• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.35-44
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• 2015

Forests contain a huge amount of carbon (C) and climate change could affect forest C dynamics. This study was conducted to predict the C dynamics of Pinus densiflora and Quercus variabilis forests, which are the most dominant needleleaf and broadleaf forests in Korea, using the Korean Forest Soil Carbon (KFSC) model under the two climate change scenarios (2012-2100; Constant Temperature (CT) scenario and Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 scenario). To construct simulation unit, the forest land areas for those two species in the 5th National Forest Inventory (NFI) data were sorted by administrative district and stand age class. The C pools were initialized at 2012, and any disturbance was not considered during the simulation period. Although the forest C stocks of two species generally increased over time, the forest C stocks under the RCP 8.5 scenario were less than those stocks under the CT scenario. The C stocks of P. densiflora forests increased from 260.4 Tg C in 2012 to 395.3 (CT scenario) or 384.1 Tg C (RCP 8.5 scenario) in 2100. For Q. variabilis forests, the C stocks increased from 124.4 Tg C in 2012 to 219.5 (CT scenario) or 204.7 (RCP 8.5 scenario) Tg C in 2100. Compared to 5th NFI data, the initial value of C stocks in dead organic matter C pools seemed valid. Accordingly, the annual C sequestration rates of the two species over the simulation period under the RCP 8.5 scenario (65.8 and $164.2g\;C\;m^{-2}\;yr^{-1}$ for P. densiflora and Q. variabilis) were lower than those values under the CT scenario (71.1 and $193.5g\;C\;m^{-2}\;yr^{-1}$ for P. densiflora and Q. variabilis). We concluded that the C sequestration potential of P. densiflora and Q. variabilis forests could be decreased by climate change. Although there were uncertainties from parameters and model structure, this study could contribute to elucidating the C dynamics of South Korean forests in future.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.199-204
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• 2011

This study examines eighteen elementary teachers knowledge and teaching practrice of climate change using the KQEM survey, modified from the survey developed by Leiserowitz, A., Smith, N. & Marlon, J.R. (2010). The survey includes 11 questions from KQEM survey and 2 open ended questions about teachers' knowledge of climate change and their understandings of important climate change concept for elementary students. All of the participant teachers were purposefully selected for the study and were participated in the study volunteerly. The data for this study were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The result of this study indicates that the teachers have knowledge of climate change specifically about the topics of causes of climate change and consequences of climate change such as shifting biome and ecological impacts. While most of the teachers described climate change phenomena using scientific knowledge, some of the teachers (N=2) showed misconceptions about climate change phenomena. Most of the teachers thought the causes of climate change and potential solutions to reduce climate change are important concept that elementary students need to understand about climate change. Actually, most of the teachers are currently teaching the causes and consequences of climate change (N=13) potential solutions to global warming (N= 8). This study could inform teacher educators about what elementary teachers understand about climate change and what elementary teachers are currently teaching about climate change.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.121-138
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• 2018

Depending on the increased energy needs, a large number of dams have been built around the world. These dams have significant impacts on river ecology and climate change. When the climate change scenarios are examined, it is stated that the annual average temperature in Turkey will increase by 2.5-4 degrees in the future years, the south of the country will be opposed to the severe drought threat, and the northern regions will have a flood risk. In particular, it can be predicted that many dams and dam lakes built in the North of Turkey may increase the impact of climate change. In this study, the effects of the dams constructed in Çoruh basin on climate change are examined. Environmental and ecological problems of dam reservoirs have been examined. As a result of the data received from meteorological stations, it was determined that temperature and rainfall changes in the region. In this direction, solution proposal is presented.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.38-47
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• 1999

