Arsenic, a common metalloid contaminant in soil, can enter the terrestrial food chain through plant uptake. While soil arsenic contamination can lead to long-term exposure that affects multiple generations, the multigenerational impacts on terrestrial plantherbivore systems remain poorly understood. This study examined the effects of soil arsenate (As(V)) transferred to pepper plants on Myzus persicae over three generations (F0-F2). We measured adult body length (AL), development time (DT), and offspring body length (OL) of M. persicae after rearing them on peppers cultivated in soil treated with four concentrations (0, 2, 4, and 6 mg kg-1) of As(V). In the F0 generation, the As(V) treatment significantly affected AL and DT (p<0.05), but no significant effect on OL was detected (p= 0.83). In the F1 and F2 generations, however, significant differences between treatments were observed in OL (p<0.05), along with AL and DT. Notably, in the F0 generation, As(V)- exposed individuals exhibited consistently stimulated growth and development, while responses became inconsistent in the F1 and F2 generations across various treatment conditions. These findings suggest that the effects of As(V) on M. persicae through multigenerational exposure are more complex than those observed within a single generation. This study highlights the importance of multigenerational approaches to accurately assess the ecological impacts of soil As(V) contamination on terrestrial ecosystems.

Heavy metal contamination from abandoned mines presents long-term risks to soil ecosystems by altering physicochemical conditions and limiting microbial functions. To investigate these effects, we analyzed soils from the Deoksan Pb-Zn abandoned mine in Korea using community-level physiological profiling (CLPP) with Biolog EcoPlateTM. Soil samples were collected from three contaminated sites and one uncontaminated control, and we assessed their physicochemical properties, heavy metal concentrations, and microbial substrate utilization patterns over a 7-day incubation period. The results revealed significant site-specific differences in soil chemistry, with Zn and Pb concentrations exceeding ecological safety thresholds near the mine adit. Average well color development (AWCD) increased over time across all sites, but functional trajectories differed: highly contaminated soils exhibited prolonged increases, while low-contamination soils plateaued earlier. Substrate utilization patterns shifted over time, with carbohydrates and carboxylic acids dominating in the early incubation phase, while phosphorylated chemicals became more prominent in later stages. Multiple regression and relative importance analyses identified Cd, Pb, and Zn as key regulators of substrate utilization, with phosphorylated chemicals showing strong negative correlations (R 2>0.95). These findings indicate that heavy metal stress not only decreases overall microbial activity but also disrupts specific metabolic pathways. The utilization of phosphorylated chemicals emerged as a particularly sensitive functional indicator, underscoring its potential for ecological risk assessment and soil health monitoring in contaminated sites.

Food webs have received global attention as next-generation biomonitoring tools; however, it remains challenging because revealing trophic links between species is costly and laborious. Although a link-extrapolation method utilizing published trophic link data can address this difficulty, it has limitations when applied to construct food webs in domestic streams due to the lack of information on endemic species in global literature. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a link extrapolation-based food web model adapted to Korean stream ecosystems. We considered taxonomic similarity of predation and dominance of generalists in aquatic ecosystems, designing taxonomically higher-level matching methods: family matching for all fish (Family), endemic fish (Family-E), endemic fish playing the role of consumers (Family-EC), and resources (Family-ER). By adding the commonly used genus matching method (Genus) to these four matching methods, a total of five matching methods were used to construct 103 domestic food webs. Predictive power of both individual links and food web indices were evaluated by comparing constructed food webs with corresponding empirical food webs. Results showed that, in both evaluations, proposed methods tended to perform better than Genus in a data-poor environment. In particular, Family-E and Family-EC were the most effective matching methods. Our model addressed domestic data scarcity problems when using a link-extrapolation method. It offers opportunities to understand stream ecosystem food webs and may provide novel insights into biomonitoring.

Herbivorous insects can be exposed to soil contaminants via trophic transfer. To assess the effect of accumulated arsenate (As(V)) in host plants on aphids across generations, Myzus persicae were reared for several generations on pepper (Capsicum annuum) grown in soil treated with 0, 2, 4, and 6 mg of As(V) per kg. In the first generation, the body length of M. persicae significantly (p < 0.05) increased on As(V)-treated plants (μ = 1.29 mm) compared to untreated plants (μ = 1.21 mm). Aphids showed higher fecundity on plants treated with 2mg/kg of As(V) (15.3) compared to untreated ones (10.6), but it decreased again under the 4mg/kg (11.4) and 6mg/kg (11.2) treatments. When newborns were transferred to untreated plants after being reared on each treatment for two previous generations, they exhibited higher fecundity as their parents were treated with higher levels of As(V). While more research is needed to understand the unexpected beneficial effects, this study highlights the complex impacts of soil As(V) on aphid dynamics which span multiple generations.

