• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.796-804
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• 2006

The objective of this research was to develop ecological multi-metric models using natural fish assemblages for a diagnosis of current stream health condition, and apply the model to nationwide lotic ecosystems of the Geum River, the Youngsan River, and the Sumjin River. The ecological stream health model was based on the index of biological integrity (IBI), which was originally developed in North American streams by Karr (1981), and the Rapid Bioassessment Protocol (RBP), which was scientifically established by the US EPA (1999). The metric numbers and metric attributes were partially changed for the regional applications, so the scoring criteria was modified for the assessment. Overall, metric values, based on the IBI calculations, reflected conventional water quality characteristics, based on nutrient regime, and agreed with results of staticeco-toxicity tests. Some stations impaired in terms of stream health were identified by the IBI approach, and also major key stressors affecting the stream health were identified by additional evaluations of physical habitats. Our preliminary results suggested that biological integrity in stream ecosystems was largely disturbed by habitat degradation as well as chemical pollutions. This new approach would be used as a key tool for ecological restorations and species conservations in the degraded aquatic ecosystems in Korea and applied for elucidating major causes of ecological disturbances. Ultimately, this approach provides us an effective management strategy of stream ecosystems through establishments of ecological networks in various watersheds.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.15-35
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• 2012

Mercury (Hg) is a global environmental pollutant that has been the cause of many public concerns. One particular concern about Hg in aquatic systems is its trophic transfer and biomagnification in food chains. For example, the Hg concentration increases with the increase of food chain level. Fish at the top of food chain can accumulate high concentrations of Hg (especially the toxic form, methylmercury, MeHg), which is then transferred to humans through seafood consumption. Various biological and physiochemical conditions can significantly affect the bioaccumulation of Hg-including both its inorganic (Hg(II)) and organic (MeHg) forms-in fish. There have been numerous measurements of Hg concentrations in marine and freshwater fish worldwide. Many of these studies have attempted to identify the processes leading to variations of Hg concentrations in fish species from different habitats. The development of a biokinetic model over the past decade has helped improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the bioaccumulation processes of Hg in aquatic animals. In this review, I will discuss how the biokinetic modeling approach can be used to reveal the interesting biodynamics of Hg in fish, such as the trophic transfer and exposure route of Hg(II) and MeHg, as well as growth enrichment (the increases in Hg concentration with fish size) and biomass dilution (the decreases in Hg concentration with increasing phytoplankton biomass). I will also discuss the relevance of studying the subcellular fates of Hg to predict the Hg bioaccessibility and detoxification in fish. Future challenges will be to understand the inter- and intra-species differences in Hg accumulation and the management/mitigation of Hg pollution in both marine and freshwater fish based on our knowledge of Hg biodynamics.

• Journal of Species Research
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.26-34
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• 2020

The phylum Bacteroidetes covers phenotypically diverse groups of Gram negative rods that do not form endospores, and currently includes 6 classes, 6 orders, 33 families and 380 genera. Members of Bacteroidetes can be aerobic and anaerobic heterotrophs, hydrogen utilizing chemolithotrophs, or methylotrophs. They can be isolated from diverse habitats including terrestrial and aquatic environments, environments with extreme physicochemical conditions, and animal and plant hosts. During a series of extensive surveys of prokaryotic species diversity in Korea, bacterial strains belonging to Bacteroidetes were isolated from various sources of aquatic and terrestrial environments. A total of 22 isolates were obtained, which represent 22 unrecorded species in Korea belonging to 14 genera of 6 families. Sixteen species among them were assigned to Flavobacteriaceae, two species were to Sphingobacteriaceae, and single species was to each of the families Bacteroidaceae, Balneolaceae, Chitinophagaceae and Cytophagaceae. At genus level, Chryseobacterium (5 species) and Flavobacterium (5 species) were the most abundant genera, and single species were obtained for the genera Bacteroides, Baloneola, Terrimonas, Dyadobacter, Aquimarina, Arenibacter, Gillisia, Gilvibacter, Salinimicrobium, Winogradskyella, Pedobacter and Sphingobacterium. The detailed descriptions of each unrecorded species are provided.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.116-121
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• 2021

This study is the first official report on the wild habitats of alien species, Yellow-spotted Amazon River Turtle (Podocnemis unifilis) in Republic of Korea. On July 24, 2020, two P.unifilis were observed basking on rocks at 33°30'20.08"N 126°38'0.23"E, Waheul-ri, Jocheon-eup, Jeju-si, Jeju. One individual had a yellow spots on the head where as the other contains black spot. Our observatory site is close to road and easy access to people. Thus, these individuals were believed to be released in the pond after raising as pets. Recently, the number of alien turtles identified in wild(etc. lake, resevoir) is increasing, which is predicted to damage the aquatic ecosystem due to the inflow of exotic turtles. So, it is necessary to improve the people's awareness of alien species through citizen science projects and environmental education. We suggest that research on habitat adaptation, reproduction and management through continuous monitoring is needed in the future.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.345-352
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• 2022

