• Title/Summary/Keyword: ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION

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Relationships between Small Mammal Community and Coarse Woody Debris in Forest Ecosystem (산림 생태계에서 소척추동물 군집과 잔목의 관계)

  • Lee, Sang-Don
    • The Korean Journal of Ecology
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    • v.20 no.4
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    • pp.251-258
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    • 1997
  • Few attempts have been made to discover the ecological function of coarse woody debris (CWD) despite its importance to small mammal population. Twenty-five pitfall traps and a hundred live traps were placed in three sites with high amounts of CWD and three sites with low amounts of CWD. Eleven species were caught, and Peromyscus maniculatus was the most abundant (45.6%, n=605). Among 11 speices, abundance of Tamias townsendii and Clethronomys gapperi were higher in sites with high amounts of CWD than in sites with low amounts of CWD. Home range size was larger in breeding season than in non-breeding season indicating mating search. Resident time of Peromyscus maniculatus was longer in sites with high amounts of CWD implying better stability in population. The increasing amount of coarse woody debris (CWD) enhanced the habitat use by small mammals, and animals in high amounts of CWD were more abundant and stable in population fluctuation. This study, therefore, concludes that CWD is a critical habitat element for small mammals in forest ecosystem.

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Stability Analysis of Soil Oribatid Mite Communities (Acari: Oribatida from Namsan and Kwangreung Deciduous Forests, Korea

  • Jung, Chulue;Lee, Joon-Ho
    • The Korean Journal of Ecology
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    • v.24 no.4
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    • pp.239-243
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    • 2001
  • One of the most important justifications of conservation of ecosystem and biodiversity is that diversity begets stability. Impact of biodiversity on community and ecosystem function has long been debated in science. Here we report the stability analysis of soil oribatid mite communities from environmentally stressed habitat(Namsan) and relatively well preserved habitat (Kwangreung) with the perspective of consistency as a primary criteria of stability. Stability of oribatid mite communities were evaluated with turnover rate, constancy analysis, b diversity index, and absolute abundance, abundance ranking, and the presence or absence of species over time. Out of 6 criteria, three consented that oribatid community from Kwangreung was more stable than that from Namsan. Those are turnover rate in litter layer, constancy analysis, and absolute abundance. Feasibility of stability analysis using oribatid mites was further discussed, rendering further study.

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The Development of Stream Ecology and Current Status (하천 생태학의 발전과 우리나라 하천 연구의 현황)

  • Joo, Gea-Jae;Kim, Hyun-Woo;Ha, Kyong
    • The Korean Journal of Ecology
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    • v.20 no.1
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    • pp.69-78
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    • 1997
  • The development of stream ecology, especially the progress of that field in North America, has been briefly reviewed, and stream studies in Korea were analyzed through literature survey. During the last two decades, theoretical advances in stream ecology and understanding of the structure and function of stream ecosystem were made from the studies mainly in North America. Early studies (1960-1970) focused on determination of the environmental factors controlling the distribution and abundance of organisms dwelling in streams. Introduction of conceptual development, such as the functional feeding concept, river continuum concept, and nutrient spiraling was notable in the late 70's and the 80's. For last 20 years, experimentation approaches to apply ecological principles were very fruitful in the understanding of community structure. Even though studies on the stream ecosystem is Korea have a long history, most of works were concentrated on limited subjects: water quality, abundance and distribution of aquatic insects and fishes. Basic ecological attributes of stream organi는 and test of ecological principles have rarely been a subject of research topics. We must concentrate our effort to enhance our understanding of stream and river ecosystem through qualitative, experimental and interdisciplinary approaches.

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Role of litter production and its decomposition, and factors affecting the processes in a tropical forest ecosystem: a review

  • Giweta, Mekonnen
    • Journal of Ecology and Environment
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    • v.44 no.2
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    • pp.81-89
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    • 2020
  • In the forest ecosystems, litterfall is an important component of the nutrient cycle that regulates the accumulation of soil organic matter (SOM), the input and output of the nutrients, nutrient replenishment, biodiversity conservation, and other ecosystem functions. Therefore, a profound understanding of the major processes (litterfall production and its decomposition rate) in the cycle is vital for sustainable forest management (SFM). Despite these facts, there is still a limited knowledge in tropical forest ecosystems, and further researches are highly needed. This shortfall of research-based knowledge, especially in tropical forest ecosystems, may be a contributing factor to the lack of understanding of the role of plant litter in the forest ecosystem function for sustainable forest management, particularly in the tropical forest landscapes. Therefore, in this paper, I review the role of plant litter in tropical forest ecosystems with the aims of assessing the importance of plant litter in forest ecosystems for the biogeochemical cycle. Then, the major factors that affect the plant litter production and decomposition were identified, which could direct and contribute to future research. The small set of studies reviewed in this paper demonstrated the potential of plant litter to improve the biogeochemical cycle and nutrients in the forest ecosystems. However, further researches are needed particularly on the effect of species, forest structures, seasons, and climate factors on the plant litter production and decomposition in various types of forest ecosystems.

