surveys in Korea, surveys of habitats, ecosystems, and ecoregions are required to more effectively protect biological resources in Korea. Furthermore, their spatial distributions should be mapped using periodical satellite images and aerial photographs. In particular, satellite images can be used to survey species, habitats, and ecosystems. Natural resources monitoring and management specialists are needed to collect various data and improve survey results. The participation of community volunteers is also important to develop an awareness in local residents of natural environment conservation. Independent survey institute (i.e., a 'National Ecosystem Institute') should be established to develop a database and survey scheme for species, habitats, and ecosystems throughout Korea. Moreover, the survey institute could develop natural environmental policy through the data analysis to meet the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The establishment of a survey institute will allow the completion of a natural environment survey that considers various factors, including physical habitat conditions. This will allow us to detect subtle changes in species abundance and spatial distributions and provide accurate and timely information on natural environments.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.473-479
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• 2008

Environment problem has been arising in many countries. Especially, soil erosion has been deemed as one of the biggest issues because sediment causes muddy water and pollutants, such as agricultural chemicals, flow in the stream with this sediment. Many studies, regarding soil loss and non-point source pollution from watershed, has been performed while serious problem has been known. Soil loss occurred in most agricultural area by rainfall and runoff. It makes hydraulic structure unstable, causes environmental economical problems because muddy water destroys ecosystem and causes intake water deterioration. As revealing serious effects of muddy water by sediment, many researches have been doing with various methods. Hydraulic structures establishments such as soil erosion control dams and grit chamber are common. Vegetative filter strip is investigated in this study because vegetative filter strip is designed for reducing sediment from upland areas of the watershed, and it has many functions, not only sediment reduction but also runoff water quality improvement and wildlife habitat. With these positive functions of the vegetative filter strip, the study about vegetative filter strip has been increasing for reducing sediment because it is more effective than hydraulic structures from an environmental perspective. But the sediment trapping efficiency by vegetative filter strip, needs to be investigated and designed first. Therefore the model, VFSMOD-W, was used in this study as it can estimate sediment trapping efficiency of vegetative filter strip under various field, vegetation, weather condition. Sensitive factors to sediment trapping efficiency are studied with VFSMOD-W, and sediment trapping efficiency equation has been derived using two most sensitive factors. It is thought that the equation suggested in this study can be used in Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), to overcome the limit of SWAT filter strip module, which is based solely on filter strip width.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.41 no.10
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• pp.290-301
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• 2017

Background: Forest edges create distinctive ecological space as adjacent constituents, which distinguish between different ecosystems or land use types. These edges are made by anthropogenic or natural disturbance and affects both abiotic and biotic factors gradually. This study was carried out to assess edge effects on disturbed landscape at the pine-dominated clear-cut area in a genetic resources reserve in Uljin-gun, eastern Korea. This study aims to estimate the distance of edge influence by analyzing changes of abiotic and biotic factors along the distance from forest edge. Further, we recommend forest management strategy for sustaining healthy forest landscapes by reducing effects of deforestation. Results: Distance of edge effect based on the abiotic factors varied from 8.2 to 33.0 m. The distances were the longest in $Mg^{2+}$ content and total nitrogen, $K^+$, $Ca^{2+}$ contents, canopy openness, light intensity, air humidity, $Na^+$ content, and soil temperature followed. The result based on biotic factors varied from 6.8 to 29.5 m, coverage of tree species in the herb layer showed the longest distance and coverage of shrub plant in the herb layer, evenness, species diversity, total coverage of herb layer, and species richness followed. As the result of calculation of edge effect by synthesizing 26 factors measured in this study, the effect was shown from 11.0 m of the forest interior to 22.4 m of the open space. In the result of stand ordination, Rhododendron mucronulatum, R. schlippenbachii, and Fraxinus sieboldiana dominated arrangement of forest interior sites and Quercus mongolica, Vitis amurensis, and Rubus crataegifolius dominated spatial distribution of the open area plots. Conclusions: Forest interior habitat lies within the influence of both abiotic and biotic edge effects. Therefore, we need a forest management strategy to sustain the stability of the plant and further animal communities that depend on its stable conditions. For protecting forest interior, we recommend selective logging as a harvesting method for minimizing edge effects by anthropogenic disturbance. In fact, it was known that selective logging contributes to control light availability and wind regime, which are key factors affecting microclimate. In addition, ecological restoration applying protective planting for the remaining forest in the clear-cut area could contribute to prevent continuous disturbance in forest interior.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.684-693
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to analyze fish communities in the Wonju stream located in Wonju-si in Gangwon-do, and to evaluate the health of the stream through past and present changes. We performed investigations four times from May 2015 to September 2016. In the survey, 5,201 individuals which belonged to 27 species and 9 families were collected. Zacco platypus was the dominant species and Pungtungia herziwas the subdominant species. Eight Korean endemic species (Acanthorhodeus gracilis, Zacco koreanus, Coreoleuciscus splendidus, Squalidus gracilis majimae, Microphysogobio yaluensis, Iksookimia koreensis, Koreocobitis rotundicaudata, Coreoperca herzi) were observed and showed a ratio of 16.54%. The fish community of dominance ($0.72{\pm}0.10$), diversity ($1.37{\pm}0.32$), evenness ($0.61{\pm}0.13$), and richness ($1.70{\pm}0.23$) were evaluated. According to our analysis of tolerance guilds, the total individual number of intermediate species was higher than the sensitive and tolerant species. As a result of the trophic guild analysis,the omnivore and insectivore species were relatively high. The value of the qualitative habitat evaluation index (QHEI) in the wonju stream was averaged 121.2 (${\pm}23.4$), indicating a suboptimal condition. Stream health showed that the fish assessment index (FAI) value was an A to C grade in the Wonju stream. A correlation coefficient analysis with FAI and various factors was analysed statistically, and had a high correlation in QHEI, with the omnivore species, insectivore species, intermediate species, sensitive species, dominance, diversity, evenness, and richness.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.672-679
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• 2018

