• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.54-65
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• 2017

Background: "Igune," a traditional agricultural landscape in the Tohoku region of Japan, is characterized by small-scale artificial woodlots surrounding a farmer's house that are interspersed with paddy fields. During the rapid economic growth of Japan over recent decades, some igune woodlots have been abandoned or logged. Biodiversity conservation is an important issue worldwide, and traditional agricultural landscapes are of particular interest. To elucidate the role of igune landscapes in conserving biodiversity, we examined the effects of environmental factors on avian communities. Results: The study was conducted in the suburban areas of Oshu and Hanamaki cities, Iwate Prefecture, Japan, at eight sites that varied in the density and area of igune woodlots within the landscape. Bird surveys were conducted from the middle to late breeding season, and several environmental factors of the igune landscape were also measured. The results of canonical correspondence analysis indicated that the characteristics of avian communities were mainly determined by the total forested area in the landscape. Increased total forested area and shrubs layer of igune woodlots did not cause a reduction in number of bird species of any habitat and foraging types, while increased both in species number and abundance of insectivores and forest species. The number of raptor species increased in igune sites without shrubs. Conclusions: Our results suggest that maintaining igune landscapes may enhance avian diversity within this landscape, although the effects of shrubs within igune varied; developed bush communities increased the evenness of the avian community, whereas some raptor species preferred an open forest understory.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.1337-1353
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• 2010

This study intended to investigate environmental factors including soil and vegetation in order to understand the environmental and ecological characteristics of 12 different habitats of Iris odaesanensis. These habitats, according to investigations, are mostly located at elevation of 280 m to 1,555 m with angles of inclination ranging from 2 degree to 30 degrees. A total of 273 vascular plants are identified in 23 quadrates of 12 habitats. Dominant species of woody plants in 12 habitats are represented as Quercus mongolica in the tree layer (T1) and the subtree (T2) layer, and Lespedeza maximowiczii, Lindera obtusiloba, Rhododendron schlippenbachii in the shrub (S) layer. The importance value of Iris odaesanensis is 9.65%, as regards the herbaceous layer, and 6 highly ranked species such as Carex siderosticta (3.92%), Meehania urticifolia (2.67%), Spodiopogon cotulifer (2.58%), Aconitum pseudolaeve (2.51%), Carex bostrychostigma (2.28%) and Disporum smilacinum (2.09%) are considered to be an affinity with Iris odaesanensis in their habitats. The degree of their average species diversity is 1.32, and that of dominance and evenness are 0.08 and 0.89, respectively. The type of soil is sandy loam and loam, and the average field capacity of soil is 28.31%. Their average organic matter is 16.71%, soil pH 5.29, and available phosphorus is 9.29%. Correlation coefficients analysis based on environmental factors, vegetation and soil analysis shows that the coverage of Iris odaesanensis is correlated with pH and dominance, and species richness is positive related with species diversity.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.368-378
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• 2005

Inorganic matters originated from stone quarries and manufacturing plants could alter the ecological characteristics of adjacent aquatic systems, especially the structure and function of benthic macroinvertebrate community. In such situation, the locality of stone quarry and the quantity of inorganic matters would be important factors that determined the disturbing strength to the benthic macroinvertebrate community. Locality patterns of stone quarries were classified into 3 types in relation to the stream ecosystem; stream-proximity, upstream-inclusion and tributary-inclusion type. In the result of species:abundance analysis, stone quarry B (upstream-inclusion type) showed geometric distribution, while others showed broken-stick distribution pattern. The benthic macroinvertebrate communities closer to stone quarries showed smaller species numbers and standing crops among all types of stone quarries. However the values of species evenness index were not seriously different between controls and directly affected sites. These results indicated that the effect of inorganic disturbance would differ from those of organic pollution that induced the highly dominant state occupied by tolerant species. Number of occurred species, standing crops, community indices and biotic indices indicated that the community of upstream-inclusion type was the most seriously damaged from the inorganic disturbance, and the community would be very simple and unstable. Tributary-inclusion stone quarry heavily damaged to tributary system in biologically, but influence to the main stream seemed to be depended on the scale of main stream. Among 3 types of stone quarry localities, stream-proximity type induced the least damages to benthic macroinvertebrate community, though the degrees of damage were different along with distances between stream and stone quarry.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.241-248
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• 2019

