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- KOREAN
- P-ISSN2287-8327
- E-ISSN2288-1220
- SCOPUS, KCI
ISSN : 2287-8327
Vol.33 No.1
Abstract
The Tsushima leopard cat, Prionailurus bengalensis euptilurus, a small felid, inhabits only the Tsushima Islands in Japan. Previous studies of the Tsushima leopard cat revealed that natural factors; including sex, reproductive activity,season, and prey distribution and abundance affect leopard cat home range variation and habitat use. In this study, we focused on clarifying how anthropogenic factors influenced home range variation and habitat use of a male Tsushima leopard cat living near a suburban area in January, March, May and September 2005 using radio-tracking. The home range size (100% MCP) of this cat was 0.78 ± 0.26 ㎢ (mean ± SD, n = 4 tracking sessions) across the whole study period. However, the cat did not use all parts of its home range uniformly; rather it used some habitat types selectively. The cat avoided agriculture areas and residential areas in all of the tracking-sessions. On the other hand, the cat showed a weak preference for artificial structures and a strong preference for baiting sites in January and March, while it avoided them in May, and no baiting site was included in its home range in September. These results suggest that anthropogenic factors influenced the ranging patterns and habitat use of the leopard cat living near a suburban area. Artificial structures might provided good resting spaces for the cat in bad weather. When the density of its main prey was low in the winter, the cat tended to rely on artificial prey and had a small home range size.
Abstract
Mangroves are special plant communities that live along intertidal zones in tropical and subtropical areas. They are regarded as one of the most important types of natural ecosystem in the world because of the many ecosystem functions that they perform, of which water purification is the most complex. Mangrove ecosystems are conducive to the deposition and retention of heavy metals. So it is important to understand the impact of heavy metals on mangrove ecosystems, and especially on soil subsystems. We examined the levels of heavy metals in the soil of mangroves in the Dongzhaigang Mangrove National Nature Reserve. Dongzhaigang, the first mangrove nature reserve established in China, is located south of Haikou in Hainan Island and encompasses 33.37 ㎢, of which mangroves comprise 20.56km2. To assess the impact of human activities, we collected a large number of soil samples in four sampling areas (the protection station, the harbor, a tour area, and Yeboluo island) in the study area. We measured the concentrations of Cu,Pb, Zn and Cd in the soil samples using the spectra of polyatomic molecules. The average concentrations of Cu, Pb, Zn and Cd were 5.04 μg/g, 10.36 μg/g, 20.06 μg/g and 0.06 μg/g, respectively, and the heavy metal concentrations were lowest in the protected area, highest in the harbor, and intermediate in Yeboluo Island and the tour area. The heavy metal concentrations in the soil collected from different sample plots are related not only to the physical and chemical properties of the soil, but also to the heavy metal emitted by nearby pollution sources. Our analysis indicates that tourist boats are the main pollution sources in the study area.
Abstract
Migratory birds, by crossing significant ecological barriers, carry and may subsequently introduce exotic seeds into new ecological zones during period of migration. The study of epizoochory, which includes seed dispersal by adhesion to bird feathers, has been relatively neglected compared to the study of seed dispersal by frugivores. To determine whether exotic seeds are being imported to stopover islands by migrating birds, and to estimate the quantity of seeds of exotic species being introduced, we examined migratory birds that were captured in mist nets for attached exotic plant diaspores in 2008 and 2009 on Hongdo Island, Korea. From a total of 3,947 birds examined, we found exotic seeds of Japanese Chaff Flowers (Achyranthes japonica) attached to three species of migratory birds (0.08%; Eurasian Bittern Botaurus stellaris, Swinhoe’s Rail Coturnicops exquisitus and Oriental Turtle Dove Streptopelia orientalis). Despite the low occurrence of A. japonica seeds on the external parts of birds, the results suggest that migratory birds may be potential dispersing agents for A. japonica, a species that is currently threatening native ecosystems on many islands in Korea.
