• The Korean Journal of Ecology
• /
• v.24 no.6
• /
• pp.377-380
• /
• 2001

Herbivory is an important selective forces on plants by reducing the ability of the plant to compete with its neighbors and to produce offspring. Oak nut weevil(Mechoris ursulus Roelofs) females lay eggs in unmatured acorns and cut off the branch of oviposited acorns. To investigate the influences of branch-cutting behavior of oak nut weevils on oak production, we surveyed the horizontal and vertical distribution ranges of damaged oaks and depth of sites of overwintering larvae and quantified the amounts of biomass and acorn removed by the weevils on deciduous oak species. All of the endemic oak species in Korea were damaged by oak nut weevils in all of the study sites including Mt. Halla and Mt. Seorak. The upper limit of vertical distribution of damaged oaks by the weevils raried from 700 m to 900 m. Mostly their larvae were found in soil from 8.1 cm to 10.0 cm depth in winter. Percentage of annual net primary productivity($720g{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}day^{-1}$) of oak species removed by the weevils was about 7%, which is higher than the percentage removed by all the herbivores in typical temperate forest(5%) and equivalent to that by all the herbivores in tropical forest. The predation percentage of annual acorn production by oak nut weevil was 27% in Q. mongolica and 33% in Q. acutissima. This results indicate that the branch-cutting behavior of oak nut weevil may be the most important factor regulating oak population and affecting other predators dependent on acorns.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.26 no.11
• /
• pp.1341-1344
• /
• 2016

Dendropanax morbifera is an endemic tree species of Korea, it is restricted to the southern parts of Korea. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) for Dendropanax morbifera grown at Bogil-do, Korea was determined. We investigated the sequence-based phylogenetic relationships of plants related and clarified its taxonomical position. The determined sequences consisted of 689 residues. ITS1 was 222 bp long while ITS2 was 233 bp long. The 5.8S rDNA was 160 bp long. The ITS region sequences of the Dendropanax species included in this study were obtained from GenBank. Oreopanax polycephalus was used as the outgroup. A pairwise alignment was calculated using the Clustal X program. A phylogenetic tree was constructed by the neighbor-joining method using the Tree view program. Sequence similarities among species including D. morbifera Bogil-do isolate showed the range 92.6 to 99.7% in sequence-based phylogenetic analysis using total 615 base pairs of ITS1, 5.8S rDNA and ITS2. D. morbifera Bogil-do isolate exhibited the highest degree of relatedness to D. chevalieri, sharing 99.7% ITS region similarity. D. morbifera Bogil-do isolate also showed to D. trifidus, sharing 99.4% ITS region similarity.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.83-89
• /
• 2005

The historical changes of seeding work in Japan, the typical slope revegetation method, is possible to divide into five periods as follows; 1) The early period after creation(1927-1948) 2) The spreading period of modern revegetation work with manpower(1947-1958) 3) The spreading period of rapid revegetation technique using exotic grasses with machineries(1959-1985${\dots}$) 4) The spreading period of rapid reforestation technique by fast growing species mainly using leguminous shrub species(1986-1995${\dots}$) 5)The developing period of nature restoration technique using endemic arborous species(1996-) The evaluation basis of vegetated condition after slope seeding has been described to a official guide book, "The Standards of Slope Stabilizing Works" It was mainly revised three times after first edition in 1972, and also the point of evaluation basis changed from the vegetation coverage to the density of woody plant through the 3rd period and the 4th period Recently main purpose of slope seeding has been developing from the erosion protection to the nature restoration in the current of the 5th period, and "The tentative guidelines of slope nature restoration" was announced by The Slope Revegetation Section of Japanese Society of Revegetation Technology in 2004. It was proposed the planning techniques of using suitable seeds/plants based on the preservation level at the real each construction sites Consequently, at present the importance of advanced monitoring methods for vegetation maintenance and plant sociologic survey to evaluate the plant succession is increasing.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.186-190
• /
• 2020

