• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.755-763
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• 2010

Fine sediment loadings from agricultural watersheds have led to habitat degradation in Lake Takkobu, northern Japan. Fifteen lake sediment core samples were obtained and analyzed to develop a chronology using physical sediment characters, $^{137}Cs$, and tephra. The reconstructed sedimentation rates over the past ca 300 years suggested that sedimentation rates increased drastically after land use development. With a natural sedimentation rate of 0.1-1.1 mm $year^{-1}$ until 1898, lake sedimentation accelerated to 0.6-12.8 mm $year^{-1}$ after 1898. The sedimentation rates after land use change, such as forestry, river engineering works, and agricultural development, were about 6-12 times higher than that under natural conditions, leading to accelerated lake shallowing over the last ca 100 years. Sedimentation rates between 1898 and 1963 differed with location in the lake because of spatial variation in the sediment flux from the contributing rivers and their watersheds. The sedimentation rate in the southern zone between 1898 and 1963 was significantly higher than that in the middle and northern zones, reflecting active sediment production associated with forestry for charcoal production and canal construction for transportation in the southern watersheds and wetlands. The sedimentation rate after 1963 did not vary among the three zones, because decreasing sedimentation was found in most of the southern sites whereas an increasing trend was observed in the middle and northern sites. This result can be explained by shallowing of lake-bottom morphology with sedimentation and the resultant reduction of sediment retention capacity in the southern zone. Moreover, the sedimentation rate at sampling sites close to river mouths increased by 5-32 times compared with natural rates before 1898. The Kushiro River, into which Lake Takkobu drains under regular flow conditions, further contributed to an increased sedimentation rate, because water from the Kushiro River flows back into Lake Takkobu during floods.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.16-29
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• 2017

It is known that large-scale deforestation has occurred in North Korea due to economic failures since the 1990s, and this is expected to greatly change the characteristics of the hydrological cycle. In this study, hydrological cycle simulation was carried out for the period of about 30 years from 1981 to 2013 for the entire Korean peninsula using the VIC model, a land surface hydrology model. The simulation results are summarized as follow. First, the runoff ratio is 55%~70% in South Korea and 38~56% in North Korea. In particular, it is worth noting that despite the small runoff ratio, the variation is about 28% larger than the South Korea's 15%. The rate of evapotranspiration was larger than that of South Korea. That is, the rate of evapotranspiration in South Korea is 20~35% and in North Korea it is 25~46%. However, the rate of change was 21% in the case of North Korea and slightly larger than 15% in South Korea. Third, South Korea has an average of 34% in soil moisture and 27% in North Korea. However, unlike the simulated results of the runoff ratio and the evapotranspiration rate, the difference in the variation of soil moisture in South Korea and North Korea over the entire period was similar with 8%. As a result, we can confirm that the difference of hydrological cycle characteristics between South Korea and North Korea has been increased since the 1990s, when the forest destruction of North Korea became serious. In the case of South Korea, there is little difference in the hydrological cycle characteristics. In North Korea, however, there is a distinct difference, which is also a result reflecting the difference in the effects of forest destruction.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.343-348
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• 2017

Cymbidium aloifolium (L). Sw. is an exquisite epiphytic orchid of the Kolli Hills (Eastern Ghats) of Tamil Nadu in Southern India. It is fast disappearing from its natural habitats due to deforestation and low germination rate in natural habitat. In the present study, an attempt was made to germinate the seeds from un-dehisced capsule of Cymbidium aloifolium (L). Sw under in vitro condition. The seed germination and protocorm development were recorded in three different well known media namely Knudson C (KC), Half strength Murashige & Skoog (1/2 MS) and Vacin & Went (VW) media. The highest seed germination of 90% was observed KC basal media after $30^{th}$ days whereas germination percentages were 40% and 30% on 1/2 MS and VW media respectively. The well-developed protocorm were transferred to KC media supplemented with 6-Benzyl Amino Purine (BAP) and Naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) where BAP (1.0 mg/l) and NAA (1.0 mg/l) together were found to be optimum for the highest shoot formation. About 90% of the shoots found to be well rooted after transfer to the KC medium differently supplemented with 1.5 mg/l Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and 1.0 mg/l Indole-3-butyric acid (IBA). Though rooting also took place in the two basic media but the duration was longer when compared with the hormone-supplemented media. The rooted plantlets were hardened and kept under greenhouse conditions which can be relocated in natural habitats.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.212-221
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• 2020