Abstract
The Cat Ba Islands in Hai Phong City, northern Vietnam, consist of a large limestone island with a maximum height of 322 m above sea level and 366 small limestone islets with a total area of about 180 km2. The islands are relicts of karst limestone mountains that became submerged during the Holocene transgression 7000 – 8000 year ago. The combination of the longtime karst process and recent marine processes in the monsoonal tropical zone has created a very diversity landscape on the Cat Ba Islands that can be divided into 3 habitat types with 16 forms. The first habitat type is the karst mountains and hills, including karst mountains and hills, karst valleys and dolines, karst lakes, karst caves, and old marine terraces. The second habitat type is the limestone island coast, including beaches, mangrove marshes, tidal flats, rocky coasts, marine notch caves, marine karst lakes, and bights. The third habitat type is karst plains submerged by the sea, including karst cones (fengcong) and towers (fengling), bedrock exposed on the seabed, sandy mud seabed, and submerged channels. Like the landscape, the biodiversity is also high in ecosystems composed of scrub cover – bare hills,rainy tropical forests, paddy fields and gardens, swamps, caves, beaches, mangrove forests, tidal flats, rocky coasts, marine krast lakes, coral reefs, hard bottoms, seagrass beds and soft bottoms. The ecosystems on the Cat Ba Islands that support very high species biodiversity include tropical evergreen rainforests, soft bottoms; coral reefs, mangrove forests, and marine karst lakes. A total of 2,380 species have been recorded in the Cat Ba Islands, included 741 species of terrestrial plants; 282 species of terrestrial animals; 30 species of mangrove plants; 287 species of phytoplankton; 79 species of seaweed; 79 species of zooplankton; 196 species of marine fishes; 154 species of corals; and 538 species of zoobenthos. Many of these species are listed in the Red Book of Vietnam as endangered species, included the white-headed or Cat Ba langur (Trachypithecus poliocephalus), a famous endemic species. Human activities have resulted in significantly changes to the landscape end ecosytems of the Cat Ba islands; however, many natural aspects of the islandsd have been preserved. For this reason, the Cat Ba Islands were recognized as a Biological Reserved Area by UNESCO in 2004.
Abstract
I conducted extensive analyses of daily weather data of precipitation and temperature monitored from the Surface Synoptic Meteorological Station in Seoul from 1 October 1907 to 31 December 2009 to understand how the climate is changing and the ecological implications for Seoul, Korea. Statistical analyses of the data, including the lengths of seasons and growing degree-days (GDD), showed a clear warming trend in the Seoul area over the study period. The mean daily temperature in Seoul increased by 2.40°C over the period of one hundred years, which was about three times faster than the global trend and it was striking to notice that mean daily temperature in Seoul in recent 30 years was increasing with the rate of 5.50°C per hundred years, which is an extremely fast rate of increase in temperature. In the last 100 years, an increase in the number of summer days was apparent, coupled with a reduction in the average number of winter days for about 27 to 28 days based on the analysis of mean daily temperature. Although the lengths of spring and autumn have not changed significantly over the century, early initiations of spring and late onsets of autumn were quite apparent. Total annual precipitation significantly increased at the rate of 2.67 mm/year over the last 100 years, a trend not apparent if the analysis is confined to periods of 30 to 40 years. The information has the potential to be used not only for better understanding of ecological processes and hydrology in the area, but also for the sustainable management of ecosystems and environment in the region.
