• Title/Summary/Keyword: ecological systems

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Integration of Optimality, Neural Networks, and Physiology for Field Studies of the Evolution of Visually-elicited Escape Behaviors of Orthoptera: A Minireview and Prospects

  • Shin, Hong-Sup;Jablonski, Piotr G.
    • Journal of Ecology and Environment
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    • v.31 no.2
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    • pp.89-95
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    • 2008
  • Sensing the approach of a predator is critical to the survival of prey, especially when the prey has no choice but to escape at a precisely timed moment. Escape behavior has been approached from both proximate and ultimate perspectives. On the proximate level, empirical research about electrophysiological mechanisms for detecting predators has focused on vision, an important modality that helps prey to sense approaching danger. Studies of looming-sensitive neurons in locusts are a good example of how the selective sensitivity of nervous systems towards specific targets, especially approaching objects, has been understood and realistically modeled in software and robotic systems. On the ultimate level, general optimality models have provided an evolutionary framework by considering costs and benefits of visually elicited escape responses. A recent paper showed how neural network models can be used to understand the evolution of visually mediated antipredatory behaviors. We discuss this new trend towards integration of these relatively disparate approaches, the proximate and the ultimate perspectives, for understanding of the evolution of behavior of predators and prey. Focusing on one of the best-studied escape pathway models, the Orthopteran LGMD/DCMD pathway, we discuss how ultimate-level optimality modeling can be integrated with proximate-level studies of escape behaviors in animals.

Harvesting Productivity and Cost of Clearcut and Partial Cut in Interior British Columbia, Canada

  • Renzie, Chad;Han, Han-Sup
    • Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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    • v.24 no.1
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    • pp.1-14
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    • 2008
  • Clearcutting has been the dominant harvesting method in British Columbia (representing 95% of the total area harvested annually). However forest managers are increasingly recommending the use of alternative silvicultural systems and harvest methods, including various types of partial cutting, to meet ecological and social objectives. In this study we compared harvesting productivity and harvesting costs between treatments through detailed and shift level time studies in 300-350 year-old Interior Cedar-Hemlock stands in British Columbia, Canada. Recommendations for improving operational planning/layout and the implementation of clearcut and partial cutting silvicultural systems were made. Harvesting costs varied in the ground-based clearcut treatments from $10.95/$m^3$ - $15.96/$m^3$ and $16.09/$m^3$ - $16.93/$m^3$ in the group selection treatments. The ground-based group retention treatment had a cost of $13.39/$m^3$, while the cable clearcut had a cost of $15.70/$m^3$. An understanding of the traditional and alternative wood products that could be derived from the harvested timber was imperative to increasing the amount of merchantable volume and reducing the corresponding harvesting costs. Stand damage was greatest in the group selection treatments; however, mechanized felling showed an increase in stand damage over manual felling while grapple skidding showed a decrease in skidding damage compared to line skidding.

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A Study on Output Monitoring of Green Roof Integrated PV System through Surface Temperature Algorithm (표면온도 알고리즘을 통한 옥상녹화통합형 태양광시스템의 출력 모니터링 연구)

  • Kim, Tae-Han;Park, Sang-Yeon
    • KIEAE Journal
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    • v.15 no.1
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    • pp.89-95
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    • 2015
  • The centralized power supply system and rainwater treatment system, which are major infrastructure in modern cities, are showing their limitations in accommodating environment load due to climate changes that has aggravated recently. As a result, complex issues such as shortage of reserve power and urban flooding have emerged. As a single solution, decentralized systems such as a model integrating photovoltaic system and rooftop greening system are suggested. When these two systems are integrated and applied together, the synergy effect is expected as the rooftop greening has an effect of preventing urban flooding by controlling peak outflow and also reduces ambient temperature and thus the surface temperature of solar cells is lowered and power generation efficiency is improved. This study aims to compare and analyze the monitoring results of four algorithms that define correlations between micro-climate variables around rooftop greening and the surface temperature of solar cells and generate their significance. By doing so, this study seeks to present an effective algorithm that can estimate the surface temperature of solar cell that has direct impact on the efficiency of photovoltaic power generation by observing climate variables.