Background: Rapid industrialization has caused various impacts on nature, including heavy metal pollution. However, the impacts of industrialization vary depending on the types of industrializing activity and surrounding environment. South Korea is a proper region because the rapid socio-economical changes have been occurred since the late nineteenth century. Therefore, in this study, we estimate the anthropogenic impacts on an ecosystem from a sediment core of Yonghwasil-mot, an irrigation reservoir on the western coast of Korea, in terms of heavy metal concentrations, nutrient influx, and pollen composition. Results: The sediment accumulation rate (SAR) determined by 210Pb geochronology showed two abrupt peaks in the 1930s and 1950s, presumably because of smelting activity and the Korean War, respectively. The following gradual increase in SAR may reflect the urbanization of recent decades. The average concentrations of arsenic (As), copper (Cu), and lead (Pb) during the twentieth century were > 48% compared to those before the nineteenth century, supporting the influence of smelting activity. However, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the As, Cu, and Pb concentrations decreased by 19% compared to levels in the twentieth century, which is coincident with the closure of the smelter in 1989 and government policy banning leaded gasoline since 1993. The pollen assemblage and nutrient input records exhibit changes in vegetation cover and water level of the reservoir corresponding to anthropogenic deforestation and reforestation, as well as to land-use alteration. Conclusions: Our results show that the rapid socio-economic development since the twentieth century clearly affected the vegetation cover, land use, and metal pollutions.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.40-49
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• 2004

An ecological study on a sea urchin population, Strongylocentrotus nudus, a key role species in recovery of macroalgal bed, was conducted in Hosan, Samcheok area on the east coast of Korea. Three experimental plots, namely, AMB (artificially-restored macroalgal bed), BG (barren grounds) and NMB (natural macroalgal bed) were established after a pilot survey in June 2002. Distribution and abundance, grazing rates, predation pressure and predator guilds on S. nudus were estimated in three plots bimonthly from Aug. to Dec., 2002. Abundance of S. nudus was lowest, but median test diameter of the urchin was highest (Kruskal-Wallis test, p-value, p<0.001 in Aug. and p=0.003 in Oct.) in NMB In-situ grazing rate of S. nudus estimated by enclosure cage experiment in NMB was about 12 times higher in Aug. (160.0 mg seaweed/g sea urchin/day) than in Oct. (13.8). Predation intensity measured by tethering experiment was higher in NMB. Most of the predators on S. nudus were invertebrates and no fish predators were found. Predator guilds identified by the fish trap experiment using live or dead sea urchins included who]ks Neptunea arthritica, starfish Asterina pectinifera, hermit crabs Pagurus of. samuelis, Paguristes barbatus, brown shawl crabs Atergatis integerrimus and crabs Actaea subglobosa. High predation pressure on S. nudus in natural macroalgal beds was the likely cause of its low density. Elevated sea urchin density and the consequent lasting deforestation of macroalgae in barren grounds demonstrate the importance of predation pressure on sea urchins.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.376-384
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• 2017

