• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.262-274
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• 2018

Spider fauna of Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and adjacent areas in Korea was surveyed in 2001-2003, 2013-2015, and 2017. Total of 34 surveyed areas across 10 provinces were divided into four main regions (east coast, mid-east mountain, midland, and west coast areas) in accordance with administrative districts and topography. Total of 273 species of 145 genera in 32 families were identified from 10,886 collected spiders. In conclusion, the spider fauna in the DMZ is 281 species of 147 genera in 32 families with 162 species of 99 genera in 23 families in the previous reports. This corresponds to about 37.6% of the Korean spiders as of 2015. The species richness among surveyed localities was ranged 45 species to 92 species. The species richness of each taxon is high in Araneidae, Salticidae, Linyphiidae and Theridiidae. Habitat generalists were 22 species and habitat specialists were 69 species. The 143 species were web builders and 130 species were wanderers by the outlined life style. In DMZ spiders, only 7 species, Thymoites ulleungensis, Arcuphantes pennatus, Lycosa coreana, Allagelena koreana, Cybaeus mosanensis and Cybaeus triangulus, Kishidaia coreana, were recognized as Korean endemic. Five species, Scytodes thoracica, T. ulleungensis, Lycosa labialis, Takeoa nishimurai, and Phrynarachne katoi, are rare species with a trend of decreasing density in recent years. Araneus rotundicornis has been discovered for the first time since its first report. This study may be useful in the conservative management and will contribute to knowledge of the distribution and biogeography of DMZ areas in the future.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.288-297
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• 2014

The aim of this study is to analyse misinformation about gymnosperm taxon used for over 57 years, since 1957 when plant biology as a discipline was established in our country. That is, terminologies and descriptions of the reproductive structure (flower) of angiosperms (flowering seed plants) have been incorrectly applied to the reproductive structures (typically cones and pollen grain) of gymnosperms (non-flowering seed plants) by numerous and various media such as text books, dictionaries, and internet websites for plant biology. Thus, these resources have been misleading teachers, students, and other people interested in plant biology in general and taxonomy in particular by describing gymnosperm reproductive structures as if they are the same as angiosperms. Such a practice has an especially adverse effect on plant biology education at all levels of instruction, with teachers and students confused in their understanding of the concept and definition of a flower. In this paper, these incorrect expressions for the reproductive structures of gymnosperms from the various media are analysed and discussed in terms of cladogram, anatomy of reproductive structures, and historical context of classification systems.

• Journal of Plant Biology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 1991

Morphological variability was quantified for Endarachne binghamiae J. Agardh from five local populations collected in December, 1989 and in March, 1990. The sampling sites were chosen at intervals of 50'N along the east coast of Korea. Fifty individuals were haphazardly collected for the relationship between the blade length and reproduction, among which twenty five individuals were randomly selected for morphological variation. The Korean plants of E. binghamiae had the capacity of reproduction at an early stage of growth. The holdfast diameter and the plurangial length showed clinal variation of increment from the north to the south whereas the cryptostomata from the south to the north. The holdfast diameter, the blade thickness, the number of plurangial blades and the cryptostomata increased from December to March, when the blade length decreased. Endarachne is distinguished by the densely interwoven hypha I cells in the medulla, [our to eighteen rows of the plurangial compartments, and absence of paraphyses between plurangia. Therefore E. binghamiae should not be combined into Petalonia, but rather the Soviet plants of P. zosterijolia may be renamed as a taxon belonging to the genus Endarachne.rachne.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2011

