This study was carried out to investigate the flora of Gyodongdo island (Ganghwa-gun). The vascular plants from 11 field surveys were revealed to belong to a total of 629 taxa; 118 families, 364 genera, 561 species, 5 subspecies, 53 varieties, 7 forms and 3 hybrids. 184 taxa were the first records from this region. The plants in Gyodongdo island are composed of the deciduous broad-leaved and conifer-mixed forests which are the common ones in the middle part of the Korean Peninsula. Five taxa of Korean endemic plants such as Clematis brachyura Maxim., Viola seoulensis Nakai, Populus × tomentiglandulosa T. B. Lee, Forsythia koreana (Rehder) Nakai and Hemerocallis hakuunensis Nakai were collected. Endangered wild plants designated by the law called 'Protection Law for Endangered wild fauna and flora' were one taxon. The red list plants according to IUCN valuation basis were examined for 13 taxa; endangered (EN) species of Prunus yedoensis Matsum., Vulnerable (VU) species of both Utricularia pilosa (Makino) Makino and Iris ruthenica var. nana Maxim., Near Threatened (NT) species of Senecio argunensis Turcz., Least Concern (LC) species of Platycladus orientalis (L.) Franco, Potentilla discolor Bunge, Limnophila sessiliflora (Vahl) Blume, Acorus calamus L., Phacelurus latifolius (Steud.) Ohwi, Pseudoraphis ukishiba Ohwi, Belamcanda chinensis (L.) DC., and Not Evaluate (NE) species of both Astragalus sikokianus Nakai and Potamogeton oxyphyllus Miq. The floristic regional indicator plants found in this area were a total of 47 taxa comprising three taxa of gradeⅤ, four taxa of grade Ⅳ, nine taxa of grade Ⅲ, 10 taxa of grade Ⅱ, and 21 taxa of gradeⅠ. The naturalized plants were identified as 62 taxa and the percentage of naturalized index (NI) was 9.9 % and the percentage of urbanization index (UI) was 19.3 %, respectively. Furthermore, hemicryptophytes (28 %), therophytes (26 %), hydrophytes (13 %) and geophyte (12 %) showed high proportional ratio in life form spectrum.
Yongneup wetland protected area, the only high moor in Korea, is a core area to conserve biodiversity. Even though the Yongneup wetland protected area is relatively small, various plant species are distributed in the Yongneup wetland protected area because it includes various habitats showing different environmental gradients. Vascular plants distributed in the Yongneup wetland protected area were identified as a total of 376 taxa that is composed of 73 families, 217 genera, 322 species, 3 subspecies, 44 varieties and 7 forms. For endangered plants designated by the Ministry of Environment, 5 species including Trientalis europaea var. arctica, Lilium dauricum, Halenia corniculata, Lychnis wilfordii and Menyanthes trifoliata were found and 34 taxa were confirmed to be distributed only in the mountainous wetland habitats. Regarding naturalized plants, a total of 11 taxa were distributed, but most of them were distributed in the areas where artificial interference has occurred. And in areas inside the wetlands that are relatively well preserved, 2 species of Bidens frondosa and Erigeron annuus were observed. In this study, the occurrence and distribution of Pseudostellaria baekdusanensis M. Kim, which was recently found in Mt. Baekdu and reported as a new species, were identified in the Yongneup wetland protected area. A wetland is a very vulnerable area to drastic environmental changes and damages to its ecosystem could cause the extinction of rare plant species which are distributed only in the wetlands. Therefore, it is mandatory that current status of the Yongneup wetland protected area is evaluated and actions to prevent rapid environmental changes are taken. Fourteen separate investigations were conducted in 2013 and another four in 2014, to evaluate current status of the Yongneup wetland protected area. These investigations have provided us the basic information for future actions of conservation and restoration.
