• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.291-303
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• 2020

Marine organism-derived toxins have negative effects not only on human health but also in aquaculture, fisheries, and marine ecosystems. However, traditional analytical methods are insufficient in preventing this threat. In this paper, we reviewed new rapid methods of toxin detection, which have been improved by adopting diverse types of nanomaterials and technologies. Moreover, we herein describe the main strategies for toxin detection and their related sensing performance. Notably, to popularize and commercialize these newly developed technologies, simplifying the process of pre-treating real samples real samples is very important. As part of these efforts, numerous studies have reported pretreatment methods based on the antibody-immobilized magnetic nanoparticles, and some cases have applied nanoparticles to enhance the sensing performance by utilizing the intrinsic catalytic activity. Furthermore, some reports have introduced fluorescent nanoparticles, such as quantum dots, to represent the lower detection limits of conventional enzyme-based colorimetric methods and lateral flow assays. Some studies using electrochemical measurements based on aptamer-nanoparticle complexes have also been announced. In addition, as the response to new toxins generated by changes in the marine environment is still lacking, further research on diagnostic and detection is also greatly needed for these kinds of marine toxins and their derivatives.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.690-698
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• 2017

Vietnam is a marine nation with more than 3,444 km of shorelines, thousands of islands, and 2,360 rivers and canals of over 42,000 km long. As the frequency and the volume of oil transportation by ships increase, the possibility of oil spill incidents becomes higher than ever. Fuel oil and cargo oil spills at sea have widespread impact and long-term consequences on marine ecosystems, coastal resources and human health as well as socio-economy. This study is to show not only the present state of marine oil spills in Vietnam such as the number and the volume of oil spills for two decades, and an overall about Vietnamese national response system like national framework for Oil Spill Response (OSR), etc. but also to present the recommendations for enhancing national capability in response to oil spill incidents in Vietnam, especially, with a comparison of national OSR systems between Vietnam and South Korea. As the result, the number and the volume of marine oil spills in Vietnam showed an upward trend as opposed to a downward trend in South Korea. This means that Vietnam has the possibility of oil spills in coastal waters. Therefore, three main recommendations for the enhancement of national OSR capability in Vietnam are proposed as follows: (1) the development of alternative plan for reenforcing national OSR system involving legal system for preparedness and response to oil spill pollution such as the acceptance and implementation of OPRC Convention as well as the establishment of national fund compensating for the damage and loss caused by oil pollution; (2) the enhancement of a consistent reporting, alerting and monitoring system; and (3) the development of training and exercise programs with standard contents of educational courses.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.85-92
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to provide base information that can be utilized in surveying the status of landscape management within apartment complexes and grasping the conditions of the soil for planting plants, as a way to improve the quality of green spaces by repairing poorly vegetated spaces within apartment complexes and remodeling them with diverse species of plants. Considering that trees and shrubs of equal sizes are simultaneously planted upon the completion of apartment complexes, they were divided based on their completion year at the interval of 5 years and differences in the growth of trees and the components of soil over time were analyzed. Out of the species of trees planted in all the 9 apartment complexes surveyed in this study, the growth of 4 species of needleleaf trees and 4 species of broadleaf trees were surveyed. Juniperus chinensis 'Kaizuka' and Pinus densiflora Siebold & Zucc. out of the needleleaf trees and Malus floribunda Siebold ex Van Houtte out of the broadleaf trees showed the highest growth rate when over 5 years passed after planting and their growth rate decreased when over 10 years passed. Platycladus orientalis and Acer palmatum Thunb. in the apartment complexes that were built over 10 years ago showed the highest growth rate, which indicates that the species require a relatively long period of time for growth. The hardness of the soil at the areas where trees were planted but their soil surface was bare was analyzed. When over 5 years passed after the completion of apartment complexes, over 20 mm of the soil was found to be stamped. The physicochemical properties of soil were also surveyed and the pH level was found to have been continuously high ever since the completion. The organic content in the surveyed soil was about 1/3 of the content in fertile soil, which means that additional fertilization is required. These results indicate that the stamped soil and the health of soil can be restored, when replanting plants in bare areas, by adding plans to improve soil, such as designing drain ways around the planted areas, transporting soil for the 50 cm depth of the ground and mixing organic matters such as chaff, and simply by planting groundcover plants in the lower part of tress and shrubs.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.391-400
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• 2015

