• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.101 no.2
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• pp.185-194
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• 2012

The purpose of this contribution is to develop the framework of a methodology for identifying potential errors in georeferencing and in an application of it using specimens of Ox-Knee, Achyranthes bidentata Blume in Korea. At infraspecific level, uncertainty of identification showed that 41% of A. bidentata var. japonica and 28% of var. bidentata were misidentified, suggesting that the uncertainty level was independent of the reliability of experts' identification. For georeference specimen records, 71 specimens out of total 303 were selected and utilized as occurrence data: Uncertainty was 32.4 km at maximum and was 0.1297 km at minimum (mean = 4,055 m, s.d. = 5,772 m). Var. japonica is common throughout most of the southeastern Korea and west coastal areas, while var. bidentata has been found as far north as Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces. We modelled the potential distribution of two varieties using Bioclim approach in Korea based on several environmental factors. Our results indicated the most important region for var. japonica lies the west coast ranges and southern area, while for Chungcheongnam-do of potential high diversity occurs for var. bidentata. This study shows that the major factors to determine the distribution patterns of two varieties were thermal factors, rather than precipitation. The Bioclim model using geocode and georeferencing data makes the information increasingly useful and reliable. To improve data quality, it requires full management from data collection to final databases including data cleaning.