• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.282-293
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• 2020

This study investigated a long-term variation trend of water quality, fish compositions, and ecological health conditions in the Gwanpyeong stream located in the nearby Daejeon metropolitan city to understand the impact of urban development projects on the aquatic ecosystem. The sampling was made in four surveys (2009, 2010, 2016, 2019) before and after urbanization. The urban development was conducted in 2008, resulting in the stream's ecological disturbance, and the stream restoration was conducted in 2012. Thus, stream monitoring was conducted to analyze the ecological trends before and after the restoration. The multi-metric models for Fish Assessment Index(FAI) and necropsy-based Health Assessment Index(HAI) were applied in the fish community and organ-level, respectively, to assess the ecological health of the stream. Minimum turbidity and chlorophyll-a(Chl-a) occurred in the mid-stream(St. 2), and this was probably due to rapid current velocity in the riffle zone. We collected 18 fish species, and the dominant species was Zacco platypus (40.6%). In 2016 immediately after the stream restoration, the relative proportions of sensitive species and insectivore species were the highest along with highest values in the species diversity and species richness index, resulting in the best condition in the ecological health, based on FAI model values. However, the ecological health, based on the FAI, became worse in the latest survey conducted in 2019. The analysis of the HAI model based on the organ-level approach showed skin erosion in the fish of upper stream, kidney defects in downstream, and the liver and gill defects observed in all sites, indicating that the anatomical health was also affected.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.241-250
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• 2013

Developmental process of vegetation over years after afforestation was analyzed in the Japanese larch (Larix kaempferi) plantations with different stand ages. The height and diameter of Japanese larch increased rapidly until 24 years after afforestation and tended to be blunted thereafter. The density of Japanese larch was similar with each other in the 8 and 17 years old stands but was reduced greatly in the 24 years old plantation and changing little thereafter. The floristic composition of the Japanese larch plantation did not show any clear trend depending on stand ages. The differences of species composition among plantation themselves with different ages were bigger than those between plantations and the reference stands, Mongolian oak (Quercus mongolica) stands. Japanese larch plantations showed a trend of succession to native vegetation dominated by Mongolian oak based on the results of analysis of frequency distribution by diameter class of major tree species. Species richness and diversity of all plantations were higher than those of the reference vegetation. As were shown in the above mentioned results, it can be evaluated that Japanese larch plantations practiced in the level of the functional restoration achieved successful restoration based on the floristic composition similar to the reference vegetation, the successional trend toward native vegetation, and higher species diversity compared with the reference vegetation.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.833-843
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• 2020

Ecohydraulics is a newly born discipline in the early 1990s by the interdisciplinary approach combined with aquatic ecology in one discipline and geomorphology, hydrology, and fluid hydrodynamics in another. Major areas of ecohydraulics can be delineated as habitat hydraulics (including environmental flow), vegetation hydraulics, eco-corridor hydraulics, eutrophication hydraulics, and ecological restoration hydraulics. Reviews of relevant international journals and literature reveal that ecohydraulics has remained in the limited areas of fish response, hydraulic modeling, and physical habitat response. It has not reached a truly interdisciplinary stage. Literature reviews in Korea reveal that only 3% of the total number of the papers listed in the Journal of KWRA during the last 24 years is related to ecohydraulics. It is about 20% of the total listed in the Journal of Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure. Most of those related to ecohydraulics in Korea concern vegetation hydraulics, habitat hydraulics, and ecological restoration hydraulics. In contrast, dynamic flow modeling areas, including turbulence, fauna motion simulation, and eutrophication hydraulics, are not found. Areas of further research in ecohydraulics in Korea may be specified as follows: 1) environmental flows adapted to the traits of the rivers in Korea, 2) development of the dynamic floodplain vegetation models (DFVM) to assess the changes from the white river to green river, 3) development of the eutrophication hydraulic model to predict the freshwater algal blooms, and 4) development of the models to evaluate the physical, chemical, and biological impacts of the stream restoration, decommissioning and removal of old weirs or small dams.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.284-293
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• 2020