Resiliency Assessment of Sarasota Bay Watershed, Florida

  • Lee, Hye-Kyung
    • Journal of KIBIM
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    • v.9 no.1
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    • pp.32-41
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    • 2019
  • As population in Sarasota and Manatee Counties, Florida in the United States is projected to increase, land use changes from land development happen continuously. The more land development means the more impervious surfaces and stormwater runoff to Sarasota Bay, which causes critical impact on the resiliency of the ecosystem. In order to decrease its impact on water quality and the ecosystem function of Sarasota Bay, it is important to assess the resilient status of communities that create negative impacts on the ecosystem. Three types of guiding principles of resiliency for Sarasota Bay watershed are suggested. To assess resiliency status, three indexes - vulnerability index, socio-economic index, and ecological index are developed and analyzed by using geographic information system for each census tract in the two counties. Since each indicator for vulnerability index, socio-economic index, and ecological index is measured with different metrics, statistical standardizing method - distance from the best and worst performers is used for this study to directly compare and combine them all to show total resilience score for each census tract. Also, the ten most and the ten least scores for the total resilience index scores are spatially distributed for better understanding which census tracts are most or least resilient. As Sarasota Watershed boundary is also overlaid, it is easy to understand how each census tract attains its resilience and how each census tract impacts to Sarasota Bay ecosystem. Based on results of the resiliency assessment several recommendations, guidelines, or policies for attaining or enhancing resiliency are suggested.

A Study on the Textile Design Approach of Biomimicry for Ecologically Sustainable Design (생태학적으로 지속가능한 디자인을 위한 생체모방의 텍스타일 디자인 접근법에 관한 연구)

  • Han, Wangmo
    • Journal of Fashion Business
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    • v.24 no.5
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    • pp.72-88
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    • 2020
  • Various methodologies have been proposed in discussions of sustainability to meet the needs and sustenance of both civilization and the ecosystem. Among them, the modern concept of biomimicry is emerging as a way to meet both the concepts of sustainable 'development' and 'society', due to its philosophical position encompassing the human-centered world view and the non-human-centered view of ecocentrism. Therefore, in the field of design in which it is necessary to take responsibility for environmental and social problems, this could be a good way to solve these issues. Biomimicry design can generally be divided into three stages: form, function, and ecosystem. From the point of view of ecological sustainability, ecosystem imitation is the most advanced and appropriate design approach that can solve the problems or even prevent them. Accordingly, this study derived a biomimicry design approach in the ecosystem imitation stage based on the concepts of biomimicry, ecological sustainability, and ecological aesthetics. The detailed approaches are 'imitation of the natural providence', 'imitation of the ecosystem's creation process', and 'imitation of the ecological cycle'. This study investigated and presented cases, such as the design imitating the ecological mechanism of microorganisms and the work using mark-making based on the derived design approach, because it could be too conceptual and idealistic by itself. Through this, we explored a method of applying and visualizing the concept of biomimicry in textile design at the ecosystem imitation level and showed its feasibility, although it still has difficulties in practical use.

A Study on the Method of Ecosystem Health Assessment in National Parks (국립공원 생태계 건강성 평가 방법에 관한 연구)

  • Oh, Jang Geun;Won, Hyeok Jae;Myeong, Hyeon-Ho
    • Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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    • v.49 no.2
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    • pp.147-152
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    • 2016
  • This study was conducted to develop a technique of ecosystem health assessment on Korea National Parks. The purpose of natural resource monitoring in national parks is to develop scientific information on the current status and long term trends in the composition, structure, and function of park ecosystems, and to determine how well current management practices are sustaining those ecosystems. The evaluation results will reflect in the park conservation and polices and promote the effect and functions of assessment program to the people. Health assessment steps were performed in order the establishing monitoring goals and objectives, development of the conceptual model, frame establishment, determination of indicators, standard and classification and health assessment. Health Indicators were selected the 13 with common, choice and climate indicators. We developed a pictogram and was separated into five colors to health condition, it was divided into three shape for comparison with the past state. Seoraksan, Odaesan National Park has been rated highly but Bukhansan, Kyeryongsan National Park has been underestimated.

