• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2004.06a
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• pp.296-302
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• 2004

After the Rio declaration on environment and development in 1992, developed countries are undertaking 'environmentally sustainable transportation (EST)' projects. To meet the needs for EST, current transportation policies in Korea are rapidly reforming and one of its concerns is modernizing and upgrading railway freight system. Planning new railroad construction projects is increasing and subsequent environmental impact assessment (EIA) demands improvements, especially in both the EIA and decision making systems. In this paper, we discuss the present status of EIA for railroad construction projects, especially, by analyzing the EIA documents accumulated for last six years. The EIA for railroad construction projects .accounts for only $4.9\%$ of total project EIAs during 1998-2003. However, the portion is gradually increasing. Major environmental concerns for EIA in railroad construction projects were geomorphological and ecological changes, protection of rare organisms, air pollution, water quality, wast management, noise, etc. We also compared the characteristics of environmental impacts of railroad construction with those of vehicle road construction. The result shows that railroad construction usually requires 3${\~}$4 times longer tunnels and bridges for a given length than vehicle road construction. In addition, the amounts of geomorphological and ecological changes (road-cutting, embankment, devegetation, etc.) in railroad construction were generally less than $40\%$ of those in vehicle road construction. In order to develop environmentally friendly railway systems, monitoring studies for environmental impacts of railroads such as habitat fragmentation and road kills, dispersal of alien plants, tunnelling effects on groundwater and vegetation, and noise impacts are highly required.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.136-141
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to compare the bird crossing of roads by type (Expressway 1, railroad-provincial road and Highway 4) and the crossing of roads according to the size of birds. The greatest number of avian species and individuals crossing road per 10 minutes were found on railroad-provincial road ($8.96{\pm}1.92$ and $29.33{\pm}11.94$, respectively), while the lowest number of avian species and individuals were found on Expressway 1 ($2.96{\pm}1.04$ and $6.13{\pm}2.89$, respectively), which has the widest width. In addition, the number of small-sized bird (<20 cm) crossing the Expressway 1, railroad-provincial road, and Highway 4 was lower than that of the medium-sized bird (${\geq}20cm$). Current wildlife crossing structures have been focused on mammals, amphibians and reptiles, but future structures should also consider birds.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.176-179
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• 2018

To restore the connectivity of fragmented habitats, 415 wildlife crossings have been built between 1998 and 2014 in South Korea. However, their effect on wildlife conservation is still in doubt. As a first step to examine the effectiveness, our study aims to assess compliance with the guideline for wildlife crossing construction and management, developed by the Ministry of Environment Korea that provides fundamental information to understand the status and the problem of wildlife crossings in Korea and thus to provide practical guidance for the improvement. According to our survey, the Korea National Park Service complied with the guideline best (62.5%) while local government followed the guideline least (46.1%). In addition, the compliance rate was the highest for wildlife crossings in national roads (53.6%) followed by highways (53.2%) and local and municipal roads (52.2%). For the overpass wildlife crossings, the compliance rates for installation of an escaping facility in the drainage and prevention of pedestrian and vehicle access were particularly low. In case of underpass wildlife crossings, small ditches for amphibians and reptiles were not sufficient, and the linkage between wildlife fences and underpass were weak. In order to ensure the effectiveness of wildlife crossings, the effort to increase the compliance rate with the guideline is critical, and mandating the guideline could be a practical way to enforce the compliance.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.45-50
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• 2001

The fish fauna of the Buan Dam, Chollabuk-do, Korea which was constructed in 1995 was surveyed in 1994 and 1998. 14 fish species were collected in the Buan Dam and 19 species were recognized in the brackish waters along the lower course of the dam in 1998. It was remarked that the dominant species in the dam has been changed dramatically from Zacco platypus and Z. temmincki to Pseudorasbora parva and Squalidus gracilis majimae within the three years after the dam construction. And also the number of Carassius auratus and Sirulus asotus were gradually increased in the dam. However, lksookimia pumila, the threatened fish species of Korea, was decreased sharply and restricted conspicuously by fragmentation of the habitat. The positive strategies should be considered for the species conservation of lksookimia pumila in the Buan Dam.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.295-305
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• 2004

After the Rio declaration on environment and development in 1992, developed countries are undertaking "environmentally sustainable transportation (EST)" projects. To meet the needs for EST, current transportation policies in Korea are rapidly reforming and one of its concerns is modernizing and upgrading railway freight system. Planning new railroad construction projects is increasing and subsequent environmental impact assessment (EIA) demands improvements, especially in both the EIA and decision making systems. In this paper, we discuss the present status of EIA for railroad construction projects, especially, by analyzing the EIA documents for the last six years. The EIA for railroad construction projects accounts for only 4.9% of total 918 project EIAs during 1998-2003, and the portion is gradually increasing. Major environmental concerns for EIA in railroad construction projects were geomorphological and ecological changes, protection of rare organisms, air pollution, water pollution, waste management, and noise, etc. We compared characteristics of environmental impacts of railroad construction with those of vehicle road construction, based on environmental and construction-planning indicators appeared in Environmental Impact Statements. Railroad construction usually requires longer tunnels and bridges for a given length than those for vehicle road construction. In addition, the amounts of geomorphological and ecological changes (road-cutting, embankment, devegetation, etc.) in railroad construction were generally less than 50% of those in vehicle road construction. To develop environmentally friendly railway systems, monitoring studies for environmental impacts of railroads such as habitat fragmentation and road kills, dispersal of alien plants, tunnelling effects on groundwater and vegetation, and noise impacts are highly recommended.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.63-75
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• 2017

