• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.395-401
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• 2023

In this study, 12 environmental factors were used to evaluate the potential habitat of Pteromys volans living around some development areas. The analyzed value ranged from 0 to 20.1, and the area with a score of 10 or less was analyzed to have a low possibility of inhabiting Pteromys volans. To verify the analyzed results, a field survey was conducted on areas with 10 or more scores, and traces of habitat of Pteromys volans were confirmed in areas with 16 or more scores. All the areas with an evaluation score of 16 or higher showed high crown density and age class. However, despite the high crown density and age class, the evaluation score in some areas was low owing to the influence of other environmental factors. Therefore, in evaluating Pteromys volans habitats, it is necessary to apply various and complex criteria suitable for field conditions rather than applying uniform and fragmentary environmental factors only.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.137-144
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• 2010

There is a host of habitat assessment systems available to evaluate and grade tidal flat ecosystems in Korea. Nevertheless, we recognize the need to develop a better ecological scheme to improve reliability and accuracy given the importance of using an empirical approach in assigning grades to indicators and the limitation of current systems which evaluate tidal flats on a regional basis. A preferable system would be one that enables habitat mapping within a tidal flat, provides a diagnosis of ecological stress/health, has a high level of ecological relevance, communicability, and statistical robustness, and enables evaluation of diverse habitats within a tidal flat. The following points should be considered in framing such a system. Indicators should discriminate habitat quality into five to seven grades accomodating diverse characteristics and conservation value of a habitat, and the grading should be made from frequency distribution of indicators based on nationwide data.We suggest the following tasks in crafting such a system: i) The decision on selection of indicators should be made based on accuracy of assessment and practical application; ii) effects of physical habitat conditions on variability of indicators should be reflected; and, iii) further works on stress/health indicators should be addressed for adopting a multiple-indicator approach which reduces misdiagnosis.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.181-193
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• 2018

The present study was conducted to analyze the quality of the habitats of Abies koreana WILS. by using the InVEST model based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique and to evaluate the economic value by estimating the carbon fixation. Abies koreana WILS., an original biological species of South Korea, may be an essential element in establishing the national biological sovereignty in the future. The subjects of the present study were the national parks in Mt. Halla, Mt. Jiri, and Mt. Sobaek, which are the habitats of Abies koreana WILS. As suggested by previous studies as a limitation of the InVEST model, the utilization of the data from relevant international publications as the input data, due to the lack of the domestic input data, may decrease the accuracy of the modeling. Therefore, the AHP technique was applied for the input data. The modeling was performed with reference to the years of 1980, 1990, and 2000 for the scenario analysis. The result of the modeling showed that the habitat quality was changed most in the national park in Mt. Halla, as the habitat quality score was decreased from 0.96 in 1980 to 0.97 in 1990 and 0.94 in 2000. In the national part of Mt. Sobeak, the habitat quality was changed most in the sub-alpine zone, as the habitat quality score was decreased from 0.98 in 1980 and 0.98 in 1990 to 0.97 in 2000. The habitat quality was best conserved in the national part in Mt. Jiri, as the habitat quality score was 0.98 in 1980, 0.99 in 1990, and 0.99 in 2000. The estimated economic loss by the change of the habitat quality was 19,280,000 USD for Mt. Halla and 8,030,000 USD for Mt. Sobeak. In the present study, the habitat quality of the Abies koreana WILS, the original species of South Korea, was evaluated and the economic value of the ecological services provided by the habitats was estimated quantitatively. The result showed that the ecosystem service model may be used to qualitatively analyze the quality of a habitat located in a specific region and to estimate the economic value quantitatively. The objective evaluation of ecosystem services demonstrated in the present study may be applied to promote sustainable utilization of natural resources and conservation of the ecosystem by predicting the changes that may be caused by external factors including the development of preservation areas.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.553-565
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• 2022

