• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.301-315
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to investigate characteristics of hydromorpological structures that affect landscape preference and visual characteristics on the sections of the designated streams where have dynamic ecological characteristics. We evaluated the ecological status of the streams utilizing LAWA to assess hydromorpological structures of streams. We also investigated preference and visual characteristics of stream landscapes through Semantic Differential Scale(SD scale). The differences of visual images according to the characteristics of hydromorpological structures in the sites were analyzed by descriptive statistics, One-way ANOVA, and t-test. As a result, this study showed that sections represented as "good" ecological status are shown to be harmonious, beautiful, natural, and clean comparing to sections represented as "poor" ecological status. The hydromorpological structures that have significant impacts on the visual characteristics are considered as riparian vegetation, cross-sectional shape, and the artificial structures. Results of this study can help guide the stream restoration of the damaged stream to improving ecological function and positive landscape.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.163-173
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• 2018

Background: Deforestation and degradation are currently affecting the ecosystem services of forests. Among the ecosystem services affected by deforestation and degradation are the amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) stored in forest soils which have greater impacts in global climate change. This study aimed at examining the amount of SOC and TN in the forest fragments which were separated from the continuous tracts of forests of Jibat and Chillimo through fragmentation processes over four decades. Methods: We have sampled soils from 15 forest fragments of Chillimo and Jibat in the central highlands of Ethiopia. The soil samples obtained in two separate soil depths (0-30 and 30-60 cm) were bulked, dried, and sieved for analysis. Results: Our results have shown that the two sites (Jibat and Chillimo forest fragments) differed in their SOC and TN contents. While the values for Jibat were found to be 29.89 Mg/ha of SOC and 2.84 Mg/ha for TN, it was 14. 06 Mg/ha of SOC and 1.40 Mg/ha for TN for Chillimo. When all forest fragment soil samples were bulked together, Jibat site had twice the value of SOC and TN than Chillimo. When disaggregated on the basis of each fragments, there existed differences in SOC (1.86 Mg/ha and 42.15 Mg/ha) and TN (0.24 Mg/ha and 4.23 Mg/ha) values. Among the forest fragments, fragment four ($F_4$) had the highest Relative Soil Improvement Index (RSII) value of 3826.82% and fragment fifteen ($F_{15}$) had the lowest RSII value (726.87%) which indicated that the former had a better quality of soil properties than the latter. Conclusion: SOC and TN differed across sampled fragments and sites. Variations in soil properties are the reflections of inherent soil parent material, aboveground vegetation, human interferences, and other physical factors. Such differences could be very important for identifying intervention measures for restoration and enhancing ecosystem services of those fragments.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.517-534
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• 2019

In abrupt fire disturbances, high quality images suitable for wildfire damage assessment can be difficult to acquire. Quantifying wildfire burn area and severity are essential measures for quick short-term disaster response and efficient long-term disaster restoration. Planetscope (PS) imagery offers 3 m spatial and daily temporal resolution, which can overcome the spatio-temporal resolution tradeoff of conventional satellites, albeit at the cost of spectral resolution. This study investigated the potential of augmenting PS imagery by integrating the spectral information from Sentinel-2 (S2) differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) to PS differenced Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (dNDVI) using histogram matching,specifically for wildfire burn area and severity assessment of the Okgye wildfire which occurred on April 4th, 2019. Due to the difficulty in acquiring reference data, the results of the study were compared to the wildfire burn area reported by Ministry of the Interior and Safety. The burn area estimates from this study demonstrated that the histogram-matched (HM) PS dNDVI image produced more accurate burn area estimates and more descriptive burn severity intervals in contrast to conventional methods using S2. The HM PS dNDVI image returned an error of only 0.691% whereas the S2 dNDVI and dNBR images overestimated the wildfire burn area by 5.32% and 106%, respectively. These improvements using PS were largely due to the higher spatial resolution, allowing for the detection of sparsely distributed patches of land and narrow roads, which were indistinguishable using S2 dNBR. In addition, the integration of spectral information from S2 in the PS image resolved saturation effects in areas of low and high burn severity.

• Journal of Species Research
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.136-159
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• 2019

This study was carried out to investigate the flora of six islands belonging to the Gogunsan Archipelago (i.e., Sinsi-do, Seonyu-do, Munyeo-do, Yami-do, Bian-do, and Duri-do) in the Korean Peninsula. As results of five field surveys from March to October of 2016, we have identified 575 total taxa, representing 527 species, five subspecies, 42 varieties, and one hybrid, placed in 358 genera and 118 families. Of these 575 taxa, four are endemic to Korea, six taxa are listed on the Korean Red List of threatened species, 67 are floristic regional indicator plants, and 74 are invasive alien species. In this study, we compared species richness among the islands, and find that the larger the islands, the higher the species richness. In the case of habitat affinity types, forest species were most common, followed by farmland, seacoast, bare ground and wetland species. From similarity analyses based on the composition of vascular plants, each island did not exhibit either local specificity or unique diversity. On the contrary, the proportion of invasive alien and ruderal species may increase by human activities. Investigations and analyses of island flora such as this are important to assess the current status of the flora, predict future vegetation patterns and the spread of the alien species, and establish managment plans of plant diversity.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.195-206
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• 2022

