• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.44 no.1
• /
• pp.39-59
• /
• 2022

How in the Antarctic icefish, generally, and Pseudochaenichthys georgianus, in particular, otoliths increase in size and build new material as the fish ages and passes through different life phases is largely unexplored. Morphometric details of 3418 otoliths of Ps. georgianus from S. Georgia and 318 from S. Shetland, were processed and proportions of the amounts of collagen and aragonite removed by EDTA were determined for different age groups. Microstructural investigations showed that characteristics of the 3-dimensinal collagen net are the reason for the radial direction and orientation of the aragonite needles of approximately 1.0 ㎛ in length in larval and 2.3 ㎛ in length in adult specimens. Earlier generated increment layers from the primordial centre (PC) in the dorsal direction restrict those of the secondary centre (SC), causing new growth layer accretion in different directions. In the otoliths of larval Ps. georgianus, aragonite layers are 0.89 ㎛ wide while in juveniles and adults they measure 1.45-2.86 ㎛. Otoliths change from a sphere shape in the larvae to a longish object of irregular outline in the older stages. It is tentaively suggested that the observed otolith shape differences at distinct growth stages are due to physical effects related to swimming speeds at particular water depths and locations. To confirm that otoliths, apart from being useful for age analyses, could also serve to establish correlations between developmental stage and the oceanic environment the fish spend time in, further analyses using additional species and state-of-the-art methods like µCT imaging to evaluate otolith volumes and shapes are required.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
• /
• 2020.06a
• /
• pp.85-85
• /
• 2020

South Korea experiences few large scale erosion and sedimentation problems, however, there are numerous local sedimentation problems. A reliable and consistent approach to modelling and management for sediment processes are desirable in the country. In this study, field measurements of sediment concentration from 34 alluvial river basins in South Korea were used with the Modified Einstein Procedure (MEP) to determine the total sediment load at the sampling locations. And then the Flow Duration-Sediment Rating Curve (FD-SRC) method was used to estimate the specific degradation for all gauging stations. The specific degradation of most rivers were found to be typically 50-300 tons/㎢·yr. A model tree data mining technique was applied to develop a model for the specific degradation based on various watershed characteristics of each watershed from GIS analysis. The meaningful parameters are: 1) elevation at the middle relative area of the hypsometric curve [m], 2) percentage of wetland and water [%], 3) percentage of urbanized area [%], and 4) Main stream length [km]. The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of existing models is in excess of 1,250 tons/㎢·yr and the RMSE of the proposed model with 6 additional validations decreased to 65 tons/㎢·yr. Erosion loss maps from the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE), satellite images, and aerial photographs were used to delineate the geospatial features affecting erosion and sedimentation. The results of the geospatial analysis clearly shows that the high risk erosion area (hill slopes and construction sites at urbanized area) and sedimentation features (wetlands and agricultural reservoirs). The result of physiographical analysis also indicates that the watershed morphometric characteristic well explain the sediment transport. Sustainable management with the data mining methodologies and geospatial analysis could be helpful to solve various erosion and sedimentation problems under different conditions.

• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
• /
• v.4 no.4
• /
• pp.159-176
• /
• 2023

The conservation of the raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) in South Korea requires the protection and preservation of natural habitats while additionally ensuring coexistence with human activities. Applying habitat map modeling techniques provides information regarding the distributional patterns of raccoon dogs and assists in the development of future conservation strategies. The purpose of this study is to generate potential habitat distribution maps for the raccoon dog in South Korea using geospatial technology-based models. These models include the frequency ratio (FR) as a bivariate statistical approach, the group method of data handling (GMDH) as a machine learning algorithm, and convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) as deep learning algorithms. Moreover, the imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) is used to fine-tune the hyperparameters of the machine learning and deep learning models. Moreover, there are 14 habitat characteristics used for developing the models: elevation, slope, valley depth, topographic wetness index, terrain roughness index, slope height, surface area, slope length and steepness factor (LS factor), normalized difference vegetation index, normalized difference water index, distance to drainage, distance to roads, drainage density, and morphometric features. The accuracy of prediction is evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. The results indicate comparable performances of all models. However, the CNN demonstrates superior capacity for prediction, achieving accuracies of 76.3% and 75.7% for the training and validation processes, respectively. The maps of potential habitat distribution are generated for five different levels of potentiality: very low, low, moderate, high, and very high.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.50 no.2
• /
• pp.207-215
• /
• 2017