The mixed rural city is adjusting to change by urbanization. The recent landcover change in mixed rural city is an important factor that changes structure and function of regional ecosystem. Landscape ecology is an integrated ecology widely available for environmental science such as nature conservation and sustainable land-use planning. As the concern about environmental quality rises, many studies are trying to create and conservate for biotop. The creation of biotop is related to the plan and management of the effective landuse because the important factor to change the structure and function of ecological area in the country. This study was carried out to establish the foundation of the landuse plan to analyze the change of landuse and to plan the scheme in creating biotop and landuse. We used the approach of ecological landscape and using landscape indices with RS(Remote Sensing) and GIS(Geographic Information System) technology, spatio-temporal variations of areas and distribution of forest patches were examined in the Sunghwan in Chonan from 1985 to 1996. A result of this study showed that the area of forest and paddy decreased by urban sprawl. The size of patch in the forest and agriculture had been smaller and irregular form, heterogeneity of size of forest and agriculture patches within sub-basin was increased, pattern of forest and agriculture patches decreased the corridor and network from 1985 to 1996.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.352-363
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• 2019

Background: Invasive plant species are considered a major threat to biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and human wellbeing worldwide. Climatically suitable ranges for invasive plant species are expected to expand due to future climate change. The identification of current invasions and potential range expansion of invasive plant species is required to plan for the management of these species. Here, we predicted climatically suitable habitats for 11 invasive plant species and calculated the potential species richness and their range expansions in different provinces of the Republic of Korea (ROK) under current and future climate change scenarios (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) using the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) modeling approach. Results: Based on the model predictions, areas of climatically suitable habitats for 90.9% of the invasive plant species are expected to retain current ecological niches and expand to include additional climatically suitable areas under future climate change scenarios. Species richness is predicted to be relatively high in the provinces of the western and southern regions (e.g., Jeollanam, Jeollabuk, and Chungcheongnam) under current climatic conditions. However, under future climates, richness in the provinces of the northern, eastern, and southeastern regions (e.g., Seoul, Incheon, Gyeonggi, Gyeongsangnam, Degue, Busan, and Ulsan) is estimated to increase up to 292%, 390.75%, and 468.06% by 2030, 2050, and 2080, respectively, compared with the current richness. Conclusions: Our study revealed that the rates of introduction and dispersion of invasive plant species from the western and southern coasts are relatively high and are expanding across the ROK through different modes of dispersion. The negative impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem dynamics, and economy caused by invasive plant species will be high if preventive and eradication measures are not employed immediately. Thus, this study will be helpful to policymakers for the management of invasive plant species and the conservation of biodiversity.

• Entomological Research
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.505-513
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• 2018

The red imported fire ant is considered one of the most notorious invasive species because of its adverse impact on both humans and ecosystems. Public concern regarding red imported fire ants has been increasing, as they have been found seven times in South Korea. Even if red imported fire ants are not yet colonized in South Korea, a proper quarantine plan is necessary to prevent their widespread distribution. As a basis for quarantine planning, we modeled the potential distribution of the red imported fire ant under current climate conditions using six different species distribution models (SDMs) and then selected the random forest (RF) model for modeling the potential distribution under climate change. We acquired occurrence data from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and bioclimatic data from WorldClim. We modeled at the global scale to project the potential distribution under the current climate and then applied models at the local scale to project the potential distribution of the red imported fire ant under climate change. Modeled results successfully represent the current distribution of red imported fire ants. The potential distribution area for red imported fire ants increased to include major harbors and airports in South Korea under the climate change scenario (RCP 8.5). Thus, we are able to provide a potential distribution of red imported fire ant that is necessary to establish a proper quarantine plan for their management to minimize adverse impacts of climate change.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.98-105
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• 2023

This paper studies the effects of global climate change on Gyeonggi Bay and appropriate adaptation strategies. Located along the west coast of Korea, Gyeonggi Bay is renowned as one of the five most important global tidal flats (wetlands). Due to climate change in Gyeonggi Bay, the water temperature is predicted to increase by 1.44 ℃ by the year 2100, the salinity to decrease by 1.1 PSU, the sea level to rise by 35.2 cm, and approximately 150.5 km² of the coast to be submerged due to the rising sea levels. Adaptation strategies to combat negative impacts of climate change on the ecological environment of Gyeonggi Bay include 1) supporting the self-adaptation capability of Gyeonggi Bay's natural environment to be sustainable, and 2) protecting lowlands adjacent to tidal flats and low-lying areas of the coast against human involvement to reserve more space for upslope shifts of biota with rising sea levels.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.45-53
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• 2020