Gaining an understanding of bird communities in different habitat types is essential for the conservation of ecologically important habitats. Wetlands possess different types of habitats and provide an important environment for wintering waterbird communities. This study compares avian communities in five different habitat types in the Moeyungyi Wetland Wildlife Sanctuary (MWWS), Myanmar. From December 2014 to the first week of February in 2015, bird and habitat data were collected from representative areas of five habitat types (i.e., short grassland, tall grassland, lotus fields, open water areas, and rice fields) at MWWS. We established nine sampling plots in each habitat type, and used the point quadrat method to survey habitats and the point count method to survey birds in the habitats. Simple one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post-hoc tests were used to determine differences between bird communities. We made 95 detections during 19 daily visits to each of the five habitat types. During the survey period, we recorded a total of 10,389 individuals belonging to 52 different bird species, based on 7-min observations at each of the 45 point count stations. Furthermore, we detected significant differences by habitat structure (i.e., vegetation coverage, height, and density; water depth; and plant species diversity) as well as bird communities (i.e., species richness, abundance, and diversity indices). In addition, the detailed analysis of 52 avian species revealed significant differences among 45 species with respect to the mean numbers of observed individuals in the survey habitats. The findings of this study revealed significant differences in the structure and composition of waterbird communities among the five assessed habitat types. Because natural marshes provide preferable habitats for a larger number and greater diversity of birds, relative to rice fields, natural marshes should be prioritized for conservation and restoration in Moeyungyi Wetland Wildlife Sanctuary.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2023.04a
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• pp.23-23
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• 2023

The Hairy labrador tea (Ledum palustre L. var. diversipilosum Nakai) is a evergreen small shrub, belonging to the Ericaceae and mainly distributed along the alpine areas of Hamgyeong-do in North Korea. Through seed physiological research on North Korean plants, we intend to obtain basic data for the development of mass propagation methods and use them for vegetation restoration. The internal and external morphological characters of the seed were observed using scanning electron microscopy or stereoscopy, and full seeds were selected through X-ray test. Seeds were cultured on a growth condition at 15/6℃ and 25/15℃ to examine the germination response according to temperature, and the number of germinated individuals was examined every 24 hours to calculate germination percentage and mean germination time. Low-temperature treatment (4℃) and hormone treatment (GA3) were performed to investigate the effect of dormancy breaking, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed on the experimental results using SAS 9.4. The seeds of the Hairy labrador tea were elliptical-narrow in shape, and the epidermal cell wall pattern was reticulated. The final germination rate (FGP) was the highest at 58.9% under the condition of low temperature treatment at 25/15℃. The average number of days to germination (MGT) was the highest at 25.1 days without treatment at 15/6℃, and the average of the last germination days was confirmed to be about 13 days. As a result of low temperature treatment, it was confirmed that the final germination rate (FGP) increased by 43.3%. The significance of the final germination rate (FGP) was verified according to the pretreatment at 25/15℃.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.223-229
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• 2000

To develop the restoration technique from urban planted forest to natural forest, sprout growth and its effects on vegetation composition in the early stage after lumbering, were studied, using only Populus albaglandulosa of the tree layer in Chungdam Park Chungdam-dong, Kangnam-gu, Seoul during the two years from 1997 to 1998. The results were as follow. After lumbering, the more basal areas of the parent stump, the more sprouts were generated. The basal area of parent stump was related more to biomass than to the number of sprouts. In the cutting area, biomasses of sprouts were 552.7 g?DW/㎡ in first year and 8.7 g?DW/㎡ in second year after lumbering. Therefore, cutting of sprouts in first year resulted in decrease of sprout production in second year. In the non-cutting area, biomass of sprouts was 657.4 g?DW/㎡ and more than that of the experiment. Especially, 2-year sprouts grew to a 304 cm height by the end of the growing season in the second year. The growing season of sprouts was from early April to early September and almost all the leaves of the sprouts remained at the end of the growing season. Specific leaf area decreased along with time elapse and plant height but the differences were not conspicuous. Therefore, it is thought that the reason why p. albaglandulosa sprouts grew fast was due to a long growing period and lower layer leaves which remained at the end of the growing season. In the cutting area of the P. albaglandulosa sprouts, there were no changes in the number of species in the shrub layer but an conspicuous increase in the herb layer. Coverage was no changes in the shrub layer but an increase in the herb layer. In the non-cutting area of P albaglandulosa sprouts, the number of species and the coverage changed a little, and the main species of the herb layer were Phytolacca americana, Eupatorium rugosum and Panicum dichotomiflorum, which are tall plant species.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.70-80
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• 2011

