Anthropogenic threats from human activity have significantly altered global ecosystems, resulting in habitat destruction and fragmentation, biodiversity loss, and species extinction. The identification and establishment of protected areas for the conservation of threatened species is thus required to mitigate the impacts of these threats. This study identified priority conservation areas (PCAs) for endangered mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles in South Korea using ecological modeling. In particular, we used the MaxEnt model to determine the potential distributions of endangered species and Zonation software to prioritize conservation areas. In doing so, we aimed to identify key environmental factors that influence the distributions of the target species and to identify ecologically critical areas using gap analysis based on the first-grade areas on the ecology and nature map (ENM). The results indicated that the highest priority areas for endangered species varied by taxon, with endangered mammals found primarily in forested areas, endangered birds on inland plains, and endangered amphibians and reptiles within marine and stream regions. The gap analysis revealed a very low overlap between ecological areas and high-priority areas for endangered birds and amphibians. This suggests that the first-grade areas on the ENM mainly represent areas with high vegetational coverage. These findings highlight the need to reassess existing protected areas and designate PCAs for endangered species independently from the ENM. This study represents a foundational assessment that can be used to inform conservation planning and prompt continued ecological research in support of biodiversity conservation efforts.

Urban expansion leads to changes in land use, and the resulting habitat fragmentation increases the risk of species extinction. Therefore, strategies to connect fragmented habitats for wildlife conservation are required, but past research has focused mainly on large mammals and specific species, and there has been a lack of research on habitat connectivity in Korea. In the present study, we sought to design an ecological network for the conservation of endangered forest wildlife (leopard cat, yellow-throated marten, and Siberian flying squirrel) in Pyeongchang, Gangwon State, Korea. The InVEST habitat quality and MaxEnt models were used to predict forest areas with excellent habitat quality and a high probability of the occurrence of endangered wildlife. We then used Linkage Mapper to identify corridors and bottlenecks that connect fragmented habitats within the study area. The quality of these corridors and the environmental features of the pinch points were also analyzed. The results showed that the area outside of Pyeongchang is the most likely area for endangered forest wildlife habitats and occurrence. A total of seven core areas were identified, and 12 corridors connecting the core areas were identified. The highest quality corridors were those connecting forest areas outside of Pyeongchang because they had a high habitat quality with alternative paths of least resistance. We also identified sections with high pinch points in all corridors, and these points tended to have high elevation, a southern aspect, a long distance from agricultural land and water bodies, low traffic density, and low building density. ANOVA revealed that the environmental variables associated with high pinch points, least-cost paths, and Pyeongchang in general exhibited statistically significant differences. These results demonstrate that the proposed conservation planning model can be applied to multiple species using a corridor-integrated mapping approach and produces quantitative figures for the targeted improvement of ecological connectivity in forests according to local characteristics, including biodiversity. As such, this approach can be utilized as the basis for the selection and management of protected forest areas and for environmental impact assessment. However, because this study had data limitations, field surveys and the monitoring of target species are needed. Once these limitations are addressed, a quantitative conservation plan can be established based on the ecological characteristics of endangered forest wildlife.

Justice research has evolved by elucidating the factors that affect justice evaluations, as well as their consequences. Unfortunately, few researchers have paid attention to the pattern of rewards over time as a predictor of justice evaluations. There are two main objectives of this research. First, it aims to test the effect of reward stability on justice evaluations. Based on justice theory and prospect theory, we assume that an under-reward at one time cannot be fully offset by an equivalent over-reward at another time. Therefore, in unstable reward systems the asymmetry of the effect of unjust rewards with opposite directions will produce a lower level of justice evaluations over time. The second objective of this research is to show the moderating effect of the presentation order (primacy vs. recency) of unstable rewards on justice evaluations. The results from a controlled experiment with five conditions, which presents the instability of rewards in different orders, confirm both the negative effect of unstable rewards and the stronger effect of primacy on justice evaluations.