• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.523-532
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• 2017

Environmental problems in urban spaces tend to result from excessive use of resources faster than the ecosystem can recover itself. In order to address this problem, city or municipal governments tend to devise plans and policies to lead development within their ecological carrying capacity. This study computes ecological capacity of Asan city, Province Chung Nam, South Korea through applying the concept of ecological footprint. This study finds ecological footprint and deficit of Asan city in 2015 were 5.12 and -4.99, respectively. From 2001 to 2015, Asan city experienced not only an 81% increase of ecological footprint, but also a 190% increase of ecological deficit. Such results suggest that Asan city has experienced a steady increase of resource consumption due to population increase and urban growth, indicating that loss of ecological spaces such as green space, farmland, wetland and so on restoring the ecosystem has been accelerated. Therefore, in order to promote sustainable development, Asan city should not only protect green space, farmland, wetland, and so on but also create urban growth plans and policies taking into account its environmental capacity of the city. This study provides suggestions for Asan city to lead urban growth within its environmental capacity by applying ecological deficit.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.57-67
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• 2018

We examined the impact of paddy wetland's avian-diversity on the development of the protected horticulture complex. The results of this study were made to propose ecological protected horticulture complex and development direction suitable for avian habitat. The total number of species surveyed was analyzed as 1168 individuals in 11 orders 26 families and 36 generic 48 species. Type average was analyzed as paddy $17.25{\pm}4.83$ species and $74.50{\pm}38.08$ individuals, glass $10.00{\pm}0.82$ species and $46.75{\pm}2.06$ individuals, single $13.75{\pm}7.27$ species and $59.50{\pm}35.34$ individuals, multi $8.75{\pm}0.96$ species and $36.75{\pm}9.29$ individuals. Paddy showed higher species diversity than protected horticulture complex. The average number of species surveyed for one year was glass $14{\pm}2.83$, multi $12{\pm}1.41$, single $18{\pm}11.31$, and paddy $26{\pm}11.31$. The diversity difference was identified as paddy> single> glass and multi. Statistical analysis showed statistical difference of Ciconiiformes. Development of protected horticulture complex causes loss of avian habitat. The diversity index was glass $1.73{\pm}0.07$, multi $1.68{\pm}0.14$, single $1.91{\pm}0.47$, and paddy $2.29{\pm}0.17$. Paddy has a higher species diversity than the protected horticulture complex. For the purpose of ecological protected horticulture complex, detention ponds, artificial wetlands and habitats should be reflected in the design. This should be applied to reclamation areas or large-scale protected horticulture complexes.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.129-135
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• 2010

The relationship between rainfall variable and zooplankton dynamics was studied in the Upo wetland, an ecosystem of international importance. Water sampling was conducted on biweekly basis from January 2002 to December 2007 in the study site. The annual average of total rainfall was 1,324 mm during the study period. Total rainfall amount in 2003 (1,766 mm) was unusually high, while total rainfall amount in 2005 (975 mm) was exceptionally lower than the average. Most of basic limnological parameters (water temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity and turbidity) in the study site were greatly influenced by the flooding events and rainfall amounts in summer. There were statistically significance between seasonal and inter-annual differences in zooplankton abundance and the total rainfall amount (ANOVA, P<0.05). Zooplankton abundance was high in summer (mean${\pm}$s.d.: $1,594{\pm}1,598\;Ind.\;L^{-1}$) and low in winter ($246{\pm}234\;Ind.\;L^{-1}$. The 47% of annual total zooplankton abundance in the study site were observed in summer. The seasonal pattern of rotifers was similar to that of total zooplankton. This reflected the fact that rotifers strongly dominated and occupied ca. 65% the total zooplankton abundance (annual mean: $398{\pm}1,139\;Ind.\;L^{-1}$, n=149), followed by cladocerans ($65{\pm}140\;Ind.\;L^{-1}$) and copepods ($58{\pm}84\;L^{-1}$). Planktonic rotifers such as Keratella cochlearis, Polyarthra spp. and Brachionus calyciflorus were dominant from winter to spring and attached rotifers such as Lecane spp., Monostyla spp. and Trichocerca spp., observed commonly from spring to fall. Among the environmental variables considered, rainfall in summer seemed to play the most important role in determining characteristics of zooplankton community dynamics in the Upo wetland.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.64-73
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• 2023