Estuarine ecosystem responds sensitively to natural and anthropogenic perturbations. lt is necessary to identify the direction of the change when the perturbation occurs as well as to understand the structure and functioning of estuarine ecosystem for a proper management of the area. In this study, the estuarine habitats were classified into different ecological districts so as to the switch from one district to another district could be related to the environmental change due to the perturbations. Total 16 ecological districts was defined according to the presence of barrage, salinity and vegetation characteristics. The defined ecological districts were applied to small estuaries in Goseong bay, south sea of Korea (Baedun, Guman, Maam, Goseong) to distinguish different regions which might have characteristic bottom topography, inclinations of river bottom, sediment characteristics, salinity structure and area of vegetation. Total 7 out of 16 ecological district was identified in this region; NFB (natural, fresh, bare), NHB (natural, high salinity, bare), NLV (natural, low salinity, vegetated) in natural (without barrage) estuaries and CFB (closed, fresh, bare), CFV( closed, fresh vegetated), CLV (closed, low salinity, vegetated), CHB (closed, high salinity, bare) in closed (with barrage) estuary. A comparison of environmental factors and biota between CHB and CLV demonstrated the effect of barrage on estuarine ecosystem. The height and sediment characteristics of CHB and CLV were similar but the average salinity was lower in CLV than in CHB due to the barrage, which produced favorable condition for the Phragmites australis in CLV. Information regarding the ecological districts in various sizes and location could be useful for predicting the ecosystem change due to natural and anthropogenic perturbations and for preparing management actions.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.60-68
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• 2008

Three land-use limitations including water hazard, soil erosion and fallow potential were evaluated to define an unfair area. Landscape indices in the unfair areas, defined by evaluations before and after landscape enhancement, were computed by Fragstats v3.3 and compared in order to propose a landscape enhancement plan. The results are as follows: First, as a result of the land evaluation, 388.56ha was analyzed for the 1st class(S1), 623.25ha for the 2nd class(S2), 138.08ha(S3s: 82.47ha, S3e: 51.88ha) for the 3rd class(S3), 230.44ha(N1w: 194.91ha, N1e: 23.09ha, N1es: 13.94ha) for the 4th class(N1), and 67.91ha(N2w: 60. 89ha, N2es: 7.02ha) for the 5th class(N2). The classes under the 3rd class(including the 3rd class) were determined as an unfair area, and proposed landscape enhancement for them. Second, it was proposed that unfair areas with potential water hazards(N1 w, N2w) be restored as a wetland and buffer zone. At this point, the farmers owning these fields could be compensated using the direct payment for landscape conservation(DPLC). Areas witha relatively lower slope(S3e) or a steep slope(N1e) containing soil erodibility potential were proposed to be restored as a sod-culture-applied field and substitute vegetation or potentially natural vegetation, respectively. The unfair areas having fallow potential(S3s, N1es, N2es) were proposed to apply special use crops for the S3s fields, native plants for the N1es fields, and intended fallow for the N2es fields. Third, after landscape enhancement, theforest had higher values in the indices of NP, PLAND, LSI, IJI, and TCA, while paddy and upland had lower values in most indices except NP and LSI. The forest patches increased and were more plentiful with their restoration and had much greater possibility to join with nearby patches. With continued restoration, forest patches will have a large core area and small number of patches due to the conglomeration of patches, which positively influences the species of diversity in the forest patches.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.90-97
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• 2012

Environmental characteristics and vegetation of the natural habitats of Eranthis byunsanensis B.Y. Sun were investigated in order to provide the basic data for conservation, restoration, and utilization of this Korean endemic plant. This study was conducted in Anyang, Byeonsan, Geoje, Gyeongju, Jeju, Ulsan and Yeosu. E. byunsanensis was distributed around the altitudes of 84~585 m with a slope degree of $10{\sim}20^{\circ}$, and mostly formed discontinuous populations in north-east part of valleys. Soil analysis showed the mean organic matter of 9.6% and a slightly acidic pH (mean pH of 4.9). The mean gravimetric water content was 16.5%. Correlation coefficients between environmental factors and community characteristics suggested that there was a positive correlation between slope degree and soil water content, between slope degree and soil pH, between soil organic matter and importance value, and between species richness or evenness and species diversity. The vascular plants from 59 quadrats of 7 habitats were identified into 144 taxa. A few species were dominants and similarly distributed in Byeonsan, Jeju, Ulsan and Yeosu. The highest species diversity was found in Geoje (1.43), while Anyang showed the lowest (0.87). Species evenness of Gyeongju and Jeju was bigger than 0.8, but that of Geoje was the lowest (0.59). Dominant species of woody plants in and around the 59 plots were represented by high frequency of Acer pictum subsp. mono, Carpinus cordata, Lindera obtusiloba, and Carpinus laxiflora. The results of this study can provide useful data for conservation and restoration of natural habitats of Korean endemic Eranthis byunsanensis and for the development and growth of this species for ornamental purposes.