• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.61-72
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• 2007

Natural resource of the island and coastal regions is one of the most important element of ecological network system in Korea. Currently, there is trend that natural and biological resources such as fishing and tidal wetland have been used to local economic activation in island and coastal regions. According to the 5-days work in a week, island and coastal regions become important amenity resource of citizen's recreation area. Korea is peninsula surrounded by maritime. Especially, South and West Sea surrounded by many islands and tidal flat wetlands are emerging marine ecosystem and seascape in the world. Natural resource is limited, so we have to sustain those resource to current tourism. In this study, I would like to suggest that importance of cultural resource as well as natural resource for 'eco-cultural tourism' in order to keep both biological diversity and cultural diversity as amenity resource for future island economic activation in Korea.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.263-269
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• 2015

When we consider changes in agro-fishery systems instigated by environmental changes in islands, rise in sea levels, and natural disasters such as tsunamis, there is an urgent need to carry out initiatives to enhance life standard and conserve ecosystem in island and coastal regions. To protect the region's landscape from the effects of climate change, it is necessary to develop an integrated management system for ecosystem conservation, human settlements, and the local economy. This paper discusses the outline of a preliminary national plan for a sustainable island management system for remote (inhabited and uninhabited) islands in Korea. Two main ideas to enhance life standard are adapting to the natural environment by applying traditional knowledge and utilizing ecological resources of islands, i.e., improving the quality of life and creating added value. As a technique for improving the quality of life, the establishment of eco-villages based on energy-efficient passive houses and ecological welfare is suggested. Another technique for creating added value, the development of sea-farming islands that utilize islands' new recyclable energy is also proposed. Finally, the suggested ideas are discussed in relation to island ecotourism and carbon zero islands.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.353-360
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• 2006

Ecological correlates of flowering times often are examined to infer evolutionary mechanisms for flowering time diversities. We examined ecological characteristic associations such as growth habits and pollination modes with flowering times among 3,037 Korean angiosperms experiencing strong climatic seasonalities. We first examined taxonomic membership effects on flowering times across diverse taxonomic levels. Phylogeny constrained flowering times at all levels down to the genus level. We then analyzed the effects of ecological characteristics using subset data consisting of species randomly selected from each genus to control phylogenetic effects. The commonly observed patterns of early flowering of woody species in temperate regions existed. Spring flowering shrubs and trees, however, both being woody, were involved with biotic and abiotic vectors, respectively. In two herbaceous groups of annuals and perennials, annuals flowered later in the growing season than perennials although both herbs tended to be associated with abiotic vectors when flowering in autumn. These results support our hypothesis that species able to decouple vegetative and reproductive growth flower in spring's dry season, but species with different habits, even when they flower within the same season, are subjected to different selective pressures for efficient pollination.

• Mycobiology
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.302-316
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• 2022

Many Apiospora species have been isolated from bamboo plants - to date, 34 bambusicolous Apiospora species have been recorded. They are known as saprophytes, endophytes, and plant pathogens. In this study, 242 bambusicolous Apiospora were isolated from various bamboo materials (branches, culms, leaves, roots, and shoots) and examined using DNA sequence similarity based on the internal transcribed spacer, 28S large subunit ribosomal RNA gene, translation elongation factor 1-alpha, and beta-tubulin regions. Nine Apiospora species (Ap. arundinis, Ap. camelliae-sinensis, Ap. hysterina, Ap. lageniformis sp. nov., Ap. paraphaeosperma, Ap. pseudohyphopodii sp. nov., Ap. rasikravindrae, Ap. saccharicola, and Ap. sargassi) were identified via molecular analysis. Moreover, the highest diversity of Apiospora was found in culms, and the most abundant species was Ap. arundinis. Among the nine Apiospora species, two (Ap. hysterina and Ap. paraphaeosperma) were unrecorded in Korea, and the other two species (Ap. lageniformis sp. nov. and Ap. pseudohyphopodii sp. nov.) were potentially novel species. Here, we describe the diversity of bambusicolous Apiospora species in bamboo organs, construct a multi-locus phylogenetic tree, and delineate morphological features of new bambusicolous Apiospora in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.135-151
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• 2015

