• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.257-260
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• 1983

The concentration of heavy metals in 12 eggs collected from 6 nests of Intermediate Egret, Egretta intermedia intermedia from Ogjong-myun, Hadong-gun, Kyungnam, was examined by atomic absorption spectrophoto-meter method in 1983. It was found that heavy metals are contained in their eggs with highest concentration Cd and Cu in the eggshell and Cr, Zn, Pb and Mn in the yolk, respectively. The thin-shelled group, by their eggshell thickness grouping, contained heavy metal in higher amount than that of thick eggshelled group. And the thin group showed small values in weight of individual egg, its yolk and albumen.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.242-248
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• 2020

An intestinal strigeiid trematode, Apharyngostrigea pipientis, was detected from Ardea cinerea jouyi, Egretta intermedia and Nycticorax nycticorax between July, 2006 and June, 2020 in Daejeon metropolitan city and Kangwon-do, Republic of Korea. It was observed with a light and scanning electron microscope (SEM), and molecularly analyzed with 18S rRNA genes. The infection rate of the strigeiid trematode was 25.9% (7/27). The body is cylindrical in whole mount, greatly elongated in outline and shows a strong dorsal curvature. The overall measurements are: length 4.1-4.8 mm; fore-body 1.00-1.20 mm by 0.8-0.9 mm; hind-body 3.2-3.6 mm by 0.43-0.46 mm. The body is covered by a relatively thick cuticle, devoid of spines. The oral sucker leads into a short esophagus that is devoid of a muscular pharynx. The holdfast organ is enormously developed. The vitelline follicles distributed dorsal wall of fore-body and hind-body. This strigeiid trematode especially differs from other species of genus Apharyngostrigea in morphology. Although these A. pipientis are several morphological distinctions from Apharyngostrigea cornu, the partial sequence of 18S rRNA showed the sequence homology of A. pipientis (99.9%) and A. cornu (99.8%), and this result revealed their conspecific relationship between A. cornu and A. pipientis. This is the first report of A. pipientis in the Republic of Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.1-12
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• 2017

This study aims to provide the basic habitat data for the alternative breeding sites of Family Ardeidae including Ardea cinerea, Egretta alba modesta, Egretta intermedia, Egretta garzetta, Bubulcus ibis and Nycticorax nyciticorax. Species numbers, flight directions for detecting foraging grounds and current vegetation structure were investigated nesting at Gunsan urban forest area. Data were collected over a period of 10 weeks, from 15 June - 31 August 2014. The total nest and population of Family Ardeida were 684 and 1,712 respectively. Percentage of birds observed flying in 8 major compass directions were as follows. 57.27% of all birds were observed flying northwest, 22.09% were observed flying south and 13.40% were flying north. For possible foraging areas, to the northwest, there are Geumgang river tidal flats, and to the south, paddy fields and streams within 2km. Flying directions by species (${\chi}^2=287.18$, P<.001, Cramer's V=0.12) and by seasons(${\chi}^2=839.94$, P<.001, Cramer's V=0.19) showed significant difference statistically. In relation between species and directions, 60.31% and 24.05% of Bubulcus ibis and 59.40% and 23.00% of Ardea cinerea were observed flying northwest and south respectively. Vegetation in the sites consist of an overstory of 3 to 7 species. At site 1, Pinus thunbergii was the dominant species and site 2, Chamaecyparis obtusa. Understory vegetation is composed of shrubs, saplings and small trees of Chamaecyparis obtusa, Quercus acutissima, Smilax china and Platycarya strobilacea. Egrets and herons usually nested at the dense population and canopy overlayed forest, and especially branches and leaves of smallwood with less than 10cm of breast height diameter were relatively severely damaged due to the nesting and excreta.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.237-244
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• 2007

We investigated the foraging habitat preferences of herons and egrets in an agricultural area in Asan city, Chungcheongnam-do, Korea. In the study area, rice fields were the most abundant habitat type (86.8%) and total suitable feeding habitat was greater in the northern area (59.0%) than the southern area (22.5%) of the colony. Most feeding herons and egrets were located in the northern area of the colony. The number of feeding individuals in a given area was related to the available feeding area (Pearson correlation, r=0.773, p<0.001 for field habitats; r=0.901, p<0.001 for freshwater habitats). Feeding habitat preferences differed among species. Grey herons (Ardea cinerea), great egrets (Egretta alba), and black-crowned night herons (Nycticorax nycticorax) used reservoirs and ditches. However, intermediate egrets (E. intermedia) and cattle egrets (Bubulcus ibis) were dependent on rice fields. The little egret (E. garzetta) was a habitat generalist using all types of habitats. The two largest species, grey herons and great egrets, fed at deeper site than little egrets and foraged in deeper sites in reservoirs than in ditches (${\chi}^2-test,\;{\chi}^2{_3}=26.6$ and p<0.001 for grey herons, ${\chi}^2{_3}=17.5$ and p<0.001 for great egrets). All species displayed seasonal changes in feeding habitat use and these changes were related with changes in availability of feeding habitats.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.282-288
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• 2019

