• Title/Summary/Keyword: species extinction

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The Effects of Technical Development, Market Expansion, Ecological Features, and Infirm Protective Policy on the Extinction of a Wild Life: A Case Study of Passenger Pigeons (기술발전, 시장팽창, 생태적 특성, 그리고 소극적 보호정책이 야생 동물의 멸종에 미친 영향: 미국 서부개척기의 여행비둘기를 사례로)

  • Song, Myung-Gyu
    • Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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    • v.19 no.5
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    • pp.483-495
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    • 2010
  • The passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) was a species of pigeon that was once the most common bird in North America. According to some ornithologists, the number of passenger pigeons is estimated as many as five to six billions at the time when the first Europeans arrived there. But this species became extinct in 1914. There were a multiplicity of causes in the extinction; first, the extension of telegraph lines and railroads into the Middle West of the USA beginning in 1850s, second, the loss of vast feeding, nesting, and roosting sites of the passenger pigeon due to the massive deforestation, third, the rapid population growth of the USA during nineteen century, fourth, the commercial exploitation of the species, and finally, the infirm and weak protective efforts. Some important lessons can be learned from the extinction of the passenger pigeon. First, it shows how much critical the public interest is for a successful conservational movement. Second, it illustrates the need for strong laws and practices in the protection of an endangered species from going extinct. Third, the fate of the passenger pigeon proves a very important principle in conservational biology. That is, for each species (bird or other animal) there is a minimum population to sustain the species. Ecologists generally believe that the extinction of the passenger pigeon was due to the loss of their numbers below the minimum owing to overexploitation.

Effects of Aerosol Hygroscopicity on Fine Particle Mass Concentration and Light Extinction Coefficient at Seoul and Gosan in Korea

  • Choi, Eun-Kyung;Kim, Yong-Pyo
    • Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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    • v.4 no.1
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    • pp.55-61
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    • 2010
  • The sensitivity of aerosol light extinction coefficient to the aerosol chemical composition change is estimated by (1) calculating the aerosol water content and chemical concentrations by a gas/particle equilibrium model and (2) calculating the aerosol light extinction coefficient by a Mie theory based optical model. The major chemical species are total (gas and particle phase) sulfuric acid, total nitric acid, and total ammonia which are based on the measurement data at Seoul and Gosan. At Seoul, since there were enough ammonia to neutralize both total sulfuric acid and total nitric acid, the dry ionic concentration is most sensitive to the variation of the total nitric acid level, while the total mass concentration (ionic concentration plus water content) and thus, the aerosol light extinction coefficient are primarily determined by the total sulfuric acid. At Gosan, since the concentration of ambient sulfuric acid was the highest among the inorganic species, sulfate salts determined aerosol hygroscopicity. Thus, both ionic and total mass concentration, and resultant aerosol light extinction coefficient are primarily determined by the sulfuric acid level.

A Study on the Improvement Plan for a Habitat of 'Gold-spotted Pond Frog (Pelophylax chosenicus)' in Danger of Regional Extinction in the Urban Area - Case on the Abandoned Railroad Site on Su-in Line - (지역적 절멸 위험에 처한 도심 속 금개구리의 서식처 개선방안 연구 - 수인선 폐철도변을 사례로 -)

  • Yang, Deok-Suk;Koo, Bon Hak
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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    • v.19 no.2
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    • pp.95-107
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    • 2016
  • The gold-spotted pond frog(Pelophylax chosenicus) classified as an Anura in Amphibia is sharply decreasing due to various changes of habitats environment, and designated as IUCN Red List Threatened species(VU; Vulnerable) internationally and domestic endangered species Class-II; therefore, it's in urgent need of the research on habitats restoration of the gold-spotted pond frog in order to prevent its extinction. This study was carried out to verify the effect after restoration by introducing the inhabitation elements deducted by the literature research and a field survey on the habitats for the gold-spotted pond frog in danger of regional extinction in the urban area of Ansan city, Gyeonggi-do, Korea. Accordingly, the capacity for bio-species was increased by expanding the area of habitats into $11,845m^2$, and securing the place for hibernation and corridors and discharge within the habitats, etc. As a result of the monitoring the number of individuals increased by 9.5 times as the reproductive success rate of the gold-spotted pond frog got higher, and by virtue of improvement in the habitats, biodiversity increased to 183 species(4 species of amphibians and reptiles, 4 species of mammals, 17 species of birds, 53 species of insects(terrestrial/Benthic), 4 species of fish, and 102 species of plants). It might be possible to verify the restoration effect of the habitats through continuous monitoring, and suggest the restoration model on the habitats for continuously survivable the gold-spotted pond frog in the urban area by deducting the matters to be improved.