This research was conducted in order to understand the hybridization between Quercus aliena Blume and Q. serrata Murray in Korea which show wide range of morphological variations within species and interspecific variations of diverse overlapping characteristics caused by hybridization. Morphological analysis (principal components analysis; PCA) of 116 individuals representing two species and their intermediates were performed. As a result, two species were clearly distinguished in terms of morphology, and intermediate morpho-types assumed to be hybrids between the two species were mostly located in the middle of each parent species in the plot of the principal components analysis. There was a clear distinction between two species in trichome distribution pattern which is an important diagnostic character in taxonomy of genus Quercus, whereas intermediate morpho-types showed intermediate state between two species’ trichome distributions. Forty-two individuals representing two species and their intermediates were examined for leaf flavonoid constituents. Twenty-three flavonoid compounds were isolated and identified: They were glycosylated derivatives of flavonols, kaempferol, quercetin, isorhamnetin and myricetin. The flavonoid constituents of Q. aliena were five glycosylated derivatives: kaempferol 3-O-galactoside, kaempferol 3-O-glucoside, quercetin 3-O-galactoside, quercetin 3-O-glucoside, and Isorhamnetin 3-O-glucoside. The flavonoid constituents of Q. serrata had 20 diverse flavonol compounds including five flavonoid compounds found in Q. aliena. It was found that there is a clear difference in flavonoid constituents of Q. aliena and Q. serrata. Flavonoid chemistry is very useful in recognizing each species and putative hybrids. The flavonoid constituents of intermediates were a mixture of the two species’ constituents and they generally showed similar characteristics to morpho-types. The hybrids between Q. aliena and Q. serrata showed morphologically and chemically diverse characteristics and it is assumed that there are frequent interspecific hybridization and introgression.
The current study analyzed the home range size of the Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) by observation using the natural markings in the suburban area of Busan from December 2009 to May 2010. In all, 26 individual kestrels were observed in the study area, of which 14 individual kestrels were frequently observed (more than five times) and 12 were observed less frequently (less than five times). Mean home range sizes of the 14 frequently observed kestrels were estimated using two different methods (minimum convex polygon (MCP) method and fixed kernel (FK) method): 34.49 ㏊(2.74–163.96 ㏊) by 100% MCP, 41.35 ㏊(3.54– 99.02 ㏊) by the 95% FK, 14.33 ㏊(0.20-31.57 ㏊) by the 75% FK and 5.75 ㏊(0.52–14.74 ㏊) by the 50% FK. The mean home range size was larger for males than for females estimated at 51.50 ㏊(15.04–163.96 ㏊) and 11.80㏊(2.74–24.48 ㏊), respectively, by the 100 % MCP method and 8.02 ㏊(2.38–14.74 ㏊) and 2.72 ㏊ (0.52–4.28 ㏊), respectively, by the 50 % Fixed Kernel method. The home range sizes by sexes in breeding pairs differed during the wintering and breeding seasons; the sizes decreased among females but increased among males during the breeding season. Such differences of home range sizes between sexes could be attributed to parental role division during the breeding season. Females stay in the nest or next to it during laying, incubating, and feeding activities, and males go far away from their nest sites to forage areas for their fledglings for most of the breeding period.
We have conducted a verification test of correlation between bird community indices and bird sound recording results in order to use the equipment which deals with the automatic sound collecting system, the song meter. The study areas include four sites which are Gombaeryoung and Zochimryoung in Jeombongsan Mountain and Jookryoung and Gochiryoung in Sobaeksan National Park. We collected the bird sound data five times using a sound recorder and field survey results in the same place of the study site. As a result of the sound recording from the field survey, the species recorded by three researchers of sound analyst include common resident species or species which have a relatively conspicuous call and song. On the contrary, the species recorded by only one researcher are a relatively rare or inconspicuous species or was familiar with the personal experiences of each researcher. The number of species recorded by only one researcher totaled fourteen species (36.8 %), and that of two researchers totaled twelve species (31.6 %), and that of three researchers totaled twelve species (31.6 %). The correlations of the number of species among three researchers was not significant in some results, but the sum or maximum count of the number of species was useful to estimate a significant correlation between the result of researchers and the indices of field surveys. As a result of correlation analysis by using sound recordings, the maximum number of species among the three researchers significantly correlated with the number of species, the species diversity index and the species abundance index in the field survey at the same site, however it did not correlate with the number of individuals and species evenness index. As a result of sound analysis collected from the stationary sound recording system; song meter, the number of frequencies in bird songs and calls correlated with the number of species in the field survey at the same site. The number of calls and songs decreased as time went by. Finally, we could test the active time range and change the activity strength by using a sound recording system. In particular, that sound recording system is able to collect data in same time and site, so it is expected so that the equipment not only replenish a shortage of researchers and survey periods in field research in a short term monitoring survey, but also be able to acquire statistical objectivity.
