• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.177-181
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• 2016

In order to prevent the fragmentation of animal habitat due to road construction, the most widely applied solution is building animal passes worldwide. In Korea, animal passes were introduced in the early 2000s, and through trial and error, the national guidelines for them and their design standards were published in 2010. These were criticized by politicians because of their relative inefficiency considering their high construction cost and their lack of animal usage. This study investigated the extent to which animals used the facilities. For this study, two types of animal passes, eco-bridges and ecoducts, were considered and the test sites were chosen from the Baekdu Mountains. The animal usage data was captured using infra-red CCTV cameras. The results showed that various types of animals used eco-bridges and ecoducts. Interestingly various types of birds were captured by cameras and endangered animals were also in them. The season, weather, and their surrounded vegetation also had effects on their usages. The infrared CCTV allowed detailed captures of animals but the electricity shortage was one disadvantage. During the last decades, a number of eco-bridges were constructed throughout the country and now we need to focus on their monitoring and maintenance for their successful efficiency and application.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.577-584
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• 2009

This study was conducted to verify the types of village forest in Gyeongsan City, North Gyeongsang Province, and a total of 32 village forests were investigated. The result indicated that village forests in Gyeongsan City can be classified as 8 village enterance forests(25.0%), 6 hillside forests(18.8%), 7 streamside forests(21.9%), and 11 village peripheral forests(34.4%). The major tree species in the village enterance forests are as follows: Zelkova serrata(34.3%), Ginkgo biloba(11.2%) and Robinia pseudoacacia(10.5%). The major tree species in hillside forests are: Pinus densiflora(56.8%), Quercus acutissima(26.4%) and Zelkova serrata(4.3%). The major tree species in the streamside forests are: Zelkova serrata(40.4%), Salix chaenomeloides var. chaenomeloides(27.1%) and Cornus wateri(5.5%). The major tree species in the village peripheral forests are: Zelkova serrata(21.7%), Quercus acutissima(10.8%) and Cornus walteri(8.9%). The habitat fragmentation due to transportation infrastructure, the function of habitats for village forests has deteriorated. In order to improve it, the management plan should be implemented and the seedlings of village forest trees should be carefully selected and propagated. Furthermore, the public should be educated about the importance of preserving and developing those village forests.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.590-600
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• 2011

The research was carried out for prediction of the potential habitats of warm-temperate evergreen broad-leaved trees under the current climate(1961~1990) and three climate change scenario(2081~2100) (CCCMA-A2, CSIRO-A2 and HADCM3-A2) using classification tree(CT) model. Presence/absence records of warm-temperate evergreen broad-leaved trees were extracted from actual distribution data as response variables, and four climatic variables (warmth index, WI; minimum temperature of the coldest month, TMC; summer precipitation, PRS; and winter precipitation, PRW) were used as predictor variables. Potential habitats(PH) was predicted 28,230$km^2$ under the current climate and 77,140~89,285$km^2$ under the three climate change scenarios. The PH masked by land use(PHLU) was predicted 8,274$km^2$ and the proportion of PHLU within PH was 29.3% under the current climate. The PH masked by land use(PHLU) was predicted 35,177~45,170$km^2$ and increased 26.9~36.9% under the three climate change scenarios. The expansion of warm-temperate evergreen broad-leaved trees by climate change progressed habitat fragmentation by restriction of land use. The habitats increase of warm-temperate evergreen broad-leaved trees had been expected competitive with warm-temperate deciduous broadleaf forest and suggested the expand and northward shift of warm-temperate evergreen broad-leaved forest zone.

• Korean Journal of Ornithology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.106-111
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• 2018

The Black-tailed gull (Larus crassirostris) is one of the most common gull species in the Northeast Asia and classified as LC (least concern) in the IUCN Red List. The bird has become a useful indicator for marine environmental pollution and habitat disruption, since the human activities impacted marine environments. Here we show that the black-tailed Gull has 6 haplotypes and some rare haplotypes are locally limited implying that the bird may not disperse far. This study may be the first report on population genetic study of Black-tailed Gull in Korea and could be used as the baseline data for monitoring and genetic study on the bird as an environmental indicator.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.391-407
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• 2012

The loss of connectivity and fragmentation of forest landscapes are seriously hindering dispersal of many forest-dwelling species, which may be critical for their viability and conservation by decreasing habitat area and increasing distance among habitats. For understanding their environmental impacts, numerous spatial models exist to measure landscape connectivity. However, general relationships between functional connectivity and landscape structure are lacking, there is a need to develop landscape metrics that more accurately measure landscape connectivity in whole landscape and individual patches. We reviewed functional and structural definition of landscape connectivity, explained their mathematical connotations, and applied representative 13 indices in 3 districts of Seoul having fragmented forest patches with tits, the threshold distance was applied 500m by considering the dispersal of tits. Results of correlation and principal component analysis showed that connectivity indices could be divided by measurement methods whether they contain the area attribute with distance or not. Betweenness centrality(BC), a representative index measuring distance and distribution among patches, appreciated highly stepping stone forest patches, and difference of probability of connectivity(dPC), an index measuring including area information, estimated integrated connectivity of patches. Therefore, for evaluating landscape connectivity, it is need to consider not only general information of a region and species' characteristics but also various measuring methods of landscape connectivity.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.182-193
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• 2011

