• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.602-613
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• 2013

This paper aims at an investigation of the features of bacterial communities in surface sediments of the South China Sea (SCS). In particular, biogeographical distribution patterns and the phylogenetic diversity of bacteria found in sediments collected from a coral reef platform, a continental slope, and a deep-sea basin were determined. Bacterial diversity was measured by an observation of 16S rRNA genes, and 18 phylogenetic groups were identified in the bacterial clone library. Planctomycetes, Deltaproteobacteria, candidate division OP11, and Alphaproteobacteria made up the majority of the bacteria in the samples, with their mean bacterial clones being 16%, 15%, 12%, and 9%, respectively. By comparison, the bacterial communities found in the SCS surface sediments were significantly different from other previously observed deep-sea bacterial communities. This research also emphasizes the fact that geographical factors have an impact on the biogeographical distribution patterns of bacterial communities. For instance, canonical correspondence analyses illustrated that the percentage of sand weight and water depth are important factors affecting the bacterial community composition. Therefore, this study highlights the importance of adequately determining the relationship between geographical factors and the distribution of bacteria in the world's seas and oceans.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.143-155
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• 2016

Present work aims to establish the countermeasure for the better maintenance and preservation of insular floristic diversity at the South Sea of Jeollanamdo Province, ROK, where unique ecosystems are under threat due to climate change, anthropogenic disturbance and habitat destruction. Numerous flora reports from 15 inhabited islands and 60 uninhabited islands as well as field survey data are collated for the compilation of floristic data base and island biogeographical analysis. Out of the 1,940 vascular plant species from 180 families occurring in studies areas, 30.1 percentage or 584 plant species are physiognomically belonging to arboreal plants. Average number of species at individual island is numbered about 222 species, but it varies from about 591 species at the inhabited islands to 129 species at the uninhabited islands. Only 0.15 percentage of species with high proportion above 0.9 in its relative occurrence rate occurs at 68 islands and it includes three species, such as Pinus thunbergii, Eurya japonica and Pteridium aquilinum var. latiusculum. However, about 68 percentage of plant species occurring in study area is confined their distribution to less than seven islands. Presence of high proportion of notable plants in small islands, i.e., 10 critically endangered species compared with 5.5 species in average, 9 endangered species (average 4.2 spp.) at Sonjookdo, and 7 critically endangered species, 8 endangered species at Sokomundo may due to existence of diverse geological and topographical environmental diversity as well as lower human population density and remoteness from the mainland. Since island is small in size and geographically isolated, minor environmental and ecological burdens can cause the critical damages to the diversity of flora and vegetation, urgent island biogeographical research is needed for the scientific conservation and management of island biodiversity.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.413-425
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• 2014

In order to shed some light on the historical change of biodiversity concepts, this paper reviews the science and technology studies (STS) literature on the history of biological research on human genetic diversity. By doing that, I show how the notion of genetic diversity in the human population - from "race" to "population" to "biogeographical ancestry" - has changed with methodologies and techniques over the last hundred years. In the meantime, I point out contexts and situations, despite conceptual and methodological developments, that show that current human genetic diversity research is slipping into the past mistakes of scientific racism. This article offers biodiversity researchers an opportunity to consider their own scientific practices on classifying species more reflectively.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.205-213
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• 2022

A new free-living marine nematode, Chaetonema longicorpus sp. nov., was discovered in a subtidal benthic habitat around the Uljin nuclear power plant in the East Sea. Chaetonema longicorpus sp. nov. differs from other Chaetonema species in its very long body length, relatively long cephalic setae, long and narrow buccal cavity, bottle-shaped amphideal fovea, short spicules, only one pre-cloacal seta instead of a pre-cloacal supplement, and conspicuous ventral swelling at the middle of the tail. Herein, we provide a taxonomic description and illustrations of this new species using differential interference contrast microscopy. Furthermore, an illustrated pictorial key to all valid species, including the new species and comparative tables on the biogeographical and morphological characteristics of the genus Chaetonema, are provided.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.75-83
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• 2016

Background: In order to evaluate the effect of pH, known as a critical factor for shaping the biogeographical microbial patterns in the studies by others, on the bacterial diversity, we selected two sites in a similar geographical location (site 1; north latitude 35.3, longitude 127.8, site 2; north latitude 35.2, longitude 129.2) and compared their soil bacterial diversity between them. The mountain soil at site 1 (Jiri National Park) represented naturally acidic but almost pollution free (pH 5.2) and that at site 2 was neutral but exposed to the pollutants due to the suburban location of a big city (pH 7.7). Methods: Metagenomic DNAs from soil bacteria were extracted and amplified by PCR with 27F/518R primers and pyrosequenced using Roche 454 GS FLX Titanium. Results: Bacterial phyla retrieved from the soil at site 1 were more diverse than those at site 2, and their bacterial compositions were quite different: Almost half of the phyla at site 1 were Proteobacteria (49 %), and the remaining phyla were attributed to 10 other phyla. By contrast, in the soil at site 2, four main phyla (Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, and Cyanobacteria) composed 94 %; the remainder was attributed to two other phyla. Furthermore, when bacterial composition was examined on the order level, only two Burkholderiales and Rhizobiales were found at both sites. So depending on pH, the bacterial community in soil at site 1 differed from that at site 2, and although the acidic soil of site 1 represented a non-optimal pH for bacterial growth, the bacterial diversity, evenness, and richness at this site were higher than those found in the neutral pH soil at site 2. Conclusions: These results and the indices regarding diversity, richness, and evenness examined in this study indicate that pH alone might not play a main role for bacterial diversity in soil.