Body scales directly exposed to external environments can be an important factor to understand various characteristics of a species such as habitat features, life history and basic ecology. In this study, we compared size and morphology of dorsal, outermost dorsal, keeled dorsal and ventral scales of total nine snake species in Korea; Oocatochus rufodorsatus, Elaphe dione, Rhabdophis tigrinus, Amphiesma vibakari, Dinodon rufozonatum, Hierophis spinalis in the Colubridae and Gloydius ussuriensis, G. brevicaudus, G. saxatilis in the Viperidae. The morphological characteristics of the scales seem to well reflect foraging modes and moving activity of both families. Uniquely D. rufozonatum had a diamond shape dorsal scale and had the greatest and smallest value of the ratio of width/length of dorsal and ventral scales, respectively. O. rufodorsatus, D. rufozonatum and H. spinalis did not have keeled dorsal scales and E. dione had keel on the few of dorsal scales. In addition, morphological characteristics of scales of three viper species were closely consistent with previously known phylogenetic relationships.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.745-750
• /
• 2016

Morphological characteristics and population characteristics of the Rhynchocypris kumgangensis were investigated at Taehwa River from April 2014 to April 2015. This is the first record on R. kumgangensis not only from Guksu stream (the upstream region of Taehwa River, Ulsan-si Ulchu-gun Beomseo-eup Kuksu-ri) but also from the stream flowing into the Gangneungnamdae stream, in the southern part of East Sea, Korea. The morphometric characteristics of R. kumgangensis in the Taehwa River and the Han River are very similar except that the population at Taehwa River showed shorter caudal peduncle length than caudal peduncle depth when compared with the population at Han River. In terms of meristic character the population at Taehwa River showed fewer numbers of scales at the lateral line, above the lateral line and below the lateral line. Other than that, the two populations showed the same meristic characters. The fish cohabiting with R. kumgangensis mainly composed of Zacco platypus (25.2%), Rhynchocypris oxycephalus (24.1%) and Zacco koreanus (21.8%). Length frequency distribution analysis indicated that the length of the group ranged between 45~65 mm and the average length was 54.3 mm. Calculation of the length-weight relation of R. kumgangensis showed the value of constant a as 0.000002 and b as 3.34, and the Condition factor (K) was 1.10 an on average.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.53 no.3
• /
• pp.275-285
• /
• 2020

Two specimens presumed to be hybrids of Rhodeus pseudosericeus and R. notatus were collected from the Sangcheon Stream of the Han River, Korea. The body color of natural hybrid individuals was yellowish brown, showing the intermediate characteristics of R. pseudosericeus and R. notatus, but overall, the characteristics of R. notatus were similar. Meristic and morphometric characters, the number of dorsal fin rays, anal fin rays and longitudinal row scales showed a hybrid index (HI) of 0, indicating the characters of R. notatus. The hybrid index of predorsal length (HI=74.6), preanal length (HI=75.3), and preventral length (HI=77.6) were similar to the characters of the R. pseudosericeus. Also four characters were appeared to have intermediate characters between R. pseudosericeus and R. notatus; number of gill rakers (HI=55.3), body depth (HI=67.9), snout length (HI=43.4), and inter orbital width (HI=44.8). The rest of 14 characters deviated between 0 and 100, showing unique characteristics of hybrid individuals. Recombination activating gene 1 (RAG1) analysis, hybrids were identified as natural hybrids due to the overlapping peaks of their parent species. Also, as a result of analysis using the cytochrome b gene (COB), one individual was derived from R. pseudosericeus, while the other was derived from R. notatus.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.22 no.12
• /
• pp.31.1-31.12
• /
• 2019

