• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.75-82
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• 2024

This study examined the spatial morphological patterns of forest habitats and the characteristics of roadkill occurrences in the forests of Mungyeong, Yecheon, Yeongju, Andong, and Bonghwa in Gyeongsangbukdo. It involved building a resistance map between habitats and analyzing connectivity based on the least-cost distance. The analysis of the distance between the forest habitat Cores derived from MSPA and roadkill points showed that roadkill occurrences were concentrated approximately 74.11 m away from the Cores, with most roadkills happening within 360m from the habitats. The connectivity analysis between core habitats larger than 1 km² revealed 141 core habitats and 242 least-cost paths between them. The corridor distance value was found to be highest in Mungyeong city, indicating an urgent need for strategies to enhance habitat connectivity there. This research is expected to serve as foundational data for developing strategies to enhance ecosystem connectivity and restore habitats, by analyzing ecosystem connectivity and roadkill issues due to habitat fragmentation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.110 no.1
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• pp.22-34
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• 2021

The implementation of the sunset provision of unexecuted urban parks in Seoul has been postponed; however, the mentioned parks still remain vulnerable since they can be subject to development under certain circumstances. Local governments may purchase the parks to prevent their loss but are constrained due to limited resources. The purpose of this study is to prioritize the purchase of unexecuted urban parks in Seoul based on landscape connectivity, which represents the important role of allowing the movement of wildlife and providing biodiversity in urban environments. In this study, we used four potential scenarios (PB100, PB1, PA100, PA1), which reflects the degree of land cover change resulting from the implementation of the sunset provision, and the role of Han River as a conduit or barrier for wildlife movement. Landscape connectivity was evaluated by calculating current flow betweenness centrality (CFBC). This was used to rank the importance of the unexecuted urban parks in Seoul. The results demonstrated that the implementation of the sunset provision will greatly decrease the connectivity of all parks in Seoul and particularly more so for parks in the southern part of the city. In addition, the results suggested that the low connectivity of Han river will diminish the connectivity around Bukhansan Mountain in the northern part of Seoul. Our study can be used for the prioritization of purchase, since it has the ability to evaluate the anticipated vulnerability of each park's connectivity after the sunset provision.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.997-1007
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• 2012

This study was performed to assess functions of 10 man-made wetlands in Gunsan City, Jeollabuk Province by means of RAM (Rapid Assessment Method), a technique recommended by Ramsar Convention to appraise wetlands. The assessment of the wetlands value found Gunsan reservoir to have the highest function points while Bukchosan reservoir was estimated to have the lowest function among the wetlands surveyed. By detailed factors of valued 10 man-made wetland, the wetlands were found to function most favorably in terms of vegetational variety and as habitat for wild animals. They need to have more improved functions as habitats for fish and amphibians reptiles, for preservation and betterment of water quality as well as for supplement of underground water, though. From the assessment of vegetational naturalness of the surveyed reservoirs, Gunsan reservoir turned out to be the most favorable wetland from the viewpoint of vegetation science whereas, however, Anjeong wetland was rated as the lowest in the assessment of vegetational value due to simplicity in its vegetation and lots of dangers in its neighborhood threatening its vegetation and ecology. The assessment of vegetational values for Gunsan, Gongchang, Daewi, Bukchosan, Anjeong, Geumgul, Changan and Chuksan reservoirs showed the same orextremely similar results as RAM function assessment. Geumsan reservoir only, however, featured the opposite result.

• 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.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.115-121
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• 2002

Yubu Island is located within the estuary of the Geum River, South Chungcheong Province $(35^{\circ}59'N,\;126^{\circ}36'E)$, Korea. The island is surrounded by a broad and sandy mudflat, which is typical in the west coast of Korea, and is located 4km off from Gunsan City. Less than 100 humans live on the island, occupying 30 houses. After we discovered that this island was a very important waterbird habitat especially for the East Asian subspecies of the Eurasian oystercatcher, Haematopus ostralegus osculans. Waterbirds were monitored once every month from August 1999 to July 2000. The highest number of oystercatchers counted was 3,200 in December 1999, and the birds seemed to remain in the area continuously from September to next February. About 200 breeding and non-breeding birds remained during the breeding season. In August, early migrants returned to the island, with the number reaching 1,060 individuals. This island is also very important for other waterbirds. Endangered or significant species occurring at this site, and their maximum counts were: chinese egret Egretta eulophotes (5), black-faced spoonbill Platalea minor (17), brant Branta bernicla (1), common shelduck Tadorna tadorna (8,000), hooded crane Grus monacha (2), spoon-billed sandpiper Ewynorhynchus pygmeus (7), dunlin Calidris alpina (6,500), great knot Calidris tenuirostris (24,000), far eastern curlew Numenius madagascariensis (2,500), spotted greenshank Tringa guttifer (4) and Saunders's gull Larus saundersi (1,200). During the 12 month survey period, we observed 52 waterbird species and the total of the maximum counts for the separate species was 73,308, implying that perhaps 150,000 birds could be using the immediate area, if a turnover rate of 2 was assumed.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.547-559
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• 2012