The freshwater fish fauna for the whole water system of Geogeumdo Island was surveyed at a total 10 sites from March 2018 to February 2019. During the surveyed period, 13 species belonging to 5 families and 4 orders were collected. Cyprinidae (68.84%) and Gobiidae (18.21%) were the dominant family, and the dominant species was Zacco temminckii (53.71%), and the subdominant species was Rhynchocypris oxycephalus (10.78%). Kichulchoia brevifasciata (1.27%) that endangered species were found in this study, but the habitat was confirmed in one site in Sinpyeongcheon compared to previous literature. Three endemic species of Korea were found in this island such as Iksookimia hugowolfeldi (5.07%), Liobagrus somjinensis (2.99%) and K. brevifasciata (1.27%). According to analysis of fish community structure based on average diversity, evenness index, dominance and richness indices in Geogeumdo Island were 1.666, 0.649, 0.645 and 1.713, respectively.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.199-208
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• 2019

In this study, the community structures of the ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi in the roots of Abies koreana and Taxus cuspidata were investigated at different altitudes of Mt. Halla. We identified the collected ECM root tips based on morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analysis through sequencing of the rDNA ITS regions. From the roots of A. koreana and T. cuspidata, 11 species and 12 species were identified, respectively. The Shannon's index and species evenness and abundance of the ECM fungi were higher in the higher than lower regions, regardless of host plant species, however, the number of ECM root tips showed the opposite pattern. The community similarity among the ECM fungi in A. koreana was significantly higher than that among the ECM fungi in T. cuspidata or than that between A. koreana and T. cuspidata (p < 0.05). These results could be useful for the conservation and management of the habitat of A. koreana, which is threatened with extinction due to increasing ambient air temperature.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.1007-1016
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• 2021

This study examined the characteristics and seasonal distribution patterns of subtidal marine algal communities along the east coast of Korea, from 2016 to 2017, and recorded the coverage ratio (%) by the algal type. During the study period, 134 marine algae species (16 green, 29 brown, and 89 red) were identified at the survey sites. The maximum number of species was observed at the Nagok site (70 species), and the minimum at the Gisamoon site (50 species). The total average biomass (dry weight) during the survey period was 66.22 g/m², including green algae (2.19 g/m²), brown algae (38.10 g/m²), and red algae (25.94 g/m²). The dominant seaweeds in the vertical distribution based on coverage rates (%) were Sargassum yezoense and Dictyopteris divaricata at the upper, Symphyocladia latiuscula and Undaria pinnatifida at the middle, and Agarum clathratum subsp. yakishiriense and Plocamium telfairiae at the lower sections of the distribution. Richness, evenness, and diversity index, calculated based on the biomass of the abundant species, were estimated to be 6.36, 0.55, and 1.98, respectively, over the entire sea area. Based on the evaluation of the environmental states using community indices, the ecological evaluation index (EEI-c) of subtidal marine algal communities along the east coast of Korea was marked as 'good-moderate'.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.174-183
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• 2015

We have conducted a verification test of correlation between bird community indices and bird sound recording results in order to use the equipment which deals with the automatic sound collecting system, the song meter. The study areas include four sites which are Gombaeryoung and Zochimryoung in Jeombongsan Mountain and Jookryoung and Gochiryoung in Sobaeksan National Park. We collected the bird sound data five times using a sound recorder and field survey results in the same place of the study site. As a result of the sound recording from the field survey, the species recorded by three researchers of sound analyst include common resident species or species which have a relatively conspicuous call and song. On the contrary, the species recorded by only one researcher are a relatively rare or inconspicuous species or was familiar with the personal experiences of each researcher. The number of species recorded by only one researcher totaled fourteen species (36.8 %), and that of two researchers totaled twelve species (31.6 %), and that of three researchers totaled twelve species (31.6 %). The correlations of the number of species among three researchers was not significant in some results, but the sum or maximum count of the number of species was useful to estimate a significant correlation between the result of researchers and the indices of field surveys. As a result of correlation analysis by using sound recordings, the maximum number of species among the three researchers significantly correlated with the number of species, the species diversity index and the species abundance index in the field survey at the same site, however it did not correlate with the number of individuals and species evenness index. As a result of sound analysis collected from the stationary sound recording system; song meter, the number of frequencies in bird songs and calls correlated with the number of species in the field survey at the same site. The number of calls and songs decreased as time went by. Finally, we could test the active time range and change the activity strength by using a sound recording system. In particular, that sound recording system is able to collect data in same time and site, so it is expected so that the equipment not only replenish a shortage of researchers and survey periods in field research in a short term monitoring survey, but also be able to acquire statistical objectivity.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.105-115
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• 2017