Thais Roding, 1798, commonly known as rock-shell, is among the most frequently found gastropod genera worldwide on intertidal rocky shores including those of Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea. This group contains important species in many marine environmental studies but species-level taxonomy of the group is quite complicated due to the morphological variations in shell characters. This study examined the genetic variations and relationships among three Korean Thais species based on the partial nucleotide sequences of mitochondrial cox1 gene fragments. Phylogenetic trees from different analytic methods (maximum parsimony, neighbor-joining, and maximum likelihood) showed that T. bronni and T. luteostoma are closely related, indicating the most recent common ancestry. The low sequence divergence found between T. luteostoma and T. bronni, ranging from 1.53% to 3.19%, also corroborates this idea. Further molecular survey using different molecular marker is required to fully understand a detailed picture of the origin for their low level of interspecific sequence divergence. Sequence comparisons among conspecific individuals revealed extensive sequence variations within the three species with maximum values of 2.43% in T. clavigera and 1.37% in both T. bronni and T. luteostoma. In addition, there is an unexpectedly high level of mitochondrial genotypic diversity within each of the three Korean Thais species. The high genetic diversity revealed in Korean Thais species is likely to reflect genetic diversity introduced from potential source populations with diverse geographic origins, such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and a variety of different coastal regions in South China and Japan. Additional sequence analysis with comprehensive taxon sampling from unstudied potential source populations will be also needed to address the origin and key factors for the high level of genetic diversity discovered within the three Korean Thais species studied.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.286-296
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• 2018

Maintenance of a beneficial microbial community, especially in the rhizosphere, is indispensable for plant growth and agricultural sustainability. In this sense, plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) have been extensively studied for their role in plant growth promotion and disease resistance. However, the impact of introducing PGPR strains into rhizosphere microbial communities is still underexplored. We previously found that the Proteus vulgaris JBLS202 strain (JBLS202) promoted growth of Kimchi cabbage and altered the relative abundance of total bacteria and Pseudomonas spp. in the treated rhizosphere. To extend these findings, we used pyrosequencing to analyze the changes in bacterial communities in the rhizosphere of Kimchi cabbage after introduction of JBLS202. The alterations were also evaluated by taxon-specific realtime PCR (qPCR). The pyrosequencing data revealed an increase in total bacteria abundance, including specific groups such as Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, and Actinobacteria, in the treated rhizosphere. Time-course qPCR analysis confirmed the increase in the abundance of Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria, and Betaproteobacteria. Furthermore, genes involved in nitrogen cycling were upregulated by JBLS202 treatment indicating changes in ecological function of the rhizosphere soil. Overall, these results indicate that introduction of JBLS202 alters both the composition and function of the rhizosphere bacterial community, which can have direct and indirect effects on plant growth. Therefore, we propose that long-term changes in bacterial composition and community-level function need to be considered for practical use of PGPRs.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.33-55
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• 2018

It has been noted that the main cause of biodiversity loss is influx of alien species. Specifically, habitats destruction, economic loss, and human injury are increasing due to invasive alien species. There were 2,167 alien species in Korea. 21 alien species of extraterrestrials including Lycorma delicatula, Solenopsis invicta, Myocastor coypus, and Spartina alterniflora at high risk through ecological risk assessment, are designated as invasive alien species. Alert species, which may have negative impact on ecosystems when they are introduced into the country, are assigned to 127 species through the ecosystem risk evaluation. To list such alien species to prevent invasion of alien species in advance, and to minimize damage caused by imported alien species, a national level management system called the Conservation and Use of Biological deversity Act was established, but there is a lack of a systematic management system in accordance with degree of risk. There is also a risk assessment chart should be developed thatreflects ecological characteristics of each taxon and evaluation criteria in predicting the risk.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.740-745
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• 2006

Inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers were performed in order to analyse the phylogenetic relationships of four taxa of Castor-aralia (Kalopanax pictus): K. pictus, K. pictus var. magnificus, K. pictus var. maximowiczii, and thornless K. pictus. The 11 primers were produced 64 reproducible ISSR bands. Analysis of ISSR from individual plants of Korean K. pictus resulted in 41 polymorphic bands with 64.1%. When species were grouped by four taxa, within group diversity was 0.115 $(H_S)$, while among group diversity was 0.467 $(G_{ST})$ on a per locus basis. The estimated gene flow (Nm) for K. pictus var. maximowiczii and K. pictus var. magnificus were very higher than K. pictus. It is suggested that the isolation of geographical distance and reproductive isolation among K. pictus populations may have played roles in shaping the population structure of this species. In phenetic tree, ISSR markers are very effective in classifying natural populations as well as taxon levels of genus Kalopanax in Korea.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.36-47
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• 2020