With the increasing attention of the international community on climate change and biodiversity promotion programmes, the Korean government and public agencies are trying to protect and restore the ecosystem of areas protected by law, such as waterfronts, by acquiring private land. However, the inadequate purchase system has caused various problems. In this study, an efficient and systematic land purchase system was developed through ecological evaluation, focusing on the ecological and landscape conservation areas of the Donggang basin. The ecological evaluation was developed by integrating parcel-level evaluation and regional-specific evaluation, and the overall level of ecological function was established and finalized through on-site verification. As a result of verifying the purchase land of 88 parcels, it showed a relatively high agreement of more than 85.2%, and the rest of parcels (non-agreement) were considered to have had an impact on vegetation, crop harvesting, etc. due to seasonal differences in ecological evaluation and field verification. The purchasing system was ranked according to the ecological evaluation grade based on the endangered species and the distance from the core ecosystem. As a result, the purchase priority was systematically drawn up to the 5th rank for a total of 68 parcels for the private lands of Geoeun-ri, Munsan-ri, Deokcheon-ri, Unchi-ri, Gumam-ri, and Suji-ri. This study is expected to contribute to the preservation, restoration and ecological management of purchased land in the protected area in the future by establishing and proposing a systematic land purchase system based on ecological evaluation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.25-34
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• 2017

The objective of this study is to seek for improvement measures to make the Ecosystem and Nature Map by analyzing causes for grade changes and distributional characteristics of areas with public objections to the Ecosystem and Nature Map notified by e-official gazette from 2014 to June 2016. The receipt of public appeals has been recently increased from average 23 cases a year(2007-2013) to average 33 cases a year(2014-June 2016) while there were 42 areas with public appeals for less than the minimum area($62,500m^2$) for the evaluation of grade of the Ecosystem and Nature Map. Most of the public appeals focused on the 1st grade zone of the Ecosystem and Nature Map. Before grade changes by public appeals, the 1st grade zone of the Ecosystem and Nature Map were 76.0% of the whole areas with public appeals. However, after grade changes by public appeals, it was rapidly decreased to 25.2%, which means that a lot of the 1st grade zone with public appeals were lowered. In the results of analyzing the distributional characteristics of areas with public appeals, they were mostly distributed in lowland(less than 250m altitude), section with $10{\sim}20^{\circ}$ slope, and areas close to or within 100m from built-up area. Regarding areas with public appeals, the biggest time difference between the period of the existing research by National Ecosystem Survey and the period of notice after completing the treatment of public appeals was 18 years while areas showing 6-15 years of time difference were about 70%. Thus, there were huge differences in time of research and notice. Also, the biggest causes for grade changes were boundary errors caused by small-scale survey, and then followed by changes in evaluation of endangered species and occurrence of built-up area and damaged land. Analyzing areas with public appeals in each evaluation item of the Ecosystem and Nature Map, vegetation part was 73.0%, and endangered species area was 23.1% while topography and wetland was less.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.57-69
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• 2004

This study developed an ecological mapping technique with GIS database using the analyses of existing ecological survey reports and the change detection on the Nakdong river estuary. The data which are used to establish GIS DB include 2 Landsat TM images on Nov. 31, 1984 and May 17, 1997, 1:25,000 topographical maps established by National Geography Institution and various ecological survey reports published by Busan metropolitan city government. The details for producing ecological map are as follows. At first, the current methods of ecomapping efforts and previous ecological surveys of Nakdong river estuary were carefully examined. Secondly, the land cover maps were created from the classified Landsat images of 1984 and 1997 for the spatiotemporal ecosystem analysis. Thirdly, the ecosystem was evaluated by using GIS ecological database based on the criteria of botany, zoology and water quality etc. Each criteria was reclassified into 3 stages which describe the overall quality of ecological condition. At last, the comprehensive ecological map was suggested as a prototype of ecosystem assesment and management tool with the discussion of further study. The findings of this study would be a milestone for preserving and managing the ecosystem.