Evaluation of Korea`s Sustainable Development by the System Ecology(I)-EMERGY Analysis of Korea`s Natural Environment and Economic Activity- (시스템 생태학적 접근법에 의한 한국의 지속적인 발전가능성 평가(I)-한국의 자연환경과 경제활동에 대한 EMERGY 평가-)

  • 이석모;손지호;강대석
    • Journal of Environmental Science International
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    • v.9 no.6
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    • pp.449-454
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    • 2000
  • Sustainable development has been the key concept, both in economic policies and in environmental management. On the basis of an systems ecology perspective, this suggests the sustainable development of Korea\`s natural environment and economic activity using the EMERGY evaluation. The total EMERGY use(7,730E20sej/yr) in Korea is 81 percent from imported sources, fuels and goods and services. The ratio of outside investment to attracting natural resources is already large, like other industrialized countries. Continued availability of purchased inputs at a favorable balance of EMERGY trade, currently about 2.85 to 1 net EMERGY, tis the basis for present economic activity and must decrease as the net EMERGY of purchased inputs including fossil fuels goes down. EMERGY yield ratio and environmental loading ratio were 1.23 and 20.30, respectively. The population level is already in excess of carrying capacity. Its carrying capacity for steady state on its renewable sources is only 2.2 million people, compared to 45.9 million in 1977. EMERGY sustainability index is therefore less than one, which is indicative of highly developed consumer oriented economies. Until now the development of a country has been achieved by the economic growth, but it can be sustained in the long run by the use of renewable resource systems. the efficiency of energy usage, and the transformation of the social-economic structure based on an ecological-recycling concept.

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Influence of Light on Biomass of Soybean in Narrow Strip Cropping of Oat, Corn, and Soybean

  • Van, Kyujung
    • KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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    • v.47 no.5
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    • pp.368-373
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    • 2002
  • The strip intercropping system has used due to many advantages. Many researches supported these crop systems are usually equal to or better than monoculture crop systems in both total production and profit. There was no research to examine the important ecological factors in the competition between crops. A strip intercropping system composed of adjacent narrow strips of corn, soybean, and oat/legumes has been investigated in Iowa, USA. This study conducted to investigate why and how the differences in soybean yield are produced and affected by light, one of the microclimate, of the strip intercropping system. In height, the two rows of soybean closest to corn were taller than the two rows near the then-empty oat strip. The height of each crop decreased as the amount of light received increased. Weight of plant parts was lowest in row 1, nearest corn, and highest in row 4, next to the vacant oat strip. Daily photon flux density(PFD) increased with increasing distance from corn, with the highest value occurring on the edge next to the empty oat strip. Analyses of the relationship between light and biomass of soybean showed that all biomass measurements had a positive relationship to total PFD per day except height.

An Analysis of Ecosystem Service's trade-off through Systems Thinking (시스템 사고를 통한 생태계서비스의 trade-off 관계 고찰)

  • Ham, Eun Kyung;Kim, Min;Chon, Jinhyung
    • Korean System Dynamics Review
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    • v.16 no.2
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    • pp.75-100
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    • 2015
  • The purpose of this study is to analyze causation of Ecosystem service's trade-off(ES trade-off) and to establish baseline data for wise spatial planning and management. In order to understand why and how ES trade-off occurs, systems thinking and causal loops were employed. The causal loop of ecosystem service creation cycle includes profits quantification process, decision making process, spatial planning and management process, and ecosystem services creation process. The profits quantification process has a limitation that all ecosystem service categories were not included in profits quantification, because quantification method for cultural services is insufficient. These problems led to unequal discussion opportunity in decision making process. ES trade-off occurs through transition of ecosystem function in spatial scale and temporal scale. In spatial scale, land-use variation and resource-use variation contribute to change an ecosystem function for different ES category by spatial planning and management. In temporal scale, a change of an ecosystem function for different ES category is influenced by ecological succession, seasonal change and land cover variation, which are parameter from environmental features. This study presented that spatial planning and management should ecosystem service assessment in order to enhance balanced ecosystem services.