Before 2022, there was a lot of confusion in the process of planning and implementing the projects for ecological restoration of the stream due to dualization the principal agent of stream management. Because the Ministry of Environment took charge of the project in 2022, securing the health of aquatic ecosystem of stream became an essential factor in the project. Therefore, in this study, the streams that require the project for ecological restoration was selected in Han River estuary, where it is essential to secure the health of the stream aquatic ecosystem as blackish water zone and Ramsar wetland are located. Physical, chemical, spatial/humanistic, health of aquatic ecosystems evaluation indexes were calculated based on the detailed facts and figures of the project for ecological restoration of the stream in the beginning. Ranking, re-scaling, z-score, and t-score normalization methods were applied to the calculated evaluation index, and the values were compared and analyzed. After that, the entropy weight method was applied to each evaluation index. Through this process, the streams(Mokgamcheon, Anyangcheon etc.) that require the project for ecological restoration were selected for the purpose of securing the health of the aquatic ecosystem in Han River estuary. The result of this study can be used as basic research data in the process of selecting the priority determination of the projects for ecological restoration of the stream.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.67-78
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• 2024

The term ecosystem services refers to natural ecosystems' benefits to humans. Various models have been developed and applied to quantify ecosystem services. Habitat quality assessment is a widely used leading InVEST ecosystem service model. In Korea, habitat quality assessment is conducted for national parks. For habitat quality assessment, the initial value of habitat quality must be used to assess the sensitivity to threats, which varies depending on the country and application field. Therefore, an expert survey (AHP) was conducted based on previous habitat quality assessments in national parks to adjust the sensitivity, the initial value for the habit quality assessment. As a result of the AHP, 18 items were adjusted, including 10 items, such as natural grassland and unarranged fields, upward and 8 items, such as rivers and ponds, downward. Based on the adjusted sensitivity results, the habitat quality of Bukhansan National Park and Gyeryongsan National Park (urban type), Gyeongju National Park (historic type), Hallyeohaesang National Park (ocean type), and Jirisan National Park and Seoraksan National Park (mountain type) were adjusted. The results of the analysis showed that the habitat quality of urban dry areas and water bodies distributed in the national parks was reflected in the habitat quality assessment. In the future, it will be possible to evaluate the habitat quality of natural parks using this standard.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.257-270
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• 2023

The paddy environment is classified as a wetland and occupies a very large proportion of the freshwater environment. It is also ecologically important as a habitat and spawning ground for many aquatic insects and amphibian larvae. However, due to climate change and indiscriminate spraying of pesticides, the rice field ecosystem is continuously threatened. In order to restore ecologically damaged rice paddies in the future, information on organisms living in the rice paddy ecosystem, which can serve as a restoration standard, is needed. The eDNA metabarcoding analysis method is a very effective means of accumulating information on many organisms living in the rice field ecosystem because it can indirectly identify the existence of taxa that are no longer found in the target ecosystem due to different adult life periods or metamorphosis. In this study, genes of four species of frogs and nine species of aquatic insects were also discovered, and some taxa were directly discovered in the field. A large number of taxa have been discovered only by DNA searches, and traditional survey methods have only been able to identify very limited taxa. This eDNA-based paddy field biosearch is expected to be very useful in the investigation of biodiversity in agricultural ecosystems due to its strong analytical resolution.

• Current Research on Agriculture and Life Sciences
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• v.24
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• pp.37-42
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was a biota research and analysis for Close-to-nature stream restoration planning of Shinchun. The summary of this study is as follows; 1) The vascular plants in research area recorded of 45 species and insect fauna recorded of 34 species of 8 orders. As a result of table of community classification, the communities were two group; Quercus variabilis community(I), Pinus densiflora-Quercus variabilis-Quercus dentata community(II). 2) As a result of analysis on correlation of tree species, the level of significance in positive correlation between Quercus dentata and Corylus heterophyll aindicated 1% and between Pinus densiflora and Lespedeza bicolor also indicated 1%. 3) As a result of DBH analysis, it is expected that Quercus variabilis and Quercus dentata will dominateover other species in competition and its succession continuously maintains from now on in community I. In community II, it is assumed that there is a high possibility of changing into community of Quercus such as Quercus mongolica, Quercus dentata, and Quercus variabilis. 4) As a result of analysis on insect fauna, insect fauna consists of 94% of whole species as 32 species, 23 families, 8 orders. And 7 species, 7 families 4 orders was found in highly urbanized area, the vicinity of Sang-Dong bridge. 5) As mentioned above, Based on A biota fundamental research, Close-to-nature stream restoration planning were full of suggestions: i) Designating ecosystem preservation area, ii) Making Close-to-nature stream revetments, iii) Making pool-and-riffle, vi) Making decks for observation and walks for nature experience, v) Creating wetland biotope. Through these methods, it is necessary to promote bio-diversity and lead people to the space for eco-learning.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.203-214
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• 2013