We investigated the changes in the population size and inter-specific space usage for breeding in mixed breeding sites of the great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo), grey heron (Ardea cinerea), great egret (Ardea alba modesta) and intermediate egret (Egretta intermedia) in Gammul-myeon, Goesan-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea, in 2016-2017. These species bred in two adjacent habitats (site A and site B). The number of breeding pairs of all species and the size of the breeding area at site B increased in 2017. In 2017, great cormorants at site B occupied the breeding sites previously occupied by the other species in 2016, while the grey heron and great egret occupied the sites around the great cormorant breeding site. The heights of nest trees and nests of great cormorant and grey heron did not differ temporally, but these heights in site B were significantly higher than those in site A for great cormorants. For great egrets, these greatly decreased in site B in 2017. Thus, the great cormorant either moved to favourable nest sites for breeding success or selected nest sites used by the herons in the previous year. Further studies of these two possibilities are necessary.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.361-364
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• 2016

Waterbirds using rice fields has increased due to a decline of natural wetlands. The rice field is an essential habitat to supports the waterbird population. Although use of rice field by waterbirds has been widely documented, little information is available on distribution patterns of waterbirds under the pesticide use in rice fields. The current study conducted to understand the relationship between habitat use by waterbirds and pesticide applicatioins in rice fields. We monitored the distribution of waterbirds at Daeho reclaimed area in July 2013 to June 2014 and September 2014 to August 2015. As a results, three heron species (Black-crowned Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax, Eastern Cattle Egret Bubulcus coromandus and Intermediate Egret Egretta intermedia) are more sensitive to pesticides use than other waterbird species in rice fields. Future studies are necessary to explore the relationship between bird's distribution and management practices including pesticide use at different spatiotemporal scales.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.256-262
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• 2018

Multiple temporal scale can be a useful method to understand population dynamics in ecosystem. The multi-temporal scale approach for population dynamics has rarely been researched till lately. This study was carried out to identify the factors in affecting the population dynamics of herons, including Eastern Cattle Egret (Bubulcus coromadus), Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea), Great Egret (A. alba), Intermediate Egret (Egretta intermedia) and Little Egret (E. garzetta), at rice paddy fields of Seokmun-myeon in the city of Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province during the main breeding periods from 2014 to 2017. We identified the population dynamics of herons at different time interval (day and month) using the unmanned monitoring system. As a result, monthly population dynamics was mostly affected by time, mean temperature and mean precipitation, whereas daily population dynamics was affected by mean temperature and habitat types. The results suggest that there are differences in the factors affecting the population dynamics of herons according to the time scale.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.139-146
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• 2010

The survey was done in order to find what kinds of birds visit Taeanhaean National Park during breeding season, where we fixed up 10 coastal areas and islands within the National Park. Three groups concurrently performed the field research from 5th to 9th of July in 2009. Total 58 species and 7,323 individuals were recorded in Taeanhaean National Park. 48 species including 6,187 individuals were observed in coastal areas and 33 species including 1,136 individuals in island areas. The most dominant species in the National Park are Larus crassirostris which accounts for 60% of the birds inhabiting there, and they seem to have been bred in the islands near the National Park. The birds observed only around the coastal areas include Anas poecilorhyncha, Fulica atra, Egretta intermedia and the others which consist of 25 species and amount to 318 individuals, and the birds found exclusively in island areas include Phalacrocorax filamentosus, Apus pacificus¸ Locustella pleskei and other birds, which consist of 10 species and the number of those individuals observed was 308. The inhabited islands areas such as Gauido were characterized by high ratio of waterbird population, which seems to be correlated with the factors such as the extent of island, the richness of water resources, and the diversity of habitats. Based on the data collected during the research and other data from the previous observations, the kinds of dominant species remain nearly unchanged. And in spite of the oil spill accident in 2007, the increase in the number of waterbirds compared to 2004 may be the evidence that the area is recovering from the environmental pollution. At present, the tidal power plants are being built or scheduled to be built and large-scale reclamation is also under way. What is worse, those areas are seeing the increase of pension construction, which is likely to be the potential cause of damage and disturbance against some key habitats for the waterbirds. Therefore, it is a major priority that we build the bird information system to efficiently manage the knowledge-based asset collected from bird-watching groups and to better monitor the areas that need enhanced database through which the National Park can be appropriately administered.