A Population Viability Analysis (PVA) for Re-introduction of the Oriental White Stork (Ciconia boyciana) in Korea

  • Sung, Ha-Cheol;Park, Shi-Ryong;Cheong, Seokwan
    • Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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    • v.30 no.4
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    • pp.307-313
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    • 2012
  • The Oriental White Stork (Ciconia boyciana) is a representative wetland species distributed across East Asia. The species has been declined to face the threat of species extinctions with estimation of at about 3000 individuals. In order to re-introduce the endangered storks in the field, we developed a baseline model using the program VORTEX, performed sensitivity test, and finally suggested an ideal model based on results of the sensitivity test. The baseline model predicted 12.5% extinction probability with mean time to first extinction of 82.0 year. Sensitivity test revealed that two demographic variables (first-year mortality and percent of adult female breeding) had the greatest impacts on population persistence. Thus, corrected model improved the population persistence, where the extinction probability decreased to 1.0% in 100 years by changing values of two variables within a range of applicable to the population. Our models for stork re-introduction suggest this population will be stable by improving first-year mortality and adult female fecundity.

Variation of Adenosine tri-Phosphate(ATP) in Fermentation-Extinction of Food Wastes with Wood Bio-Chip (목질바이오칩에 의한 음식물쓰레기 발효-소멸반응에서의 아데노신3인산의 변화)

  • Oh, Jeong-Ik
    • Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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    • v.32 no.4
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    • pp.363-368
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    • 2010
  • The overall indicator of microbial activity in the fermentation-extinction reaction of food waste by using bio wood-chips were investigated by considering adenosine tri-phosphate(ATP). Degradation rate of organic compounds, which was represented by chemical oxygen demand(COD) and total nitrogen(TN), was increased with the concentration of adenosine tri-phosphate during fermentation-extinction reaction of food waste by using bio-wood chips. With this view, the ATP would be one of the overall evaluation indicator of organic degradation in the species of bio-wood chip for the fermentation-extinction of food waste.

Changes of the Flame Temperature and OH Radical in the Unsteady Extinction Process (비정상 소화 과정에서의 화염 온도 및 OH 라디칼의 변화)

  • Lee, Uen-Do;Lee, Ki-Ho;Oh, Kwang-Chul;Shin, Hyun-Dong
    • Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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    • v.28 no.12
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    • pp.1557-1566
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    • 2004
  • A flame extinction phenomenon is a typical unsteady process in combustion. Flame extinction is characterized by various physical phenomena, such as convection, diffusion, and the production of heat and mass. Flame extinction can be achieved by either increasing the strain rate or curvature, by diluting an inert gas or inhibitor, or by increasing the thermal or radiant energy loss. Though the extinction is an inherently transient process, steady and quasi-steady approaches have been used as useful tools for understanding the flame extinction phenomenon. Recently, unsteady characteristics of flames have been studied by many researchers, and various attempts have been made to understand unsteady flame behavior, by using various extinction processes. Representative parameters for describing flame, such as flame temperature, important species related to reactions, and chemi-luminescence of the flame have been used as criterions of flame extinction. In these works, verification of each parameter and establishing the proper criterions of the extinction has been very important. In this study, a time-dependent flame temperature and an OH radical concentration were measured using optical methods, and the instantaneous change of the flame luminosity was also measured using a high-speed ICCD (HICCD) camera. We compare the unsteady extinction points obtained by three different methods, and we discuss transient characteristics of maximum flame temperature and OH radical distribution near the extinction limit.

Intergenerics Nuclear Transfer Technology for Conservation of Endangered Species

  • Lee, B.C.;S.K. Kang;J.K. Cho;B. Bavister;W.S. Hwang
    • Proceedings of the Korean Society of Embryo Transfer Conference
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    • 2002.11a
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    • pp.56-62
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    • 2002
  • The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) considers the western/lowland bongo Tragelaphus eurycerus eurycerus to be a threatened species, and the eastern/mountain bongo Tragelaphus eurycerus isaaci an endangered species[1]. Although extinction is considered by many biologists to be a natural process during evolution, the exponential growth of the human population has drastically and prematurely reduced the numbers and genetic diversity of many species[2]. Species have evolved to adapt to a specific habitat or environment that meet their survival needs. Alteration or destruction of their habitat results in a species becoming incapable of adapting and hence becoming threatened with extinction. A widespread scientific and public consensus has emerged suggesting that governments should assign high priority to the maintenance of biological diversity via habitat preservation and management far species conservation[3]. Unfortunately, the loss of biological diversity far surpasses the available conservation resources and species are lost forever on a daily basis[4]. Notwithstanding the focus on habitat preservation and wildlife management, conservation biologists have also become increasingly interested in using the technologies of reproductive and developmental biology to help manage or rescue endangered species[5].

