About
43
Publications
11,629
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76
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
I am broadly interested in biodiversity research and conservation. Specifically, I am interested in biodiversity of reptiles and amphibians and processes that generate biodiversity. My current interests are the systematics and phylogeography of East and Southeast Asian herpetofauna.
Additional affiliations
October 2019 - present
Position
- Research Assistant
Description
- Participation in ongoing lab projects on the ecology and evolution of NE Asian herpetofauna
February 2019 - October 2019
Position
- Research Assistant
Description
- - Cataloged herpetological specimens deposited in the Ewha Womans University Natural History Museum (EWNHM) - Conducted herpetological fieldwork across South Korea - Conducted molecular & computational lab work
May 2018 - December 2018
Position
- Student
Description
- Undergraduate Researcher in the Terrestrial Wildlife Ecology Lab
Education
January 2018 - December 2018
March 2016 - February 2023
Publications
Publications (43)
Nest site selection is critical for reproductive success in birds. Several bird species including Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica gutturalis) typically nest near human settlements, presumably because this reduces their risk of predation. Here, we investigated the nesting habits of Barn Swallows in South Korea. We predicted that abandoned houses woul...
Hynobius notialis is a recently described hynobiid salamander
endemic to the southern Korean Peninsula, ranging from the
foothills of Jiri Mountain and Haman to the north and Gwangyang
and Masan to the south (Borzée and Min 2021. Animals
11:187). As with most newly described species, the ecology and
behavior of the species are poorly known.
At 1549...
Several
species of Asian pitvipers in the genus Gloydius are known
to feed on centipedes. The reported examples include Gloydius
shedaoensis (Shine et al. 2002. Herpetol. Nat. Hist. 9:1–14), G.
brevicaudus (Lee et al. 2012. Ecological Guidebook of Herpetofauna
in Korea. National Institute of Environmental Research,
Incheon, Korea. 268 pp.), G. ussu...
Poster presented at the Student Conference in Conservation Science - New York (SCCS-NY).
Description of predation on an individual Japanese Treefrog (Dryophytes japonicus) by a female Amur Falcon (Falco amurensis).
Roadkills are a major threat to the wildlife in human-modified landscapes. Due to their ecology, relatively small size, and slow movement, amphibians and reptiles are particularly prone to roadkill. While standardized roadkill surveys provide valuable data for regional roadkill trends, such surveys are often resource-intensive and have limited geog...
For wildlife to be protected, it must first be known, as species that are not yet formally described are not the target of conservation attention, independently of threat levels. While habitat degradation has consistently increased across the last decades in the Republic of Korea, taxonomic and conservation efforts are lagging. For instance, a clad...
The unregulated wildlife trade increases the risk of global biological invasions and, therefore, accurate taxonomic assignments and origin-tracing methods are critical. First, using a meta-analysis comparing studies from the last 10 years, we quantified the efficiency of popular analytical methods used for species assignments and confirmed the high...
Understanding species distribution is the first requirement to work on their behaviour, conservation, and phylogeography. Over the last decades, the number of species described on the Korean peninsula has significantly increased, but areas around the boundaries of the Korean peninsula still have to be surveyed for the presence of these species, esp...
Description of the use of an artificial hibernaculum by Boreal Digging Frogs (Kaloula borealis) in the Republic of Korea.
IUCN Red List assessment on Takydromus amurensis
IUCN Red List assessment on Takydromus wolteri
The wildlife trade increases the risk of global biological invasions and accurate species assignment is critical. Here, using cross-study comparisons, we quantified the efficiency of species assignment methods and confirmed the higher sensitivity of coalescent-based methods in isolating cryptic operational taxonomic units (OTUs). We then provided a...
Climate change is one of the major threats to global amphibian diversity, and consequently the species distribution is expected to shift considerably in the future. Therefore, predicting such shifts is important to guide conservation and management plans. Here, we used eight independent environmental variables and four representative concentration...
Climate change is one of the major threats to global amphibian diversity, and consequently the species distribution is expected to shift considerably in the future. Therefore, predicting such shifts is important to guide conservation and management plans. Here, we used eight independent environmental variables and four representative concentration...
Determining the range, status, ecology and behaviour of species from areas where surveys and samplings are uncommon or difficult to conduct is a challenge, such as in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPR Korea). Here we used genetic samples, field surveys, call recordings, photographic identification and literature review to estimate the...
Snakebite envenomings remain a neglected disease across the globe causing severe injuries and death. An understanding of regional snakebite patterns is a necessary prerequisite for public health programs aimed at reducing snakebite risks. However, such regional knowledge is poorly documented or lacking in many countries where the risk of snakebite...
Communal gatherings of snakes have been recorded in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, and species documented in such congregations include several species of Crotalus. These congregations are typically observed in and around communal hibernacula, usually in high altitude or high latitude environments. In these locations, seasonal climat...
Natural history note on Gloydius ussuriensis feeding on a rodent Craseomys
regulus in the Republic of Korea.
Published in Herpetological Review vol. 52, pages 157 - 158.
It is important to understand the dynamics of population size to accurately assess threats and implement conservation activities when required. However, inaccurate estimates are harming both the threat estimation process, and the resulting conservation actions. Here, we address the extinction threats to Scincella huanrenensis, a species described i...
Supplementary material accompanying the article "How Threatened is Scincella huanrenensis? An Update on Threats and Trends"
The ecology of most squamates from the Republic of Korea is poorly understood: information on tolerances to environmental variables, movement patterns, home range sizes, and other aspects of their natural history and ecological requirements are lacking. In turn, this lack of knowledge presents an obstacle to effective conservation management. Curre...