The present study is to understand the Bongseonsa stream in the National Arboretum fish fauna variation through comparison with historical data and to evaluate the stream health situated. We performed investigations over three times from April to September 2015. In the survey, 2,960 individuals which belonging to 22 species, 8 families were collected. Dominant species by number was Zacco platypus and subdominant species was Zacco koreanus. Seven Korean endemic species (Squalidus gracilis majimae, Microphysogobio yaluensis, Zacco koreanus, Koreocobitis rotundicausata, etc) were observed and showed a ratio of 36.4%. The community analysis revealed that the structure of fish community in the study sampling sites was instability in having dominance 0.79 (${\pm}0.15$), diverse 1.21 (${\pm}0.60$), evenness 0.58 (${\pm}0.15$) and species richness 1.49 (${\pm}0.83$). The values in the Qualitative Habitat Evaluation Index (QHEI) was averagely 122.9 (${\pm}44.8$) in the Bongseonsa stream and this was showed to have favorable habitat surroundings. As a result of tolerance guild analysis, the total number of sensitive species and intermediate species were higher than tolerant species. Analysis was divided into A and B two groups of fiducial 12.25% in Cluster analysis degree of similarity between study sampling sites. Fish Assessment Index (FAI) was rated A and B grade in Bongseonsa stream that stream health showed favorable. However Wangsuk stream as a urban stream rated C grade and analysed the lowest grade in the whole study sampling sites. There was high correlation beteween FAI and various indexes, dominance, diverse, evenness and sensitive species and intermediate species.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.6-19
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• 2009

We investigated the macrozoobenthos at major two harbors of Korea in July and August 2007 in order to check the changes in the species composition due to the invasive species and to make a species inventory at each harbor system. At the Incheon Harbor, a total of 88 species was sampled with abundance of 3,212 ind. m$^{-2}$ and biomass of 239 g m$^{-2}$. The most dominant species was Tharyx sp. belong to polychaete taxa, followed by Chaetozone setosa in the harbor area. The dominant species of outer area were Musculus senhousia and Sternaspis scutata. The diversity index ranged between 0.9$\sim$2.4, and evenness index between 0.3$\sim$0.9, and richness index between 1.8$\sim$3.9. Benthic pollution index ranged between 16$\sim$74. The highest benthic pollution index was at station 4. On the other hand the lowest value was at station 6, where a large amount of M. senhousia belong to mollusca occurred. At the Busan Harbor, a total of 89 species was sampled with density of 1,845 ind. m$^{-2}$ and biomass of 133.6 g m$^{-2}$ in August 2007. The most dominant species was Tharyx sp., followed by M. japonica and Cirratulus cirrata within harbor area. M. japonica was dominant species in the outer area. The diversity index ranged between 0.7$\sim$2.2, evenness index between 0.3$\sim$1.0, and richness index between 1.1$\sim$4.1. Benthic pollution index ranged between 31$\sim$90. The lowest benthic pollution index was found at site 2 within harbor area.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.57-66
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• 2013

The mushrooms collected at seven areas of Mt. Chiak in 2002 and 2003 were classified to analyse the distribution and species diversity. Frequency (number of mushroom : N), number of species (S), relative species density (RSD), similarity index (C), richness index (R1), variety index (V1), evenness index (E2), and dominance index(D1) were investigated. Total N and S was 143 and 84, respectively. The RSD was 0.179 ~ 0.226 of the 7 areas. The yearly C of the total area (0.213) was 8.2%. more higher than the average C of 7 areas (0.131). The order in the coefficient of variation (CV) of the indicator for 7 areas was N (10.5%) > D1 (9.2%) > V1 (8.9%) > S (8.5%) > R1 (7.4%) > E2 (2.2%). The average R1 of the 7 areas was 5.36 with the range from 4.85 to 6.01, and 16.72 for the total area. The average V1 of the 7 areas was 16.24 with the range from 14.44 to 18.66, and 68.82 for the total area. The average E2 of the 7 areas was 0.95 with the range from 0.926 to 0.982, and 0.819 for the total area. The average D1 of the 7 areas was 0.071 with the range from 0.055 to 0.073, and 0.081 for the total area. The correlation between N and 5 kinds of diversity indicator (S, R1, V1, E2, D) was not statistically significant, but the correlation between R1, E2 and D1 was statistically significant each other.