As a part of the on-going effort to conserve endangered Scrophularia takesimensis Nakai in Korea, its genetic structure and diversity from 3 population, consisted of 14 subpopulations in Ulleung Island were analyzed using RAPD band patterns. Out of 60 primers tested, 33 generated amplified bands with its genome, including 149 polymorphic and 67 monomorphic bands. The highest number (146) was found in northern population, especially, 64 in HY subpopulation; the smallest (40) in eastern population. An examination of its genetic structure with AMOVA revealed that about 60% of all variations could be assigned to among subpopulations within populations. Population differentiation among populations and subpopulations is seriously going now because of habitat fragmentation due to human activities, such as road and small port construction. Although the habitats of S. takesimensis in Ulleung Island, Korea are disappeared at an alarming rate, significant levels of genetic variation still exist at species level, and population level, especially northern population. Therefore, three conservation strategies should be needed urgently; 1) preservation of populations as it stands, 2) establishment of recovery plan to connect population and subpopulations genetically, and 3) long-term monitoring.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.301-312
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• 2009

Recently, habitat fragmentation and shrinkage has occurred because of increased road construction. As a measures mitigating the adverse effect such as eco-island by road construction, Korea has been installed eco-corridors since 1995. Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), this study analyzed the importance of assessment items and the criteria to determine which areas require eco-corridors the most. First, related literature reviews, preliminary surveys, and expert interviews were carried out to develop assessment items and criteria for constructing the hierarchy. Second, experts were surveyed in order to determine the relative importance of the assessment items by applying the AHP. As a result, it found that the restoration of the ecological network was the most important assessment item, followed by wild animal resources in the Level 3. In the Level 4, the eighteen items were ranked in the order of their relative weight and it was found that the 'Baekdudaegan Mountain Range (0.189)' was the highest ranked item. Therefore, this approach can be applied to effective selection of the priority areas in planning eco-corridors in the national scale.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.241-249
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• 2022

Humans and wild birds coexist in cities, where habitat fragmentation due to urbanization threatens the habitat and movement of birds. In this study, in order to identify landscape features associated with wild bird collide, we characterized landscape composition within a 500 m radius and points of wild bird carcasses in Suwon-city, South Korea. Dead birds were identified as having a Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) of 0.3, Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI) of -0.05, and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) of -0.16 at the points of collide. And there were NDVI of 0.34, NDBI of -0.01, NDWI of -0.18, building height of 13.8 m, and soundproof wall length of 227.3 m within a radius of 500 m. Land cover type was dominated by grassland, used area, and bare land. In particular, the edges of urbanized areas, where apartments bordered forests, reservoirs, and golf courses, were identified as high-risk spaces. In order to minimize bird mortality risk in urban environments, the impact of changes to a vertical landscape should be reviewed from an environmental impact assessment approach. In addition, a preventive management plan that considers the temporal and spatial features that wild animals can safely avoid and adapt to in urbanized spaces should be prepared.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.112-119
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• 2021

In 2012, the National Park Service conducted an ecological health assessment to efficiently preserve and manage the ecosystem. The need for improving pre-existing management indicators was recognized from the revised Natural Park Act because, while the indicators of the existing evaluation system focused on endangered species, ecosystem disturbance, diversity, water quality (BOD, DO), and habitat fragmentation, they did not reflect the lack of indicators for marine ecological assessment, policy changes, and the time demands. The evaluation results comprised a five-point grading system, which made the analysis of immediate changes, difficult. Therefore, the benthic pollution index (BPI) and habitat restoration indicators were added to improve the evaluation system. The National Park was assessed using 10 classifications, however, only four classifications were evaluated. The ratings were divided into five states, and ten classes were presented as pictograms. The assessment results showed a similar trend as the indicators were improved, increasing from level 3 to level 5. However, the results of the Wolaksan National Park after improvement in the indicators were lower than that before the improvement, whereas, for the Juwangsan National Park, it was higher. This study aims at contributing to the scientific and systematic management of the national park ecosystem by improving the ecological health assessment system.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.19-32
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• 2023

The fragmentation of habitats resulting from human activities leads to the isolation of wildlife and it also causes wildlife-vehicle collisions (i.e. Road-kill). In that sense, it is important to predict potential habitats of specific wildlife that causes wildlife-vehicle collisions by considering geographic, environmental and transportation variables. Road-kill, especially by large mammals, threatens human safety as well as financial losses. Therefore, we conducted this study on roe deer (Capreolus pygargus tianschanicus), a large mammal that causes frequently Road-kill in Jeju Island. So, to predict potential wildlife habitats by considering geographic, environmental, and transportation variables for a specific species this study was conducted to identify high-priority restoration sites with both characteristics of potential habitats and road-kill hotspot. we identified high-priority restoration sites that is likely to be potential habitats, and also identified the known location of a Road-kill records. For this purpose, first, we defined the environmental variables and collect the occurrence records of roe deer. After that, the potential habitat map was generated by using Random Forest model. Second, to analyze roadkill hotspots, a kernel density estimation was used to generate a hotspot map. Third, to define high-priority restoration sites, each map was normalized and overlaid. As a result, three northern regions roads and two southern regions roads of Jeju Island were defined as high-priority restoration sites. Regarding Random Forest modeling, in the case of environmental variables, The importace was found to be a lot in the order of distance from the Oreum, elevation, distance from forest edge(outside) and distance from waterbody. The AUC(Area under the curve) value, which means discrimination capacity, was found to be 0.973 and support the statistical accuracy of prediction result. As a result of predicting the habitat of C. pygargus, it was found to be mainly distributed in forests, agricultural lands, and grasslands, indicating that it supported the results of previous studies.