This study carried out for establishing the synthetic restoration plan to improve ecological quality of Mt. Mudeung National Park based on the results of conservation value assessment for yellow-throated marten habitats. Yellow-throated marten has significant implications as umbrella species for the wildlife habitats conservation, therefore, this species could be used to ecological restoration plan of the damaged forest ecosystem in Mt. Mudeung National Park. In this study, we diagnosed the quality of yellow-throated marten habitats in Mt. Mudeung National Park based on five natural and two artificial factors. In addition, we evaluated the integrity of each zone divided by trails quantitatively based on land use intensity. As a result, forest landscape quality in Mt. Mudeung National Park was influenced greatly by human activity and the degree was depended on the intensity of trails. Therefore, in this study, we suggested the closing of trails composed of the illegal and 36 legal trails. And then, we modeled the changes of habitats quality of Yellow-throated marten for each closing step. As a result the area of core habitats increased by two times and wildlife habitats quality improved in the whole area of the Mt. Mudeung National Park. As a result, the results of this study indicate that man-made linear landscape elements play a key role in the quality of habitats for predators, which require large habitats area like the Yellow-throated marten. Therefore, in order to establish an ecological restoration plan in the mountainous area, we recommend the concept of the linear landscape should be applied with the concept of area landscape.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.145-155
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• 2018

Problems and improvement plan in ecological pathways created by Environmental Impact Assessment(EIA) were found based on 504 expost environmental impact survey reports submitted to the National Institute of Ecology in 2016. A total of five improvement plans have been proposed. First, the concept and composition principle of ecological pathways should be unified. Second, Guidelines for consultation on the EIA should be provided for each stage to be applied on-site. Third, if ecological pathway is constructed differently than the consultation, the punishment clauses should be applied to prevent formal composition of ecological pathways. Fourth, We need to prepare measures to strengthen basic research for the installation of ecological pathways. Fifth, We need to strengthen the expost inspection function to compensate for the poorly created of ecological pathways. It is believed that the problems of ecological pathways created by consultation on environmental impact assessment could be corrected in the future. And it is deemed possible to systematically manage ecological pathways.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.289-297
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• 2010

The loss of natural habitats and their fragmentation caused by human activities pose a great threat to biodiversity worldwide, reducing animal population to small, fragmented patches of natural habitat. In this paper, a metapopulation dynamics of Sericinus montela koreanus, a species of butterfly, was studied for two years by mark-release-recapture (MRR) techiques in the Musimcheon, Cheongju Korea. 2,749 individuals (males: 2,295, females: 454) were marked and released, with 343 individuals (12.5%) recaptured during the MRR experiment. Capture sex ratio and recapture sex ratios was both consistently male-biased. The Jolly-Seber model was used to estimate daily metapopulation size, survival rates, addition rate, and accidental deaths. We urge conservation biologists to consider the local population dynamics of species for the management of metapopulations in fragmented landscapes. In the case of the S. montela koreanus, continuing site protection is essential.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.321-328
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• 2012

The oily bittering Acheilognathus koreensis is a freshwater species that is endemic to Korea and is experiencing severe declines in natural populations as a result of habitat fragmentation and water pollution. For the conservation and restoration of this species, it is necessary to assess its genetic diversity at the population level. We developed 13 polymorphic microsatellite loci that were used to analyze the genetic diversity of two populations collected from the Kum River and the Tamjin River in Korea. All loci exhibited Mendelian inheritance patterns when examined in controlled crosses. Both populations revealed high levels of variability, with the number of alleles ranging from 3 to 20 and observed and expected heterozygosities ranging from 0.500 to 0.969 and from 0.529 to 0.938, respectively. None of the loci showed significant deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, and one pair of loci showed significant linkage disequilibrium after Bonferroni correction. Pairwise $F_{ST}$ and genetic distance estimation showed significant differences between two populations. These results suggest that the microsatellites developed herein can be used to study the genetic diversity, population structure and conservation measure of A. koreensis.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.79-83
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• 2005

We investigated the species richness of macrolepidoptera (including pyralid moths) in the evergreen broad-leaved forests of southwestern coast of Korea. The studied site was Mt. Duryunsan and its neighboring area, Haenam-gun, Jollanam-do and moths were identified and analyzed after collecting them with UV light traps from 2001 to 2004. A total number of species comprised 18 families and 489 species. We expected that the number of species would be increased when the species of microlepidoptera and butterflies were included. The family Noctuidae with 181 species was dominant in the area followed by Geometridae with 129 species and Pyralidae with 72 species. Based on number of collected individuals, Geometridae was the highest and followed by Noctuidae, Pyralidae and Drepanidae. Fifty-one percent of the total species consisted of less than two specimens in the collected sample. Monthly changes of numbers of species and individuals were examined and indices of Simpson's heterogeneity and evenness were also drawn. We briefly discussed the possibility of moth species or group of species as bioindicator for assessing the condition of forest after disturbance.