Abandoned channel is vestiges of running in the past. Abandoned channels have been formed mostly by artificial river maintenance through channel straightening in Korea. Managed properly, these now abandoned channels can provide habitat for wildlife, maintain biodiversity of aquatic life, security against flooding and recreation area for human. However, because the areas are officially classified as abandoned, the channels is collapsing and decaying from years of neglect. This study suggested functional assessment for wetland-type abandoned channel in order to provide appropriate management and investment. For this reason, The study will examine and evaluate these channels with regard to the following four major criteria (Natureless, Habitat, Water-friendliness and Water quality) and 21 indices. Consequently, abandoned channel in two Nakdong river sites, site 1 was needed for protection or improvement in the medium to longer term, while site 2 was in good condition. This evaluation method will be helpful to manage wetland-type abandoned channel in Korea and will be able to use National River Health Program.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.65-77
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• 2015

The urban park has important functions as a habitat for wildlife as well as open space of rest and community for people. This study was carried out to find what factors of structure and vegetation of urban parks could affect forest bird species diversity in Cheonan city. The study surveyed bird and vegetation species in 26 urban parks, Cheonan city. A correlation analysis and multiple linear regressions were performed to test whether habitat structure and vegetation were the major correlate with species diversity. The results showed the Dujeong park was the most high bird species diversity (H' = 2.13), and the Dujeong-8 park (H' = 2.02) and the Cheongsa park (H' = 1.73) were considerably higher than the other urban parks. The variables that were strongly correlated with bird species diversity were park area, number of subtree species, canopy of shrub, number of shrub species, shape index, canopy of subtree, canopy of tree, and impervious surface ratio. The regression of bird species diversity against the environmental variables showed that 3 variables of park area, canopy of subtree, and canopy of tree were included in the best model. Model variable selection was broadly similar for the 5 optimal models. It means park area and multi-layer vegetation were the most consistent and significant predictor of bird species diversity, because urban parks were isolated by built-up areas. Especially the subtree coverage that provides shelter and food for forest birds was an important variable. Therefore, to make parks circular-shaped and abundant multi-layer vegetation, which could be a buffer to external disturbances and improve the quality of habitats, may be used to enhance species diversity in creation and management of urban parks.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.24 no.1 s.61
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• pp.89-94
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• 2006

This study was conducted to infer habitat distribution of Eurasian otter Lutra lutra in Korea. We recognized trace or presence of otter spraints from 254 of 750 pixels (pixel size: 13.75X11 km) used in this survey, amounting to 34%. The highest frequency of localities, with the spraints present, occurred in Gyeongsangbuk-do (49.62%) and the lowest one was observed in Gyeonggi-do (7.36%). The other regions were as follows: Gangwong-do (49.56%), Chungcheong buk-do (41.67%), Gyeongsangnam-do (38.00%), Jeolabuk-do (37.93%), Jeolanam-do (24.24%), Chungchengnam-do (20.29%). The counted number of the spraints was very low level in most of the localities where they were found (1.7spraints per sprainting site). It may indicate that small size of local populations would be expected in most of the localities. The habitat distribution of Korean otter, inferred from the distribution pattern of the spraints, will provide valuable basic information required for conserving and managing Korean otter.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.412-420
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• 2011

This study was conducted to quantitatively analyze the temporal change of green space network at multi-scales from 1975 to 2006 with the application of graph theory in Seoul, Korea. Remarkable change of connectivity was detected in green space networks at the scale ranging from 1,000 ~ 1,600 m during 30 years. Green spaces and their networks have been restoring after 1990 since forest areas had been fragmented in 1975. In 2006, we identified the important core habitat areas that can sustain diverse wildlife species and stepping stones composed of small patches that can link these core habitat areas. Green spaces showed high correlation with the relative importance value of green space connectivity. So, this study could graphically represent green space networks of Seoul City. Green spaces of core areas distributed at the northern and southern boundary, and those of stepping stones possessing the high value of betweenness centrality consisted at the middle, eastern and western boundary. These results indicate that green space network can be graphically and quantitatively explained by degree centrality, betweenness centrality and relative importance value of connectivity with the application of graph theory.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.168-177
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• 2015

BACKGROUND: In recent year, there has been great concern regarding agricultural land uses and their importance for the conservation of biodiversity. Rice fields are managed unique wetland for wildlife, especially waterbirds. A comprehensive monitoring of the waterbird assemblage to understand patterning changes was attempted for rice ecosystem in South Korea. This rice ecosystem has been recognized as one of the most important for waterbirds conservation. METHODS AND RESULTS: Biweekly monitoring was implemented for the 4 years from April 2009 to March 2010, from April 2011 to March 2014. 32 species of waterbirds were observed. Self-organizing map (SOM) and random forest were applied to the waterbirds dataset to identify the characteristics in waterbirds distribution. SOM and random forest analysis clearly classified into four clusters and extract ecological information from waterbird dataset. Waterbird assemblages represented strong seasonality and habitat use according to waterbird group such as shorebirds, herons and waterfowl. CONCLUSION: Our results showed that the combination of SOM and random forest analysis could be useful for ecosystem assessment and management. Furthermore, we strongly suggested that a strict management strategy for the rice fields to conserve the waterbirds. The strategy could be seasonally and species specific.