DMZ is considered as an ecologically sensitive landscape and one of the highest biodiversity regions in the Republic of Korea. There have been, albeit the significant value, increased interests in developing this region for a variety of purposes including tourism and commemorative events. As this region has been already facing a range of problems derived from previous development, natural disaster and invasive species, the necessity for active management of ecological health within this region has been increased, which weighs the importance of executing ecological restoration. The objective of this study was to develop evaluation indices as an effective management means of properly evaluating ecological restoration and sustainably maintaining the restored conditions on a long-term scale. Through literature review existing evaluation indices related to restoration were collected, and then the most suitable indices were selected based upon two interviews and one questionnaire survey targeting experts in the relevant field to ecological restoration. They were categorized by two major division and their subclasses (Ecological base - vegetation structure & composition, habitat characteristics, soil environment; landscape ecology - connectivity, landscape patch, boundary & surrounding) and 40 indices. These indices were considered helpful to comprehensively evaluate ecological restoration on degraded environments within ecologically sensitive areas, and sustainably manage target areas by employing a long-term monitoring approach. As this result played a meaningful role in providing the fundamentals of evaluating ecological restoration, it should develop a suitable evaluation system through further research.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.227-239
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• 2018

Background: Predicting the potential habitat of plants in arid regions, especially for medicinal ones, is very important. Although Pergularia tomentosa is a key species for medicinal purposes, it appears in very low density in the arid rangelands of Iran, needing an urgent ecological attention. In this study, we modeled and predicted the potential habitat of P. tomentosa using maximum entropy, and the effects of environmental factors (geology, geomorphology, altitude, and soil properties) on some characteristics of the species were determined. Results: The results showed that P. tomentosa was absent in igneous formation while it appeared in conglomerate formation. In addition, among geomorphological units, the best quantitative characteristics of P. tomentosa was belonged to the conglomerate formation-small hill area (plant aerial parts = 57.63 and root length = 30.68 cm) with the highest electrical conductivity, silt, and $CaCO_3$ content. Conversely, the species was not found in the mountainous area with igneous formation. Moreover, plant density, length of roots, and aerial parts of the species were negatively correlated with soil sand, while positive correlation was observed with $CaCO_3$, EC, potassium, and silt content. The maximum entropy was found to be a reliable method (ROC = 0.91) for predicting suitable habitats for P. tomentosa. Conclusion: These results suggest that in evaluating the plant's habitat suitability in arid regions, contrary to the importance of the topography, some environmental variables such as geomorphology and geology can play the main role in rangeland plants' habitat suitability.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.5203-5209
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• 2016

Objective: To explore the prevalence of malignant tumors in the adult population through 2003-2014 in parts of the Aral Sea region: a zone of ecological disaster, a zone of ecological crisis and a zone of precritical conditions. Methods: The long-time average annual levels of cancer morbidity stratified by zones of the Aral Sea region and trends of long-time average annual incidence indicators of malignant tumors were identified. Leading cancer localizations in the adult population was established and associations between cancer incidence and environmental pollution were analyzed. In addition, associations between individual risk factors and cancer incidence in the adult population was established. Correlations between a hazard index and the cancer incidence in the adult population were calculated. Results: In all three Aral Sea regions, as well as in Zhanaarkinskii district, leading cancer in adult population was esophageal, stomach, tracheal, lung, hepatobiliary, and breast. Long-time average annual levels of cancer morbidity in adult population living in the Aral sea region is 1.5 times higher comparing to the control region. In particular, long-time average annual levels of cancer morbidity in adult population living in the zone of ecological disaster was 57.2% higher, in the zone of ecological crisis - 61.9% higher, and in the zone of precritical condition - 16.8% higher. Long-time average annual levels in the adult population of the Aral Sea region significantly exceeded control levels for brain and central nervous system cancer, cancer of bone and articular cartilage, and thyroid cancer. Conclusion: It has was established that the total cancer morbidity depended on the total hazard index associated with the inhalation of nickel and the combined cadmium intake (r=0.8).