Halophytes are physiologically adapted to withstand the high salinity of water and saline soil. This study was conducted to elucidate the distribution of halophytes and hydrophytes in the Jungseonpo River (Sacheon-ci, Gyeongsangnam-do), Gwingok River (Hadong-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do), and Gwangyangseo River (Gwangyang-ci, Jeollanam-do) in Korea. A total of six species of halophytes and ten species of hydrophytes were collected in the Jungseonpo River. Halophytes in the Gwingok River and Gwangyangseo River numbered five species and 11 species, respectively. Hydrophytes in the Gwingok River and the Gwangyangseo River numbered 13 species in five families and 16 species in eight families, respectively. Of these, Phacelurus latifolius, endemic to the west and south coast of Korea, is an endangered species in the context of investigating the ecology and conservation of halophyte species. Many individual halophyte species have been diminished due to reduced habitable area caused by sand dune destruction. The rivers in the three areas on the south coast were also different in terms of distribution of salt plants due to regional differences, and they were all different from the well-developed west coast. Seven species, including Rosa wichuraiana, have been added to South coasts compared to past records.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.315-321
• /
• 2003

Freezing and drought tolerances in plants are very important for survival in the desert. In an effort to reduce desertifcation in Gobi, a molecular breeding of Artemisia adamsii using the CLP (chitinase like protein, antifreeze protein) and Dhn5 (dehydrin5) genes from barley is performed by introducing them into Artemisia adamsii via Agrobacteria. We had found an optimal combinatorial concentration of hormones at 0.05mg/L of NAA and 0.5mg/L of BA for growth of callus in Artemisia adamsii. In addition, the higher rate of callus induction using hypocotyl as explant was observed comparing to explants of stem and leaf. There were some variations in the level of the proteins expressed among the transgenic lines such that the lines of CLP(CS1-5, 1-7,4-4) and Dhn5(DS2-2, 2-3) lines produce the protein to higher levels. The transgenic lines showing a higher level of Dhn5 exhibited better growth than nontransgenic callus in presence of 10 and 20％ PEG. In case of the CLP tansgenic lines, both CS1-5 and CS1-7 showed a higher level of freezing tolerance determined by ion leakage test.

• Animal cells and systems
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.29-39
• /
• 1999

Current data on reproductive characters of endemic and native species are essential to provide a strategy for the conservation of these species. Red pine (Pinus densiflora Sieb. & Zucc.) is one of the dominant, native tree species in Korea, but its reproductive ecology is not well-known. In 1997, the pattern of variation in cone and seed yields contributing to the conservation of declining populations of red pines was examined. Plant height and dbh were measured, and several new cones were collected from each tagged tree after counting the number of cones on each tree. For a subset of cones sampled, the number of fertile scales, the number of seeds at three development stages (early/late aborted, and filled seed), seed wing size, wing color, and individual filled seed mass were measured. The three sites which differed significantly in mean plant size also differed in mean cone and seed production per plant. However further analyses showed that most variation in characters examined occurred among plants within sites, but not among sites. An average of 90% of the potential seeds on the cones aborted at an early developmental stage, demonstrating that early abortion is a major factor affecting the number of filled seeds per cone. Individual seed mass was the only character which exhibited significant variations among sites as well as among trees within sites. Individual seed mass was overall negatively correlated with both the percentage of late abortion and the number of old cones per plant, suggesting that both the past and current years' reproductive activities have caused variations in seed mass. The potential dispersal distance of red pine seeds is quite large. However, wing loading was correlated with seed mass and number in a complex pattern across the sites. Distribution of seeds with varied colored wings differed among sites and among trees within sites. These results suggest that red pines at different sites might possess different strategies to cope with selection pressures acting during the final phase of reproduction, from seed dispersal to establishment. Then the ‘fitted’ red pine trees at each site should be identified and managed to conserve or restore populations.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2019.10a
• /
• pp.24-24
• /
• 2019

Iris L. is a perennial genus comprising approximately 300 species worldwide, with the greatest number of endemic species occurring in Asia. Iris is one of the largest genera in the family Iridaceae and includes ca. 15 species native to Korea. Although chromosome number change, karyotype restructuring, and genome size variation play an important role in plant genome diversification, understanding the karyotype variation in Korean Iris species has been hampered by the wide range of base chromosome number (x = 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22) reported to date. This study documents the chromosome numbers, karyotype structure and genome size variation in Iris ruthenica K. Gawl., an endangered species in Korea obtained using classic Feulgen staining and flow cytometry. The chromosome number of all investigated plants from the nine populations was 2n = 42. All individuals studied possessed metacentric and submetacentric chromosomes. The genome size of the I. ruthenica in eight wild populations ranged from 2.39 pg/1C to 2.45 pg/1C ($2.42{\pm}0.02pg/1C$: $mean{\pm}SD$). This study provides the first report of genome size variation in Iris ruthenica in Korea. This study lays foundation for cytogenetic further analyses employing by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to better understand the chromosomal evolution in this species and in the whole genus.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2019.04a
• /
• pp.27-27
• /
• 2019