Background: The black-chinned tilapia, Sarotherodon melanotheron, is the most abundant fish species in the Nakwa (an open lagoon) and Brenu (a closed lagoon) in the Central Region of Ghana. Aspects of the life history characteristics and the ecology of the fish populations in both lagoons were studied to assess the bio-ecological status of this important resource. Methods: Fish samples were obtained from fishermen that fish on the Nakwa and Brenu lagoons using cast, drag and gill nets. The age of the fish was assessed from otoliths analysis and its growth modelled following the von Bertalanffy growth function. Morphometric characteristics of the fish populations were analysed using power regression and ANOVA for parameters comparisons, and Student's t test to determine whether species grew isometrically. The percentage occurrence method was used to analyse the stomach contents of the fish. Results: A total of 382 fish samples from both lagoons were measured, comprising 209 from Nakwa lagoon and 176 from Brenu lagoon. The size and weight of fish samples ranged between 3.9-11.5 cm total length and 1.0-27.3 g for Nakwa Lagoon and 5.6-12.8 cm total length and 3.2-29.8 g for the Brenu Lagoon. The estimated von Bertalanffy growth parameters were L∞ = 12.04 cm and K = 2.76/year for the Nakwa Lagoon samples and L∞ = 13.44 cm and K = 3.27/year for Brenu Lagoon samples. Daily otolith incremental rate ranged from 0.01-0.03 mm per day to 0.01-0.02 mm per day for Nakwa and Brenu lagoons, respectively. Stomach content analysis of the fish samples revealed that the species are planktivorous and the range of food varied between the lagoons. Green algae were the most prevalent food item in the stomachs of the fish samples from Nakwa with the frequency of 69% whilst diatoms (80.5%) were most prevalent phytoplanktonic food item for the fish in Brenu lagoon. Conclusions: The estimates of asymptotic length for the species in both lagoons are close to known values of the species length at first sexual maturity and points to intensive fishing pressure. As a consequence, a comprehensive sample-based survey is required in both lagoons to derive estimates of management reference points. The results of the stomach content analysis are beneficial to the construction of diet matrix for ecosystem models of the two systems.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.351-368
• /
• 2004

Following the previous experiments, a starvation experiment was conducted to determine the influence of feeding and starvation on the histological and biochemical changes, the morphormetric changes in the sectioned body and the morphometric changes in Rhynchocypris oxycephalus (Sauvage and Dabry). The influence of starvation on nutritional conditions of the histological changes of hepatocyte and intestinal epithelium as hepatosmatic index (HSI), protein, RNA and DNA concentrations of liver in R. oxycephalus was tested. Although the starved group showed higher concentrations of protein, DNA and RNA than the fed group, food deprivation resulted in a decrease in the HSI, hepatocyte nucleus size and nuclear height of the intestinal epithelium. The RNA - DNA ratio appears to be a useful index of nutritional status in R. oxycephalus and may be useful for determining if R. oxycephalus is in a period of rapid or slow growth at the time of sampling. Additionally, the data have been interpreted in detail and some biologically important relationships discussed. The effects of starvation on the morphometrical changes in sectioned body traits, condition factor, viscera index and dressing percentage were determined for evaluating nutritional conditions of R. oxycephalus. Starvation for nine weeks resulted in a decrease in most sectioned traits as well as in condition factor and viscera index (P<0.05). These findings suggest that nutritional parameters used in this study appear to be a useful index for nutritional status in this species. The data has been interpreted in detail and some important body sectioned values of interest to commercial growers discussed. A 75-day study was conducted to determine the effect of starvation on classical and truss parameters in R. oxycephalus. Truss dimensions of almost the entire head and trunk region as well as the abdomen were increased significantly through feeding or starvation (P<0.05). Truss dimensions of the caudal region generally decreased through feeding or starvation, particularly those dimensions at the hind part of the trunk. There were some significant decreases in classical dimensions of the head region during feeding, in relation to body depth characteristics in the trunk and caudal region during starvation, whereas there was only one decreasing classical dimension in the caudal region during feeding. The results of this study indicate that application of the truss network as a character set enforces classical coverage across the body form, discrimination among experimental groups thus being enhanced. Considering that the dimension of the lower part of the head and some truss and classical dimensions were least affected by feeding and starvation, these dimensions may then be useful as a taxonomical indicator to discriminate the species of Rhynchocypris sp. The value of trunk region dimensions with a large component of body depth in R. oxycephalus is most likely to be compromised by variability related to differences in feeding regimes of fish in different habitats.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
• /
• v.45 no.2
• /
• pp.228-239
• /
• 2007

