It is important to consider interaction between species in understanding structure and function of the biological community. Current ecological issues such as climate change and habitat loss emphasize the significance of the concept of species interaction in that varying species’ interaction across environmental gradients may lead to altered ecological function and services. However, most community studies have focused on species diversity through analysis of quantitative indices based on species composition and abundance data without considering species interactions in the community. ‘Ecological network analysis’ based on network theory enables exploration of structural and functional properties of ecosystems composed of various species and their interactions. In this paper, network analysis of Cheonggye stream as a case study was presented to promote uses of network analysis on ecological studies in Korea. Cheonggye stream has a simple biological structure with link density of 1.48, connectance 0.07, generality 4.43, and vulnerability 1.94. The ecological network analysis can be used to provide ecological interpretations of domestic long-term monitoring data and can contribute to conserving and managing species diversity in ecosystems.

KURT(KAERI Underground Research Tunnel) 지하수에 존재하는 천연 유기물질과 6가 우라늄(U(VI))화학종의 상호작용을 레이저 분광학 기술을 이용하여 조사하였다. 지하수 시료에 266 nm 파장의 레이저 빛을 입사시켜 자외선 및 파란색 파장 영 역에서 방출되는 천연 유기물질의 발광 스펙트럼을 관측하였다. 0.034-0.788 mg·L-1 농도 범위의 우라늄이 함유된 지하수에 서는 녹색 파장 영역에서 방출되는 U(VI) 화학종의 발광 스펙트럼을 측정하였다. 지하수에 함유된 U(VI) 화학종의 발광 특 성(피크 파장 및 발광 수명)이 실험실에서 제조한 표준용액에 함유된 Ca2UO2(CO3)3(aq)의 발광 특성과 매우 유사하다는 것 을 확인하였다. 지하수에 존재하는 U(VI) 화학종의 발광 세기는 표준용액에 함유된 같은 농도의 Ca2UO2(CO3)3(aq)의 발광 세기에 비해 약하다. 표준용액의 Ca2UO2(CO3)3(aq)를 천연 유기물질이 함유된 지하수에 섞었을 때에도 Ca2UO2(CO3)3(aq)의 발광 세기가 감소한다. 이러한 현상의 원인을 지하수의 천연 유기물질과 Ca-U(VI)-탄산염 화학종의 상호작용으로 인해 비 발광성 U(VI) 착물이 형성되기 때문인 것으로 설명하였다.

Global warming can seriously influence on the interaction between pest and natural enemy in the agroecosystem due to the differences in optimal temperature ranges. Two aphid-ladybug systems, Myzus persicae-Coccinella septempunctata (M-C) and Aphis gossypii-Coccinella septempunctata (A-C) in the pepper crop were simulated, respectively under four different temperature scenarios including crop development over 244 days with the assumption that the average temperature is higher by 1, 3, and 5 °C than that in Seoul in 2000. Temperature-dependent functions for each aphid-ladybug system were embedded in Rosenzweig-Macathur predator-prey model to explore their population dynamics, and then Dynamic Index was used to quantify the strengths of species interactions. The result shows that the predator-prey population cycles as well as species interactions are getting shorter and stronger in both systems as temperature increased. Especially, the excessively high temperature scenario in Aphis gossypii-Coccinella septempunctata system could result in the extreme species interaction. Therefore, the increasing temperature can facilitate the effectiveness of biological control because of growing crop plant development and much stronger species interaction, although there are increases of the frequency of pest occurrences.

Five species of the subfamily Cicadinae are found in urban areas at the center of the Korean peninsula, including Cryptotympana atrata, Hyalessa fuscata, Meimuna mongolica, Meimuna opalifera and Graptopsaltria nigrofuscata. Out of those species, the densities of C. atrata and H. fuscata are generally high in the urban area. I hypothesized that there is a vigorous acoustic interaction where two species are abundant. We tested this hypothesis by conducting the 24-h recording experiments in four localities: Gwacheon(GC), Jamsil(JS), Ewha University(EU) and Yangpyeong(YP). Based on the preliminary enumeration surveys of exuviae, GC and JS were designated as high density localities and EU and JS were as low density localities. The results of 24-h recordings and abiotic factor based on the multinomial logistic regression showed that C. atrata and H. fuscata were negatively correlated in high density area GC and JS. In JS and EU, the density of H. fuscata is close to each other. However, the probability of chorusing in JS is significantly lower than EU. This might be due to acoustic competition between two species. Moreover, we confirmed that the choruses of males of C. atrata produced loud choruses usually during the day when temperature high and males of H. fuscata produced calling song throughout the day but peaked in the morning and night. Consequently, multi-species cicada in different temporal pattern probably cannot be explained by only acoustic interaction but the combination of both abiotic and biotic factors probably constrain multi-species cicada to call together during the limited time windows.