• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.98-105
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• 2021

Understanding the migration patterns and habitats of juvenile birds during the post-fledging stage is very important for conservation and management of individuals. The Chinese Egret is an internationally protected species. During the wintering season, they inhabit South-East Asia, such as the Philippines, Malaysia, and Taiwan, and breed in China, Russia, and uninhabited islands on the west coast of Korea. IIn this study, we attached a GPS telemetry tracking device to six juvenile Chinese Egrets breeding on Chilsan Archipelago in 2018 and 2019 to identify habitats by analyzing the home range during the post-fledging stage in the summer season. The individual CE1801 moved north and then returned to the Yeonggwang Baeksu tidal flat area, and CE1802 and CE1803 migrated north and inhabited Taean-gun. In 2019, CE1901 showed a similar pattern to CE1801, and CE1902 migrated southward to the Wando-gun area, while CE1903 moved south to the Sinan-gun area then returned to the Yeonggwang Baeksu tidal flat area, showing KDE 50%. The study results confirmed that the Chinese Egret moved broadly around the flat tidal area on the west coast to find a stable habitat during the post-fledging stage. Efforts to protect the habitat, such as limiting the development of this area and restricting human access, are necessary.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.575-581
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• 2022

Brown rats (Rattus norvegicusBerkenhout, 1769) were eradicated from Sasudo Island (33°55'13.04" N, 126°38'19.98" E), an uninhabited island designated as Natural Monument No. 333 and the largest breeding site for the streaked shearwater (Calonectris leucomelasTemminck, 1835) in South Korea. Twelve eradication studies were conducted from November 2015 to February 2021. The survey was conducted using a line census method that entailed slow wandering throughout the island and identifying starting and returning points. Capture traps were installed around traces of Rattus norvegicus,such as excrement and identified holes. As a result, 2 to 6 individuals were captured at each instance, except for the last time, when no individuals were captured. It is hypothesized that brown rats arrived at Sasudo Island via vessels arriving at the island for leisure and fishing. After the damage to streaked shearwater caused by brown rats was confirmed in 2006, entry to Sasudo Island was strictly prohibited through security measures, and marine clean-up programs that began in 2013 and continuous capturing since 2015 have been successful in eradicating brown rats. To maintain and manage the condition in Sasudo Island, preservation and management measures, such as strict visitor control, are necessary to prevent the inflow of new brown rats in the future.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.5_1
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• pp.903-916
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• 2021

An area's topography refers to the shape of the earth's surface, described by its elevation, slope, and aspect, among other features. The topographical conditions determine energy flowsthat move water and energy from higher to lower elevations, such as how much solar energy will be received and how much wind or rain will affect it. Another common factor, the topographic wetness index (TWI), is a calculation in digital elevation models of the tendency to accumulate water per slope and unit area, and is one of the most widely referenced hydrologic topographic factors, which helps explain the location of forest vegetation. Analyses of topographical factors can be calculated using a geographic information system (GIS) program based on digital elevation model (DEM) data. Recently, a large number of free open source software (FOSS) GIS programs are available and developed for researchers, industries, and governments. FOSS GIS programs provide opportunitiesfor flexible algorithms customized forspecific user needs. The majority of biodiversity in island areas exists at about 20% higher elevations than in land ecosystems, playing an important role in ecological processes and therefore of high ecological value. However, island areas are vulnerable to disturbances and damage, such as through climate change, environmental pollution, development, and human intervention, and lacks systematic investigation due to geographical limitations (e.g. remoteness; difficulty to access). More than 4,000 of Korea's islands are within a few hours of its coast, and 88% are uninhabited, with 52% of them forested. The forest ecosystems of islands have fewer encounters with human interaction than on land, and therefore most of the topographical conditions are formed naturally and affected more directly by weather conditions or the environment. Therefore, the analysis of forest topography in island areas can be done more precisely than on its land counterparts, and therefore has become a major focus of attention in Korea. This study is focused on calculating the performance of different topographical factors using FOSS GIS programs. The test area is the island forests in Korea's south and the DEM of the target area was processed with GRASS GIS and SAGA GIS. The final slopes and TWI maps were produced as comparisons of the differences between topographic factor calculations of each respective FOSS GIS program. Finally, the merits of each FOSS GIS program used to calculate the topographic factors is discussed.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.302-314
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• 2023

