• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.240-245
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• 2016

This study was conducted to predict the changes of potential distribution for invasive alien plant, Amaranthus viridis in Korea. The habitats of A. viridis were roadside, bare ground, farm area, and pasture, where the interference by human was severe. We used maximum entropy modeling (MaxEnt) for analyzing the environmental influences on A. viridis distribution and projecting on two different representative concentration pathways (RCP) scenarios, RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5. The results of our study indicated annual mean temperature, elevation and precipitation of coldest month had higher contribution for A. viridis potential distribution. Projected potential distribution of A. viridis will be increased by 110% on RCP 4.5, 470% on RCP 8.5.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.39-50
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• 2013

Occurrence of landslides has been increasing due to extreme weather events(e.g. heavy rainfall, torrential rains) by climate change. Pyeongchang, Korea had seriously been damaged by landslides caused by a typhoon, Ewiniar in 2006. Moreover, the frequency and intensity of landslides are increasing in summer due to torrential rain. Therefore, risk assessment and adaptation measure is urgently needed to build resilience. To support landslide adaptation measures, this study predicted landslides occurrence using MaxEnt model and suggested susceptibility map of landslides. Precipitation data of RCP 8.5 Climate change scenarios were used to analyze an impact of increase in rainfall in the future. In 2050 and 2090, the probability of landslides occurrence was predicted to increase. These were due to an increase in heavy rainfall and cumulative rainfall. As a result of analysis, factors that has major impact on landslide appeared to be climate factors, prediction accuracy of the model was very high(92%). In the future Pyeongchang will have serious rainfall compare to 2006 and more intense landslides area expected to increase. This study will help to establish adaptation measure against landslides due to heavy rainfall.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.429-440
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• 2023

Quantitative habitat model is established with species occurrence and spatial abundance data, which were usually acquired by professional field ecologists and citizen scientists. The importance of citizen science data is increasing, but the quality of these data needs to be evaluated. This study aims to identify and compare both expert-based data and citizen science data based on the performance power of quantitative models derived from both data sets. A Maximum Entropy (MaxENT) model was developed using eight environmental variables, including climate, topography, landcover and distance to forest edge. The AUC values derived from the MaxENT model were 0.842 and 0.809, respectively, indicating a high level of explanatory power. All environmental variables has similar values for both data sets, except for the distance to forest edge and rice paddy, which was relatively higher for expert-based survey data than that of the citizen science data as the distances increased. This result suggests that habitat model derived from expert-based survey data shows more ecological niche including wider ranges from forest edges and isolated habitat patches of rice paddy. This is presumably because citizen scientists focuses on direct observation methods, whereas professional field surveys investigate a wider variety of methods.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.163-173
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• 2022

Climate change is a key factor that greatly influences changes in the biological seasons and geographical distribution of species. In the ecological field, the BioClimatic predictor (BioClim), which is most related to the physiological characteristics of organisms, is used for vulnerability assessment. However, BioClim values are not provided other than the future period climate average values for each GCM for the Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs) scenario. In this study, BioClim data suitable for domestic conditions was produced using 1 km resolution SSPs scenario detailed data produced by Rural Development Administration, and based on the data, a species distribution model was applied to mainly grow in southern, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Gangwon-do and humid regions. Appropriate habitat distributions were predicted every 30 years for the base years (1981 - 2010) and future years (2011 - 2100) of the Acer pictum subsp. mono. Acer pictum subsp. mono appearance data were collected from a total of 819 points through the national natural environment survey data. In order to improve the performance of the MaxEnt model, the parameters of the model (LQH-1.5) were optimized, and 7 detailed biolicm indices and 5 topographical indices were applied to the MaxEnt model. Drainage, Annual Precipitation (Bio12), and Slope significantly contributed to the distribution of Acer pictum subsp. mono in Korea. As a result of reflecting the growth characteristics that favor moist and fertile soil, the influence of climatic factors was not significant. Accordingly, in the base year, the suitable habitat for a high level of Acer pictum subsp. mono is 3.41% of the area of Korea, and in the near future (2011 - 2040) and far future (2071 - 2100), SSP1-2.6 accounts for 0.01% and 0.02%, gradually decreasing. However, in SSP5-8.5, it was 0.01% and 0.72%, respectively, showing a tendency to decrease in the near future compared to the base year, but to gradually increase toward the far future. This study confirms the future distribution of vegetation that is more easily adapted to climate change, and has significance as a basic study that can be used for future forest restoration of climate change-adapted species.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.545-555
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• 2023