Statement of problem: Following tooth loss, the edentulous alveolar process of maxilla is affected by irreversible reabsorption process, with progressive sinus pneumatization leads to leaving inadquate bone height for placement of endosseous implants. Grafting the floor of maxillary sinus by sinus lifting surgery and augmentation of autologous bone or alternative bone material is a method of attaining sufficient bone height for maxillary implants placement and has proven to be a highty successful. Purpose: This study was undertaken to clarify the morphometric characteristics of inferior maxillary sinus and alveolar process for installation of implants. Material and method: Nineteen skulls (37 sinuses, 10M / 9F) obtained from the collection of the department of anatomy and cell biology of Hanyang medical school were studied. The mean age of the deceased was 69.9 years (range 44 to 88 years). The distance between alveolar border and inferior sinus margin at each tooth, the height of alveolar process and the thickness of cortical bone of the outer and inner table of alveolar process and the inferior wall of maxillary sinus were measured. Results and Conclusion: 1. The septum of inferior maxillary sinus were observe 28 sides (76.%) and located at the third molar (52.6%) and the second molar (26.3%). The deepest points of inferior border of maxillary sinus were located the first or second molar. The distance between alveolar margin and the deepest point of inferior maxillary sinus is $9.7{\pm}4.9mm$. 2. The length of the outer table of alveolar process were $4.9\sim28.2mm$ and the shortest point was between the first and the second molors. The thickness of them were $0.9\sim3.2mm$. The length of the inner table of alveolar process were $7.4\sim25.8mm$ and the shortest point was between the first and the second molars. The thickness of the were $0.9\sim4.6mm$. The results of this study are useful anatomical data for installing of maxillary implants.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
• /
• v.39 no.1
• /
• pp.9-15
• /
• 2012

The aim of this study was to investigate phenotypic characteristics, morphometric measurements, reproduction and production performances of Aseel chicken of Bangladesh. The dominant feather color of neck/hackles was red in both males (56.14%) and females (54.16%) while the sickle feather color was mostly black in both chickens (71.93% vs. 54.17%). The predominant saddle and breast feather colors were red (40.35%) and black (64.91%), respectively, in male whereas most frequent observed color was pale brown in female (58.33 and 50.0%, respectively). The predominant feather color of wing bow and wing bay was found black (68.42 and 80.70%, respectively) in male but only pale brown color was observed in females (62.5 and 54.17%, respectively) for these two characters. Different phenotypic measurements such as the average shank length and circumference were $12.79{\pm}0.13$ and $7.8{\pm}0.08$ cm, respectively, in male and $10.21{\pm}0.25$ and $5.81{\pm}0.21$ cm, respectively, in female. Keel length was $14.39{\pm}0.19$ cm in male and $10.79{\pm}0.23$ cm in female. The average adult live weight in male was measured $3749.12{\pm}83.44$ g while in female it was $2062.50{\pm}105.26$ g. The age of 1st lay was found to be 28.86 weeks. Total number of eggs laid per year ranged between 24~48, number of clutch/hen/year varied from 2 to 4 and number of eggs/clutch/hen was found to be 10~12. The average live weight of Aseel chicken at 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16 and 17 weeks of age were recorded as $31.14{\pm}0.55$, $48.63{\pm}3.99$, $116.57{\pm}5.72$, $138.40{\pm}5.91$, $212.88{\pm}4.82$, $361.00{\pm}9.72$, $577.50{\pm}42.86$, $743.75{\pm}24.65$, $1086.00{\pm}26.02$, $1402.00{\pm}24.54$ and $1432.00{\pm}27.00$ g respectively. Finally, this phenotypic characterization as well as productive and reproductive performances of Aseel chicken will give the baseline information to researcher for further study and for planning any on-ward conservation and implement strategy.