• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.35 no.1
• /
• pp.24-36
• /
• 2021

Countries around the world, including the Republic of Korea, are participating in efforts to preserve biodiversity. Concerning species, in particular, studies that aim to find potential habitats and establish conservation plans by conducting habitat suitability analysis for specific species are actively ongoing. However, few studies on mid- to long-term changes in suitable habitat areas are based on accumulated information. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the time-series changes in the habitat suitable area and examine the otters' changing pattern (Lutra lutra) designated as Level 1 endangered wildlife in Gangwon-do. The time-series change analysis used the data on otter species' presence points from the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th national natural environment surveys conducted for about 20 years. Moreover, it utilized the land cover map consistent with the survey period to create environmental variables to reflect each survey period's habitat environment. The suitable habitat area analysis used the MaxEnt model that can run based only on the species presence information, and it has been proven to be reliable by previous studies. The study derived the habitat suitability map for otters in each survey period, and it showed a tendency that habitats were distributed around rivers. Comparing the response curves of the environmental variables derived from the modeling identified the characteristics of the habitat favored by otters. The examination of habitats' change by survey period showed that the habitats based on the 2nd National Natural Environment Survey had the widest distribution. The habitats of the 3rd and 4th surveys showed a tendency of decrease in area. Moreover, the study aggregated the analysis results of the three survey periods and analyzed and categorized the habitat's changing pattern. The type of change proposed different conservation plans, such as field surveys, monitoring, protected area establishment, and restoration plan. This study is significant because it produced a comprehensive analysis map that showed the time-series changes of the location and area of the otter habitat and proposed a conservation plan that is necessary according to the type of habitat change by region. We believe that the method proposed in this study and its results can be used as reference data for establishing a habitat conservation and management plan in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.79-88
• /
• 2015

Preparations need to be made for Korean pine(Pinus koraiensis) in anticipation of climate change because Korean pine is an endemic species of South Korea and the source of timber and pine nut. Therefore, climate change adaptation policy has been established to conduct an impact assessment on the distribution of Korean pine. Our objective was to predict the distribution of Korean pine while taking into account uncertainty and afforestation conditions. We used the 5th forest types map, a forest site map and BIOCLIM variables. The climate scenarios are RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 for uncertainty and the climate models are 5 regional climate models (HadGEM3RA, RegCM4, SNURCM, GRIMs, WRF). The base period for this study is 1971 to 2000. The target periods are the mid-21st century (2021-2050) and the end of the 21st century (2071-2100). This study used the MaxEnt model, and 50% of the presences were randomly set as training data. The remaining 50% were used as test data, and 10 cross-validated replicates were run. The selected variables were the annual mean temperature (Bio1), the precipitation of the wettest month (Bio13) and the precipitation of the driest month (Bio14). The test data's ROC curve of Korean pine was 0.689. The distribution of Korean pine in the mid-21st century decreased from 11.9% to 37.8% on RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5. The area of Korean pine at an artificial plantation occupied from 32.1% to 45.4% on both RCPs. The areas at the end of the 21st century declined by 53.9% on RCP 4.5 and by 86.0% on RCP 8.5. The area of Korean pine at an artificial plantation occupied 23.8% on RCP 4.5 and 7.2% on RCP 8.5. Private forests showed more of a decrease than national forests for all subsequent periods. Our results may contribute to the establishment of climate change adaptation policies for considering various adaptation options.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.55-69
• /
• 2018

As disaster risk and climate change volatility increase, there are more efforts to adapt to disasters such as forest fires, floods, and landslides. Most of the research, however, is about influence of human activities on disaster and there is few research on disaster adaptation for species. Previous studies focusing on biodiversity in selecting conservation areas have not addressed threats of disaster in the habitats for species. The natural disasters sometimes play role of drivers of ecological successions in the long run, but they might cause serious problems for the conservation of vulnerable species which are endangered. The purpose of this study is to determine whether soil loss (SL) is effective in selecting habitat management areas for amphibians and reptiles. RUSLE model was used to calculate soil loss (SL) and the distribution of each species (SD) was computed with MaxEnt model to find out the biodiversity index. In order to select the habitat management area, we estimated the different results depending if value of soil loss was applied or not by using MARXAN, a conservation priority selection tool. With using MARXAN, conservation goals can be achieved according to the scenario objectives, and the study has been made to meet the minimum habitat area. Finally, the results are expressed in two; 1) the result of soil loss and biodiversity with MATRIX method and 2) the result of regional difference calculated with MARXAN conservation prioritization considering soil loss. The first result indicates that the area with high soil loss and low species diversity have lower conservation values and thus can be managed as natural disturbances. In the area where soil loss is high and species diversity is also high, it becomes where a disaster mitigation action should be taken for the species. According to the conservation priorities of the second result, higher effectiveness of conservation was obtained with fewer area when it considered SL in addition to SD, compared to when considered only biodiversity. When the SL was not taken into consideration, forest area with high distribution of species were important, but when SL considered, the agricultural area or downstream of the river were represented to be a major part of habitats. If more species data or disaster parameters other than soil loss are added as variables later, it could contribute as a reference material for decision-making to achieve various purposes.