Awareness of the ecological value and importance of protected areas has increased as climate change accelerates, and there is a need for research on ecosystem services provided by nature. The natural park, which is a representative protected area in Korea, has a system of national parks, provincial parks, and county parks. National parks are managed systematically by the Korea National Park Service, but local governments manage provincial parks and county parks. There may be the same hierarchical differences in naturalness (habitat quality) depending on the hierarchy of the natural parks, but it has not been verified. To identify differences, we examined 22 mountain-type natural parks using habitat quality using the INVEST model developed by Stanford University. The analysis of the habitat quality, regardless of the type and area of the natural park, showed that it was higher in the order of Taebaeksan National Park (0.89), Juwangsan National Park (0.87), Woongseokbong County Park (0.86), and Gayasan National Park (0.85). The larger the area, the higher the value of habitat quality. A comparison of natural parks with similar areas showed that the habitat quality of national parks was higher than that of provincial parks and parks. On the other hand, the average habitat quality of county parks was 0.83±0.02, which was 0.05 higher than that of provincial parks at 0.78±0.03. Furthermore, the higher the proportion of forest areas within the natural park, the higher the habitat quality. The results confirmed that the naturalness of natural parks was independent of their hierarchy and that there are differences in naturalness depending on land use, land coverage, and park management.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.319-325
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• 2014

A lot of Pond Wetland (Palustrine Wetland) are distributed in agricultural landscapes, Korea. These wetlands are evaluated as important resources for conservation of biodiversity. However, the study of Pond Wetland is rarely conducted except type classification in Korea. In this study, the function of pond wetland as ecosystem services is studied for conservation and utilization of wetland. Research was conducted in three steps; functionality analysis, functionality derivation, and importance analysis. A total of 22 features were derived by analyzing the previous studies. As a result of expert survey, 4 features were selected by each in the field of biological, environmental, and socio-culture among the 22 features. Importance was calculated by conducting a cross-functional features using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Finally, 10 ecosystem service functions of pond wetland were derived through expert survey; (1) Water Storage & Irrigation, (2) Vegetation Diversity, (3) Amphibian & Reptile Habitat, (4) Water Purification, (5) Aquatic Insect Habitat, (6) Nutriments Control was derived, (7) Groundwater Recharge, (8) Fishery Habitat, (9) Eco-Experience & Education, and (10) Aesthetic landscape. It is expected that this study is able to utilize in evaluation of pond wetlands ecosystem services by further study on analysis of functional importance and economic value index.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.263-278
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• 2015

This study is intended to evaluate the value of functional aspect from the viewpoint of habitat. The indicators that are used in biotope evaluations are various, but most of them use the criteria to evaluate the naturality. This evaluation method cannot appropriately reflect the functional characteristics coming from relation to the surrounding biotope. In this study, the connectivity, cohesion and diversity between individual biotope are quantitatively measured by a landscape index. It is hard to draw the functional value of individual biotopes because the landscape index related to connectivity, cohesion and diversity comes from a landscape having a number of biotopes. The concept of contribution was used to overcome this limitation. The concept of contribution is to quantify how much each individual biotope contributes to the connectivity, cohesion, and diversity in a certain range of landscape by deriving the amount of change in the landscape index according to the presence or absence of each individual biotope. In order to understand the characteristics of evaluation results in functional aspect, this research has done a comparative analysis of the previous research findings in the same target area. According to the result of the research, individual biotopes such as artificial forests, fragmented natural forests, and small planting sites were highly rated.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.39-53
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• 2019

In order to compared the feeding habits of Micropterus salmoides according to the habitat types, the stomach content of a total of 306 M. salmoides were investigated from April to September 2016 in the stream and reservoir. As a result, the highest IRI (Index of relative importance) value in M. salmoides inhibiting the stream and reservoir were identified as fishes. However, the IRI value of crustaceans and insects as well as fishes in M. salmoides inhibiting the reservoir were high, showing a difference in IRI value of M. salmoides inhibiting the stream.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.55-66
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• 2012