Knowing how many species live in a ecosystem is a major work because of the distributions of species are determined by the environmental condition. This study was carried out to investigate the distribution of vascular plants of Gonggeom-ji, located in Sangju-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, from April to October on 2012. The vascular plants were summarized as 240 taxa including 69 families, 176 genus, 204 species, 2 subspecies, 29 varieties, and 5 forma. Among the investigated taxa, 3 taxa of Korean endemic plants were included. Based on the list of specially designated plants by Ministry of Environment, 11 taxa including Alisma orientale, Monochoria korsakowii and Nymphoides peltata were recorded. The naturalized plants were identified as 26 taxa and the ratio of naturalized index (NI) was 10.8% of vascular plants recorded. 31 taxa of hydrophytes showed 17.8% of Korea. To conservation of wetlands, we suggest that it is required to minimize for unnecessary disturbance of human and to make a strategy for effective management by continuous monitoring for ecosystem alteration.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.85-97
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• 2011

The tidal flats of Korea today have reduced by 40% in size compared to 1964. To manage this important habitat properly, development of well-organized and nationwide-applicable grading systems is required. There have been several assessment systems proposed previously in Korea, but they are critically flawed in that selected biological indicators are not adequate and grading criteria are obscure and arbitrary. We reviewed the indicators used in these previous evaluation systems (e.g., diversity indices, quantity and quality of benthic macrofauna, halophytes, water birds, etc.) and subsequently proposed new indicators and an improved grading scheme. For the quantitative assessment of macrobenthic community, biomass reflecting production and ecosystem function is recommended over density, which is much less discriminatory among habitats. Of biodiversity indices used, within-, between-habitat and regional biodiversity indices that accurately reflect sampling efforts are suggested. In addition, we proposed to include species rarity, ecosystem engineers, and the ecological quality index ISEP (Inverse function of Shannon-Wiener Evenness Proportion). As for halophytes, their low spatial coverage on benthic habitat suggests that their presence can be used as an ecological indicator of benthic habitat, regardless of their protective status. We stress the need to introduce 1) quantile approach for quantitative indicators (e.g., diversity, biomass, etc.) in relation to grading, 2) presence-absence approach for spatial or aggregate indicators (e.g., boundaries of halophytes and feeding ground of water birds) and 3) benthic habitat mapping that combines all of these indicators.

• Journal of Species Research
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.136-159
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• 2019

This study was carried out to investigate the flora of six islands belonging to the Gogunsan Archipelago (i.e., Sinsi-do, Seonyu-do, Munyeo-do, Yami-do, Bian-do, and Duri-do) in the Korean Peninsula. As results of five field surveys from March to October of 2016, we have identified 575 total taxa, representing 527 species, five subspecies, 42 varieties, and one hybrid, placed in 358 genera and 118 families. Of these 575 taxa, four are endemic to Korea, six taxa are listed on the Korean Red List of threatened species, 67 are floristic regional indicator plants, and 74 are invasive alien species. In this study, we compared species richness among the islands, and find that the larger the islands, the higher the species richness. In the case of habitat affinity types, forest species were most common, followed by farmland, seacoast, bare ground and wetland species. From similarity analyses based on the composition of vascular plants, each island did not exhibit either local specificity or unique diversity. On the contrary, the proportion of invasive alien and ruderal species may increase by human activities. Investigations and analyses of island flora such as this are important to assess the current status of the flora, predict future vegetation patterns and the spread of the alien species, and establish managment plans of plant diversity.