• Journal of Wetlands Research
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.122-132
• /
• 2021

We reviewed the methods employed in Korean tidal flat surveys to measure the local abundance of the endangered wildlife and marine protected species, the fiddler crab, Austruca lactea. A complete census for infinite population is impossible even in a limited habitat within a tidal flat, and density estimates from samples strongly vary due to diverse biological and ecological factors. The habitat boundaries and areas shift with periodicities or rhythmic activities of organisms as well as measurement errors. Hence the local abundance calculated from density and habitat areas should be regarded as transient. This conjecture was valid based on the spatio-temporal variations of the density averages, standard error ranges, and spatial distribution of the crab, A. lactea observed for 3 years (2015-2017) in Songdo tidal flat in Incheon. We proposed the potential habitat areas using the occurrence probability of 50% from logistic regression model, reflecting the importance of habitat conservation value as an alternative to local abundance. The spatial shape of potential habitat predicted from a generalized model would remain constant over time unless the species' critical environmental conditions change rapidly. The species-specific model is expected to be used for the introduction of desired species in future habitat restoration/creation projects.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.11-19
• /
• 2023

Alien species are known to threaten regional biodiversity globally, which has increased global interest regarding introduction of alien species. The Ministry of Environment of Korea designated species that have not yet been introduced into the country with potential threat as alert alien species to prevent damage to the ecosystem. In this study, potential habitats of Esox lucius and Maccullochella peelii, which are predatory and designated as alert alien fish, were predicted on a national basis. Habitat suitability was evaluated using EHSM (Ecological Habitat Suitability Model), and water temperature data were input to calculate Physiological Habitat Suitability (PHS). The prediction results have shown that PHS of the two fishes were mainly controlled by heat or cold stress, which resulted in biased habitat distribution. E. lucius was predicted to prefer the basins at high latitudes (Han and Geum River), while M. peelii preferred metropolitan areas. Through these differences, it was expected that the invasion pattern of each alien fish can be different due to thermal preference. Further studies are required to enhance the model's predictive power, and future predictions under climate change scenarios are required to aid establishing sustainable management plans.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.307-317
• /
• 2011

Ground beetle fauna of Mt. Bangtaesan in Inje-gun, Gangwon-do was investigated from June to October in 2010. Ground beetles were collected by pitfall trapping. A total of 34 species of 18 genera belonging to 7 families were identified from 1,041 collected ground beetles. Species richness was high in Pterostichinae (15 species, 44.1%), Carabinae (7 species, 20.6%), Harpalinae (4 species, 11.8%), Nebriinae (3 species, 8.8%) and others (5 species, 14.7%). Dominant species were Synuchus spp. (260 individuals, 25.0%), Aulonocarabus semiopacus (218 individuals, 20.9%), and Pterostichus audax (205 individuals, 19.7%) in order. Korean endemic species were collected 564 individuals belonging to 10 species. By principal component analysis (PCA), species distribution and abundance of ground beetles were different depending on habitat characteristics of vegetation, surrounding environment and feeding habitat. Carabinae and Pterostichinae which live in the forest were preferred in hardwoods and coniferous in the Bangtansan Natural Recreation Forest, while Callistinae and Harpalinae were collected in forest adjacent to grasslands. Overall, differences of habitat environments within forest are important factors associated with distribution of ground beetles. This result will provide useful informations with establishment of conservation program and long-term monitoring against environmental change within mountain by using ground beetles.

• 한국환경농학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2009.07a
• /
• pp.228-239
• /
• 2009

The observations on climate change show a clear increase in the temperature of the Earth's surface and the oceans, a reduction in the land snow cover, and melting of the sea ice and glaciers. The effects of climate change are likely to include more variable weather, heat waves, increased mean temperature, rains, flooding and droughts. The threat of climate change and global warming on human and animal health is now recognized as a global issue. This presentation is described an overview of the latest scientific knowledge on the impact of climate change on zoonotic diseases. Climate strongly affects agriculture and livestock production and influences animal diseases, vectors and pathogens, and their habitat. Global warming are likely to change the temporal and geographical distribution of infectious diseases, including those that are vector-borne such as West Nile fever, Rift Valley fever, Japanese encephalitis, bluetongue, malaria and visceral leishmaniasis, and other diarrheal diseases. The distribution and prevalence of vector-borne diseases may be the most significant effect of climate change. The impact of climate change on the emergence and re-emergence of animal diseases has been confirmed by a majority of countries. Emerging zoonotic diseases are increasingly recognized as a global and regional issue with potential serious human health and economic impacts and their current upward trends are likely to continue. Coordinated international responses are therefore essential across veterinary and human health sectors, regions and countries to control and prevent emerging zoonoses. A new early warning and alert systems is developing and introducing for enhancing surveillance and response to zoonotic diseases. And international networks that include public health, research, medical and veterinary laboratories working with zoonotic pathogens should be established and strengthened. Facing this challenging future, the long-term strategies for zoonotic diseases that may be affected by climate change is need for better prevention and control measures in susceptible livestock, wildlife and vectors in Korea. In conclusion, strengthening global, regional and national early warning systems is extremely important, as are coordinated research programmes and subsequent prevention and control measures, and need for the global surveillance network essential for early detection of zoonotic diseases.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
• /
• v.19 no.6
• /
• pp.19-30
• /
• 2016

