• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.94 no.5 s.162
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• pp.338-341
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• 2005

This study was conducted to describe the differences in artificial nest boxes use of tits between deciduous and coniferous forests at 2nd campus of Chung-Ang University ($37^{\circ}00^{\prime}04^{{\prime}{\prime}}N$, $127^{\circ}13^{\prime}96^{{\prime}{\prime}}E$), Ansung, Korea from January to August 2005. Tree species richness, tree species diversity index (H') and total basal areas were higher in deciduous forest than in coniferous forest. High, middle, low and understory canopy layers were more developed in deciduous forest, except the coverage of bush-ground layer. Varied tit Parus varius, marsh tit P. palustris and great tit P. major used the artificial nest boxes in this study. Number of breeding pairs of tits used artificial nest boxes, clutch size, and weight and size of eggs were higher in deciduous forest than in coniferous forest. The differences in habitat structure between study sites are very likely to have influenced how breeding birds used the available habitat. Artificial nest boxes could be used as management and conservation tool for birds, particularly in areas, where the availability of natural cavities and coverage of higher layer are limited.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.152-162
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• 2021

Background: Recent declines in bee populations, along with increasing demand for pollination services in urban, agricultural, and natural environments, have led to strategies to attract wild bees to these areas. One of these strategies is installing artificial nests adjacent to urban gardens and agricultural farms. Bee hotels and nest boxes are among the artificial nests used by gardeners and farmers to attract pollinators. In this paper, we reviewed 50 studies that reported the efficiency of nest boxes and bee hotels in attracting bees. We considered the maximum occupation rate (percentage) as the main index to evaluate the efficiency of artificial nests. Results: The maximum occupation rate of bee hotels was higher in farms (averaged 44.1%) than in forests (averaged 30.3%) and urban (averaged 38.3%) environments. In the case of nest boxes, most studies reported efficiencies of less than 20%, with an occupation rate of 16% and 5.5% on average in forest and urban environments respectively. However, our meta-analysis results showed that there was no significant relationship between the occupation rate of the nests and their installation place. Regression analysis also showed that the structural features of bee hotels (length and diameter) and nest boxes (volume and entrance size) did not affect their efficiency in attracting bees. Conclusion: Our data showed that the strategy of installing artificial nests to attract pollinators is successful only concerning bee hotels, and the use of nest boxes has not been very successful.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.100 no.3
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• pp.397-401
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• 2011

This study was conducted to clarify the breeding ecology of tits Parus spp. used artificial nest boxes in a deciduous forest at the Ansung Campus, Chung-Ang University from March through July, 2006 to 2010. Varied tit Parus varius, marsh tit P. palustris and great tit P. major bred in artificial nest boxes during our study period. There were no differences in number of breeding bird pairs among different entrance diameters of artificial nest boxes. The number of breeding pairs of great tits was the most highest among tits and that of varied tits was the least. Great tits mainly used 40 mm and 35 mm artificial nest box entrance diameter and marsh tits preferred 30 mm entrance diameter. In three tits species, there were differences in first egg date, clutch size, brood size, egg incubation period, nestling care period and breeding success among study years. It is needed the study on long-term ecological research about breeding ecology of tits related with habitat conditions.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.221-231
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• 2023