In order to investigate the distribution and species composition of fish in shallow wetlands that might be affected by environmental factors, we investigated the physicochemical parameters, macrophytes biomass, and fish assemblage in 24 shallow wetlands in South Korea from May to June, 2012. In this study, a total of 20 fish species were identified, and Cypinidae were found to be the most dominant species. Physicochemical parameters and macrophyte biomass were different in the survey sites, and macrophytes biomass, in particular, showed a positive relationship with fish abundance in stepwise multiple regression (df=1, F=32.00, P=0.001). According to the result of the cluster analysis between survey sites, the survey sites were divided into three groups in accordance with species composition of fish in relation to macrophytes biomass. In the wetlands of the first group, Lepomis macrochirus which belongs to Centrarchidae was found to be dominant and other fish assemblages were hardly seen. In the second group, unlike the first group, Carassius auratus that belongs to Cypinidae was found to be dominant. In the third group, Lepomis macrochirus was found to be as dominant as the first group but various other fish species appeared. Where there was abundance of the main food sources (i. e. zooplankton) of fish in the survey sites, there were more diverse macrophyte biomass. Consequently, it is proven that macrophytes strongly affect the species composition and abundance of fish, and high biomass of macrophytes support high assemblage of fish. Based on these results, we recommend establishing diverse aquatic macrophytes communities when restoring or creating wetlands to assure high diversity of fish species that use macrophytes as their habitat.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.77-82
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• 2022

This study aims to understand how mobile and stationary air pollution sources affect the air quality and soil properties in urban parks. We selected three sites of urban parks in Seoul as follows: Ha-neul Park in Mapo-gu (Site_M), Ill-won Eco-Park in Gangnam-gu (Site_G), and Yangjae Citizen's Forest in Seocho-gu (Site_Y), and compared the results of each site's traffic volume, air quality concentration, and soil analysis. Traffic volume was high in Site_M, followed by Site_G and Y; Site_M and G were closer to the resource recovery facility than Site_Y. Hence, we hypothesized that PM and NO₂ concentrations in the atmosphere were higher in Site_M than Site_G and Y, causing different soil nitrogen content among sites due to different atmospheric deposition. Consistent with our hypothesis, the concentrations of PM2.5 and NO₂ were higher in Site_M and G than Site_Y, while Site_Y had higher PM10 than other sites. The soil NO₃^- contents showed no significant difference among three sites, whereas the soil NH₄+ content was extremely high in Site_Y. This high content of soil NH₄⁺ is thought to be due to acidification from excessive fertilization. Lower soil pH of Site_Y further supported the evidence of heavy fertilization in this site. Overall nitrogen dynamics implies that soil nitrogen status is more influenced by park management such as fertilization rather than atmospheric deposition. Despite of lower soil NH₄⁺ content of Site_M and G than Y, vegetation vitality looked similar among three sites. This indirectly indicates that excessive fertilizer input in urban park management needs to be reconsidered. This study showed that even if the air quality was different due to mobile and stationary sources, it did not directly affect the soil nitrogen nutrient status of the adjacent urban park.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.39 no.1 s.115
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• pp.110-118
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• 2006

The Namyang Stream in Hwaong polder was planned for several water uses including recreation, where people can contact the water and consume some amount during the recreational activity. A human health risk was assessed from exposure to E. coli in the Namyang Stream, which receives partially treated wastewater from watershed. The QUAL2E model was applied to simulate stream water quality, and this model was calibrated and verified with field monitoring data. The calibration result showed a high correlation coefficient of greater than 0.9. The mean concentration of E. coli in the Namyang Stream from the QUAL2E output was in the range of 5,000 ${\sim}$ 8,000 MPN 100 mL^{-1}$, which exceeded national and international guidelines. The Beta-Poisson was used to estimate the microbial risk of pathogens ingestion and the Monte-Carlo analysis (10,000 trials) was used to estimate the risk characterization of uncertainty. The Microbial risk assessment showed that the risk ranged from 7.9 ${\times}\;10^{-6}\;to\;9.4\;{\times}10^{-6}$. Based on USEPA guidelines, the range of $10^{-6}\;to\;10^{-8}$ was considered reasonable levels of risk for communicable disease transmission from environmental exposure, and the risk above $10^{-4}$ was considered to be in the danger of infection. Therefore, water quality of the Namyang Stream might not be in the danger of infection although it exceeded national and international guidelines. However, it was in the range of communicable disease transmission, and thorough wastewater collection and treatment at the source is recommended to secure safe recreation water quality.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.694-704
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• 2016