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.232-235
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• 2020

The family Melyridae Leach includes more than 300 genera and 6,000 species consisting of four subfamilies (Dasytinae, Malachiinae, Melyrinae, Rhadalinae). Members of the subfamily Malachiinae is distributed all over the world except for New Zealand and prefer warmer, arid or semi-arid regions. Among the malachiine genera, a genus Kuatunia Evers includes 17 species worldwide, mainly distributed in East Asia. In this study, the genus and its described species, Kuatunia oblongula (Kiesenwetter), is newly added to the Korean fauna. A diagnosis, habitus photographs, and illustrations of diagnostic characters are provided, with a key to species of the genus in East Asia.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.34-44
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• 2016

Background: Little is known about how chemical water quality is associated with ecological stream health in relation to landuse patterns in a watershed. We evaluated spatial characteristics of water quality characteristics and the ecological health of Dongjin-River basin, Korea in relation to regional landuse pattern. The ecological health was assessed by the multi-metric model of Index of Biological Integrity (IBI), and the water chemistry data were compared with values obtained from the health model. Results: Nutrient and organic matter pollution in Dongjin-River basin, Korea was influenced by land use pattern and the major point sources, so nutrients of TN and TP increased abruptly in Site 4 (Jeongeup Stream), which is directly influenced by wastewater treatment plants along with values of electric conductivity (EC), bacterial number, and sestonic chlorophyll-a. Similar results are shown in the downstream (S7) of Dongjin River. The degradation of chemical water quality in the downstream resulted in greater impairment of the ecological health, and these were also closely associated with the landuse pattern. Forest region had low nutrients (N, P), organic matter, and ionic content (as the EC), whereas urban and agricultural regions had opposite in the parameters. Linear regression analysis of the landuse (arable land; $A_L$) on chemicals indicated that values of $A_L$ had positive linear relations with TP ($R^2=0.643$, p < 0.01), TN ($R^2=0.502$, p < 0.05), BOD ($R^2=0.739$, p < 0.01), and suspended solids (SS; ($R^2=0.866$, p < 0.01), and a negative relation with TDN:TDP ratios ($R^2=0.719$, p < 0.01). Conclusions: Chemical factors were closely associated with land use pattern in the watershed, and these factors influenced the ecological health, based on the multimetric fish IBI model. Overall, the impairments of water chemistry and the ecological health in Dongjin-River basin were mainly attributes to point-sources and land-use patterns.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2022.05a
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• pp.158-158
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• 2022

Ecological drought consequences have received a lot of attention in recent years. Thus, ecological drought was proposed as a new drought category to characterize the impact of drought on ecosystems. The current study used a unique drought index, the standardized supply-demand water index (SSDI), and a run theory to detect ecological drought occurrences and characteristics such as drought-affected area, drought severity, drought duration, drought frequency, and drought orientation in the Hwang River, an environmentally valuable region. Hence, to assess drought-prone areas, the bivariate probability and return period will be calculated using a two-dimensional joint copula. The core results show that (a) the Spatio-temporal characteristics of ecological drought were successfully recognized using the spatial and temporal identification approach; (b) in comparison to the SPEI meteorological drought index, the SSDI is more credible and can more readily and effectively capture the entire properties of ecological drought information; (c) the Hwang river had seen the most severe drought occurrences between the late 1990s and the mid-2020s, with 48.3 percent occurring before the twenty-first century; (d) Severe ecological drought occurrences occurred more frequently in most areas of the Hwang River (e) Only the drought duration and severity in the Hwang area were more responsive to temperature when temperatures rise around 1.1℃, the average drought duration and severity rise around 16 % and 26 %, respectively. This suggested that the Hwang River has been exposed to more severe heat stress in the twenty-first century. Thereupon droughts in the twenty-first century occurred with bigger affected regions, longer durations, higher frequency, and more intensity.