Great tit (Parus major) is a bioindicator species that can measure environmental changes in urban ecosystems and plays an important role in maintaining health as a representative insectivorous bird. Researchers have utilized artificial nest box surveys to understand the reproductive ecology of the Paridae family of birds, including the Great tits, but it is difficult to conduct a macroscopic study due to spatial and temporal limitations. This study designed and applied a citizen-participatory monitoring of artificial nest boxes project to transcend the limitations of expert-centered monitoring methods. The Suwon Front Yard Bird Monitoring Team installed artificial nest boxes in green spaces in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province and observed the reproductive ecology of the Paridae family through the participation of voluntary citizen surveyors. Participants were recruited through an online survey from February 9 to February 22, 2021, and they directly performed from installation to observation of artificial next boxes from February 23 to August 31, 2021. Online education was provided to the volunteers for the entire monitoring process to lower the entry barrier for non-expert citizen surveyors and collect consistent data, and observation records were collected through a mobile app. A total of 98 citizen surveyors participated in the citizen-participatory monitoring of artificial nest boxes project, and 175 (84.95%) of the 256 distributed artificial nest boxes were installed in green spaces in Suwon City. Among the installed artificial nest boxes, the results of the citizen science project were confirmed for 173 (83.98%), excluding two boxes with position coordinate generation errors. A total of 987 artificial nest box observation records were collected from citizen surveyors, with a minimum of one time, a maximum of 26 times, and an average of 5.71±4.37 times. The number of observations of artificial birdhouses per month was 70 times (7.09%) in February, 444 times (44.98%) in March, 284 times (28.77%) in April, 133 times (13.48%) in May, 46 times (4.66%) in June, 6 times (0.61%) in July, and 4 times (0.41%) in August. Birds using the artificial nest boxes were observed in 57 (32.95%) of the 173 installed artificial nest boxes, and they included Great tit (Parus major) using 12 boxes (21.05%), Varied Tit (Parus varius) using 7 boxes (12.28%), and unidentified birds using 38 boxes (66.67%). This study is the first to consider citizen participation in the monitoring of artificial nest boxes, a survey method for the reproductive ecology of the Paridae family, including Great tits, and it can be utilized as basic data for the design of ecological monitoring combined with citizen science in the future.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.415-424
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• 2015

This research was conducted to reveal the characteristics of breeding ecology of oriental scops owl (Otus sunia stictonotus) inhabiting in South Korea according to the nest types during the breeding season from march to October for two years (2011 and 2012). Oriental scops owl nested in woodpecker's nest holes (46.1%), natural tree holes (38.5%), and artificial wood boxes (15.4%). These nests were located on following trees: Zelkova serrata, Paulownia coreana, Celtis sinensis, Salix chaenomeloides, Salix babylonica, Fraxinus rhynchophylla, Robinia pseudoacacia and Platanus occidentalis. The hatching success was 91.4%, fledging success was 83.0%, and breeding success was 75.9%. The factors of the breeding failure were falling (57.1%), abandonment (28.6%), hatching failure (7.1%), and others with unknown cause of death (7.1%). According to nest types, the fledging success (69.2%) of woodpecker's nest holes were low and the hatching success (79.2%) of natural tree holes were also low due to hatching failure and abandonment. However, hatching success, fledging success, breeding success were high in the artificial nests as all the eggs hatched and succeeded in fledging. Therefore, we suggested that artificial nests can cover the weaknesses of natural nests as well as increasing the breeding success. However, long-term research on installation place, height, and hole sizes of the artificial nest are required in order to clearly reveal the effects on the breeding success of oriental scops owl.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.97-110
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• 2020

This study conducted observations at 72 traffic lights and road signs in Sejong-si, Korea from March to June 2019 in order to analyze nest-site, nest-site characteristics and feeding behavior in Tree sparrow (Passeer montanus) in urban. Feeding behavior during breeding season in 2019 was investigated at 10 Town representing traffic facilities installed on the road located in the center of the city and 10 Riverside Geumgang river's riverside road. We fitted both general linear model and regression model to our field data and estimated the spatial variation of initial date of the first feeding (i.e., being date of breeding) and the total number of caterpillar fed by parents per hour. Our results showed that the frequency of nest building on artificial structures, such as traffic lights, was about 26% higher and about 8 days earlier in the riverside. In particular, the first feeding was significantly faster when the nearest distance between nest to green field as foraging site was shorter whereas there was no significant effect of the number of nest within 50 meters on the first feeding. Number of caterpillars fed by parents was higher in the Riverside than in the Urban, and especially the number in the second brood was sharply decreased in the Urban. As we estimated average amount of caterpillars per hour to 446 traffic safety facilities in Sejong-si, it was estimated that Tree sparrows fed 18,742.8 caterpillars per hour during the breeding season. In this study, we showed that characteristics of nests built in artificial structures and feeding behavior in order to analyze effects of environmental condition in urban on life-history traits during the breeding season. Finally, we discussed the conservation of birds in urban and pest control effects.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.97 no.1
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• pp.83-87
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• 2008