This study was conducted to predict the potential distribution and risk of invasive alien plant, Amaranthus patulus, in an agricultural area of South Korea. We collected 254 presence localities of A. patulus using field survey and literature search and stimulated the potential distribution area of A. patulus using maximum entropy modeling (MaxEnt) with six climatic variables. Two different kinds of agricultural risk index, raster risk index and regional risk index, were estimated. The 'raster risk index' was calculated by multiplying the potential distribution by the field area in $1{\times}1km$ and 'regional risk index' was calculated by multiplying the potential distribution by field area proportion in the total field of South Korea. The predicted potential distribution of A. patulus was almost matched with actual presence data. The annual mean temperature had the highest contribution for distribution modeling of A. patulus. Area under curve (AUC) value of the model was 0.711. The highest regions were Gwangju for potential distribution, Jeju for 'raster risk index' and Gyeongbuk for 'regional risk index'. This different ranks among the index showed the importance about the development of various risk index for evaluating invasive plant risk.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.15-23
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• 2022

This study was conducted to investigate in relation to characteristic of macroinvertebrates in conventional and organic paddy fields. The investigation was conducted five times a year for Suwon, Ansung, Boeun, Gunsan, Gimje, Hamyang, divide into conventional paddy fields and organic paddy fields from 2009 to 2011. The macroinvertebrates collected from the surveyed between conventional and organic paddy fields belonged to 84 species, 47 families, 16 orders, and 6 classes in 3 phyla. In the habitat orientied groups, climbers, swimmers and sprawlers were considerably occupied in conventional and organic paddy fields. In relation to the functional feeding groups, predators such as Odonata, Coleoptera, and Hemiptera were only the highest in paddy field ecosystem, regardless of cultivation method. As a result of community stability analysis, orgainc paddy fields has been identified much as species high resistance and resilience to environmental change in paddy field ecosystem. Species belonging to the I groups is considered to be important in organic paddy field such as Sternolophus rufipes, Hydrochara affinis, Helochares nipponicus, which has high mobility. In conclusion, it was found that the introduction of coleoptera as a food source was higher than that of conventional paddy fields in organic paddy field where primary consumers were abundant such as Chironomidae spp. and Dixidae sp..

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.12
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• pp.125-134
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• 2022

The Global Expansion Roadmap published by the International Space Exploration Coordination Group, which is organized by space agencies around the world, presents future lunar exploration guidance and stresses a lunar habitat program to utilize lunar resources. The Moon attracts attention as an outpost for deep space exploration. Simulating lunar surface environments is required to evaluate the performances of various equipment for future lunar surface missions. In this paper, an experimental study was conducted to simulate high vacuum pressure and cryogenic temperature of the permanent shadow regions in the lunar south pole, which is a promising candidate for landing and outpost construction. The establishment of an efficient dirty thermal vacuum chamber (DTVC) operation process has never been presented. One-dimensional ground cooling tests were conducted with various vacuum pressures with the Korean Lunar Simulant type-1 (KLS-1) in DTVC. The most advantageous vacuum pressure was found to be 30-80 mbar, considering the cooling efficiency and equipment stability. However, peripheral cooling is also required to simulate a cryogenic for not sublimating ice in a high vacuum pressure. In this study, an efficient peripheral cooling operation process was proposed by applying the frost ratio concept.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.59-73
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• 2012