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A Numerical Study on Effect of Radiative Heat Loss on Extinction of Hydrogen Diffusion Flames at High Pressure (고압하에서 수소 확산화염의 소염에 미치는 복사 열손실 효과에 관한 수치적 연구)

  • Oh, Tae-Kyun;Sohn, Chae-Hoon
    • Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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    • v.32 no.5
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    • pp.351-358
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    • 2008
  • Extinction characteristics of hydrogen-air diffusion flames at various pressures are investigated numerically by adopting counterflow flame configuration as a model flamelet. Especially, effect of radiative heat loss on flame extinction is emphasized. Only gas-phase radiation is considered here and it is assumed that $H_2O$ is the only radiating species. Radiation term depends on flame thickness, temperature, $H_2O$ concentration, and pressure. From the calculated flame structures at various pressures, flame thickness decreases with pressure, but its gradient decreases at high pressure. Flame temperature and mole fraction of $H_2O$ increase slightly with pressure. Accordingly, as pressure increases, radiative heat loss becomes dominant. When radiative heat loss is considered, radiation-induced extinction is observed at low strain rate in addition to transport-induced extinction. As pressure increases, flammable region, where flame is sustained, shifts to the high-temperature region and then, shrunk to the point on the coordinate plane of flame temperature and strain rate. The present numerical results show that radiative heat loss can reduce the operating range of a combustor significantly.

A Critical Review about Application of IUCN Red List Criteria at Regional Level to Korean Endangered Vascular Plants Assessed by the Ministry of Environment, Republic of Korea (환경부 멸종위기 관속식물 지정 기준으로 사용된 IUCN 지역 적색목록 평가 분석)

  • Chang, Chin-Sung;Kwon, Shin-Young;Son, Sungwon;Kim, Hui
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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    • v.107 no.4
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    • pp.361-377
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    • 2018
  • The aim of this study was to examine whether the guideline by the Ministry of Environment (ME) successfully and appropriately applied the IUCN Red List criteria at regional level and the rare and endangered national list considered eligible. A certain number of vascular plants, which are widely distributed in the world or in east Asia, deemed to be ineligible for assessment at a regional level as Not Applicable category (NA), because it occurs at very low numbers in South Korea. Among 377 vascular plant taxa evaluated by the ME, NA included 238 species, which represented 63.1%. The number of synonymized species or illegitimate name species were 13 species, which accounted for 3.4%. 21 species (9.3%) were threatened at global level and 103 species were possibly candidates species list for Red List assessments at regional level in the near future. The proportion of NA or waiting list was 66.6% among the list assessed by the ME. The most common errors involved incorrectly application of species extinction in case of population extinction in South Korea to the assessment and provided incorrect interpretation of the Red List criteria at regional level. The most assessments proposed by ME were not backed up without quantitative data quality, justifications, and sources. It is suggested that the risk of extinction should be reassessed at least in the Korean peninsula within the light of their overall distribution including far eastern Russia and North eastern China in north and for Japan and Taiwan in south for regional assessment. The results obtained here using the IUCN criteria at regional level showed that the list proposed by the ME produced an overestimation of the number of threatened vascular plants. Also, the misapplication of the term 'species extinction' for regional assessment was open to some degree of subjectivity and misinterpretation.

POSITIVE COEXISTENCE FOR A SIMPLE FOOD CHAIN MODEL WITH RATIO-DEPENDENT FUNCTIONAL RESPONSE AND CROSS-DIFFUSION

  • Ko, Won-Lyul;Ahn, In-Kyung
    • Communications of the Korean Mathematical Society
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    • v.21 no.4
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    • pp.701-717
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    • 2006
  • The positive coexistence of a simple food chain model with ratio-dependent functional response and cross-diffusion is discussed. Especially, when a cross-diffusion is small enough, the existence of positive solutions of the system concerned can be expected. The extinction conditions for all three interacting species and for one or two of three species are studied. Moreover, when a cross-diffusion is sufficiently large, the extinction of prey species with cross-diffusion interaction to predator occurs. The method employed is the comparison argument for elliptic problem and fixed point theory in a positive cone on a Banach space.