Ecosystems provide various ecosystem services based on biodiversity. However, biodiversity is facing crises due to anthropogenic factors such as pollution, land use change, and climate change. Threats to biodiversity can significantly impact the provision and stability of ecosystem services, extending beyond simple species decline. To address threats to biodiversity, it is crucial to evaluate how anthropogenic factors affect not only biodiversity but also ecosystem services. This study aims to investigate the energy flux in a post-mining area based on the biodiversity of soil ecosystems and assess its suitability as an evaluation metric. It was observed that as the concentration of the primary pollutant, arsenic, increased, both the biomass of soil organisms and energy flux decreased. Furthermore, soil ecosystem multifunctionality may be negatively affected by pollution. These findings contribute to understanding the impact of pollution on soil ecosystem biodiversity and energy flux in post-mining areas and provide important information for more effective conservation and management of ecosystem services.

The ecosystem provides a diverse array of environmental conditions for organisms, and only those that are capable of successfully adapting to these conditions within their habitats can endure, thrive, and proliferate. Further, the environmental conditions within these habitats can significantly affect the bioavailability of chemicals that are introduced therein, thus resulting in varied adverse impacts on the organisms. The present study aims to evaluate the sensitivity of Yuukianura szeptyckii - a species adapted to riparian - to heavy metals following ISO guideline 11276, with the objective of assessing its potential as an indicator species for ecotoxicological evaluations in riparian habitats. The findings revealed that cadmium and copper both had significant toxic effects depending on their concentrations. For cadmium, the LC50 was 280 mg kg-1, EC50 was 66 mg kg-1, and NOEC and LOEC were 25 and 50 mg kg-1, respectively. For copper, the LC50 was 911 mg kg-1, EC50 was 151 mg kg-1, and LOEC was 50 mg kg-1. Comparative analysis with previous results for the international standard species Folsomia candida and the domestic standard species Allonychiurus kimi indicated that Y. szeptyckii exhibited even greater sensitivity to toxicity values. The adverse effects on survival and reproduction were closely associated with the influx concentration of heavy metals in their bodies. Altogether, the results suggest that Y. szeptyckii is a sensitive species for ecotoxicological assessments in riparian habitats, thus making it suitable as an indicator species, particularly in riparian ecosystems that are characterized by relatively high humidity conditions.

The key to invasive pest management lies in preemptive action. However, most current research using species distribution models is conducted after an invasion has occurred. This study modeled the potential distribution of the globally notorious sweet potato pest, the sweet potato weevil (Cylas formicarius), that has not yet invaded Korea using MaxEnt. Using global occurrence data, bioclimatic variables, and topsoil characteristics, MaxEnt showed high explanatory power as both the training and test areas under the curve exceeded 0.9. Among the environmental variables used in this study, minimum temperature in the coldest month (BIO06), precipitation in the driest month (BIO14), mean diurnal range (BIO02), and bulk density (BDOD) were identified as key variables. The predicted global distribution showed high values in most countries where the species is currently present, with a significant potential invasion risk in most South American countries where C. formicarius is not yet present. In Korea, Jeju Island and the southwestern coasts of Jeollanam-do showed very high probabilities. The impact of climate change under shared socioeconomic pathway (SSP) scenarios indicated an expansion along coasts as climate change progresses. By applying the 10th percentile minimum training presence rule, the potential area of occurrence was estimated at 1,439 km2 under current climate conditions and could expand up to 9,485 km2 under the SSP585 scenario. However, the model predicted that an inland invasion would not be serious. The results of this study suggest a need to focus on the risk of invasion in islands and coastal areas.

