• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.76-85
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• 2024

The purpose of this study is to propose a new method of analysis focusing on interconnections between species rather than traditional biodiversity analysis, which represents ecosystems in terms of species and individual counts such as species diversity and species richness. This new approach aims to enhance our understanding of ecosystem networks. Utilizing data from the 4th National Natural Environment Survey (2014-2018), the following eight taxonomic groups were targeted for our study: herbaceous plants, woody plants, butterflies, Passeriformes birds, mammals, reptiles & amphibians, freshwater fishes, and benthonic macroinvertebrates. A co-occurrence frequency analysis was conducted using nationwide data collected over five years. As a result, in all eight taxonomic groups, the degree value represented by a linear regression trend line showed a slope of 0.8 and the weighted degree value showed an exponential nonlinear curve trend line with a coefficient of determination (R²) exceeding 0.95. The average value of the clustering coefficient was also around 0.8, reminiscent of well-known social phenomena. Creating a combination set from the species list grouped by temporal information such as survey date and spatial information such as coordinates or grids is an easy approach to discern species distributed regionally and locally. Particularly, grouping by species or taxonomic groups to produce data such as co-occurrence frequency between survey points could allow us to discover spatial similarities based on species present. This analysis could overcome limitations of species data. Since there are no restrictions on time or space, data collected over a short period in a small area and long-term national-scale data can be analyzed through appropriate grouping. The co-occurrence frequency analysis enables us to measure how many species are associated with a single species and the frequency of associations among each species, which will greatly help us understand ecosystems that seem too complex to comprehend. Such connectivity data and graphs generated by the co-occurrence frequency analysis of species are expected to provide a wealth of information and insights not only to researchers, but also to those who observe, manage, and live within ecosystems.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.153-162
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• 2018

Lespedeza maximowiczii C. K. Schneid. (Fabaceae) is a deciduous shrub which is known to be distributed in the temperate forests of China, Korea and on Tsushima Island of Japan. Due to severe morphological variations within species, numerous examinations have been conducted for Korean L. maximowiczii. However, the morphology of Chinese plants has not been studied as thoroughly, despite doubts about their taxonomy. To clarify this taxonomic issue, we investigated morphological characters and undertook a Bayesian clustering analysis with microsatellite markers. The morphological and genetic traits of Chinese individuals varied considerably from those of typical L. maximowiczii growing in Korea. For example, petals of the former had a different shape and bore long claws, while the calyx lobes were diverged above the middle and the upper surface of the leaflet was pubescent. Their terete buds and spirally arranged bud scales were distinct from those within the series/section Heterolespedeza, which includes L. maximowiczii. Our Bayesian clustering analysis additionally included L. buergeri as an outgroup. Those results indicated that the Chinese samples clustered into a lineage separated from L. maximowiczii (optimum cluster, K = 2), despite the fact that the latter is grouped into the same lineage with L. buergeri. Therefore, we treat those Chinese plants as a new species with the name L. pseudomaximowiczii.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.327-331
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• 2008

Serpentine soils are distributed in a small area in Korea, and generally exhibit high contents of Ni, Cr, Fe, Mn, Co and Mg. We investigated the growth of woody plants and herbs in the Andong serpentine area, Korea. Pinus densiflora and P. rigida growing on serpentine soils have high contents of Fe, Mg, Ni and Co, with contents approximately twice as high as those of non-serpentine plants. Tree species on serpentine soil also had lower ratios of tree height/DBH than trees in a control area. In greenhouse culture experiments on two bodenvag herb species, Setaria viridis and Cymbopogon tortilis, the biomass of the plants was significantly affected by soil type but not by seed origins. After 66 days, the growth of S. viridis and C. tortilis seedlings was significantly inhibited in serpentine soil, and the dry weight of each species showed significant negative correlations with soil heavy metal contents (Ni, Co and Cr). These results suggest that the growth of plants was inhibited by properties of the serpentine soil, and in particular, their high heavy metal concentration, which induced dwarfing in woody plants and reduction of total plant biomass in herbs.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.373.1-373.1
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• 2002

Twenty Artemisia species are distributed in South Korea and rich in terpenoids. Artemisia rubripes (Compositae) has been used as a Korean traditional medicine for stomachache. vomiting. diarrhea and hemostatic agent. The antimutagenic effect and essential oils of Artemisia rubripes were reported, but phytochemical study has not been fully investigated. As part of our systematic study on the terpene constituents of Artemisia species. we have investigated A. rubripes (1 kg) collected at Dae-Kwan ryung. Gangwon Province on Aug. 1997. (omitted)