This study aimed to analyze characteristics of the seasonal habitat use of reintroduced Long-tailed Gorals (n=7) in Woraksan (mountain) National Park. We collected 10,721 goral coordinates in Woraksan (mountain) National Park via transmitters, and analyzed habitat use (e.g., aspect, distance from stream and road) from November 2006 to January 2013. Aspect use was southwest (22.6 %), and seasonal aspect use had a southwestern slope (in the spring, summer, and autumn). A northwestern aspect was detected in winter, but slope of 30°∼35° (19.0 %) was used regardless of the season and mean elevation use was 500 m. Moreover, seasonal use was higher in the summer and lower in the winter and spring. The distance from the stream was mainly 50 m in 17.2 %, except in the winter (distance of 300 m), and it was within 50 m in the spring, summer, and autumn. The distance from the road was 100 m in 25.7 %, and seasonal use was within 100 m except for the winter. Thus, we examined significant differences in the habitat use of reintroduced gorals in Woraksan (mountain), and provide elementary data for habitat stabilization of Woraksan (mountain) National Park where goral restoration has advanced.
This study was conducted to investigate the movement and home range of the red-tongued viper snake (Gloydius ussuriensis) from June 2006 to June 2009. This snake species inhabits an islet on Jeju Island, Gapado. A total of 132 individual snakes were marked during the study. Among the marked individuals, the number of snakes recaptured more than once was 22 (16.8 %) and the number of individuals recaptured more than twice was eight (6.1 %), indicating a relatively low recapture rate. The durations from capture to recapture varied from 1 to 710 days. However, the capture points were not much different, indicating that the moved distance of snakes and the interval between capture-recapture were not correlated. The home ranges of the Red-tongued viper snakes calculated from data of the snakes which were captured more than three times using the MCP(minimum convex polygon) method were 8∼167 ㎡(64.0±57.0 ㎡), suggesting that this snake is relatively sedentary. Home range size differences between female (Mean=62.0 ㎡) and male (Mean=66.0 ㎡) snakes were not significant. In the red-tongued viper population of Gapado, there was no statistically significant relationship between body size and home range size although it was positively correlated (r=0.675). Our results provide valuable data to understand life patterns of the red-tongued viper snakes and will be useful when conducting further ecological studies on other snake species.
This study was conducted to investigate the distributional characteristics of ground beetles and to provide basis information for biodiversity management including the ground beetles in the Naejangsan National Park area. Pitfall traps were installed throughout 20 sites within Naejangsan National Park during 2008 to 2011 to collect ground beetles. A total of 2,409 collected ground beetles were identified with 35 species belonging to 19 genera of 8 subfamilies. Coptolabrus jankowskii jankowskii, Eucarabus sternbergi sternbergi, and Pterosticus audax were dominant at the core area, while Pheropsophus jessoensis, Synuchus nitidus, Synuchus cycloderus, and Chlaenius naeviger were dominant at the border of the National Park and adjacent to the road or grassland. These differences of dominant species also affected to the similarity of species composition between core and border area, and caused increasing dissimilarities between sites with cluster analysis. Although the result of the present study was a case study using ground beetles, it will be helpful to develop a management strategy of biodiversity conservation in Naejangsan National Park and its surroundings.