Abstract
To understand day-to-day fluctuations in soil moisture content in Seoul, I simulated daily soil moisture content from 1908 to 2009 using long-term climatic precipitation and temperature data collected at the Surface Synoptic Meteorological Station in Seoul for the last 98 years with a hydrological simulation model, BROOK. The output data set from the BROOK model allowed me to examine day-to-day fluctuations and the severity and duration of droughts in the Seoul area. Although the soil moisture content is highly dependent on the occurrence of precipitation, the pattern of changes in daily soil moisture content was clearly quite different from that of precipitation. Generally, there were several phases in the dynamics of daily soil moisture content. The period from mid-May to late June can be categorized as the initial period of decreasing soil moisture content. With the initiation of the monsoon season in late June, soil moisture content sharply increases until mid-July. From the termination of the rainy season in mid-July, daily soil moisture content decreases again. Highly stochastic events of typhoons from late June to October bring large amount of rain to the Korean peninsula, culminating in late August, and increase the soil moisture content again from late August to early September. From early September until early October, another sharp decrease in soil moisture content was observed. The period from early October to mid-May of the next year can be categorized as a recharging period when soil moisture content shows an increasing trend. It is interesting to note that no statistically significant increase in mean annual soil moisture content in Seoul, Korea was observed over the last 98 years. By simulating daily soil moisture content, I was also able to reconstruct drought phenomena to understand the severity and duration of droughts in Seoul area. During the period from 1908 to 2009, droughts in the years 1913, 1979, 1939, and 2006 were categorized as ‘severe’ and those in 1988and 1982 were categorized as ‘extreme’. This information provides ecologists with further potential to interpret natural phenomenon, including tree growth and the decline of tree species in Korea.
Abstract
Because seagrass production significantly contributes to the biodiversity and production of coastal and estuarine ecosystems, accurate estimation of seagrass productivity is a critical step toward understanding the ecological roles of seagrass in these ecosystems. To develop an accurate and effective method of measuring seagrass productivity,we estimated leaf productivity of eelgrass (Zostera marina) on the southern coast of Korea using three methods, the conventional leaf marking method, the elongation-mass method (Short ’87 method), and the plastochrone method. In each season, shoots were pierced through the bundle sheath using a hypodermic needle and were collected after 2-4 weeks had elapsed to estimate their productivity. The leaf elongation and the leaf plastochrone intervals varied significantly among seasons. On an annual basis, the conventional leaf marking method showed the lowest leaf productivity estimates compared to the elongation-mass method and the plastochrone method, suggesting that the conventional leaf marking method underestimated leaf productivity as it ignored leaf maturation processes and new leaf growth within the sheath. Since the elongation-mass method considered leaf maturation processes, this method produced higher leaf productivity estimates than the conventional leaf marking method. On an annual basis, the plastochrone method produced the highest leaf productivity estimates. Below-ground productivity, which can be easily estimated using the plastochrone method, ranged between 3.29 and 5.73 (mg dry weight shoot-1 day-1) and accounted for about 17.8% to 30.3% of total productivity. Because of the high contributions of below-ground productivity to total seagrass production, we suggest that the plastochrone method is an effective and simple technique for assessing both above- and below-ground productivities.
Abstract
Stand structure and spatial associations of the dominant tree species in Quercus mongolica stands were investigated to understand interspecific relationships and the persistent dominance of Q. mongolica. We examined the species composition, DBH (diameter at breast height) distribution, and spatial distribution of trees (≥ 2.5 cm DBH) in two permanent 100 m x 100 m plots in Q. mongolica-dominant stands on the western part of Mt. Jiri. Ripley’s K-function was used to characterize the spatial patterns and associations of dominant tree species. Q. mongolica showed a continuous and reverse-J shaped DBH distribution with clumped spatial distribution in both study sites. Q. mongolica and Abies koreana exhibited a negative association implying potential interspecific competition. The positive spatial association between Q. mongolica and Alnus hirsuta var. sibirica and Fraxinus sieboldiana were affected by site characteristics: limited habitat conditions with a large proportion of rock surface. Our results suggest that interactions among species were complex and ranged from positive to negative. Differences in stand and site characteristics and regeneration mechanisms among the species play an important role in regulating their spatial distribution patterns, while competition between individuals also contributes to spatial patterning of these communities. The high density and the early developmental stage of spatial distribution and structural characteristics of Q. mongolica and the relatively low importance values of other species in the stands imply that Q. mongolica will remain dominant in the study sites in the near future.