This study aimed to predict the distribution density and potential habitat of domestic cats (Felis catus) in order to identify core distribution areas. It also aimed to overlay protected areas to identify priority areas for cat management. Kernel density estimation was used to determine the distribution density, and areas with high density were classified in Greater Seoul, Chungnam, Daejeon, and Daegu. Elevation, distance from the used area and roughness were identified as important variables in predicting potential habitat using the MaxEnt model. In addition, the classification of suitable and unsuitable areas based on thresholds showed that the predicted presence of habitat was more extensive in Seoul, Sejong, Daejeon, Chungnam, and Daegu. Core distribution areas were selected by overlapping high-density areas with suitable areas. Priority management areas were identified by overlaying core distribution areas with designated wildlife sanctuaries. As a result, Gyeonggi, and Chungnam have the largest areas. In addition, buffer zones will be implemented to effectively manage the core distribution area and minimize the potential for additional introductions in areas of high management priority, such as protected areas. These results can be used as a basis for investigating the status of the cat's habitat and developing more effective management strategies.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.21-31
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• 2024

Macromia daimoji Okumura, 1949 was designated as an endangered species and also categorized as Class II Endangered wildlife on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List in Korea. The spatial distribution of this species ranged within a region delimited by northern latitude from Sacheon-si(35.1°) to Yeoncheon-gun(38.0°) and eastern longitude from Yeoncheon-gun(126.8°) to Yangsan-si(128.9°). They generally prefer microhabitats such as slowly flowing littoral zones of streams, alluvial stream islands and temporarily formed puddles in the sand-based lowland streams. The objectives of this study were to analyze the similarity of benthic macroinvertebrate communities in M. daimoji habitats, to predict the current potential distribution patterns as well as the changes of distribution ranges under global climate change circumstances. Data was collected both from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and by field surveys from April 2009 to September 2022. We adopted MaxEnt model to predict the current and future potential distribution for M. daimoji using downloaded 19 variables from the WorldClim database. The differences of benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages in the mainstream of Nakdonggang were smaller than those in its tributaries and the other streams, based on the surrounding environments and stream sizes. MaxEnt model presented that potential distribution displayed high inhabiting probability in Nakdonggang and its tributaries. Applying to the future scenarios by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), SSP1 scenario was predicted to expand in a wide area and SSP5 scenario in a narrow area, comparing with current potential distribution. M. daimoji is not only directly threatened by physical disturbances (e.g. river development activities) but also vulnerable to rapidly changing climate circumstances. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor the habitat environments and establish conservation strategies for preserving population of M. daimoji.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.333-343
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• 2015

This research aims at identifying the goshawk's possible and replaceable breeding ground by using the MaxEnt prediction model which has so far been insufficiently used in Korea, and providing evidence to expand possible protection areas for the goshawk's breeding for the future. The field research identified 10 goshawk's nests, and 23 appearance points confirmed during the 3rd round of environmental research were used for analysis. 4 geomorphic, 3 environmental, 7 distance, and 9 weather factors were used as model variables. The final environmental variables were selected through non-parametric verification between appearance and non-appearance coordinates identified by random sampling. The final predictive model (MaxEnt) was structured using 10 factors related to breeding ground and 7 factors related to appearance area selected by statistics verification. According to the results of the study, the factor that affected breeding point structure model the most was temperature seasonality, followed by distance from mixforest, density-class on the forest map and relief energy. The factor that affected appearance point structure model the most was temperature seasonality, followed by distance from rivers and ponds, distance from agricultural land and gradient. The nature of the goshawk's breeding environment and habit to breed inside forests were reflected in this modeling that targets breeding points. The northern central area which is about $189.5 km^2$(2.55 %) is expected to be suitable breeding ground. Large cities such as Cheongju and Chungju are located in the southern part of Chungcheongbuk-do whereas the northern part of Chungcheongbuk-do has evenly distributed forests and farmlands, which helps goshawks have a scope of influence and food source to breed. Appearance point modeling predicted an area of $3,071 km^2$(41.38 %) showing a wider ranging habitat than that of the breeding point modeling due to some limitations such as limited moving observation and non-consideration of seasonal changes. When targeting the breeding points, a specific predictive area can be deduced but it is difficult to check the points of nests and it is impossible to reflect the goshawk's behavioral area. On the other hand, when targeting appearance points, a wider ranging area can be covered but it is less accurate compared to predictive breeding point since simple movements and constant use status are not reflected. However, with these results, the goshawk's habitat can be predicted with reasonable accuracy. In particular, it is necessary to apply precise predictive breeding area data based on habitat modeling results when enforcing an environmental evaluation or establishing a development plan.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.139-151
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• 2017