Cover page. Jordan Journal of Natural History 7: 60 - 63.
Article title: Melanism in the Ussuri Pitviper (Gloydius ussuriensis) from the Republic
of Korea, with remarks on color variations
Gloydius ussuriensis is a species of pitviper inhabiting eastern Asia. Body coloration of this species is highly variable, but the extent of this variation has not documented in detail. Herein, we report a melanistic individual of this species observed in Jeju island, Republic of Korea. We note that melanistic G. ussuriensis has never been observed...
BUFO STEJNEGERI (Korean Water Toad). REPUBLIC OF KOREA: SOUTH GYEONGSANG: Sancheong (35.30482°N, 127.75080°E; WGS 84), 547 m elev. 12 May 2019. Kevin R. Messenger. Verified by Yikweon Jang. HerpMapper (HM 278953; photo voucher) and Zoological Reference Collection, Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, National University of Singapore (ZRC(IMG) 1.2...
The herpetology collection of the Ewha Womans University Natural History Museum (EWNHM) represents one of the oldest and largest institutional collections in the Republic of Korea. The specimens deposited in the EWNHM represent a major historical collection of the native herpetofauna, both in species diversity and time span. However, the full inven...
While comparatively few amphibian species have been described on the North East Asian mainland in the last decades, several species have been the subject of taxonomical debates in relation to the Yellow sea. Here, we sampled Dryophytes sp. treefrogs from the Republic of Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the People’s Republic of C...
Little is known about the ecology of the Korean clawed salamander (Onychodactylus koreanus) but populations are declining due to human activities. We surveyed a mountainside road in the Republic of Korea and recorded the sex and life history stage of the salamanders crossing the road. Our results present the first evidence of mass movement in this...
Report of dicephalism in Gloydius saxatilis
Observation of ulcerative stomatitis in free-living Gloydius ussuriensis.
We describe a specimen of Karsenia koreana, the only Asian plethodontid salamander, found in the herpetology collection of Ewha Woman’s University Natural History Museum (EWNHM), Republic of Korea. This specimen was collected in Daedun Mountain, North Jeolla Province on 8 May 1978 by EWNHM and subsequently misidentified as Hynobius leechii. Therefo...
This publication reports on the limb malformations in Oriental fire-bellied toads (Bombina orientalis) encountered in the collection of the Natural History Museum of Ewha Womans University.
Herpetology Notes, volume 13: 29-31 (2020) (published online on 26 January 2020)
South Korea is a densely populated country inhabited by nine species of venomous snakes. The venomous snake fauna of South Korea is composed of pitvipers of the genus Gloydius, tiger keelback snake (Rhabdophis tigrinus), sea kraits (Laticauda spp.) and viviparous sea snakes (Hydrophis spp.). Some of these species are considered medically important...
Questions
Questions (2)
Hello!
I've been looking for a way to incorporate the same set of background points used for Maxent models as pseudo-absence points in the biomod2 package, for better comparisons between modeling algorithms and for bias compensation (as the background points used for Maxent are bias compensated).
As far as I understand, the pseudo-absences in biomod2 are generated using the BIOMOD_FormatingData() function, with a number of different sampling strategies.
But is there a way to incorporate a pre-selected points as pseudo-absences rather than sampling internally in the function? (I thought the "user-defined" strategy might be it, but still not sure)
Thanks in advance
Hello,
I've been trying to conduct a Pearson's correlation test on 19 bioclimatic rasters downloaded from CHELSA Climate, using R and the package raster.
The code I've made read in these rasters (in GeoTIFF format) without running into any errors, and I had no problems making a rasterStack from these files.
But I ran into a problem after running a line of code to conduct Pearson's test on this rasterStack (using the package raster and using layerStats function). The code started running, and I saw a red "STOP" button on the right corner of the console.
The problem was : the test started running, and it did not end. It went on for hours. I think I waited for like 5 hours for the test to end and I would still see that red "STOP" button on the console, before terminating the session out of frustration.
Is it normal for a Pearson's test on rasters in R to take this long?
Have anyone had similar problems doing this kind of test?
I'd like to hear any advice to correct this error. I'll provide my code if needed.
Thanks in advance.
Projects
Projects (3)
Documenting morphological shifts across Korean herpetofauna based on museum vouchers of the Ewha Womans University Natural History Museum, Republic of Korea.
I am currently cataloging the herpetology collection of the Ewha Womans University Natural History Museum (EWNHM) in Seoul, South Korea. This museum has the oldest natural history collections in South Korea, with some herpetology specimens dating back to 1950s. Therefore this collection is of great importance for research. My tasks involve cataloging and photographing all herpetology specimens, as well as assigning unique voucher numbers to all specimens and replacing old and degrading labels. The goal is to make this collection accessible to other researchers.
Knowledge on the distribution, behaviour, ecology and habitat preferences of a species is critical for its conservation. For instance, when the entire range of a species is threatened by habitat modification, the risk of extinction increases exponentially. As a result, the assessment of extinction risks is based on threat levels, which may guide optimal conservation efforts to prevent extinction. The lack of knowledge on species' distributions has already resulted in extinctions that could have been easily avoided.
The behavioural ecology of most herp species is still undescribed in North East Asia, and no precise distribution maps have been drawn. This lack of knowledge, in relation with the increasing threats to reptiles and amphibians through rapid urbanisation and deforestation will result in the inability to conserve species adequately.
The purpose of this project is to scientifically document the distribution, behaviour, ecology and conservation status of all amphibian and reptile species in North East Asia.
Anyone interested in joining the project and collaborating is most welcome. All data points have values, and making them accessible during species assessment and political decisions can only help conservation in the long term.