The projection of climate-related range shift is critical information for conservation planning of Korean fir (Abies koreana E. H. Wilson). We first modeled the distribution of Korean fir under current climate condition using five single-model species distribution models (SDMs) and the pre-evaluation weighted ensemble method and then predicted the distributions under future climate conditions projected with HadGEM2-AO under four $CO_2$ emission scenarios, the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 2.6, 4.5, 6.0 and 8.5. We also investigated the predictive uncertainty stemming from five individual algorithms and four $CO_2$ emission scenarios for better interpretation of SDM projections. Five individual algorithms were Generalized linear model (GLM), Generalized additive model (GAM), Multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS), Generalized boosted model (GBM) and Random forest (RF). The results showed high variations of model performances among individual SDMs and the wide range of diverging predictions of future distributions of Korean fir in response to RCPs. The ensemble model presented the highest predictive accuracy (TSS = 0.97, AUC = 0.99) and predicted that the climate habitat suitability of Korean fir would increase under climate changes. Accordingly, the fir distribution could expand under future climate conditions. Increasing precipitation may account for increases in the distribution of Korean fir. Increasing precipitation compensates the negative effects of increasing temperature. However, the future distribution of Korean fir is also affected by other ecological processes, such as interactions with co-existing species, adaptation and dispersal limitation, and other environmental factors, such as extreme weather events and land-use changes. Therefore, we need further ecological research and to develop mechanistic and process-based distribution models for improving the predictive accuracy.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.23 no.5
• /
• pp.379-392
• /
• 2014

This study was performed to predict the future climate envelope of Pinus pumila, a subalpine plant and a Climate-sensitive Biological Indicator Species (CBIS) of Korea. P. pumila is distributed at Mt. seorak in South Korea. Suitable habitat were predicted under two alternative RCPscenarios (IPCC AR5). The SDM used for future prediction was a Maxent model, and the total number of environmental variables for Maxent was 8. It was found that the distribution range of P. pumila in the South Korean was $38^{\circ}7^{\prime}8^{{\prime}{\prime}}N{\sim}38^{\circ}7^{\prime}14^{{\prime}{\prime}}N$ and $128^{\circ}28^{\prime}2^{{\prime}{\prime}}E{\sim}128^{\circ}27^{\prime}38^{{\prime}{\prime}}E$ and 1,586m~1,688m in altitude. The variables that contribute the most to define the climate envelope are altitude. Climate envelope simulation accuracy was evaluated using the ROC's AUC. The P. pumila model's 5-cv AUC was found to be 0.99966. which showed that model accuracy was very high. Under both the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios, the climate envelope for P. pumila is predicted to decrease in South Korea. According to the results of the maxent model has been applied in the current climate, suitable habitat is $790.78km^2$. The suitable habitats, are distributed in the region of over 1,400m. Further, in comparison with the suitable habitat of applying RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 suitable habitat current, reduction of area RCP8.5 was greater than RCP4.5. Thus, climate change will affect the distribution of P. pumila. Therefore, governmental measures to conserve this species will be necessary. Additionally, for CBIS vulnerability analysis and studies using sampling techniques to monitor areas based on the outcomes of this study, future study designs should incorporate the use of climatic predictions derived from multiple GCMs, especially GCMs that were not the one used in this study. Furthermore, if environmental variables directly relevant to CBIS distribution other than climate variables, such as the Bioclim parameters, are ever identified, more accurate prediction than in this study will be possible.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.86-102
• /
• 2014