Bangladesh is a South Asian country with subtropical monsoonal climate between the intersection of the Indo-Himalayan and Indo-Chinese sub-regions, is known as biodiversity hotspot of the Asian region. The country has different types of forest like deciduous forest, evergreen forest, mixed forest, haor (wetlands) and mangrove forest. The natural beauty of the country is increased with the presence of so many rivers, longest sea beach of the world, green plants, critical hilly regions and green agricultural forest widely spread here and there. Sundarbans is the world largest mangrove forest and world natural heritage site declared by UNESCO in 1999 situated in Bangladesh and India. About 62 percent of this mangrove forest is situated in Bangladesh and there are so many plants and animals are found in this forest. To meet the increasing demand of the large population most of the natural ecosystem is now altered, deforestation rate is increased, natural habitat of the species is disturbed. Due to the imbalance of the climate and natural system many of the rare species of the world found this region is now endangered and some of the species are extinct. Directly or indirectly they are benefited from natural resources. At present time community, based ecotourism is also an important source of income for rural poor peoples. To protect the natural resources the government is now developed so many conservation acts and policy as well NGOs are also doing work for the conservation of ecosystem and biodiversity. At present transboundary pollutants and so many natural disasters also destruct the natural resources of Bangladesh.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.47-64
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• 2013

Landscape structure changes over the past three decades were determined with land use and land cover(LULC) maps, and their relationships with mean air temperature time series were the analyzed for the Busan metropolitan area and South Kyeongsang Province, Korea. The geometric structures of the LULC data were quantitatively represented based on FRAGSTATS, a spatial pattern analysis program for quantifying landscape structure. FRAGSTATS-derived landscape metrics confirmed that there were major changes in LULC and landscape fragmentation in the region. Meteorological observation records showed that mean air temperature had increased from $14.1^{\circ}C$ in the 1990's to $14.8^{\circ}C$ in the 2000's in Busan. For South Kyeongsang Province, they increased from $13.2^{\circ}C$ to $13.9^{\circ}C$ during the same time period. These long-term temperature changes are correlated with typical spatial pattern changes of LULC in the southeastern region of the country. Spatial metrics analysis showed that urban area expanded from 9.7% to 26.8% of Busan while forest and agricultural land decreased by 9.6% and 14.9%, respectively over the past thirty years. The significant urbanization are tightly associated with deforestation, removal of agricultural land, and fast temperature increases since the 1990's. The urban area of South Kyeongsang Province rapidly increased, and it became 12 times as large as it was. The degree of temperature increases differed among three different sub-regions. The temperature increasing rate was lowest in the coastal region while the colder mountainous region had the highest figure.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.100 no.3
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• pp.423-431
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• 2011

The changes of forest degradation in North Korea have closely been related to political, economic and social conditions at all different times. The deforestation by local people for their livelihood has been accelerated when the recession has been worsened due to the 1990's collapse of socialism and the years of natural disasters, and the fall of the centralized and planned economy system. The serious recession in the 1990's has brought many changes in the North Korean society since the 2000's. Not only the underground economy, but also the market in which personal trades are occurred have been expanded as the distribution system of the planned economy system had fallen. In addition, even many state institutions have also increased timber harvest for export to acquire insufficient foreign currency. Eventually, North Korea felt the limits of utilization of forest resources under socialism then started to seek measures to restore devastated forest, while realizing the need of support from the international society. Therefore, some NGOs of South Korea started to give financial support on building tree nurseries in which seedlings for planting are produced to help the rehabilitation of the degraded forests in North Korea. Therefore, Planning of the basic directions for forest rehabilitation programs considering to economic and social conditions of North Korea are needed based on the successful rehabilitation experience of South Korea in the 1970's. First of all, relationships which was built after collapse of centrally planned economy between districts, businesses and workers must be consider to rehabilitate forests in North Korea. Secondly, due to the nature of forest rehabilitation projects this is very needs voluntary participation of resident for a long time, and then forest rehabilitation projects can create jobs for local resident, they can obtain continuous income on the forest rehabilitation projects field in order to promote resident's work in forest rehabilitation projects. Thirdly, the rate dependence on forests of the residents living must keep the level down by rural development projects going side by side with forest rehabilitation projects. Fourthly, use of exsisting forest management system in North Korea is also needed to ensure administrative power and labor for grand scale plantations in a short period of time. Meanwhile after the success of Forest Rehabilitation, it is very important to improve exsisting forest management system.