The importance of rice paddy wetland has been raised since the 10th Ramsar Convention in 2010. However, there is shortage of study on the evaluation of rice paddy wetland and also of the study on the effect of organic agriculture on the vegetation characteristics. Accordingly, this study examined the vegetation characteristics of organic rice paddy for the basic resources of evaluating value of rice paddy wetland. 6 places of organic rice paddy and conventional rice paddy were chosen as research targets. It analyzed the function of 'Floral Diversity and Wildlife Habitat' among the revised RAM, an existing wetland evaluation system. As to the factor affecting the analysis result, simple land-use result was proved to determine the evaluation. As a result of vegetation investigation total 176 taxa, 53 families, 146 generics, 148 species, 26 varieties and 1 forma. When the difference of appearance of life form between organic area and conventional area was examined, organic paddy had higher appearance of life form in Therophyte and Megaphanerophyte. For the distribution of Naturalized plants, organic rice paddy had lower naturalized rate and urbanization index than conventional rice paddy. As to the Pearson correlation analysis between growing condition and vegetation characteristics, variety of rice paddy vegetation showed it was not heavily influenced by the land use. However, the organic rice paddy area had more variety in vegetation than conventional rice paddy. There was about 1% correlation with types of Cyperaceae, which means that the classification group of Cyperaceae can be utilized in evaluating rice paddy wetland later on. It is determined that the wetland evaluation has been widely influenced by soil environment, water environment and surrounding natural and artificial landscape as well as vegetation characteristics. Accordingly, further research seems to be required with minute investigation to an extensive area.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.508-519
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• 2017

There have been many studies on monitoring of biodiversity changes and preservation of Gwangneung Forest Biosphere Reserve (GFBR) in South Korea in recognition of the rare ecosystem that has been preserved for a long period. However, there are few studies on diversity and community characteristics of benthic macroinvertebrates as an indicator of stream health of GFBR. The purpose of this study was to assess the water quality of Bongseonsa Stream that penetrated through Gwangneung Forest and the nearby torrents by analyzing the benthic macroinvertebrates community during April to September 2016. The investigation collected a total of 114 species of benthic macroinvertebrates belonging to 56 families, 17 orders, 8 classes, and 5 phyla from the Bongseonsa Stream and Kwangneung Stream. Ephemeroptera and Trichoptera were the largest groups in species diversity with 30 species (32.3%) and 16 species (17.2%), respectively, and Tubificidae sp., Baetis fuscatus, Antocha KUa, and Cheumatopsyche brevilineata, which usually habit in contaminated streams, appeared frequently. Among the feeding function groups, the gatherers and hunters appeared relatively frequently, and the shredders and scrapers appeared frequently in the torrents. Among the habitat oriented groups, the clingers and burrower appeared more frequently and represented the microhabitats in the shallow areas. The result of the analysis of benthic macroinvertebrates community showed that the dominant index was $0.48{\pm}0.10$ in average while it was lowest with 0.33 in GS 8 of the Gwangneung Forest torrent and highest in BS 1 of Bongseonsa Stream. The diversity and richness indices were inversely proportional to the dominant index and were 2.53 and 4.22, respectively, in GS 8 where the dominant index was low. The result of the analysis of community stability showed that area I, which had high resistance and restoration, was high in Bongseonsa Stream while the area III, which had low resistance and restoration, was high in Gwangneung Forest, indicating that the water system in Gwangneung Forest had a wider distribution of specifies sensitive to agitation. The biological water quality assessment showed ESB of $50.88{\pm}17.69$, KSI of $1.11{\pm}0.57$, and BMI of $78.55{\pm}11.05$. GS 8 of Gwangneung Forest torrent was judged to be the highest priority protective water area with the best water environment and I class water quality with ESB of 63, KSI of 0.55, and BMI of 89.9. On the contrary, BS 1 of Bongseonsa Stream was judged to be the high priority improvement area that had the lowest water quality rating of III with ESB of 25, KSI of 2.13, and BMI of 62.7. Although the diversity of water beetle was higher in the water system of nearby Bongseonsa Stream than the water system inside the Gwangneung Forest, the annual community structure appeared to have distinct differences.