• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.235-247
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• 2022

A marine protected area (MPA) is a spatially designated section of the ocean where the biodiversity is high. Munseom MPA has a unique underwater landscape including soft coral, subtropical fish, and benthos, attracting many scuba divers. This paper intends to evaluate the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the scuba diving management policy in the Munseom MPA. As a stated preference valuation method, a choice experiment was applied to assess divers' preferences with economic values for the policy. The attributes used in the study included zoning (temporal closure), conservation education, daily permit, soft coral area, and diving fee. We collected 333 questionnaires through online and field surveys and used 296 after excluding incomplete responses for the final data analysis. Study results show that a six-month closure, a decrease in soft coral habitat, and the diving fee were statistically significant. A positive coefficient with regard to the six-month closure variable indicates that divers preferred the policy, and the marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) was estimated to be KRW 8,637 per person per dive. The aggregate WTP of KRW 233 million was obtained by multiplying the MWTP by the number of visiting divers per year. When comparing the levels of recreation specialization, more skilled divers preferred the management option. The results of this study will help predict the priority of management measures and the levels of acceptability among divers when diving management is implemented in Korea in the future. This study suggests that marine environmental policies need to consider divers as one of the important stakeholders for marine conservation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.597-605
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• 2013

This study was conducted in warty sea squirt farm, Jindong Bay(10 stations; July, October, January, April) for the culture period of Styela clava, Styela plicata. We utilized water temperature, chlorophyll a, suspended particulate matter, hydrodynamics, salinity and dissolved oxygen saturation for the suitability assessment of warty sea squirt farm. Newly, Life Requisite Suitability graphs were made for the correlation between the growth of Styela clava, Styela plicata and farm environment. As a result of the assessment for Habitat Suitability Index, western bay(HSI 0.32~0.41) show values higher than eastern bay(HSI 0.19~0.27). This result shows the high correlation with the unit production of Styela clava, Styela plicata($R^2$=0.834, P<0.01). This could be helpful for fishery management for the sustainable productivity through the scientific suitable site assessment.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.278-287
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• 2011

Habitat environment, age and feeding ecology of Gobiobotia macrocephala were investigated to provide baseline data for ecological characteristics and recovery in the Seom River at Heungho- ri, Buron-myeon, Wonju-si, Gangwon-do, Korea from 2010 to 2011. G. macrocephala inhabited 10~40 cm in water depth, 8~20 cm bottom size and 40~120 cm/sec in current velocity, and pebble floor were factors to be important for inhabit density. Age group of G. macrocephala in May estimated from the standard length indicated that the 28~42 mm group is 1 year old, the 43~58 mm group is 2 years old, the 59~69 mm group is 3 years old and the 69~85 mm group is more than 4 years old, and the female was 4~10 mm larger than the male. G. macrocephala did mainly feeding with nocturnal fishes between 00 h to 06 h, and they fed mainly Trichoptera (57.7%), Diptera (26.0%) and Ephemeroptera (16.3%). And their small juvenile fed mainly Ephemeroptera and Diptera, however, they ate mainly Trichoptera while growing to adult fish.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.236-244
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• 2014

This study considered a seagrass habitat in order to analyze the characteristics of a marine environment of seagrass located in the Seomjin river estuary, through an analysis of the distribution of the water depth, field observation, and three-dimensional numerical experiments using an EFDC model. The seagrass habitat was usually distributed at D.L(-) 0.5~0.0 m, and was hardly seen in the intertidal zone higher than that range. The distribution of the water temperature was within the range of $7.0{\sim}23.2^{\circ}C$, and the seagrass was demonstrated to have a strong tolerance to changes in the water temperature. In addition, the salinity distribution was found to be 27.2~31.0 psu, with suspended solids of 32.1 mg/L, which were higher than the previous research results (Huh et al., 1998), implying that there may be a reduction in the amount of deposits caused by the suspended solids. As for the sedimentary facies, they were comprised of 62.7% sand, 19.1% silt, and 18.2% clay, indicating that the arenaceous was superior and the sedimentary facies were similar to that of Dadae Bay. According to a numerical experiment, the maximum tidal current was 75 cm/s, while the tidal residual current was 10 cm/s, confirming that it sufficiently adapted to strong tidal currents. The erosion and deposition are predicted to be less than 1.0 cm/year. Thus, it is judged that the resuspension of sediments due to tidal currents and the changes in sedimentary facies are insignificant.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.136-139
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• 2019

The pulmonate gastropod Ellobium chinense (Pfeiffer, 1864) is an endangered marine species along the South Korean coasts due to habitat destruction and population declines. We sequenced the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) of 25 E. chinense specimens collected from five coastal sites in South Korea, and identified 16 unique haplotypes. The maximum intraspecific variation among individuals was 1.6%, while interspecific differences from another ellobiid species, Auriculastra duplicata (Pfeiffer, 1854), ranged from 21.9 to 23.0%. Our barcoding data will be useful to elucidate the phylogenetic relationships among pulmonate gastropods and infer the population genetic structure of E. chinense.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.69-75
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• 2018