This study was carried out to investigate vegetation of Rhododendron mucronulatum habitat in Mt. Biseul to recommend basic information for synecological characteristics and management methods. The survey was carried out from May to July, 2011 and totally 46 vegetation data including 42 families 93 genera 108 species 16 varieties and 5 forma were collected and analyzed. Among the investigated 129 taxa, the numbers of rare plant resources were summarized as 19 taxa; The rare plants designated by Korea Forest Service, the specific plants by floristic region and the endemic plants were listed as 3 taxa, 15 taxa and 4 taxa, respectively. Rhododendron mucronulatum habitat of Mt. Biseul was classified into 3 plant communities (Carex lanceolata-Rhododendron mucronulatum community, Potentilla dickinsii-Selaginella rossii community, Carex lanceolata-Quercus mongolica community). Carex lanceolata-Rhododendron mucronulatum community was subdivided into Tripterygium regelii subunit and Miscanthus sinensis for. purpurascens subunit by human interference degree. And synecology, syndynamics, synchorology of these plant communities were identified, and Site-species ordination analysis by Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA) reflected that human impact, soil moisture condition were main ecological factors determining the distribution pattern of classified plant communities. Therefore these plant communities correspond to quite distinctive 4 habitat types : unstable-dry type=Miscanthus sinensis for. purpurascens subunit, unstable-moderate type=Tripterygium regelii subunit, stable-dry type=Potentilla dickinsii-Selaginella rossii community, stable-moderate type=Carex lanceolata-Quercus mongolica community. Finally, through the vegetational diagnosis, proper management methods such as a limit on the access of visitors, planting of native woody plants after removing unwanted vines or grass were suggested.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.63-72
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• 2005

Chirisan National Park, the first and largest one out of 20 national parks in Korea, is divided into five zones. They are composed of nature preservation zone, natural environment zone, natural residential zone, concentrated residential zone, and collective facility zone. However, the park is not a continuous habitat: roads, trails, local residences, and various facilities created the habitat mosaics severely fragmented. We investigated the fragmentation pattern of the park due to roads and mountain trails using GIS. Based on perimeter length, area, and the ratio of perimeter to area of each patch, we obtained landscape analysis indices which reflect the regularity of the patch shape. The 1 m-wide hiking trails divided the park into 491 fragments. The legal trails with 1.5 m - 3 m width which have been heavily used by hikers generate 58 fragments. Even the nature preservation zone, corresponding to a core zone comprising 31.8% of the park area, was divided into 37 fragments because of the roads and mountain trails. With the different widths of buffer applied, the core sizes of the fragments were reduced. When the 60 m buffer was applied, the patch interior areas ranged from 0.0001 to 47.77 $km^2$ with a mean of 7.08 $km^2$. The landscape shape indices were far greater than 1 for most of the cases with a maximum value of 25. These results clearly indicate that Chirisan National Park is not a continuous habitat, but mosaics of small, irregularly shaped habitat fragments. It is necessary to take the size and shape of the fragmented habitats into consideration when nature conservation is planned, especially for large wildlife such as brown bears.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.117-123
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• 2008

In this study, PHABSIM which is a sample for 1D physical habitat and River2D, which is a sample for 2D physical habitat were applied to the main streams of Han River in order to calculate an optimum flow considering the habitats of fishes in determining the instream flow. Moreover, the Weighted Usable Area (WUA) of the two samples in each growth step (adults and spawning) of the target fish type was compared and reviewed. The optimal flow value was calculated by considering the conditions for inhabiting fishes. As a result of the correlation analysis for WUA from 1D and 2D samples was 0.87 to 0.99. The optimum flow considering the conditions of inhabiting fishes showed insignificant difference of $3m^3/s\;to\;5m^3/s$ with the exception of adults in Moon-Mak and spawning in Dal-Chun.