• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.133-143
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• 2015

Freshwater macrophytes improve the structural heterogeneity of microhabitats in water, often providing an important habitat for zooplankton. Some studies have focused on the overall influence of macrophytes on zooplankton, but the effects of macrophyte in relation to different habitat characteristics of zooplankton (e.g., epiphytic and pelagic) have not been intensively studied. We hypothesized that different habitat structures (i.e., macrophyte habitat) would strongly affect zooplankton distribution. We investigated zooplankton density and diversity, macrophyte characteristics (dry weight and species number), and environmental parameters in 40 shallow wetlands in South Korea. Patterns in the data were analyzed using a self-organizing map (SOM), which extracts information through competitive and adaptive properties. A total of 20 variables (11 environmental parameters and 9 zooplankton groups) were patterned onto the SOM. Based on a U-matrix, 3 clusters were identified from the model. Zooplankton assemblages were positively related to macrophyte characteristics (i.e., dry weight and species number). In particular, epiphytic species (i.e., epiphytic rotifers and cladocerans) exhibited a clear relationship with macrophyte characteristics, while large biomass and greater numbers of macrophyte species supported high zooplankton assemblages. Consequently, habitat heterogeneity in the macrophyte bed was recognized as an important factor to determine zooplankton distribution, particularly in epiphytic species. The results indicate that macrophytes are critical for heterogeneity in lentic freshwater ecosystems, and the inclusion of diverse plant species in wetland construction or restoration schemes is expected to generate ecologically healthy food webs.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 1989

To investigate the actual vegetation and the degree of green naturality(DGN) in Gaya Mountain National Park, forest communities were classified by phytosocialogical analysis according to physiognomy and Braun-Blanquet methods. Major forest communities were as follows: 1. Pinus densiflora community 1) P. densiflora-Rhododendron mucronulatum subcommunity 2) P. densiflora-Lespedeza maximowiczii subcommunity 3) P. densiflora-Sasa borealis subcommunity 4) P. densiflora-Carex siderosticta subcommunity 2. Quercus mongolica community group. 1) Q. mongolica-Rhododendron schlippenbachii community a) Typical subcommunity b) Vaccinium koreanum subcommunity 2) Q. mongolica-Sasa borealis community 3) Q. mongolica-Lespedeza maximowiczii community 3. Quercus serrata community 4. Carpinus laxiflora-Quercus serrata community 5. Rhododendron tschonoskii community 6. Lespedeza crytobotrya-Miscanthus sinensis var. purpurascens community The map of DGN was drawn according to the actual vegetaton map. The ratio of DGN 7 and 8 was 93.9% in Gaya Mountain National Park.

• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2021

The study has been carried out with an objective to prepare Siberian roe deer habitat potential maps in South Korea based on three geographic information system-based models including frequency ratio (FR) as a bivariate statistical approach as well as convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) as machine learning algorithms. According to field observations, 741 locations were reported as roe deer's habitat preferences. The dataset were divided with a proportion of 70:30 for constructing models and validation purposes. Through FR model, a total of 10 influential factors were opted for the modelling process, namely altitude, valley depth, slope height, topographic position index (TPI), topographic wetness index (TWI), normalized difference water index, drainage density, road density, radar intensity, and morphological feature. The results of variable importance analysis determined that TPI, TWI, altitude and valley depth have higher impact on predicting. Furthermore, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was applied to assess the prediction accuracies of three models. The results showed that all the models almost have similar performances, but LSTM model had relatively higher prediction ability in comparison to FR and CNN models with the accuracy of 76% and 73% during the training and validation process. The obtained map of LSTM model was categorized into five classes of potentiality including very low, low, moderate, high and very high with proportions of 19.70%, 19.81%, 19.31%, 19.86%, and 21.31%, respectively. The resultant potential maps may be valuable to monitor and preserve the Siberian roe deer habitats.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.32 no.6 s.107
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• pp.14-22
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• 2005

The purpose of this paper is to assess conservation value of forests and cultivated areas from the landscape ecological point of view. The main focus of landscape ecology estimates the reciprocal relationships between spatial patterns and ecological processes. This paper sets the criteria for conservation value and classify the conservation value based on the criteria. Forests and cultivated areas in Seo-Gu, Incheon Metropolitan City was selected as the case study area. In this research, factors such as patch size and connectivity have been selected in order to consider the landscape ecological aspect, gradient for the environmental physics aspect and to consider the environment-ecological aspect, grade of environmental-oriented land suitability analysis Map developed by the ROK Ministry of Environment has been utilized. GIS methodologies have been adopted to calculate the relationships among the above variables. Through literature review, the following evaluation criteria have been adopted: (1) based on island biogeography and metapopulation dynamics theory, patch size criteria are set 2ha and 10ha; (2) connectivity was set the degree of connection with surrounding grids; and (3) gradient of 20 degrees. Conclusively, this paper suggests that local conditions, landscape ecology and physical environment aspects should be considered to develop an estimation framework of the conservation value.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.9-24
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• 1991

To elucidate the actual vegetation of Nature Ecology Conservation area in Mt. Chiri, forest communities were classified phytosoclologically by species composition and phsiognomy. There included 13 forests ranging from temperate-cool zone to sub-cold zone in the surveyed area. Actual vegetation map was drawn on the basis of classified forest communities. The forest communities classified in the area were summarized as follows ; 1. Querus serrata community 2. Carpinus laxiflora community 3. Q. serrata-C. laxiflora community 4. Stewartia koreana community 5. Acer mono community 6. Carpinus cordata community 7. Fraxinus mandshurica community 8. Carpinus tschonoskii community 9. Pinus densiflora community 10. Querus mongolica Community 1) Rhododendron schlippenachii subcommunity 2) Lenedeza maximowiczii subcommunity 11. Abies nephrolepis community 12. Abies koreana community 1) Querus mongolica subcommunity 2) Pinus koraienis subcommunity 13. Rhododendron schlippenbachii community Among above forest communities, Querus serrata community distributed from 700m to 1,000m in the ridges, Carpinus laxiflora community in the valleys, Quercus mongolica community from 1,000m to 1,400m, and Abies koreana community and Abies nephrolepis community from 1,400m to 1,700m.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.212-220
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• 2018

