• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.145-151
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• 2017

Background: Conventional bird observation methods are line survey or point count method by bare eyes or through binoculars or telescopes. But in this study, the possibility of monitoring waterbirds using drones beyond the conventional research methods was explored. It also describes the direction of producing and accumulating images of waterbird habitats as a method to efficiently determine changes in waterbird habitats. Results: From the study, it was concluded that waterbird monitoring using drones was a new monitoring technique which could be applied to the field and 26 kinds of waterbirds were observed. In the case of a drone with a single lens, it was difficult to identify objects because the size of the subject was too small at a certain altitude. In this case, zoom lens can be an alternative. It has also been verified that image analysis software can be used to accumulate images of waterbird habitats. Conclusions: If various kinds of advanced drones and cameras are used, it would be possible to monitor larger areas including the areas that are difficult for human access and to observe more waterbirds and wider habitats.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.168-177
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• 2015

BACKGROUND: In recent year, there has been great concern regarding agricultural land uses and their importance for the conservation of biodiversity. Rice fields are managed unique wetland for wildlife, especially waterbirds. A comprehensive monitoring of the waterbird assemblage to understand patterning changes was attempted for rice ecosystem in South Korea. This rice ecosystem has been recognized as one of the most important for waterbirds conservation. METHODS AND RESULTS: Biweekly monitoring was implemented for the 4 years from April 2009 to March 2010, from April 2011 to March 2014. 32 species of waterbirds were observed. Self-organizing map (SOM) and random forest were applied to the waterbirds dataset to identify the characteristics in waterbirds distribution. SOM and random forest analysis clearly classified into four clusters and extract ecological information from waterbird dataset. Waterbird assemblages represented strong seasonality and habitat use according to waterbird group such as shorebirds, herons and waterfowl. CONCLUSION: Our results showed that the combination of SOM and random forest analysis could be useful for ecosystem assessment and management. Furthermore, we strongly suggested that a strict management strategy for the rice fields to conserve the waterbirds. The strategy could be seasonally and species specific.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.115-121
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• 2002

Yubu Island is located within the estuary of the Geum River, South Chungcheong Province $(35^{\circ}59'N,\;126^{\circ}36'E)$, Korea. The island is surrounded by a broad and sandy mudflat, which is typical in the west coast of Korea, and is located 4km off from Gunsan City. Less than 100 humans live on the island, occupying 30 houses. After we discovered that this island was a very important waterbird habitat especially for the East Asian subspecies of the Eurasian oystercatcher, Haematopus ostralegus osculans. Waterbirds were monitored once every month from August 1999 to July 2000. The highest number of oystercatchers counted was 3,200 in December 1999, and the birds seemed to remain in the area continuously from September to next February. About 200 breeding and non-breeding birds remained during the breeding season. In August, early migrants returned to the island, with the number reaching 1,060 individuals. This island is also very important for other waterbirds. Endangered or significant species occurring at this site, and their maximum counts were: chinese egret Egretta eulophotes (5), black-faced spoonbill Platalea minor (17), brant Branta bernicla (1), common shelduck Tadorna tadorna (8,000), hooded crane Grus monacha (2), spoon-billed sandpiper Ewynorhynchus pygmeus (7), dunlin Calidris alpina (6,500), great knot Calidris tenuirostris (24,000), far eastern curlew Numenius madagascariensis (2,500), spotted greenshank Tringa guttifer (4) and Saunders's gull Larus saundersi (1,200). During the 12 month survey period, we observed 52 waterbird species and the total of the maximum counts for the separate species was 73,308, implying that perhaps 150,000 birds could be using the immediate area, if a turnover rate of 2 was assumed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Environment and Ecology Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.99-102
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• 2000

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.89-99
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• 2020

This study was conducted as a basic research to create a sound and vital ecological environment in the city compared to the appearance characteristics of Gap stream(G-stream), which are the main stream of Banseok stream(B-stream), by analyzing the characteristics of waterbirds, including Wild Spot-billed Duck (S-Duck), that live in B-stream built as ecological stream. The waterbird survey was conducted by the line census for 3.2km, Jukdong-bridge to Jamiseon-bridge, from January to August 2018. The analysis of the survey was conducted with Relative species density(RD) of the emerging waterbird species, the Species diversity and Density Per Unit area for 100㎡(DPU). The waterbird survey results of B-stream was conducted 65 times. The five types of water birds that appeared during the survey were Spot-billed Duck(Anas poecilorhyncha), Teal(Anas crecca), Little Egret(Egretta garzetta), Great Egret(Egretta alba), and Grey Heron(Ardea cinerea). As a result, for S-Duck at B-stream, RD was 89.9%, monthly species diversity was simple as 0.3801 in January, 0.5943 in February and 0.3501 in August. The DPU of the S-Duck was 0.165/100㎡ in the B-Stream survey section which was 4.9 times higher than the main stream section, G-stream. The non-freezing zone of the city's small stream is expected to play an important role as a winter stop for wild birds such as S-Duck during the freezing period of the huge stream. For this reason, considering the ecological characteristics of wild waterbirds such as S-Duck when creating ecological stream, a: space and linear selection of waterways which can minimize the impact of natural enemy and increasing the number of walkers, b: management water-friendly plants in the low flow channel, c: arrangement walking-bicycle road will be necessary.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.365-372
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• 2018