This study aims to explore the direction for Korea's effective response to Target 3 (30by30), which can be said to be the core of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (K-M GBF) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), to find the direction of systematic OECM (Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures) discovery at the national level through a survey of global conceptual review and expert perception of OECM. This study examined ① the use of Korean terms related to OECM, ② derivation of determining criteria reflecting global standards, ③ deriving types of potential OECM candidates in Korea, and ④ considerations for OECM identification and reporting to explore the direction for identifying systematic, national-level OECM that complies with global standards and reflects the Korean context. First, there was consensus for using Korean terminology that reflects the concept of OECM rather than simple translations, and it was determined that "nature coexistence area" was the most preferred term (12 people) and had the same context as CBD 2050 Vision of "a world of living in harmony with nature." This study suggests utilizing four criteria (1. No protected areas, 2. Geographic boundaries, 3. Governance/management, and 4. Biodiversity value) that reflect OECM's core characteristics in the first-stage selection process, carrying out the consensus-building process (stage 2) with the relevant agencies, and adding two criteria (3-1 Effectiveness and sustainability of governance and management and 4-1 Long-term conservation) and performing the in-depth diagnosis in stage 3 (full assessment for reporting). The 28 types examined in this study were generally compatible with OECMs (4.45-6.21/7 points, mean 5.24). In particular, the "Conservation Properties (6.21 points)" and "Conservation Agreements (6.07 points)", which are controlled by National Nature Trust, are shown to be the most in line with the OECM concept. They were followed by "Buffer zone of World Natural Heritage (5.77 points)", "Temple Forest (5.73 points)", "Green-belt (Restricted development zones, 5.63 points)", "DMZ (5.60 points)", and "Buffer zone of biosphere reserve (5.50 point)" to have high potential. In the case of "Uninhabited Islands under Absolute Conservation", the response that they conformed to the protected areas (5.83/7 points) was higher than the OECM compatibility (5.52/7 points), it is determined that in the future, it would be preferable to promote the listing of absolute unprotected islands in the Korea Database on Protected Areas (KDPA) along with their surrounding waters (1 km). Based on the results of a global OECM standard review and expert perception survey, 10 items were suggested as considerations when identifying OECM in the Korean context. In the future, continuous research is needed to identify the potential OECMs through site-level assessment regarding these considerations and establish an effective in-situ conservation system at the national level by linking existing protected area systems and identified OECMs.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.478-485
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• 2018

With the total population of 3,356 worldwide as of 2016, the black-faced spoonbill (Platalea minor) is designated as "endangered (EN)" species by IUCN. About 70% of population breeds on the uninhabited islands near the west coast of Korea and wintering area is Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, etc. However, there is few detail research in Korea and East Asia on black-faced spoonbill's long range migration and its habitat when migrating southward. We studied black-faced spoonbill's migration route, distribution, stopover, wintering sites, and timing of migration movements using a wild-tracker (WT-200, GPS-Mobile phone based telemetry, KoEco). We caught the black-faced spoonbills in the breeding sites (Gugi island, Bi island, Sangyeobawi, Chilsan island) in Korea in late June 2014. We attached the wild-tracker to 10 juvenile black-faced spoonbills. The tracking showed that the black-faced spoonbills started southward migration between late October and early November. The traveling distance to wintering site was maximum at 1,820 km, minimum at 746 km, the average at 1,201km. The maximum daily traveling distance was 1,479 km with an average of 782 km. The average days it took from breeding site to wintering site was 10 days (SD=10.7). The shortest duration was 2 days, and the longest duration was 34 days. Most individuals used 2-3 stopover sites between the breeding sites to the wintering sites and stayed almost 1-2 days (maximum 31 days). Stopover sites were wetlands such as rivers, streams, reservoir, and mud flat. The wintering sites were coastal areas (five individuals) in China, inland (one individual) in China, Taiwan (three individuals), and Japan (one individual). In conclusion, it is necessary to preserve the stopover sites and wintering site of the black-faced spoonbills through consultation and protection policy between countries and establish the systematic preservation measures and activity plans through continued moniting and additional studies.