In this study, the dietary habits of the spinyhead sculpin Dasycottus setiger were investigated based on 156 specimens collected seasonally between May 2018 and February 2019 from the East Sea off the Korean coast. In terms of the weight contribution (%W), the main food items of the spinyhead sculpin were found to be teleosts (33.5%), followed by carid shrimps (13.8%), amphipods (13.3%), cephalopods (12.0%), and polychaetes (7.1%). Dietary analyses based on the weight contribution of different prey taxa in the diet of the spinyhead sculpin revealed considerable variation in the dietary composition in terms of the sampling region and fish size implying intra-specific dietary segregation. The spinyhead sculpin showed a size-related trends in dietary shift from amphipods to carid shrimps and teleosts in northern region, and from carid shrimps and mysids to teleosts and cephalopods in middle eastern coast. Multivariate analyses of dietary changes revealed that the dietary composition of spinyhead sculpin is significantly associated with the sampling site, but not the fish size. Amphipods contributed more to the diets of the northern population, while mysids typified the diets of spinyhead scuplin inhabiting the middle eastern coast, indicating differences in available food resources between the two study regions.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.83-96
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• 2016

Through the research and analysis on the vegetation environment, flora of habitats through documentary and field studies over 14 habitats of Euryale ferox Salisbury within Jeollabukdo, with the objective of acquiring the basic data for forming an environment based on plantation of reservoirs that are composed with Euryale ferox, the following results were obtained. 1. The entire flora of the 14 habitats appeared to be 79 families, 211 genus, 298 species, two subspecies, 30 varieties and six forma, thus, a total of 336 taxa was confirmed. Among these, emergent water plants appeared to compose 17 taxa, floating-leaved plants to compose seven taxa including Euryale ferox floating plants to compose five taxa and submerged water plants to compose two taxa. As a result of analyzing the similarity only over the water plants. The lowest similarity rate appeared between Gamdong Reservoir and Aedang Reservoir, as the similarity rate between the two regions appeared to be 0% as a result of the analysis. Floating-leaved plants, lotuses and caltrops, appeared to be equally inhabiting in Hanseongji at Jeongeup and Seoknam Reservoir at Gochang, which showed the highest similarity rate, in addition to Euryale ferox. 2. When examining the appearance frequency of aquatic plants per growth type, Actinostemma lobatum and Phragmites communis, in addition to Euryale ferox each appeared 11 times, showing a high frequency of 78.6% and Trapa japonica, which is a floating-leaved water plant, appeared ten times(71.4%) and Zizania latifolia appeared eight times(57.1%). In addition, the appearance rate appeared to be high in the order of Persicaria thunbergii, Leersia sayanuka, Ceratophyllum demersum, Echinochloa crusgalli var. oryzicola, Scirpus maritimus, and Nelumbo nucifera. 3. The rare plants discovered in the Euryale ferox habitats pursuant to the IUCN evaluation standards was confirmed to be composed of five taxa, with three taxa including the least concerned species(LC), Melothria japonica at Yanggok Reservoir, Hydrocharis dubia at Myeongdeokji and Ottelia alismoides at Daewi Reservoir, in addition to vulnerable species(VU), Utricularia vulgaris at Sangpyeong Reservoir, along with Euryale ferox. 4. Most of the group or community types of the natural habitats of Euryale ferox appeared to be the Euryale ferix community' and the Daewi Reservoir of Gunsan was defined as caltrop + Euryale ferox + Nymphoides indica community. The green coverage ratio of Euryale ferox per natural habitats showed a considerably huge deviation from 0.03 to 36.50 and as the average green coverage ratio was appropriated as 9.8, it can be considered that maintaining the green coverage ratio of Euryale ferox in a 10% level would be advisable when forming a reservoir with Euryale ferox as the key composition species. 5. The vegetation community nearby the natural habitats of Euryale ferox per research subject area appeared to be composed of three Leersia japonica communities, two communities each for Zizania latifolia community and Trapa japonica community and one community each for Nelumbo nucifera community, Nymphoides peltata + Typha orientalis community, Trapa japonica + Nelumbo nucifera community, Hydrocharis dubia community, Leersia japnica + Paspalum distichum var. indutum community and Euryale ferox + Trapa japonica community, showing a slight difference depending on the location conditions of each reservoir. Thus, this result may be suggested as a guideline to apply when allocating the vegetation ratio and the types of floating-leaved plants upon planting plants in reservoirs with Euryale ferox as the main companion species.