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.119-122
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• 2015

It is very useful and important to see the status and change of necessary parts in a short period through selecting and observing the bioindicator continually to forecast and prepare the future. Especially, living things are so closely related to the environment that the indicator between the environment and living things shows close interrelationship. Also, the indicator related to environment provides information about representative or decisive environmental phenomenon and is used to simplify complicated facts. Considering wide range of background and application including various indicators such as the change-, destruction-, pollution-, and restoration of habitats, climate change, and species diversity, the closest category includes "environmental indicator," "ecological indicator," and "biodiversity indicator." The selection and use of bioindicator is complicated and difficult. The necessary conditions for the indicator selection are flexible and greatly depend on the goals of investigation such as the indicator for biological diversity investigation of specific area, the indicator for habitat destruction, the indicator for climate change, and the indicator for polluted area. It should meet many various conditions to select a good indicator. In this study, eleven selection standards are established based on domestic and overseas studies on bioindicator selection: species with clear classification and ecology, species distributed in geographically widespread area, species that show clear habitat characteristics, species that can provide early warning for a change, species that are easy and economically benefited for the investigation, species that have many independent individual groups and that is not greatly affected by the size of individual groups, species that is thought to represent the response of other species, species that represent the ecology change caused by the pressure of human influence, species for which researches on climate change have been done, species that is easy to observe, appears for a long time and forms a group with many individuals, and species that are important socially, economically, and culturally.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.11-27
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• 2016

This study is a survey of the flora distributed in Seocheon tidal flat wetland protected area of nearby island (Daejuk-do, Tokki-deung, Muk-do) and Yubo-do Seocheon-gun Chuncheongnam-do, Korea. The numbers of vascular plants were summarized as 231 taxa including 65 families, 167 genera, 204 species, 2 subspecies, 23 varieties and 2 forms. The halophytes were 33 taxa including 15 families, 29 genera, 29 species, 3 varieties and 1 form (Chenopodium album var. stenophyllum, Cnidium japonicum, Juncus haenkei and so on). The rare plants were 4 taxa including Pseudoraphis ukishiba (VU), Belamcanda chinensis (VU), Phacelurus latifolius (LC) and Polygonum bellardii (DD). The Korean endemic plants were 2 taxa including Salix pseudolasiogyne and Forsythia koreana. In the specific plants by floristic region were 24 taxa, a degree I were 19 taxa (Rhodotypos scandens, Zanthoxylum planispinum, Cynodon dactylon and so on), 2 taxa of a degree III (Elymus mollis and Asparagus oligoclonos), 3 taxa of a degree IV (Polygonum bellardii, Wisteria floribunda and Pseudoraphis ukishiba) and degree II, V were not found. The naturalized plants were 40 taxa including Phytolacca americana, Sicyos angulatus, Lactuca scariola and so on. Naturalization rate (NR) was 17.3% of all 231 taxa of vascular plants and urbanization index (UI) was 12.5% of all 321 taxa of naturalized plants. This study was performed to used as a basic data to identify the protected from plant ecosystems of type classify into analyze the vegetation characteristic of based on flora distributed in Yubu-do and nearby islands.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.549-559
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• 2007

Vegetation surveys were performed at 45 plots along 10 highways cut slopes in South Korea. Total floral inventory, species richness and exotic plant percentage were obtained within each plot. Life history and life form of each species appeared were analyzed. Community types were classified using hierarchical cluster analysis and detrended correspondence analysis and non-metric multidimensional scaling were conducted from vegetation matrix. 292 species of vascular plants were discovered and the number of natives and exotics were 226 and 66, respectively. There were no significant differences of species richness and exotic plant percentage between cut slopes and rest areas. Hierarchical cluster analysis indicated five clear vegetation associations in cut slopes and rest areas. Detrended correspondence analysis indicated that species composition of total and native plants were similar along the highway cut slopes whereas exotic plants were distributed differentially along the highway cut slopes. in non-metric multidimensional scaling, the studied sites were more separated from each other on the basis of their species composition than the results of detrended correspondence analysis with respect to total, native and exotic plants. The both ordination represented that exotic plants have not been made uniform yet on cut slopes and rest areas by highway corridor in spite of diverse chronosequences after highway construction termination (1 to 22 years). This study showed that the distribution of species composition in exotic plants was different and localized on cut slopes and rest areas of highway in this representative peninsula area of North East Asia and the invasion of exotic plants can retard the process of plant species homogenization.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.589-596
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• 2013