We investigated the effects of environmental variations on the growth and survival rate of Stichopus japonicus to determine the optimum environmental conditions for its growth. Literature studies and a 12 month-long diver survey were carried out to understand the habitat, ecology and size of the surveyed area. Based on the collected data, we suggested optimum habitat conditions for releasing S. japonicus. Experiments on releasing S. japonicus were conducted in the breakwater of the Hwagye fishing cooperative in Hwagey-ri, Namhae-un, Gyeongsangnam-do, Korea. To implement the experiments, we divided the surveyed area into 4 sub-areas with different characteristics: (1) sand and silt zone; (2) artificial sea cucumber bank zone; (3) artificial rock bank zone; and (4) marine algae zone. The experiment lasted for 12 months. We released 32,000 sea cucumbers over $120m^2$ of each of the sand and silt zone, artificial rock bank zone and marine algae zone and released 6,000 sea cucumbers over $120m^2$ of the artificial sea cucumber bank zone. The average density of the released sea cucumbers from day 30 to day 360 after the releasing was conducted was the highest in the artificial sea cucumber bank zone ($23.7animal/m^2$), which was followed by artificial rock bank zone ($2.0animal/m^2$), marine algae zone ($1.9animal/m^2$) and sand and silt zone ($0.8animal/m^2$). The analysis on growth showed that the initial average weight of 2.3 g increased on day 360 after the releasing to 12.5 g in the artificial sea cucumber rank zone, 20.2 g in the sand and silt zone, 23.3 g in the artificial rock bank zone and 22.9 g in the marine algae zone. Results from the experiment along with the literature analysis suggest the following optimum habitat conditions: $10-15^{\circ}C$ water temperature; 28-34 psu salinity; 5-10 m water depth; 0.2-0.5 m/s velocity; rock, stone and muddy sand as substrate; and less than 20% mud in the substrate.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.139-159
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• 2019

This survey was conducted from May 2017 to August 2018 as part of the National Marine Ecosystem Surveys sponsored by MOF (Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries) and KOEM (Korea Marine Environment Management Corporation). The survey was conducted at 157 stations including intertidal zones, coastal sand dunes and beaches. A total of 72 species of halophytes were identified and the total vegetated area was $1,813,546m^2$ in coastal waters of Korea. In the west coast region, Suaeda japonica was the dominant species, Phragmites communis in the southern coast, and Carex kobomugi in the east coast. Phragmites communis was the most dominant with $1,136,643m^2$ (62.7%) in the whole surveyed area. The top 11 dominant plants are Phragmites communis, Suaeda japonica, Suaeda maritima, Zoysia sinica, Carex kobomugi, Elymus mollis, Suaeda malacosperma, Phacelurus latifolius, Triglochin maritimum, Carex pumila and Carex scabrifolia, and Phragmites communis and Suaeda japonica accounted for 75.9% of the total vegetated area. The distribution of halophyte on the coast of Korea was determined by the habitat types rather than the climate ranges, and there was a difference in the species diversity and habitat range of the halophyte depending on the habitat diversities within the same area.

• Proceedings of KOSOMES biannual meeting
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• 2017.11a
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• pp.87-87
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• 2017

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.764-772
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• 2018

It is necessary to explore the possibility of alternative habitats and research the characteristics of basic habitats due to seeding, culturing and harvesting of blood clams (Tegillarca granosa) in tidal flats. Currently, dependence on naturally occurring spat is much higher than in other species, which may lead to a reduction in biological resources. In this study, we selected a total of 5 sites (Changgi, Hopo in Cheonsu Bay and Dangsan, Sachang, Wangsan in Garolim Bay) and examined habitat suitability factors for suitable site selection. Also, we considered the relationship of habitat suitability factors (Environment: water content, organic content; survival: mud content, mean size; growth: chlorophyll a). As a result, Wangsan had the highest score of the main habitat of blood clams (Habitat suitability score, Wangsan: 87; Dangsan: 86; Sachang: 81; Hopo: 78; and Changgi: 73). The sediment in Garolim Bay was fine-grained and the seasonal variation was lower than Cheonsu Bay. Therefore, it is considered that Garolim Bay is more suitable as a potential area and easy to utilize the space. In the future, search and selection of potential suitable sites could be considered to solve problems caused by the reduction of biological resources and the production for blood clams.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.97-111
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• 2021

This study was conducted to develop a habitat type classification system and its map based on the ecological characteristics of species, spatial type, vegetation, topography, and geological conditions preferred by species. To evaluate the relationships between species and their habitats in Korean national parks, we prepared a classification standard table for systematic classification of habitat types. This classification system divides habitats into 6 low-level and 59 mid-level ecological classes based on habitat structure. The mid-level system divided forest ecosystems into 20 subtypes, stream and wetland ecosystems into 8 types, coastal ecosystems into 7 types, arable land into 6 types, development land into 9 types, and 1 type of marine ecosystem. A habitat classification map was drawn utilizing square images, detailed vegetation maps, and forest stand maps, based on the above habitat classification system, and it covered 1,461 plots spanning 21 national parks. The habitat classification system and survey protocol, which consider domestic habitat conditions, should be further developed and applied to habitat assessment, to enhance the utility of this study.