Hee-Cheon Park

The water deer, although an internationally endangered species, is designated as a nuisance wild animal in South Korea and occupies a unique ecological niche. Studying the gut microbiome of this species is crucial for understanding its ecology. We amplified 16S rRNA DNA and compared the gut microbiomes of wild water deer from three regions with those of captive water deer from one region. Our results showed that the gut microbiome diversity of water deer did not differ significantly across regions in the wild but decreased significantly when raised in captivity. The similar microbiomes of water deer living in different regions are believed to be due to dietary diversity rather than dietary homogeneity. Furthermore, the monotony of the food supply appears to lead to significant variation in captive environments. From a conservation biology and biorestoration perspective, we suggest the importance of conserving the gut environments of animals conserved and restored outside their native habitats.

Countless studies have been conducted on cumulative environmental impacts, but not many have been performed on specific cases of the presence or absence of actual cumulative environmental impacts and restoration, and there is no standardized method for judging cumulative environmental impacts. With our study, we aimed to fill this research gap. We methodologically propose that environmental impacts and restoration can be intuitively expressed by measuring alpha diversity, beta diversity, and gamma diversity in avian fauna. We hope that our proposal will enable many researchers to apply these measurements not only to wind power projects but also various others. This will let them move away from data-less claims and rather track changes in environmental impacts with objective data, considering cumulative environmental impacts and recovery of impacts over time. The results showed that there were changes in the three types of diversity due to the development of wind power complexes on mountain ridges during construction, and the environment was restored over several years. In conclusion, cumulative environmental impacts due to the development of wind power complexes on mountain ridges were not found when limited to avifauna, and impacts due to construction showed a pattern of restoration after construction. There were also cases where restoration occurred even during construction.

Bird migration routes across North America, which are often speculated upon at the microscale, are now subject to scrutiny using the ‘eBird’ database, the world’s largest data repository for the North American continent. This database has steadily accumulated data on resident and migratory birds, with annual data on both potentially revealing regional trends. Through analysis of eBird data accumulated since 1980, we identified regional trends indicating bird migration patterns across North America, delineating three primary regions within the North American flyway: the western, central and eastern flyways, with the latter further subdivided into three regions. These findings refine previous categorisations of the four major flyways, deepening our understanding of bird migration dynamics in North America.

The long-tailed goral is close to extinction, and ex situ conservation is essential to prevent this phenomenon. Studies on the gut microbiome of the long-tailed goral are important for understanding the ecology of this species. We amplified DNA from the 16S rRNA regions and compared the microbiomes of wild long-tailed gorals and two types of captive long-tailed gorals. Our findings revealed that the gut microbiome diversity of wild long-tailed gorals is greatly reduced when they are reared in captivity. A comparison of the two types of captive long-tailed gorals confirmed that animals with a more diverse diet exhibit greater gut microbiome diversity. Redundancy analysis confirmed that wild long-tailed gorals are distributed throughout the highlands, midlands, and lowlands. For the first time, it was revealed that the long-tailed goral are divided into three groups depending on the height of their habitat, and that the gut bacterial community changes significantly when long-tailed gorals are raised through ex situ conservation. This provides for the first time a perspective on the diversity of food plants associated with mountain height that will be available to long-tailed goral in the future.

Ex situ conservation is used to protect endangered wildlife. As captive and wild long-tailed gorals are known to be similar, individuals under ex situ conservation can be reintroduced into nature. However, there is no appropriate indicator to evaluate them. Here, we amplified the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region and compared the gut ecological information (eco-information) of captive and wild long-tailed gorals. We validated the existing ITS86F and ITS4 universal primers using reference sequences of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and improved their matching rates. We compared the gut eco-information of captive and wild long-tailed gorals obtained through experiments using the improved primer pair and found that the gut ecological diversity of captive gorals was low. Based on this, we suggested that the gut eco-information can be used as an evaluation index before reintroducing captive long-tailed gorals. Furthermore, we identified four plant types from the gut eco-information of wild long-tailed gorals, which can be the additional food sources to enhance the reduced intestinal ecological diversity of the captive animals.

The long-tailed goral (Naemorhedus caudatus) is an endangered species found in the mountains of eastern and northern Asia. Its populations have declined for various reasons, and this species has been designated as legally protected in South Korea. Although various ecological studies have been conducted on long-tailed gorals, none have investigated the gut microbiome until now. In the present study, we compared the diversity and composition of the gut microbiome of seven populations of Korean long-tailed gorals. By analyzing the gut microbiome composition for each regional population, it was found that four phyla—Firmicutes, Actinobacteriota, Bacteroidota, and Proteobacteria—were the most dominant in all regions on average. The alpha diversity of the gut microbiome of the goral population in the northern regions was high, while that in the southern regions was low. Through the analysis of beta diversity, the seven long-tailed goral populations have been divided into three groups: the Seoraksan population, the Samcheock population, and the Wangpicheon population. It was possible to confirm the regional migration of the animals using the gut microbiome based on the site-relational network analysis. It was found that the most stable population of long-tailed gorals in Korea was the Seoraksan population, and the closely related groups were the Samcheok and Wangpicheon populations, respectively. Wangpicheon appeared to be a major point of dispersal in the migration route of Korean long-tailed gorals.

The south torrent catfish Liobagrus mediadiposalis (Teleostei, Siluriformes, Amblycipitidae) is an endemic species of Korea. The complete mitochondrial genome sequence consisted of 16,534 base pairs (bp) encoding 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), two ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs), 22 transfer RNAs (tRNAs) and two non-coding regions. The overall base composition of L. mediadiposalis was G + C: 44.8%, A + T: 55.2%, apparently with a slight AT bias. Phylogenetic analysis showed that L. mediadiposalis was closely related to Liobagrus reinii.