A Study on the Design and Power Performance of a Variable Photovoltaic Lightshelf Mounted on the Windows (창호거치 태양광발전 가변형광선반 설계 및 기초적 발전성능에 관한 연구)

  • Chung, Yu-Gun
    • KIEAE Journal
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    • v.13 no.6
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    • pp.105-111
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    • 2013
  • This study aims to suggest the PV lightshelf and to evaluate the power performance of the photovoltaic systems easily mounted on the windows. For the study, the suggested systems consist of two parts as fixed and movable PV modules. Also, tempered glass and polycarbonate are used on the surface protection materials for solar cells of PV lightshelf. By using polycarbonate, the weight of PV lightshelf is lighter about 20%. The field tests are performed for five days by using real size models. The voltage, current and electric powers are measured as basic performances of PV lightshelf. Also, the irradiation, brightness and module surface temperature are measured as outside conditions. As results, the power performance of tempered glass PV lightshelf shows about 11(%) higher thant that of polycarbonate PV lightshelf. And the power performance shows about 5(%) higher in a horizontal system. This results could be used to develop the effective PV lightshelf in next study.

Monitoring Survey of Natural Recovery Method at Oncheon Stream (온천천 시범구간의 자연형 복원공법의 Monitoring 조사)

  • Seo, Kyu-Woo;Song, Il-Jun;Kim, Gwang-Seob
    • Journal of Wetlands Research
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    • v.3 no.2
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    • pp.133-142
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    • 2001
  • Growth of cities and an increase in population result in the development-oriented policy, urban streams to lose their natural characteristics and functions by channelization, parking lot construction, and so forth. The streams fall into urban drains, which is the current status of urban streams. Recently, the interest in the stream environment and the ecosystem has been increased, and the efforts have been made to improve the traditional maintenance program for small streams. These efforts lead to the application of the natural recovery systems. This study applied the 240-meter model reach along the Oncheon stream, which locates in Dongrae-gu, Busan city. to analyze the natural recovery system. The efficiency of each system has been analyzed and the future improvements for the systems are presented. The results show that the stream maintenance program should consider the ecological environment. thereby minimizing the environmental effects. When the changes are inevitable, the maintenance program should adopt the methods. which closely simulate the original environmental elements. or are more favorable to the ecosystem.

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A Study on the Infra-Capacity Analysis for Optimal Operating Environments of Supercomputer Center (슈퍼컴퓨터센터의 최적 운영환경을 위한 기반시설 용량 산정에 관한 연구)

  • Ryu, Young-Hee;Sung, Jin-Woo;Kim, Duk-Su;Kil, Seong-Ho
    • KIEAE Journal
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    • v.10 no.2
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    • pp.19-24
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    • 2010
  • According to the increasing demands of supercomputer, an exclusive supercomputer building is requested to install a supercomputer for promoting high-end R&D as well as creating the public service infrastructure in the national level. KISTI, as a public supercomputer center with the 4th supercomputer (capacity of 360Tflops), is experiencing shortage of infrastructure systems, caused by increased capacity. Thus, it is anticipated that the situation will be growing serious when the 5th and 6th supercomputers will be installed. On this study, analyzed on the 5th supercomputer system through projecting performance level and optimal operating environments by assessing infra-capacity. Explored way to construct optimal operating environments through infrastructure-capacity analysis of supercomputer center. This study can be of use for reviewing KISTI's conditions as the only supercomputer center in Korea. In addition, it provides reference data for planning the new exclusive supercomputer center in terms of feasibility, while analyzing infrastructure systems.

The classification of biotope type and characteristics of naturalized plant habitat on the coastal sand dune ecosystem

  • Lee, Jeom-Sook;Jeon, Ji-Young;Ihm, Byung-Sun;Myeong, Hyeon-Ho
    • Journal of Ecology and Environment
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    • v.35 no.3
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    • pp.167-175
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    • 2012
  • Coastal sand dune systems are particularly fragile and threaten the environment. However, these systems provide fundamental ecosystem services to the nearby urban areas, acting, for example, as protective buffers against erosion. In this paper, we attempt to classify the biotope types of coastal sand dune ecosystems and select an index for the assessment of the conservation value. The types of biotopes are categorized based on the vegetation map; floras are examined in order to research the effects of hinterlands on coastal sand dunes. In addition, a naturalization rate and an urbanization index for each biotope type in hinterlands are analyzed. In the ecosystem of coastal sand dunes, the urbanization index and naturalization rate shows a higher value in sand dunes with areas of road, residential, and idle land in farm villages, rice fields, and fields. On the contrary, a lower value in the urbanization index and naturalization rate is present when typical biotope types, such as sand dune vegetation and natural Pinus thunbergii forests, are widely distributed. Based on these results, urbanization index and naturalization rate should be used as critical indices for the assessment of the ecosystem of costal sand dunes.