Ecological and ecosystem database is becoming very necessary to understand origins and relationship between human and nature and also to minimize disturbance caused by human activities. An ecological information portal can play important roles as a computing system to collect knowledge, distributed research findings and separated data from researchers. In this study, we designed and developed ecological information portal service (EcoBank 1.0) for collecting and providing ecological information for diverse classes of stakeholders. To reach the goal, we had reviewed related and comparable ecological database portals to design conceptual structure of EcoBank system including database management framework. Then, we developed some functions of ecosystem analysis for each stake-holders (researchers, general public and policy makers). As a result of this study, we successfully designed of EcoBank system covering the functions of Digital Object Identifier(DOI) publishing and data quality management process. Also, we (1) applied ecological indices for calculating biodiversity by administrative boundary for policy makers, (2) provided statistical information of econature map for general public and distribution characteristics of species for researchers. To make a successful establishment of EcoBank, we have to collect and build up related database and offer various and reliable ecological data consistently. We expect that the successful construction of EcoBank will help not only to accomplish sustainable development goals but also to raise the welfare of ecosystem in Korea.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.287-294
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• 2019

This study investigated longitudinal changes in riverbed materials properties and temporal alteration of river channel geomorphology in the Geum River basin, where two multipurpose dams(Yongdam Dam and Daecheong Dam) were built in upstream area. We carried out grain size distribution analyses and measured soil organic matter contents of riverbed materials taken at the upper and lower sites of the two large dams. We also estimated the channel width, bar area and vegetation encroachment using the oldest map and aerial photographs taken before and after the construction of the dams. The results can contribute to increasing understandings of dam induced habitat alteration in river ecosystem.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.124-138
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• 2018

This research was conducted to examine the availability of spatial data for assessing absorption rates of $CO_2$ in the forest of Ansan-si and evaluate the validity of methods that analyze $CO_2$ absorption. To statistically assess the $CO_2$ absorption rates per year, the 1:5,000 Digital Forest-Map (Lim5000) and Standard Carbon Removal of Major Forest Species (SCRMF) methods were employed. Furthermore, Land Cover Map (LCM) was also used to verify $CO_2$ absorption rate availability per year. Great variations in $CO_2$ absorption rates occurred before and after the year 2010. This was due to improvement in precision and accuracy of the Forest Basic Statistics (FBS) in 2010, which resulted in rapid increase in growing stock. Thus, calibration of data prior to 2010 is necessary, based on recent FBS standards. Previous studies that employed Lim5000 and FBS (2015, 2010) did not take into account the $CO_2$ absorption rates of different tree species, and the combination of SCRMF and Lim5000 resulted in $CO_2$ absorption of 42,369 ton. In contrast to the combination of SCRMF and Lim5000, LCM and SCRMF resulted in $CO_2$ absorption of 40,696 ton. Homoscedasticity tests for Lim5000 and LCM resulted in p-value <0.01, with a difference in $CO_2$ absorption of 1,673 ton. Given that $CO_2$ absorption in forests is an important factor that reduces greenhouse gas emissions, the findings of this study should provide fundamental information for supporting a wide range of decision-making processes for land use and management.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.17-27
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• 2014

Wind power which is one of renewable energies is higher economical efficiency and technical maturity than other renewable energies. Recently, the government of ROK announced to increase the proportion of renewable energy through the National Energy Plan. Also, industry required to deregulate for large-scale wind power as Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) is introduced. Wind power whereas the eco-friendly energy, is a serious level of damage of the natural environment and topography when the wind power is located. Therefore, the study selected the indicators required for site selection of wind power and proposed the feasible area for wind power based on wind resource map. We selected the 15 indicators including 12 legal protected area, Ecology and Nature Map, rarity, and connectivity (National Ecological Network). After site selection, we should be considered slope and altitude at the stage of design for wind farm to mitigate the environmental impact. Results of analysis showed that 22.3% of wind resource map is available to locate wind power in real. Through the field survey we had verified the accuracy of the results was significantly correct.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.323-329
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• 2012

The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) is a widely used drought index to provide good estimations of the intensity, magnitude and spatial extent of droughts. The objective of this study was to analyze the spatial pattern of drought by SPI index. In this paper, the patterns of drought hazard in Iran are evaluated according to the data of 40 weather stations during 1967-2009. The influenced zone of each station was specified by the Thiessen method. It was attempted to make a new model of drought hazard using GIS. Three criteria for drought were studied and considered to define areas of vulnerability. Drought hazard criteria used in the present model included: maximum severity of drought in the period, trend of drought, and the maximum number of sequential arid years. Each of the vulnerability indicators were mapped and these as well as a final hazard map were classified into 5 hazard classes of drought: one, slight, moderate, severe and very severe. The final drought vulnerability map was prepared by overlaying three criteria maps in a GIS, and the final hazard classes were defined on the basis of hazard scores, which were determined according to the means of the main indicators. The final vulnerability map shows that severe hazard areas (43% of the country) which are observed in the west and eastern parts of country are much more widespread than areas under other hazard classes. Overall, approximately half of the country was determined to be under severe and very severe hazard classes for drought.