Many changes in the scale and structure of the Korean rice cropping system have been made over the past few decades. Still, insufficient research has been conducted on the sustainability of this system. This study analyzed changes in the Korean rice cropping system’s sustainability from a system ecology perspective using an emergy approach. For this purpose, an emergy table was created for the Korean rice cropping system in 2011, 2016, and 202, and an emergy-based indicator analysis was performed. The emergy analysis showed that the total emergy input to the rice cropping system decreased from 10,744E+18 sej year-1 to 8,342E+18 sej year-1 due to decreases in paddy field areas from 2011 to 2021, and the proportion of renewable resources decreased by 1.4%. The emergy input per area (ha) was found to have decreased from 13.13E+15 sej ha-1 year-1 in 2011 to 11.89E+15 sej ha-1 year-1 in 2021, and the leading cause was a decrease in nitrogen fertilizer usage and working hours. The amount of emergy used to grow 1 g of rice stayed the same between 2016 and 2021 (specific emergy: 13.3E+09 sej g-1), but the sustainability of the rice cropping system (emergy sustainability index, ESI) continued to decrease (2011: 0.107, 2016: 0.088, and 2021: 0.086). This study provides quantitative information on the emergy input structure and characteristics of Korean rice cropping systems. The results of this study can be used as a valuable reference in establishing measures to improve the ecological sustainability of the Korean rice cropping system.

Glyphosate, a worldwide most used herbicides, can have complex implications for terrestrial ecosystems, extending beyond its intended target, weed control. This study investigated the cascading effects of glyphosate application on both plant and collembolan communities. Our findings reveal that glyphosate application can reduce the richness of plant communities, and these effects can be pronounced in areas with low initial plant diversity. Furthermore, our results confirm that the fluctuations in plant community composition induced by glyphosate application can also impact the richness of collembolan communities. This research highlights the importance of considering both plant and invertebrate communities when assessing the impacts of herbicide use in agroecosystems.

공간 샘플링은 공간모델링 연구에 활용되어 샘플링 비용을 줄이면서 모델링의 효율성을 높이는 역할을 한다. 농업분야에서는 기후변화 영향을 예측하고 평가하기 위한 고해상도 공간자료 기반 모델링에 대한 연구 수요가 빠르게 증가하고 있으며, 이에 따라 공간 샘플링의 필요성과 중요성이 증가하고 있다. 본 연구는 국내 농지 공간샘플링 연구를 통해 농업분야 기후변화연구의 공간자료 활용의 효율성을 제고하고자 하였다. 본 연구는 층화랜덤샘플링 을 기반으로 하였으며, 1 km 해상도의 농지 공간격자자료 모집단 (11,386개 격자)에 대해서 RCP 시나리오별 (RCP 4.5/8.5) 연대별 (2030/2050/2080년대) 공간샘플링을 설 계하였다. 국내 농지는 기상 및 토양 특성에 따라 계층화 되었으며, 샘플링 효율 극대화를 위해 최적 층화 및 샘플 배정 최적화를 수행하였다. 최적화는 작물수량, 온실가스 배출량, 해충 분포 확률을 포함하는 16개 목표 변수에 대해 주어진 정밀도 제한 내에서 샘플 수를 최소화하는 방향으로 진행되었다. 샘플링의 정밀도와 정확도 평가는 각각 변동계수 (CV)와 상대적 편향을 기반으로 하였다. 국내 농지 공간격자 모집단 계층화 및 샘플 배정 및 샘플 수 최적화 결과, 전체 농지는 5~21개 계층, 46~69개 샘플 수 수준에서 최적화되었다. 본 연구결과물들은 국내 농업시스템 대표 공간격자로써 널리 활용될 수 있을 것으로 기대된다. 또한, 기후변화 영향예측 공간모델링 연구들에 활용되어 샘플링 비용 및 계산 시간을 줄이면서도 모델의 효율성을 높이는 데에 기여할 수 있다.

Prediction of the behavior of heavy metals over time is important to evaluate the heavy metal toxicity in algae species. Various modeling studies have been well established, but there is a need for an improved model for predicting the chronic effects of metals on algae species to combine the metal kinetics and biological response of algal cells. In this study, a kinetic dynamics model was developed to predict the copper behavior (5 μg L-1, 10 μg L-1, and 15 μg L-1) for two freshwater algae (Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata and Chlorella vulgaris) in the chronic exposure experiments (8 d and 21 d). In the experimental observations, the rapid change in copper mass between the solutions, extracellular and intracellular sites occurred within initial exposure periods, and then it was slower although the algal density changed with time. Our model showed a good agreement with the measured copper mass in each part for all tested conditions with an elapsed time (R 2 for P. subcapitata: 0.928, R 2 for C. vulgaris: 0.943). This study provides a novel kinetic dynamics model that is compromised between practical simplicity and realistic complexity, and it can be used to investigate the chronic effects of heavy metals on the algal population.