The Wintering Waterbird Census of Korea was started in 1999 and monitors 200 major migratory sites in South Korea. Waterfowl counts have been undertaken for more than 20 years since; however, a limited number of studies have analyzed the temporal patterns of waterfowl population. In this study, we analyzed population size changes of wintering whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus) at 112 monitoring sites from 2001 to 2018. The average number of whooper swans was $4,296{\pm}42.66$ and there was a trend for an increase in population size across the survey period. We found that the population in the Nakdong River Estuary, one of the major wintering sites over 18 years (26.22% of the national population), had rapidly decreased (-0.77% per year). Conversely, the whooper swan population in the Junam Reservoir and Sihwa Lake increased (+1.64%, +0.54% per year, respectively). Estuaries showed the highest dominance of whooper swans among the five different habitat types, accounting for 32.13% of the population. Reservoir/lakes had 30.60% of the total population and reclaimed lakes(18.24%), river (13.11%), and coast (5.93%) followed. The annual distribution of the whooper swan population in South Korea has been affected by various habitat conditions resulting from human activities and urbanization. To better understand the complex factors that can cause rapid changes in wintering waterfowl populations, it is necessary to integrate the data from the bird census program with environmental conditions to conduct in-depth pattern analyses over longer time periods.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.361-364
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• 2016

Waterbirds using rice fields has increased due to a decline of natural wetlands. The rice field is an essential habitat to supports the waterbird population. Although use of rice field by waterbirds has been widely documented, little information is available on distribution patterns of waterbirds under the pesticide use in rice fields. The current study conducted to understand the relationship between habitat use by waterbirds and pesticide applicatioins in rice fields. We monitored the distribution of waterbirds at Daeho reclaimed area in July 2013 to June 2014 and September 2014 to August 2015. As a results, three heron species (Black-crowned Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax, Eastern Cattle Egret Bubulcus coromandus and Intermediate Egret Egretta intermedia) are more sensitive to pesticides use than other waterbird species in rice fields. Future studies are necessary to explore the relationship between bird's distribution and management practices including pesticide use at different spatiotemporal scales.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.171-184
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• 2016

Suncheonman-Bay and its surrounding areas play important roles as habitats for migratory birds. However, sustainable management of these areas is difficult because of the development pressure of private lands. Therefore, the areas surrounding Suncheonman-Bay must be classified as additional protected areas; for this, it is necessary to gather concrete and objective evidence and ensure protected area management. Further, compensation measures must be considered when acquiring a private property as an additional protected area. In this study, we distinguish protected areas, such as core, buffer, and transition areas, within a private area by using data from the Winter Waterbird Census of Korea and MARXAN software, a spatial conservation prioritization tool. We applied ecosystem services to apply Payment for Ecosystem services (PES) as compensation measures. Watershed conservation (supply), climate control (regulation), supporting habitats (support), and recreation (culture) etc. were evaluated by calculating the economic value of these ecosystem services. Eastern, western, and northern forests and rice fields of Suncheonman-Bay were shown to have a number of core areas for the preservation of endangered species. The ecosystem service value of the additional protected areas was estimated at 17.5 million KRW/ha/year. We believe that our study result could be used to establish protected areas to preserve major habitats, as well as include areas adjacent to such major habitats that play a vital role in endangered species conservation. In addition, through this study, we highlight the need for an objective basis to establish protected areas.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.149-157
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• 2007

This study focused on patterning waterbirds occurrences at the western costal area of the Korean Peninsula in winter and relating the occurrence patterns with their environmental factors. Waterbird communities were monitored at 10 different study areas, and the composition of land cover as environmental factors was estimated at each study area. Overall dabbling ducks were the most abundant with 84% of total individuals, followed by shorebird and diving ducks. Species Anae platyrhynchos was the first dominant species, and Anas formosa was the second one. Self-organizing map (SOM), an unsupervised artificial neural network, was applied for patterning wintering waterbird communities, and identified 6 groups according to the differences of communities compositions. Each group reflected the differences of indicator species as well as their habitats.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.195-206
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• 2022

Gaining an understanding of bird communities in different habitat types is essential for the conservation of ecologically important habitats. Wetlands possess different types of habitats and provide an important environment for wintering waterbird communities. This study compares avian communities in five different habitat types in the Moeyungyi Wetland Wildlife Sanctuary (MWWS), Myanmar. From December 2014 to the first week of February in 2015, bird and habitat data were collected from representative areas of five habitat types (i.e., short grassland, tall grassland, lotus fields, open water areas, and rice fields) at MWWS. We established nine sampling plots in each habitat type, and used the point quadrat method to survey habitats and the point count method to survey birds in the habitats. Simple one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post-hoc tests were used to determine differences between bird communities. We made 95 detections during 19 daily visits to each of the five habitat types. During the survey period, we recorded a total of 10,389 individuals belonging to 52 different bird species, based on 7-min observations at each of the 45 point count stations. Furthermore, we detected significant differences by habitat structure (i.e., vegetation coverage, height, and density; water depth; and plant species diversity) as well as bird communities (i.e., species richness, abundance, and diversity indices). In addition, the detailed analysis of 52 avian species revealed significant differences among 45 species with respect to the mean numbers of observed individuals in the survey habitats. The findings of this study revealed significant differences in the structure and composition of waterbird communities among the five assessed habitat types. Because natural marshes provide preferable habitats for a larger number and greater diversity of birds, relative to rice fields, natural marshes should be prioritized for conservation and restoration in Moeyungyi Wetland Wildlife Sanctuary.