The habitat preference of roe deers(Capreolus pygargus) in Jeju island, South Korea was analyzed by using their occurrence probability in MaxEnt model in this study. Totally 490 surveying data were gathered and 15 environmental variables were chosen for the model in which 6 variables out of 15 ones were filtered and finally removed because of there being higher correlation(over 0.7 in correlation coefficient). According to the modeling, roe deers were known to prefer the area ranging from 200 to 700 meter and over 1,500 meter in sea level, where there were not many dominant tree and/or dominant vegetation with low density so that understory vegetation can grow well with plentiful sunlight and can be used as a food of herbivore like roe deers. Otherwise, the region ranging from 700 to 1,500 meter was mostly covered with high density vegetation which cut off sunlight trying to penetrate through the dominant vegetation. It can cause a lower density of vegetation on surface, which can not attract to roe deers.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.10-18
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• 2017

Korean Red Pine (Pinus densiflora) has been protected and used as the most ecologically and socio-culturally important tree species in Korea. However, as dieback of Korean red pines has occurred in the protected area of the forest genetic resources. The aims of this study is to identify causes for dieback of pine tree by investigating topographical characteristics of pine tree dieback and its correlation to meteorological factors. We extracted the dead trees from the time series aerial images and analyzed geomorphological characteristics of dead tree concentration area. As a result, 1,956 dead pine trees were extracted in the study region of 2,600 ha. Dieback of pine trees was found mostly in the areas with high altitude, high solar radiation, low topographic wetness index, south and south-west slopes, ridgelines, and high wind exposure compared to other living pine forest area. These areas are classified as high temperature and high drought stress regions due to micro-climatic characteristics affected by topographic factors. As high temperature and drought stress are generally increasing with climate change, we can evaluated that a risk of pine tree dieback is also increasing. Based on these geomorphological characteristics, we developed a pine tree dieback risk map using Maximum Entropy Model (MaxEnt), and it can be useful for establishing Korean red pine protection and management strategies.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.57-74
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• 2022

Seed zones were constructed using temperature and precipitation data for the Korean Peninsula and were described as 65 zones. Seed zones for South Korea were reclassified, and they were classified into 34 districts. This study was conducted to define the spread of 5 native seed species (Pinus densiflora, Quercus acutissima, Quercus variabilis, Acer pictum, Carpinus tschonoskii) by linking the seed zones with MaxEnt. The emergence point of native seeds was acquired through the 1:5,000 Forest Type Map and the 4th national natural environment survey data. Based on the MaxEnt result, regions with a habitat probability of 0.5 or more were extracted and overlapped with seed zones to identify the native seed habitat. After analyzing the climate regions with high habitat density, regions with high habitat density of native seeds for each administrative district were identified. In the case of Pinus densiflora, Quercus acutissima, and Quercus variabilis, the Winter minimum temperature(WMT) -9.4~-6.6℃, Annual Heat:Moisture(AH:M) 19~24℃/m was 37%, 43%, and 34%, respectively. occupied the largest area. In Acer pictum, WMT -6.6~-3.8℃ and AH:M 16~19℃/m accounted for 42% of the area, and Carpinus tschonoskii had WMT -3.8~-1.1℃, AH:M <16℃/m Districts accounted for the largest area at 33%. The regions with high density of Pinus densiflora, Quercus acutissima, and Quercus variabilis by administrative district were distributed in high density in Seoul, Southern Gyeonggi-do, Chungcheong-do, and Gyeongsangbuk-do. Acer pictum was distributed in high density in Jeolla-do and Gyeongsang-do, and Carpinus tschonoskii in Jeju, Jeollanam-do and Gyeongsangnam-do. Through this study, seed zones for each of the 5 native seeds were established, and it is expected to provide basic data for the management of native seeds.