• The Korean Journal of Malacology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.27-40
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• 2002

Beach death assemblages of bivalve mollusks were studied with respect to their species composition in six localities along the eastern coast of Korea (Gangneung, Jumunjin, Daejin, Gallam, Jukbyeon, Hupo and Chooksan). In all, thirty-nine species belonging to 30 genera and 19 families were recorded, and species diversity between the sampling sites varied from 5 to 21. Biogeographical analysis showed that studied fauna has warm-water character with the predominance of subtropical and subtropical-lowboreal species and the presence of tropical-subtropical species (in total, 77 %), and only 23 % of mollusks found are cold-water and temperate species. The most abundant species were Septifer virgatus (Wiegmann, 1837), Mytilus galloprovinciallis Lamarck, 1819, Gomphina melanaegis Romer, 1861, Ruditapes philippinarum (Adams et Reeve, 1850), Mactra chinensis Philippi, 1847 and Spisula sachalinensis (Schrenck, 1862).

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.60-63
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• 2018

The family Zopheridae Solier consist of members from several previous families, Zopherinae Solier, Monommatinae Blanchard and Colydiinae Erichson, and more than 1,700 described species are placed in the Zopheridae. They are widely distributed in all major biogeographical regions. The zopheridine genus Bitoma Herbst comprise more than 30 species worldwide including four Palaearctic species. A taxonomic study of the genus Bitoma in Korea is presented. The genus Bitoma and its two species, B. crenata (Fabricius) and B. siccana (Pascoe), are new to the Korean Peninsula. A key, diagnoses, habitus photographs, and illustrations of aedeagus of the Korean Bitoma species are provided.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 1992

A nereid worm , Perineresi aibuhitensis has been frequently mis-identified in Korea as P.vancaurica tetradentata or Neanthes virens due to the wide variation in the number and arrangement of paragnaths on its proboscis. In this paper we re-examined ca. 50 worms collected in three intertidal mud flats of the western coast of Korea, and identified them to be P.aibuhitensis , a new record in Korea. We also described the hteronereid of this species and its biogeographical range.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.79-85
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• 2007

The species in genus Saxifiraga distributed in circumpolar arctic are taxonomically difficult to study. RAPD analyses were performed to compare the genetic diversity of the 16 Saxifrages originated from the Norwegian Arctic Svalbard and Korea. The 12 accessions of URP primers were tested and 4 of which showed polymorphism were selected. Total 79 (44.8%) DNA bands were scored and analyzed by UPGMA cluster analysis. The results indicated that all of the 9 Saxifraga species from Svalbard showed high genetic diversity than those from Korea. The Similarity matrix and cluster analyses indicated that the Saxifraga species from Svalbard and Korea can be divided into two different subgroups. RAPDs of the Saxifraga species of Korea showed higher homologous patterns than those of Arctic Saxifrage. Among the Saxifraga species, we found that the morphological similarity reflects the genetic similarity. The geographic distance, clonal reproduction, and environmental condition may contribute the high level of genetic diversity between Saxifraga species from the two isolated regions.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.117-129
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• 2021

In this review, we aimed to synthesize the current knowledge on the observed and projected effects of climate change on the ecosystems of Korea (i.e., the Republic of Korea (ROK) or South Korea), as well as the main causes of vulnerability and options for adaptation in these ecosystems based on a range of ecological and biogeographical data. To this end, we compiled a set of peer-reviewed papers published since 2014. We found that publication of climate-related studies on plants has decreased in the field of plant phenology and physiology, whereas such publication has rapidly increased in plant and animal community ecology, reflecting the range shifts and abundance change that are occurring under climate change. Plant phenology studies showed that climate change has increased growing seasons by advancing the timing of flowering and budburst while delaying the timing of leafing out. Community ecology studies indicated that the future ranges of cold-adapted plants and animals could shrink or shift toward northern and high-elevation areas, whereas the ranges of warm-adapted organisms could expand and/or shift toward the areas that the aforementioned cold-adapted biota previously occupied. This review provides useful information and new insights that will improve understanding of climate change effects on the ecosystems of Korea. Moreover, it will serve as a reference for policy-makers seeking to establish future sectoral adaptation options for protection against climate change.