Village Wetlands Inventory and Conservation Strategy in Cheonan (천안시 마을습지 인벤토리구축 및 보전전략)

  • Park, Mi Ok;Lim, Su Hyun;Li, Lan;Kim, Bo Heui;Yang, Seung Bin;Koo, Bon Hak
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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    • v.17 no.6
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    • pp.39-50
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    • 2014
  • This study was conducted to establish inventory and propose conservation strategy of 'village wetlands' in Cheonan. As results, the village wetlands are defined as such places as palustrine wetland, village embankment, agricultural reservoir or small reservoirs located in or near the village and related to everyday life or farming. Firstly 791 provisional village wetlands were identified in Cheonan by using Arc-GIS 10.1, then 104 wetlands were defined as village wetlands and listed the inventory of Cheonan Village Wetlands after being validated through their area (greater than $1,000m^2$), satellite images, Korea Land Information System, land use map, land coverage map and field survey. Finally the 49 wetlands were selected for detailed surveying, and function assessment. As the result of the wetland function assessments, 11 wetlands were found to have 'high' wetland function (conservation) 30 wetlands were 'average' (enhancement) and 8 wetlands were 'low' (restoration or enhancement). Enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem services through ecological management of wetlands in Cheonan and connecting with an ecological network were proposed.

Emergy-Based Value of the Contributions of the Youngsan River Estuary Ecosystem to the Korean Economy (에머지 방법론을 이용한 영산강 하구생태계의 기여 가치 평가)

  • Kang, Daeseok
    • The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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    • v.18 no.1
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    • pp.13-20
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    • 2013
  • An emergy concept was used to evaluate the contributions of the Youngsan River Estuary to the Korean economy from systems and ecosystem service perspectives. Total emergy input to the estuary was $9.42{\times}10^{20}$ sej/yr with the chemical potential of river inflow accounting for 73% of the total and tidal energy for the remaining 27%, reflecting the unique environmental characteristics of estuaries where rivers meet sea. From the systems perspective, the estuary ecosystem contributed 179.9 billion em\/yr (14.91 million em\/ha/yr or 13,526 em$/ha/yr). Four ecosystem services of the Youngsan River Estuary were selected for the emergy evaluation: fishery production, pollutant removal, aesthetic function, and scientific research information. Aesthetic function contributed the most to the Korean economy with 179.9 billion em\/yr, followed by fishery production (101.1 billion em\/yr), pollutant removal (32.6 billion em\/yr), and scientific research information (934 million em\/yr). Emergy-based values of the selected ecosystem services of the estuary were higher than those calculated by economic methodologies.

A Study on the Disturbance and the Rehabilitation of Stream by Using Evaluation of Ichthyofauna to Disturbed Ecosystem (어류상 평가를 활용한 하천 생태계의 교란 및 회복 유형 고찰)

  • Lee, Seung-Hwi;Yang, Dae-Chang
    • Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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    • v.43 no.2
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    • pp.242-254
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    • 2010
  • Streams changed by artificial factor those support positive functions but also negative function to humanbeing. Time and pathway exceed the lost of structure and negative function appearing as disturbance. Therefore, it is desirable to prepare right situation to break of a vicious circle. Stream ecology was evaluated with using ichthyofauna during three years at the three disturbed sites and reference sites in Nakdong River. Forty-one species belonging three orders and ten families were identified in six surveying sites of Nakdong River during 2007~2009. Korean endemic species (14 species, 34.1%) and alien (3 species, 7.3%) were identified in Nakdong River ichthyofauna. Species number, species diversity, ecosystem structure and habitat variability of ecosystem were applied to evaluate stream ecosystem. In view of three year comprehended data at six sites; numeric instability appeared Andong Dam and Naeseongcheon sites worse than Gamcheon and reference site, otherwise more numeric diversity appeared Gamcheon and reference site than Andong Dam and Naeseongcheon. As a result of integration, sand stream including downstream of Andong dam, Naeseongcheon and Gamcheon has been having more diversified biodiversity and habitat diversity than those in the pebble stream.