Vaccinium bracteatum Thunb. is an evergreen plant that belongs to the Genus Vaccinium distributed in Korea, and its fruit has been used for food by the common people and thus has a high possibility of commercialization. Therefore, the habitat environment and individual characteristics of V. bracteatum in Jeju Island were investigated to obtain the basic data for commercialization and preservation. The results showed that V. bracteatum is mostly distributed on the southern slope of Mt. Halla at an altitude of 100 to 500 m. V. bracteatum that occurred in the quadrat were total 30 individuals, which had an average height of 6.0 m, an average DBH of 7.8 cm, and an average number of trunk of 4.3. As for the community structure of the habitat, the average percentage of vegetation cover for the tree layer was 36%, while that for the subtree layer was 78%, which emphasized the importance of the subtree layer. The total number of species that occurred in the quadrat was 76. For the tree layer, total 10 species occurred, which include 2 species of evergreen coniferous trees, 3 species of evergreen broad-leaved trees, and 5 species of deciduous broad-leaved trees. For the subtree layer, total 24 species occurred, which include 1 species of evergreen coniferous tree, 11 species of evergreen broad-leaved trees, and 10 species of deciduous broad-leaved trees. Among these, Eurya japonica Thunb. was the species with a high relative contribution, which threatened V. bracteatum For the shrub layer, 27 species occurred including Cinnamomum japonicum Siebold, and for the herbaceous layer, 64 species occurred including Ardisia crenata Sims. The similarity between the habitats of V. bracteatum was very low, and it did not prefer a characteristic community. The V. bracteatum community around Shinrei stream was distributed on the surrounding area adjacent to the slope of the stream rather than the slope. There were a lot of basins, but the branches, which did not receive sunlight, had withered. It is thought that V. bracteatum would decline if the forest formation continues.

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.15-23
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• 2016

Objectives : Araliae Continentalis Radix and Angelicae Pubescentis Radix have been used as the same medicinal name Korean and Chinese traditional medicines, respectively. The authentic Araliae Continentalis Radix is described only the root of Aralia continentalis in the Korean Pharmarcopoeia. However, the dried root of Angelica biserrata, Levisticum officinale, or Heracleum moellendorffii also has been distributed adulterants of Araliae Continentalis Radix. To develop a reliable method for identifying Araliae Continentalis Radix from adulterants, we carried out the analyses of universal DNA barcode sequences.Methods : Four plants species were collected from different habitate and nucleotide sequences of matK and rbcL were analyzed. The species-specific sequences and phylogenetic relationship were estimated using entire sequences of two DNA barcodes, respectively.Results : In comparative analysis of matK sequences, we were identified 104 positions of marker nucleotide for Ar. continentalis, 3 for An. biserrata, 4 for L. officinale and 8 for H. moellendorffii enough to distinguish individual species, respectively. Furthermore, we obtained marker nucleotides in rbcL at 42 positions for Ar. continentalis, 5 for An. biserrata and 2 for H. moellendorffii, but not for L. officinale. The phylogenetic tree of matK and rbcL were showed that all samples were clustered into four groups constituting homogeneous clades within the species.Conclusions : We confirmed that species-specific marker nucleotides of matK sequence provides distinct genetic information enough to identify four species. Therefore, we suggest that matK gene is useful DNA barcode for discriminating authentic Araliae Continentalis Radix from inauthentic adulterants.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-27
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• 1990

Twenty four species belonging to 10 genera and 4 families in the suborder Tetraodontoidei in Korea were reviewed and provisional keys to species, genera and families are provided. Among them available specimens of seventeen species in this taxa collected during 1986 to 1990 from Korean waters were examined and recorded on the morphometric characters, their body color and collection sites. And two species are reported for the first time to Korea with their descriptions and figures : Lagocephallus gloveri Abe et Tabeta, 1983 and L. wheeleri Abe,Tabeta et Kitahama, 1984. Taki/ugu chiηensis Abe, previously recorded from Pusan, Korea as paratype locality but not included in the list of Chyung, 1977, is listed in the present paper with the new korean name, "Chambok". Many of this taxa are also distributed throughout the waters of China and Japan. But it is found that the distribution of three species of genus Takifugu are restricted only to the west coast of Korea as well as to the adjacent waters of China in the Yellow Sea ; T. obscurus, T. flavidus and T. basilevskianus. Taxonomy and distribution of this taxa were discussed with references to the information obtained so far.