BACKGROUND: According to the types of human interference, there are various plants that have strong vitality and ability to breed in the dry field. Recently, climate change alters the geographical distribution and phenology of the plant species. So, we need to understand present occurrence pattern and ecological characteristics of these plants. METHODS AND RESULTS: The plant species data were obtained from 8 regions in Jeolla-do. Flora investigation was done from May 2013 to September 2013. Habitat type of dry field in Jeolla-do was classified into 3 types (inside of dry field: IDF, embankment around the end of a dry field: EDF, levee slope of dry field: LS). The vascular plants of study area were listed 296 taxa which contain 68 families, 203 genera, 244 species, 43 varieties and 9 forms. The vascular plants of three different habitat types were IDF 174 taxa, EDF 249 taxa and LS 136 taxa. The occurrence rate of Therophyte was arranged by the order of IDF(67.6%), EDF(51.9%), LS(54.3%). Naturalized rate was analysed as IDF 27.9%, EDF 21.0%, LS 18.6%. Urbanization index was analysed as IDF 11.8%, EDF 13.7%, LS 10.0%. CONCLUSION: With these results, we found that three habitat types were ecological difference affected by the human impacts. Also, we found environmental indicators through the ecological characteristics of flora for the type of habitat of dry field. These indicators will help assess the agriculture environmental variability and the floral change according to the climate change in dry field.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
• /
• v.2 no.3
• /
• pp.206-215
• /
• 2015

Predicting the changes in the potential distribution of invasive alien plants under climate change is an important and challenging task for the conservation of biodiversity and management of the ecosystems in streams and reservoirs. This study explored the effects of climate change on the potential future distribution of Paspalum distichum var. indutum in the Korean Peninsula. P. distichum var. indutum is an invasive grass species that has a profound economic and environmental impact in the waterfronts of freshwater ecosystems. The Maxent model was used to estimate the potential distribution of P. distichum var. indutum under current and future climates. A total of nineteen climatic variables of Worldclim 1.4 were used as current climatic data and future climatic data predicted by HadGEM2-AO with both RCP 2.6 and RCP 8.5 scenarios for 2050. The predicted current distribution of P. distichum var. indutum was almost matched with actual positioning data. Major environmental variables contributing to the potential distribution were precipitation of the warmest quarter, annual mean temperature and mean temperature of the coldest quarter. Our prediction results for 2050 showed an overall reduction in climatic suitability for P. distichum var. indutum in the current distribution area and its expansion to further inland and in a northerly direction. The predictive model used in this study appeared to be powerful for understanding the potential distribution, exploring the effects of climate change on the habitat changes and providing the effective management of the risk of biological invasion by alien plants.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.105-112
• /
• 2008

Human activity has been the major threat to wetlands. Agriculture, industrial development, and urban and suburban sprawl have caused the greatest losses of coastal wetlands. In fact, riceland agriculture, because of the flooding that goes with it, provides some additional wetland habitat not otherwise available. The biggest current source of loss for freshwater coastal wetlands is from urban sprawl. In this study, spatial analysis method such as landscape index were applied to Sihwa area in Ansan city. The SMA (Spectral Mixture Analysis) method using Landsat image showed the change distribution of wetland vegetation from 1996 to 2004. The southern part of Sihwa wetland have been changed with Suda japonica of 24% and reed vegetation of 34% on coastal wetland which were covered with tidal flat.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.1-7
• /
• 2020

This study aims to evaluate the effect of artificial facilities constructed afterthe release of the civilian controlled zone (CCZ) in Cheorwon on the inhabitation of cranes. The study site was released from the CCZ in 2012, and several barns have been built since 2017. The average number of Red-crowned Cranes was 9.3±4.3 individuals (±Standard Deviation) in the period before the release of the CCZ from 2009 to 2012, and it decreased by ca. one third of Red-crowned Crane's average individuals were showing 3.5±0.5 individuals after release. The average number of White-naped Cranes also appeared to be decreased by ca. 90% from 63.3±24.6 to 6.0±6.0 individuals. This results suggest that the construction of greenhouses and barns after the releasing of the CCZ affected the decrease of the population of these two crane species. In the case of Red-crowned Crane, the core area tended to move away from the area where barns were built. However, the distribution range of Red-crowned Cranes did not change significantly we expected because the study area was not their favorite place since 2012 when the area was released from the CCZ. The density of the White-naped Crane was relatively high even in the area where greenhouses were built, but after 2017 when the barn was built intensively, core habitat of crane became shrink and fragmented. These results suggest that both Red-crowned Cranes and White-naped Cranes response sensitively against habitat change due to the construction of barns. Since the release of the CCZ, the construction of the greenhouse has been influenced on the distribution of cranes, but subsequently, the construction of the barn seems to have caused a bigger change in their core habitat because the passage of people to barns is more frequent than the greenhouses.