This study was conducted to clarify the use of artificial nest boxes of tits in coniferous and deciduous forests from March to June 2006 and 2007. Tree species richness, tree species diversity and total basal area were higher in deciduous forest than in coniferous forest. Except the bush-ground layer (<1 m), the other vertical layers were more developed in deciduous forest. Varied tit Parus varius, marsh tit P. palustris, coal tit P. ater and major tit P. major used the artificial nest boxes in this study. Number of breeding pairs of tits were higher in deciduous than in coniferous forest. Clutch size, brood size and breeding success of coal tits were higher in coniferous forest. Brood size and breeding success of major tits were higher in deciduous forest. Characteristics of habitat and niche partition would be influenced on tits' use of artificial nest boxes. The more detailed researches on artificial nest boxes would be needed for management and conservation of birds.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.95-102
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• 2018

Only the habitat characteristics and breeding status of Paridae have been studied, in addition to the lack of research on Parus varius varius, there is no study on the home-range in the post fledging period. This study was analyzed the home-range size of Parus varius varius in the post fledging period. The survey was conducted in the site located in Dankook Univ. Cheonan Campus(Middle Chungcheong Province). We captured five newborn Parus varius varius using artificial nest was installed before. Radio-tracking was carried out for analysis of home-range, and MCP (Minimum Convex Polygon) was used for analysis. We analyzed 1 individual tracked 15 days (VT5) and 4 individuals which missing radio-tracking transmitter within 3 days (VT1~VT4). Home-range of VT5 gradually increased to 1,38ha, 1.42ha, 2.14ha in the order of early, middle, late period. On the other hand, moving distance was decreased to 174.558m 125.129m, 120.180m. Home-range of V1~VT4 was estimated as 0.81ha which was 75.3% share of home-range of VT5 in early period. As the result it was found that home-range is formed far apart from artificial nest that has been influenced by human being interference, thereafter gradually adapting to interference and spreading close to artificial nest. through this research, we can construct basic ecological data for protecting habitat of Parus varius varius and increasing life rate. As first radio-tracking study of Parus varius varius home-range in the post fledging period, it is expected to be useful for the future study of home-range.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.702-710
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• 2017

Recently, in many reptiles (14 genera of turtles in five families), common characteristics of incubation temperatures are known to determine the sexes of hatchlings in many species of turtles, including the map turtles, painted turtles and snapping turtles, emys turtle, etc. According to many researcher's reports, in general, incubation at $25^{\circ}C$ (cooler temperatures) produces all or mostly males, however, incubation at $31^{\circ}C$ (higher temperatures) or higher produces all or mostly females. Exceptionally, even cooler temperature ($20^{\circ}C$) produce females, they produced all or mostly females. Accordingly, it is well-known that incubation temperature is the sex determining agent in these turtles. However, this paper presents study of the sex ratio and nest ecology in natural spawning nest: Observations on hatching sex ratios of eggs collected from natural nests of T. sinensis are similar to a previous report of the same genus Trionyx in the soft-shelled turtles. However, this genus (or species) showed some different phenomena to other kinds of turtles such as various kinds turtles mentioned above. After collection of naturally spawned eggs (17 eggs of T. sisnensis) on the natural nests, a laboratory experiment by the constant incubation temperatures was conducted with natural fluctuating soil temperatures in the natural nest with the soft-shelled turtle, T. sinensis. And also laboratory experiments were conducted using constant incubation temperatures of $25^{\circ}C$ (cooler temp.) and $30^{\circ}C$ (higher temp.) with the turtle, T. sinensis. Exceptionally, it was confirmed that the first and second incubation temperatures can't control sex-determination in the freshwater soft-shelled turtle, T. sinensis. The sex ratio approximated 1:1 (${\chi}^2=0.06$, P>0.05 (the Ist experiment). And the sex ratio approximated 1:1 independently of incubation temperature (${\chi}^2=0.33$, P>0.05 (the 2nd experiment). Consequently, temperature has no effect on sex determination in the genus Trionyx in a soft-shelled turtle.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.275-282
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• 2002

Preference of food plants of wild birds was shown in the order of Pinus densiflora, Celtis sinensis, Celastrus orbiculatus, Rosa multiflora, Taxus cuspidata, and Euonymus japonica, etc. The wild birds preferred the animal food(92.2%) rather than the vegetable food(32.7%) in breeding season(May through June), but preferred both animal and vegetable foods in non-breeding season(November through December). The rates utilzing artficial nest were 77.5%, 50.3%, 44.1% and 42.2% in Nosan, Sanho, Chinju-castle and Bibong parks, respectively. The wild birds used more the 3cm hole than 5cm hole.