• Communications for Statistical Applications and Methods
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.575-587
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• 2015

The development in data collection techniques results in high dimensional data sets, where discrimination is an important and commonly encountered problem that are crucial to resolve when high dimensional data is heterogeneous (non-common variance covariance structure for classes). An example of this is to classify microbial habitat preferences based on codon/bi-codon usage. Habitat preference is important to study for evolutionary genetic relationships and may help industry produce specific enzymes. Most classification procedures assume homogeneity (common variance covariance structure for all classes), which is not guaranteed in most high dimensional data sets. We have introduced regularized elimination in partial least square coupled with QDA (rePLS-QDA) for the parsimonious variable selection and classification of high dimensional heterogeneous data sets based on recently introduced regularized elimination for variable selection in partial least square (rePLS) and heterogeneous classification procedure quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA). A comparison of proposed and existing methods is conducted over the simulated data set; in addition, the proposed procedure is implemented to classify microbial habitat preferences by their codon/bi-codon usage. Five bacterial habitats (Aquatic, Host Associated, Multiple, Specialized and Terrestrial) are modeled. The classification accuracy of each habitat is satisfactory and ranges from 89.1% to 100% on test data. Interesting codon/bi-codons usage, their mutual interactions influential for respective habitat preference are identified. The proposed method also produced results that concurred with known biological characteristics that will help researchers better understand divergence of species.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.33-47
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• 2020

This study is aimed to prepare the promotion strategy to spawn snow crab resources and create their habitats using SWOT-AHP analysis. Currently, the creation program of spawning and habitat ground (CPSH) of various fisheries resource is a continuing process, however, none of these CPSH can be labeled as being effective in Korea. In order for CPSH to be effective, it must be planned systematically. Therefore, it is necessary for establishing promotion strategy on the CPSH. SWOT-AHP analysis is used to improve explanation ability of SWOT analysis. In this research, we suggested three strategies and 15 implementation plans of the CPSH using SWOT-AHP analysis. It is expected that the economic feasibility, ecosystem and recovery of fisheries resources will improve significantly. Consequently, to increase the performance of CPSH, it is necessary to focus on the developing an efficient and executive promotion strategy on the CPSH.

• Water Engineering Research
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.259-267
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• 2002

South Africa has developed a policy and law that calls and provides for the equitable and sustainable use of water resources. Sustainable resource use is dependent on effective resource protection. Rivers are the most important freshwater resources in the country, and there is a focus on developing and applying methods to quantify what rivers need in terms of flow and water quality. These quantified and descriptive objectives are then related to specified levels of ecological health in a classification system. This paper provides an overview of an integrated and systematic methodology, where, fer each river, and each river reach, the natural condition and the present ecological condition are described, and a level/class of ecosystem health is selected. The class will define long term management goals. This procedure requires each ecosystem component to be quantified, starting with the abiotic template. A modified flow regime is modelled for each ecosystem health class, and the resultant fluvial geomorphology and hydraulic habitats are described. Then the water chemistry is described, and the water quality changes that are likely to occur as a consequence of altered flows are predicted. Finally, the responses to the stress imposed on the biota (fish, invertebrates and vegetation) by modified flow and water quality are predicted. All of the predicted responses are translated into descriptive and/or quantitative management objectives. The paper concludes with the recognition of active method development, and the enormous challenge of applying the methods, implementing the law, and achieving river protection and sustainable resource-use.

• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.81-85
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• 2002

Oligotrophic bacteria isolated from forest soil showed a specific community consisting of various taxonomic groups compared with those in other soil or aquatic habitats. Based on the cell shape, the isolates were divided into four groups: regular rod, curved/spiral rod, irregular rod, and prosthecate bacteria. The cellular fatty acids 60 oligotrophic isolates were analyzed. At the dendrogram based on cellular fatty acid composition, four clusters(I-IV) were separated at a euclidian distance of about 50. Based on the 16S rDNA sequence analysis, the two representative strains(MH256 and MA828) of cluster 3 showed the close relation to genera, Xathomonas/Stenotrophomonas, but were not included in these genera. The isolates with Q-10 were also studied. They are corresponded to the two large groups in Proteobacteria alpha subdivision. One was incorporated in the genus Bradyrhizobium cluster, which also includes Agromonas, a genus for oligotrophic bacteria. The strains of the other group showed high similarity to the genus Agrobacterium. We attempted to screening of bioactive compounds from oligotrophs which was isolated from forest soil. The active compounds were analyzed by mass and NMR spectrum, one of them identified as crisamicin A. Another one designated as SAPH is a new compound. The results indicate that there were possibilities for finding new compounds from the rare microorganisms such as oligotrophs.