We quantified temporal and spatial changes in the habitat for fish populations, the distribution of mandarin fish(Siniperca scherzeri) and an introduced species, largemouth bass(Micropterus salmoides) in Lake Paro and inflowing streams. The number of fish species identified in Lake Paro and the tributary streams included 10 families, 24 species and 10 families 30 species, respectively. The dominant fish species in Lake Paro were Zacco platypus, Hemibarbus labeo, Squalidus gracilis majimae, S. scherzeri and Tridentiger brevispinis, Z. platypus, Z. koreanus, and S. gracilis majimae in the inflowing streams. Although the habitat segregation for S. scherzeri and M. salmoides occurs, these two species showed the use of the fishes of the family Gobiidae as an important prey item based on IRI analysis. S. scherzeri and M. salmoides preyed mainly on T. brevispinis(67.4 %) and R. brunneus(84.0 %), respectively. The species preyed on by S. scherzeri and M. salmoides were benthic fishes that inhabit shallow water depths around the lake and have little swimming ability.
This study was carried out to measure seasonal changes in the community structure and species composition of marobenthos in the intertidal area of Dokdo. The macrobenthos identified during this study was comprised of 36 species: predominately 25 species of mollusks(69.4 %), 6 species of arthropods(16.7 %), 3 species of echinodermata(8.3 %) and 1 species of cnidaria (5.6 %). The number of marobenthos species ranged from 27 in Spring to 33 in Autumn. In terms of the top 10 dominant species, there were 7 species of mollusks and 3 species of arthropods in the this study. After analyzing the bray-curtis similarity, it was divided into two large groups(A, B). Such group classification matched the SIMPROF(Similarity Profile Analysis) and the one-way ANOSIM(Analysis of similarities) analysis.
Stream ecosystems are closely related to many human activities. Therefore, streams are affected by anthropogenic disturbances such as riverine development and gravel-mining as well as deterioration of water quality. The goal of this study was to elucidate the recolonization process of the macroinvertebrate community after a small-scale anthropogenic disturbance. Field studies were conducted at three sites in a natural stream. The number of recolonizing species tended to increase slightly over time, exceeding the total species number of the control. Ephemeroptera contributed the most to shaping the recolonizing pattern of the entire community. From the result of changes in dominant species, the early recolonizers of each site were the species that showed more frequent occurrence particulary at each sites. But the late recolonizers are Chironomidae at all the sites commonly. This result implies that the actual differences exist among the recolonizing trends of each benthic macroinvertebrate taxon. Collector-gatherers and scrapers comprised about 70% of the recolonizing species. These results indicate that the recolonizing process of an aquatic community after an artificial disturbance depends on the environmental conditions(particularly substratum composition or organic pollution) of the habitat.
The master plan of forest land management proposes forest watershed management that considers regional characteristics in order to overcome the problem of uniform forest land management. In order to manage the forest watersheds in Gyeonggi-do, this study classified 1,823 forest watersheds in Gyeonggi-do and attempted to understand their characteristics. It conducted a factor analysis and cluster analysis from the perspective of conservation value and development pressure using forest land indicators. In terms of conservation value, three factors were drawn: the topography factor, vegetation factor and public service factor, while in terms of development pressure, three factors were drawn: the easiness of development factor, economic benefits factor and development activity factor. Using these factors, forest watersheds were divided into three clusters in terms of conservation value while they were divided into three clusters in terms of development pressure. Using the results of the cluster analysis from a conservation-development perspective, the forest watersheds were classified into nine different types, and the characteristics were identified by each type. It is judged that the factors and clusters drawn as a result of the research accurately reflect the present conditions of Gyeonggi-do, and the nine types of forest watersheds have clear characteristics according to each type, which are judged to be utilized in forest management in the future.