본 연구는 한국 특산식물이고, IUCN Red List의 EN(위기종) 등급에 속하는 개느삼(Echinosophora koreensis)을 대상으로 자생지 분포, 식생구조 등의 생태적 특성과 현지 내외 보전 방안을 제시하기 위해 수행되었다. 개느삼의 자생지 분포 조사 결과 강원도 양구군 13곳, 인제군 3곳, 춘천시 2곳, 홍천군 1곳 총 19곳에 분포하는 것을 확인하였다. 개느삼 자생지의 해발고도는 169-711m에 분포하는 것으로 나타났고, 평균 해발고도는 375m 인 것으로 조사되었다. 개느삼 자생지의 면적 조사 결과, $8,000-734,000m^2$인 것으로 분석되었고, 평균 $202,789m^2$으로 조사되었다. 개느삼 자생지의 입지환경 분석을 수행한 결과, 자생지 내 우점종은 교목층에서 소나무가 대부분 우점하였고, 아교목층에서는 신갈나무가 우점하는 것으로 분석되었다. 관목층은 생강나무가 우점하였고, 초본층은 모든 조사구에서 개느삼이 우점하는 것으로 분석되었다. 개느삼 자생지의 식생군집분석 결과, 신갈나무, 소나무, 굴참나무 우점 군집 3개 군집으로 분류되었다. 개느삼 자생지를 대상으로 관속식물상을 조사한 결과, 총 82과 204속 289종 4아종 43변종 5품종 341분류군으로 확인되었다. 개느삼의 출현지점을 이용하여 자생지 분포역 예측 model 중 하나인 MaxEnt 분석을 통하여 잠재 분포지 분석을 수행한 결과, AUC값은 0.9762로 분석되었다. 분포예측 자생지는 강원도 양구군, 인제군, 춘천시, 화천군 지역에 집중되어 분포하는 것으로 나타났다.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.73-78
• /
• 2021

We report a technique for obtaining seeds of 'Cheongnarae' (a variety of Hosta minor cultivated at the Korea National Arboretum in 2019) by artificial crossing of H. minor, collected from Jeju Island, as the female parent and H. minor 'Krossa Regal', cultivated outside Korea, as the male parent. Among the individuals obtained after sowing, those that showed different morphological characteristics, such as leaf shape and color, were selected. Among these individuals, those with thick leaves and light-colored flowers were further selected. Vegetative propagation and cultivation steps were repeated for evaluation of the characteristics. 'Cheongnarae' has relatively thicker leaves and a darker color (RHS 137A) than the control variety 'Black Hills' and has wings at the point where the petiole meets the leaf blade. The shape of the leaf blade edge is clearly sinuous, and the flower color is close to white (White N155B). 'Cheongnarae' cultivated in this way can be used for pot plant or gardening.

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.44 no.1
• /
• pp.29-38
• /
• 2022

Halophytes are plants that live in harsh environments in coastal regions and are known for their diverse chemical compositions. Limonium tetragonum, a halophyte endemic to Korean shores, is known for its bioactive compounds and is utilized in folk medicine. In this study L. tetragonum extract (LHE) was used to determine and evaluate its anti-osteoporotic properties. Pre-adipocyte and pre-osteoblasts were induced to differentiate along with LHE treatment, and their differentiation was evaluated using differentiation markers. LHE treatment decreased lipid accumulation in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes during adipogenesis. Results indicated that the LHE treatment also decreased the levels of key adipogenic transcription factors: PPARγ, SREBP1c, and C/EBPα. Enhancing osteoblastogenesis by LHE treatment was confirmed in osteoblastogenesis-induced MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblasts. Cells treated with LHE resulted in increased calcification and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity compared with osteoblasts without LHE treatment. Pro-osteogenic and anti-adipogenic effects were also confirmed in D1 murine mesenchymal stromal cells which are capable of differentiation into both adipocytes and osteoblasts. LHE hindered adipogenesis and enhanced osteoblastogenesis in D1 MSCs in a similar fashion. In conclusion, L. tetragonum is believed to possess the potential to be utilized as a nutraceutical ingredient against osteoporotic conditions.