Three large scale weirs were constructed 2010 - 2011 in the Namhan river, Korea. The purpose of this study was to investigate the spatial distribution of benthic macroinvertebrates and the influence of environmental factors at the weirs 2014 - 2015. The number of species was higher in the riparian zone than in the transition or the limnetic zone. This seems to be because of the diversification of microhabitats and food sources according to the development of littoral zones. From the riparian zone to the limnetic zone, the individual abundance proportion of gathering collectors among functional feeding groups decreased, and that of filtering collectors increased. In the limnetic zone, sprawlers and climbers among habitat orientation groups decreased, and burrowers increased. This means that coarse particulate organic matter originated from land or riparian zone was transformed to fine particulate organic matter in the limnetic zone. Asian clam (Corbicula fluminea) and chironomids were dominant species based on individual abundance. Asian clam, a major taxon considering biomass, was abundant toward the limnetic zone. This is becasue of the shallow depth, suitable water current, slightly coarse substrate, and good water quality. There was no significant relationship between the water quality and the characteristics of the benthic macroinvertebrate community because the water quality was spatially not heterogenous. The more influential factors for benthic community were physical factors, especially water depth. Water depth showed a markedly significant correlation with Shannon-Weaver's species diversity (r=-0.90), Margalef's species richness (r=-0.82), and McNaughton's dominance (r=0.86). Water depth showed a positive correlation (r=0.68) with the Kong and Kim BMSI (Bentic Macroinverebrates Streambed Index), and this may be related to the coarse substrate of the limnetic zone.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.130-137
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• 2011

Pedicularis growing at Mt. Halla of Jeju Island is known as an endemic species of P. hallaisanensis Hurusawa. On the other hand, the plant is morphologically similar to P. amoena, P. spicata, and P. verticillata in gross morphology, so the taxonomic treatment of the taxon remains controversial. To clarify the taxonomic position of the plants, we examined external morphological characters and nuclear ribosomal DNA ITS sequences for P. hallaisanensis and its related species. The plants of Mt. Halla are clearly different from P. amoena and P. verticillata in the morphology of calyx lobes, the length of galea and lower lip, density of glandular hairs on plants, presences of the radical leaves after anthesis and molecular data. However, P. hallaisanensis is not clearly separated from P. spicata distributed in N. E. Asia on external morphological characters and DNA sequences of internal transcribed spacers. In this study, the morphological and molecular data suggested that P. hallaisanensis should be merged into the former species.

• Journal of Species Research
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.232-239
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• 2012

Taxonomy of umbelliferous taxa Heracleum moellendorffii complex has been unclear in their species delimitation in the far-eastern Asian regions. In both Korea and China Heracleum moellendorffii was adopted for their description while H. sphondylium was chosen to describe Japanese Heracleum. From Genbank accessions, taxa collected from Kamtchatka and Promorskiy, Russia were defined as H. maximum, endemic taxon to North America. In this study, we reviewed the taxonomy of Heracleum moellendorffii complex in Korea and neighboring countries on the basis of molecular phylogenies derived from sequences of nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions. From three Korean accessions of Heracleum investigated in this study, two types of ITS sequences were obtained; two accessions were related to Chinese H. moellendorffii var. moellendorffii and North American H. maximum without forming a clade while the other one was identical to accession from H. maximum from Primorskiy, Russia. In the other hand, Japanese H. moellendorffii (=H. sphondylium ssp. sphondylium var. nipponicum in the flora of Japan) was closely related to H. maximum accessions from Korea and Russia, not nested within the clade comprising several subspecies of H. sphondylium. In order to delimit species boundaries among putatively closely related Heracleum species in fareastern Asian countries, more samples and much more rapidly evolved DNA regions must be investigated with interpretation of morphological and anatomical features.