This study aims to investigate the characteristics of the vegetation structure in the sectin stretching between the Jilmoi wetlands and the Donghae Observatory and to set the criteria for the basic data for a management plan including restoration afterwards. 12 plots(10 m×40 m, 20 m×20 m) were set up to analyse the vegetation structure. The analysis of the classification by TWINSPAN and ordination by DCA, importance percentage and property, distribution of diameter of breast height, growth increments of major woody species, species diversity and the physicochemical properties of soil were all analyzed. Vegetation classes were divided into 3 communities, which are community Ⅰ(Pinus densiflora community), community Ⅱ(Quercus mongolica community) and community Ⅲ(Quercus mongolica-Tilia amurensis community). The P. densiflora community declined when competing with Q. mongolica and Fraxinus rhynchophylla and Q. mongolica competed with T. amurensis on an understory layer in Q. mongolica community. Q. mongolica competed with T. amurensis on both canopy and understory layers in Q. mongolica-T. amurensis community. P. densiflora declined and it was assumed to succeed to F. rhynchophylla or T. amurensis through Q. mongolica based on the importance percentage and distribution of the diameter of the breast height of small and middle sized trees. The age of P. densiflora was between 47 to 51 years old and Q. mongolica was 61years old. T. amurensis was 61 years old and the growth of Q. mongolica slowed a little. As the result of Shannon's index of species diversity, community Ⅰranged from 0.9578 to 1.1862, community Ⅱranged from 0.7904 to 1.2286 and community Ⅲranged from 0.8701 to 1.0323. The contents of organic matter and cation were low compared to uncultivated mountain soil and it were analysed to be inappropriate for tree growth.
This study is intended to evaluate the value of functional aspect from the viewpoint of habitat. The indicators that are used in biotope evaluations are various, but most of them use the criteria to evaluate the naturality. This evaluation method cannot appropriately reflect the functional characteristics coming from relation to the surrounding biotope. In this study, the connectivity, cohesion and diversity between individual biotope are quantitatively measured by a landscape index. It is hard to draw the functional value of individual biotopes because the landscape index related to connectivity, cohesion and diversity comes from a landscape having a number of biotopes. The concept of contribution was used to overcome this limitation. The concept of contribution is to quantify how much each individual biotope contributes to the connectivity, cohesion, and diversity in a certain range of landscape by deriving the amount of change in the landscape index according to the presence or absence of each individual biotope. In order to understand the characteristics of evaluation results in functional aspect, this research has done a comparative analysis of the previous research findings in the same target area. According to the result of the research, individual biotopes such as artificial forests, fragmented natural forests, and small planting sites were highly rated.
This study analyzed the growth characteristics of multi-layer planted trees through their growth analysis and attempted to present a management strategy. The subject of research is the Citizen's Forest Area of Seoul Forest Park located in Seoul City. Field surveys were conducted three times over eight years from 2005 when the Seoul Forest Park was created through 2013. Labels were attached to all trees in the target area, and their species, height and DBH were investigated. To identify the growth differences by trees in each area, a detailed tree location map was drawn up for use in the analysis. To check soil health, soil organic matter, soil pH and soil microbial activities were analyzed. It turned out that the growth of the multi-layer planted trees in the target area of research was higher than that of the trees in existing urban parks, and that it was similar to that of trees in natural forests. Through a field survey in the area with a remarkably low growth, high-density planting problem, soil was found to have excess-moisture and there was the problem of Pueraria lobata covering. As a result of the analysis of the soil, it was found that its organic content in the soil was lower; soil pH was higher; and microbial activities in the soil were lower when compared to that of natural forests.
The objective of this study is to evaluate the spatial restoration of Hampyeong Stream and to analyze the determinants of demand for the multi-functionalities of the stream. A Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) was used to estimate the multi-functional public benefits of restored stream area, and major determinants were scrutinized by establishing a demand model. The research data was collected by conducting a survey intended for Hampyeong’s local residents, resulting in 284 valid samples. In terms of determinants that affect willingness to pay (WTP), ‘physical factor of waterfront area’ and ‘experience factor of stream space’ showed a significantly positive influence on WTP. As a result of applying a double-bounded CVM, the willingness to pay for the restored Hampyeong Stream area indicated a potential contribution of 22,523 won (17,362~ 27,459 won, 95% confidence interval). When multiplying the number of households in Hampyeong-gun, the total annual value of Hampyeong Stream spatial restoration is approximately 302million won.