We present a quantitative survey of the carbon storage and absorption capacity of tree species in the vegetation conservation and ecological restoration areas of Bulamsan urban nature park in Nowon-gu, Seoul. The density of the sawtooth oak (Quercus acutissima) community in the ecological conservation area is approximately 30 individuals/225 ㎡, while a further 20 species, such as Japanese snowbell (Styrax obassia), galcham oak (Quercus aliena), Asian Sweetleaf (Symplocos chinensis f. pilosa), East Asian ash (Fraxinus rhynchophylla), and Korean rhododendron (Rhododendron mucronulatum) are sparsely distributed. In contrast, the ecological restoration sites typically comprised Mongolian oak (Quercus mongolica), jolcham oak (Quercus serrata), and East Asian ash (Fraxinus rhynchophylla) plantations, with planting densities of 8.3, 7.7, and 14.3 individuals/25 ㎡ , respectively. Approximately 10 species, including Amur maple (Acer tataricum subsp. ginnala), Korean mountain ash (Sorbus alnifolia), Japanese spice bush (Lindera obtusiloba), and Korean rhododendron (Rhododendron mucronulatum) were identified in the ecologically restored area. The total amounts of carbon stored by the trees in the vegetation conservation and ecological restoration sites are 250.77 and 19.3 t C ha-1, respectively, and the total annual carbon uptakes are 10.28 and 2.33 t C ha-1 yr-1, respectively. The survey results are expected to provide important basic data for monitoring the carbon absorption capacity and carbon balance of green areas in the city.

• Journal of Practical Agriculture & Fisheries Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.13-26
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• 2021

This study was conducted to identify various types of activities of payment contract for ecosystem services. As supporting services, 12 types of activities were derived: fallow, eco-friendly crop cultivation, shelter creation management, etc. As regulating services, 5 types of activities were derived: stream environment purification, creation and management of riparian vegetation, creation and management of forests for responding to climate change, etc. As cultural services, five types of activities were derived: creation and management of landscape forests, creation and management of ecological trails, managing ecosystem conservation, etc.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.75-86
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• 2004

This study aims to figure out ecological characteristic of natural forests focusing on vegetation as a way of ecological renovation for the restoration of naturalness for golf courses that were constructed in the Country and to present vegetation models and appropriate tree species for the purpose. The study site is P golf club, which is located in Gapyong-gun, Kyeonggi Province. The site is within a forest where the grade from the natural ecology map is the first one and the level from the green index accounts for the eight, thus showing a typical environment for a golf course in terms of location. The location of the site explains a reason for restoration. The major substance of the study is to conduct ecological evaluation of vegetation structures around and inside the golf course and to present a vegetation model. In order to evaluate the ecological characteristics of the vegetation structures, the analysis of the study covered succession stages, multi-layer vegetation structures and species diversity. Plant communities that have high species diversity were selected for the vegetation model and proper density and species were proposed considering the number of species and individuals and distances between trees. The vegetation restoration model targets succession into an oak forest. Within a unit of 100 $m^2$, the recommended model include a tall-tree layer with 11 trees such as Quercus serrata and Quercus mongolica, a sub-tall-tree layer with 12 trees including Quercus mongolica, Quercus serrata, Prunus sargentii, Fraxinus rhynchophylla and Acer pseudo sieboldianum, a shrub layer with 32 trees from 16 species, and a grass layer with a cover rate of 45 %. The proposed vegetation restoration model needs to apply to : 1) damaged natural forests by the construction of golf courses; 2) boundaries between golf courses and surrounding forests; 3) buffer zones; 4) open spaces in between courses; and 5) areas between greens and tees where open spaces are available in a mass. In conclusion, one of the most important factors in presenting a vegetation model for the restoration of naturalness in the golf course and other damaged forests is to provide multi-layer vegetation structures that are composed of native species. As for the specific application for the site, it is recommended to manage the vegetation in such a way that the environment of the site can have a similar environment to the surrounding forest which is expected to succeed into an oaks-dominant one.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.1-18
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• 2023

The Ecosystem Conservation Levy (formerly known as the Ecosystem Conservation Cooperation Fund) system has been in place for 20 years, and it can be said that it has now entered the settlement stage. Based on an analysis of publicly available project implementation data from 2014 to 2020, we found that: 1) As the number of return projects increases, the targets of restoration technologies are also strengthening, and it is necessary to frame a series of processes from application, creation, and monitoring for some detailed projects to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of utilizing the levy. 2) Most of the implemented projects are applied as micro-ecosystem creation, but there are many cases where the contents of the project can be seen as other project categories. This shows that the purpose of the return project needs to be approached more clearly and suggests that institutional complementation is needed from the project application stage. 3) The detailed technologies applied tend to be gradually expanding, but most of them are technologies that are not differentiated from general development projects. It is urgent to secure a more technical identity, such as a range and list of utilized technologies suitable for the characteristics and purposes of return projects. 4) It is necessary to establish a relevant evaluation system or framework to utilize the monitoring results of restoration projects. 5) There have been few cases of application of single restoration technologies since the beginning, but the content and scope of the complexity tend to expand in recent years. Even if the objectives are not comprehensive and diverse, it can be seen that many parts of the projects are oriented toward convergence, so it is necessary to conduct separate research on this. 6) As for the direction of improvement of the return project, it is possible to consider expanding the restoration and conservation focus to partially accommodate the complexity of the natural environment and human ecology. It seems that the expansion of restoration technologies that consider the role and function of humans in the natural environment should be explored.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.33-50
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• 2023

