This study was carried out to classify the regional folk plants in northern area of Gyeonggi-do. According to the survey results from 238 survey sheets of 223 residents at 65 places of 11 counties and cities from March to October, 2010, the folk plants in north of Gyeonggi-do consisted of a total 238 taxa; 84 families, 194 genera, 207 species, 3 subspecies, 26 varieties, and 2 form. The use by its usage was: 146 taxa; edible, 93 taxa; medicinal, 7 taxa; dye, 3 taxa; aroma, 4 taxa; spice, 4 taxa; ornamental, 12 taxa; fiber, 6 taxa; oil, 51 taxa; others, respectively, so the edible use is the highest. The most useful part was the leaf, followed by root and fruit. The consistency comparison between the scientific name and the local name was the lowest in 40's.

Members of the non-biting midge family Chironomidae are the most widespread and abundant group of aquatic insects in fresh waters. Although the composition of chironomid communities is considered to be a potential biotic index for water quality assessment, it has not been used easily because of the difficulties with species level identification for larvae. This study was to analyse the molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTU) in chironomid communities to appropriately apply a species level identification. A total of 41 chironomid larvae collected from 7 sampling sites in the Han river system according to water quality were used for analyses. Partial mitochondrial DNA cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) genes were sequenced and analyzed. As a result, 35 different haplotypes (MOTU01-13) were obtained from the 673bp COI sequences. Average genetic distance was 0.0041 (range 0.000 to 0.013) within the MOTU and was 0.1703 (range 0.1181 to 0.2456) between the MOTUs. Nine MOTUs were found at the stream sites represented water quality A, 2 MOTUs at water quality C, and 1 MOTU at water quality D.

We investigated short-term variations of phytoplankton community structure according to marine environmental condition with data set of phytoplankton composition, nutrients, physical parameters and precipitation. The 13 sampling stations were located in the southeast coastal waters of Korea, the survey monthly carried out from March to November. The study area can be divided into two zone according to the characteristics of marine environment. Zone I is the occupied with Thalassiosira decipiens, Skeletonema costatum, Eucampia zodiacus, Cheatoceros spp. and Asterionellopsis glacialis due to continuous freshwater input and high concentration of nutrients. Zone II was dominated by Pseudo-nitzschia spp. probably due to rainfall and self eutrophication of aquaculture farm.

Foraging preference in prey size and type is influenced by a variety of factors including energy requirements, season-dependent food availability, and social context (e.g. competition and predation risk). The oriental stork (Ciconia boyciana) is known as a wetland forager that inhabits human-managed wetlands such as paddy fields while breeding. However, it became an internationally endangered species. Information on its foraging preference is anticipated to play an important role in maintaining storks in captivity with a variety of food types as well as managing the food availability in foraging habitats of reintroduction sites. Specifically, the present study investigated the patterns of foraging preference of the subject in captivity as a partial study of the prerelease training and habitat management programs prior to reintroduction. The observations of foraging behavior of breeding adult storks included foraging preference in prey size (i.e. small, less than 6 cm, vs. large, larger than 6 cm, mudfish) during the incubation and nestling periods (March to April of 2009~2010) and prey type (i.e. mudfish, Misgurnus spp., crickets, Gryllus spp., and earthworms, Lumbricus spp.) during the postnesting period (October of 2009~2010). Our results indicated that storks in captivity not only preferred large to small mudfish independent of breeding stage but also preferred mudfish to crickets and earthworms. To our knowledge, captive storks did not appear to be constrained by providing offspring with various mudfish size and were likely dependent on mudfish, suggesting that a mudfish population in paddy fields should be monitored and managed for the main food resource for breeding storks prior to reintroduction.

This study was conducted to determine the micro-hotspot for bird habitats in Yeongheung Island. We analyzed the spatio-temporal changes in the distribution based on species diversity, species richness at the 13 focal areas, which was classified in five categories depending on the types of habitats, using Analysis of Variance Test for four years (2006~2009). The distribution of birds was different depending on areas, seasons but not years. The forests of two areas of 13 areas were determined as the micro-hospot in three season (spring, summer, autumn), which is consistent for 4 years. This study provides the new analytical method that habitats for birds are systematically characterized through micro-hotspot using the spatio-temporal analysis.

This study was is to establish the floristic composition of vascular plants of Sinan-gun, Korea. The field works performed 26 times from April to November in 2010. Vascular plants observed were 768 taxa containing 118 families, 428 genera, 674 species, 1 subspecies, 81 varieties and 12 formae. Among the investigated plants, 13 taxa (2.4%) were Korean endemic. The rare plants designated by the Korea Forestry Service in this region were 27 taxa. The floristically and geographically important plants were 112 taxa: grade I, II, III, IV, and V species were 68, 7, 26, 3, and 8 taxa, respectively. In the 321 naturalized plants in Korea, 78 taxa (24.3%) were found in this region and it is relevant to 10.2% of the total taxa number of this region. As a endangered species designated by the Ministry of Environment of Korea, we report Millettia japonica (grade II) in this region.

To understand long-term variations of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) in inshore and offshore waters of Jeju Island in Korea, long-term data of the shore stations (1924~2009) and the network of serial oceanographic observations (1968~2008) under the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute, Korea were analyzed. The SST in coastal waters of Jeju Island has increased by 1.94oC for the last 86 years. The SST in offshore waters has increased by 1.17oC for the last 41 years. The SST has risen by 0.26oC in inshore and 1.78oC in offshore waters of Jeju Island in summer season. The SST has increased by 4.75oC in inshore and 1.13oC in offshore waters in winter season. Therefore, the annual amplitude of SST has diminished in the waters of JeJu Island between summer and winter season. We speculated that SST increase was driven by the global warming and heated fresh water from the Yangtze River. On the other side, long-term variation of SST in the waters of Jeju Island was quantified by using NOAA/AVHRR satellite data from 1990 to 2008.