Ulleung Island is a biodiversity hotspot in South Korea. During a survey of indigenous fungal species from Ulleung Island conducted from 2015 to 2016, we discovered 10 unrecorded macrofungi in Korea. These macrofungi were identified to the species level using morphological features and phylogenetic analysis based on the internal transcribed spacer region: Deconica phyllogena, Mycena zephirus, Phaeomarasmius proximans, Phlebia radiata, Pluteus semibulbosus, Postia alni, Resinicium pinicola, Scytinostroma portentosum, Tricholomopsis flammula, and Tyromyces kmetii. We also provide detailed morphological descriptions for these 10 species.
Biodiversity ; Korea*

This study describes two new records of the lichen genus Placynthiella (P. hyporhoda and P. icmalea) from South Korea. A brief taxonomic description and comments are provided for the new records. An artificial key is also provided for known species of this genus in South Korea.
Biodiversity ; Lichens ; Republic of Korea

Aims: This study aims to assess the impact of anthropogenic activities on shrimp microbiome in a biodiverse mangrove forest ecosystem, along the Merbok River, Kedah, Malaysia. Methodology and results: To assess the impacts, a microbiome study of wild post larvae shrimps along the river was conducted as a health indicator of the shrimp hosts which in turn would reflect the river conditions. A 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing of the wild post larvae shrimp microbiomes sampled across areas of varying human activities was conducted. Samples were obtained from four sites ranging from upstream river habitat to downstream brackish water towards the marine coast. Individuals detected from the sequence were then counted and their relative abundance of bacterial diversity were compared. All abundances are up to 100% and the diversity indices were calculated using proportions of each species. The Operational Taxonomy Unit (OTUs) were obtained by using USEARCH and UPARSE software. Twenty-eight bacterium phyla were detected, dominated by phyla Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes at each site. Eighteen families were dominant at each site with Streptomycetaceae being the major abundant. At the genus level, the most abundant genera were Streptomyces sp., Mesorhizobium sp., Rhizobium sp., Bacillus sp. and Pseudomonas sp. Conclusion, significance and impact of study In general, the diversity of opportunistic and coliform bacteria was low. Thus, despite being exposed to various levels of human activities, the Merbok River and its mangrove surroundings still serve as a good spawning and nursery sites of shrimps and presumably other inhabitants.
Biodiversity ; Decapoda ; Wetlands

OBJECTIVETo determine the present status of plant communities and their possible association with the habitat in Malam Jabba, Swat, Pakistan.

METHODSA study on the phytoecology was conducted in various ecologically important sites of Malam Jabba, Swat, Pakistan from 2002 to 2004. The altitude of these sites ranged from 1 200 m to 3 200 m. Quadrat method was used for evaluation of plants communities and the data on these attributes was converted to relative values. The plant communities were named after 3 leading species with highest importance values. Biological spectrum of the flora based on the life form was prepared by following Raunkiar's life form classes.

RESULTSThe floristic composition and structure of the study area were found to be 200 species belonging to 75 families. Asteraceae, Lamiaceae and Poaceae were important families in the study area. The biological spectrum showed that therophytic and hemicrytophytic life form and micro-nonophyllous leaf sizes were dominant in the area. The air and soil temperatures were decreasing with increasing elevation. Both the air and soil temperatures were relatively higher in south slopes than on the northeast slopes. The vegetation analysis of the area indicated eleven plant communities around the area. The present vegetation is the relics of moist temperate coniferous forest in the area. The communities reflect highly deteriorated conditions. Both the structure and composition of the surrounding vegetation were associated with the types of habitats.

CONCLUSIONSThe conservation of the remaining populations of the reported communities will be best achieved by proper time of sustainable harvesting. It is only possible with the participation of local communities.