This study is to propose the ecosystem service valuation method as a complementary or alternative tool to overcome the limitations of the contingent valuation method(CVM), typically used to assess social benefits in preliminary feasibility studies. With an increasing interest in natural and environmental restoration projects, we assessed social benefits with theses CVM and ecosystem service valuation method from a case of Janghang wetland restoration project and compared the extent of the two social benefits. For quantitative evaluation of ecosystem services, the biophysical quantity for each ecosystem service indicator was calculated and then converted into currency (KRW) units to estimate the economic value of ecosystem services. The four ecosystem regulating service indicators were selected including greenhouse gas capture/storage, air pollution, water quantity and quality regulation. The amounts of CO₂ sequestration and storage as a ecosystem's greenhouse gas regulating service in the study area were 73.04 tCO₂/yr and 5,867.53 tCO₂/yr respectively. The reduction of SO₂, one of air pollutant gases by ecosystems was calculated to be 180.27 kg/yr, the reduction of NO₂ to be 378.90 kg/yr, and the reduction of fine dust (PM10) to be 9,713.92 kg/yr. The amount of freshwater regulating service by the ecosystem was estimated to be 459,394,319ℓ/yr, and the amount of nitrogen in freshwater removed by the ecosystem was 78.00kg/yr. Study results show that the benefits derived from the CVM were KRW 227.8 billion over the 30-year analysis period and those from the ecosystem service valuation method were KRW 41.4 billion for regulatory services and KRW 148.8 billion for cultural services, totaling KRW 189.5 billion. With KRW 184.8 billion of the total costs, the benefit/cost ratio using the CVM was 1.23 and that with the ecosystem service valuation method was 1.03. This study implications include that the CVM and ecosystem service valuation method can be applied together to assess and compare social benefits for natural and environmental restoration projects.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.257-276
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• 2022

Studies on rare and endemic plant conservation should be performed nationally to conserve plant diversity. Studies targeting a specific taxon have been reported based on the necessity of conserving plant diversity. From this point of view, there is an increasing necessity to compare and evaluate the studies for conservation. Moreover, it is necessary to analyze and review the direction for study subjects and items required for effective conservation of rare and endemic plants in Korea, based on the analysis results of collected data. We analyzed trends of studies on rare and endemic plants worldwide. In particular, we collected and analyzed the study trend in Korea. Study fields of the rare and endemic plants were divided into six classifications, of which the conservation ecology classification was sub-divided into the species traits, population study, and biological interaction. We have collected conservation ecology studies showing significant differences in regions and countries. They have been actively conducted in Europe and North America by region and in Japan and the United States by country. On the contrary, studies on basic ecology accounted for the most, followed by conservation genetics and restoration ecology in Korea. It was revealed that the portion of conservation ecology conducted in Korea was lower than that of the world. Moreover, studies mainly focused on a specific taxon of rare and endemic plants, such as endangered plants designated by the Korean Ministry of Environment. Particularly in Korea, conservation genetics and restoration ecology studies accounted for high percentages. Considering the worldwide study trends, particularly those in Europe and North America that lead the study of conservation ecology, we suggest approaches to increase the percentages of conservation ecology, including securing the information on species traits, population structure and population dynamics, and interaction between animals and plants are necessary for effective conservation of rare and endemic plants in Korea.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.156-168
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• 2017

Linear development such as road and railway construction is considered to be an important factor in the dipersion agent of alien species. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of road project implementation on the introduction of alien plants. We selected the roadworks that have been completed or completed by more than 70% of the projects in the Han River basin environment agency. The alien plant data were divided into five phases: pre-construction (P0) and construction (P25, P50, P75, P100) according to the annual process rate. As the construction progresses, the naturalization rate, the urbanization index and the tendency of the number of exotic plants increase. Especially, alien plants were introduced rapidly at the beginning of the construction period, and the introduced species continued to appear until the construction was completed. Therefore, it is necessary to minimize the introduction of ailen plants by concentrating management of embankment process and the vegetation restoration process at the beginning of roadworks.