Spatial and temporal variations of Yellow Dust source area and desertification in dryland regions of the Northeast Asia were evaluated based on extensive literature review on field and modeling evidences. In overall, Yellow Dust occurrence decreased since 1960s but it increased again in Mongolia and northeastern China after 2000s, the latter of which indicates eastward encroachment of major Yellow Dust source area for the last decade. The phenomena seem to coincide well with recent desertification of Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Manchuria. Vegetation cover is evaluated as an important biophysical variable for controlling both dust occurrence and desertification, which considerably depends on both precipitation and livestock pastoralism. Hence, dryland sustainability should consider dynamic balancing between vegetation productivity and livestock utilization under varying climate and socio-economic situations, which requires socio-ecological perspective on sustainable dryland management.

This study was carried out to investigate the flora of Icheon-si (Gyeonggi-do). This work was investigated during the April to November in 2011. Some areas 2002, 2004, 2007 collected data were used. Vascular plants based on voucher specimens were summarized as 547 taxa, including 99 families, 313 genera, 475 species, 4 subspecies, 58 varieties, and 10 forms. Among the investigated 547 taxa, 6 Korean endemic species, 7 rare plants and 43 specially designated plants by the Ministry of the Environment were also included. A naturalized plants were 47 species, correspond to 14.6% of totaling 321 species appeared in South Korea.

We developed the “Nest Finder System” to detect the breeding ecology of cavity nesters. Nest Finder System is composed of three parts, camera, transfer and recorder parts. In camera part, we utilized three types like pin camera, CCTV camera and endoscope with CMOS lens. Electricity and information was transferred with cable lines, and the information were directly recorded into sony digital recorder (GV-HD 700) or hard disk. To survey the breeding status of cavity nester, we disassembled the cone lens (TVC-MN4428C) applicable to enter the natural tree hole ranging no less than 30 mm. To support the camera and transfer part reaching at the hole located about 15m height, we used a couples of carbon poles in size of 1.8m, and its slender ending part was designed to fit each other. Nest Finder System can be applied to monitor breeding status of forest wildlife including cavity nesters, canopy nesters and aquatics. We discussed the potential problem in applying the equipment and analyzing the obtained data. Nest Finder System enable us to monitor the inner part of nest located at the upper part of trees not only coniferous and deciduous forests, and it can be applied to monitor the breeding ecology of aquatic organism.

This study was conducted for the understanding of zooplankton community structure and energy flow in Yongsan River estuary through the analysis on the seasonal community structure and the measurements of growth rates of dominant copepod Paracalanus parvus s. l.. Field survey was carried out at 7 stations near Yongsan River estuary in May, July, September, and November 2008. Meso-zooplankton communities were composed of 22 taxa in this study period. The spatial variations of species compositions showed a relatively identical distribution regardless of season. This distribution pattern was resulted from the weak effects of the spatial salinity variations that is known to be an important factor for the determination of spatial zooplankton distribution in estuary. The zooplankton communities in this study waters could be generally characterized by the typical coastal-estuarine community structure that was comprised with a few dominant species and abundant density. The mass occurrence of Noctiluca scintillans in May suggested that the environmental situation was unstable due to the geological features and active anthropogenic impacts in Yongsan River estuary. The seasonal average growth rates of dominant copepod Paracalanus parvus s. l. showed a narrow range from 0.12 to 0.15 day−1. However, The spatial variations of growth rates showed that the growth rates near Yongsan River estuary barrage were continuously higher than those at outer stations throughout the year. This results suggested that the growth of copepod was a food-dependent in Yongsan River estuary.

This study was conducted to investigate the characteristics of waterfowls communities by point-count methods from December 2007 to February 2008 at seven lagoons located in eastern sea shores. We mapped the distribution pattern of waterfowls at the grid size of 30 × 30 meters and compared the area and patton’s diversity index with the characteristics of waterfowls’ communities. We suggest the two factors like density of Greater Scaup and the ratio of dabbling and diving ducks as characteristics of waterfowls at lagoons. Three lagoons like Gwangpo, Maeho and Hyangho showed the low values of above two factors. Patton’s index was a good predictor of species richness of waterfowls and size and perimeter length of lagoon was a good predictor of species richness.

Population densities of aerobic heterotrophic bacteria by plate counting method were in the range of 3.5 ± 0.2 × 106~1.8 ± 0.7 × 107 cfu g−1 dry wt. from the grasses of Gunsan Country Club which sampled from August to October, 2011. We selected the celluloytic bacteria from aerobic heterotrophic bacteria and identified 6 strains among ninety-six isolates by using 16S rDNA analysis. As a result, four isolates belonged to Firmicute group, two isolates belonged to Gamma-proteobacteria group and Actinobacteria group, respectively. We also analysed the cabon sources utilization patterns of six isolates. D-cellobiose, D-Fructose, D-Galactose, D-Mannose, DMelibiose, D-Psicose, Gentiobiose, Lactulose, L-Arabinose, L-Fucose, Turanose, α-D-Glucose, and α-D-lactose among 95 carbon sources are utilized by all six isolates.