Background: \u2018Giao co lam\u2019 (Jiaogulan), a valuable medicinal plant is considered ginseng for the poor. However, there were difficulties in planting and collecting because of its biodiversity. Objectives: Study on the biodiversity of various species of the Gynostemma Blume genus in Cao Bang province in order to classify species in this genus. Subjects and method: The samples of medicinal plant \u2018giao co lam\u2019 (Jiaogulan) in Cao Bang have been collected, described and identified scientific name. Results: These samples were identified with scientific names and classified based on both morphological and DNA characters. As a result, \u2018giao co lam\u2019 (Jiaogulan) in Cao Bang, belongs to two species: G. pentaphyllum (Thunb.) Makino and G. laxum (Wall.) Cogn. The species G. pentaphyllum can be divided into two varieties, including: G. pentaphyllum (Thunb.) Makino var. 1 and Gynostemma pentaphyllum (Thunb.) Makino var. 2. Conclusion: The quantity of active material in each varieties of these species might be different, so further study is required on the medicinal plant \u2018giao co lam\u2019 not only in Cao Bang but also the rest of Vietnam.
Gynostemma Blume ; giao cao lam ; Jiaogulan ; biodiversity

OBJECTIVETo study species diversity and the host of Thesium chinense community.

METHODThe investigation on phytocoenology was carried out on the T. chinense community in 7 areas of Anhui Province and Jiangsu Province. The correlation between species diversity of community and T. chinense abundance was analyzed regarding to the abundance of species, the abundant index of species, species diversity index and community even index.

RESULT AND CONCLUSIONThe results showed that T. chinense liked light, warm climate, liked acidic to neuter soil. The majority of T. chinense distributed in the humid wasteland and herbaceous community. There was a positive correlation between the abundance of T. chinense and the unity numbers of community, and a negative correlation between the abundance of T. chinense and the abundance, coverage, diversity index, Pielou even index of community. T. chinense host species was various. This investigation found 28 host species belong to 11 Families, among them 5 Families and 18 species were found for the first time.

A total of 82 genera and 271 species of soil-inhabiting fungi including saprobic, nematode-trapping, and arbuscular mycorrhizal but plant pathogenic fungi published hitherto in South Korea are listed with the information on geographic location, habitat, vegetation when available, and relevant literatures.
Biodiversity ; Checklist* ; Ecosystem ; Fungi* ; Korea* ; Mycorrhizae ; Plants

No abstract available.
Air Pollution ; Asia ; Biodiversity ; Climate Change ; Climate

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games provided a significant opportunity to consider global warming as an issue to be seriously addressed to run the safe and fair games in the era of climate change. As the global temperature continuously rises and extreme hot-weather events increase in frequency and intensity, the future summer Olympic and Paralympic games will need to deal with the heat by applying thorough and appropriate countermeasures. In the recent decades, many mitigation measures to protect athletes from heat have been rapidly discussed by the sports community, including countermeasures to hold games at times and places with moderate temperature and climatic risk assessments with Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) during the games. However, the excessive heat conditions in the Tokyo 2020 Games affected not only athletes, but also all people concerned the events. While deliberate considerations by organizers had been given to mitigate extraordinary heat, the evaluations of these measures and epidemiological analyses of risk factors of patients must be further enhanced to develop efficient measures for the future. Therefore, we discussed the underlying climate-related problems of the summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in view of what we had experienced in the Tokyo 2020 Games. Facing with emerging global warming, future intervention against heat in the summer Olympic and Paralympic games will need to integrate systematic disease surveillance and evaluation of intervention with an effective combination with the approaches previously conducted. The Tokyo 2020 Games is a wake-up call to accelerate the public health measures towards the creeping global warming.
Biodiversity ; Global Warming ; Humans ; Sports ; Temperature ; Tokyo

Traditional Chinese medicinal resource survey method is time-consuming, strenuous, and having great human influence, the precision is not high enough. This paper, by using spatial information technology, carries on spatial sampling survey for wild medicinal plants resource for generous species to arrange the quadrat scientifically and estimate the suitable area, reserve precisely of medicinal plants. It not only improves the survey precision, but reduces the workload of field survey and provides scientific basis for survey method of pilot work on the fourth national traditional Chinese medicinal resource census.
Biodiversity ; Conservation of Natural Resources ; Ecosystem ; Humans ; Plants, Medicinal ; Spatial Analysis