Various infectious and parasitic diseases are known to be the main factors that cause decline in the global amphibian population. In Korea, commercial frog farms have been running since 2005. However, until now, studies on diseases including studies on parasitic diseases that occur in farm frogs have not been conducted. In this study, we studied and compared the acanthocephalan infection rates and the number of parasites in the body cavity, stomach, and small and large intestines of the Dybowskii's brown frogs collected from inside and outside the frog farms in Inje, Goesan, Gongju and Boryeong. In addition, we classified the acanthocephalan parasites into genera by analyzing their nuclear 18S rRNA genes. On an average, 51.7% of the investigated frogs were infected by acanthocephalans, which belong to the Centrorhynchus genus. The infection rate of the frogs collected in the Inje farm was 15%, significantly lower than those from the Goesan, Gongju and Boryeong farms. The rate in Goesan was 55%, which is lower than Gongju (80%) and Boryeong (90%) although it is not statistically significant. No difference was found in the infection rate and in the number of parasites in male and female frogs and between the groups collected from inside and outside of the farms. The number of infected parasites negatively correlated with the body condition of the frogs. The most parasites were found in the stomach followed by the small and large intestines and the body cavity. This study is the first report on the Centrorhynchus acanthocephalan infection of amphibians in Korea and it suggests the necessity for acanthocephalan parasite management and for conducting further disease-related studies in commercial frog farms.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.156-161
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• 2020

Since industrialization, the production and utilization of various chemicals has contributed to improving the quality of our lives, but the subsequent discharge of massive waste is inevitable, and environmental pollution is becoming more serious every day. Exposure to chemicals as a result of environmental pollution is having a negative effect on human health and the ecosystem, and cleaning up the polluted environment that can affect our lives is a very important issue. Toxic aromatic compounds have been detected frequently in soil, groundwater, and wastewater because of the extensive use of oil products, and phenol, which is used to produce synthetic resins, textiles, and dyes, is one of the major pollutants, along with insecticides and preservatives. Phenol can cause dyspnea, headache, vomiting, mutation, and carcinogenesis. Phenol-degrading bacterium DWB-1-8 was isolated from the activated sludge of textile wastewater; this strain was identified as Comamonas testosteroni by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The optimal culture conditions for the cell growth and degradation of phenol were 0.7% K₂HPO₄, 0.6% NaH₂PO₄, 0.1% NH₄NO₃, 0.015% MgSO₄·7H₂O, 0.001% FeSO₄·7H₂O, an initial pH of 7, and a temperature of 30℃. The strain was also able to grow by using other toxic compounds, such as benzene, toluene, or xylene (BTX), as the sole source of carbon.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.59-70
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to present raw data to systematically and rationally manage the protected trees located in Changwon-si, Korea. This study investigated about the present condition and the information of location, individual, management, health and soil. The results are as follows. The protected trees were located in 26 spots, and species of trees were 9 taxa; Zelkova serrata, Celtis sinensis, Aphananthe aspera, Ginkgo biloba, Carpinus tschonoskii, Pinus densiflora for. multicaulis, Quercus variabilis, Pinus densiflora and Salix glandulosa. In protected tree types, shade trees were the most, and the majority of theirs were 200 years or more in age. The range of altitude was 14~173m, and the number of trees located in flat fields was the most. For location types, village and field and mountain were presented in the order and, in land use, land for building was the most. The range of height was 8.0~30.0m, 0.6~5.1m in crown height, 240~700cm in diameter of breast and 210~800cm in diameter of root. In case of crown area, Zelkova serrata of No.5 was most large. The status boards were mostly installed except No.23 and No.26. The sites with fence were 9 spots, and the site with stonework were 14 spots. The sites with the support beam were 5 spots, and most sites were not covered up with soil. The materials of bottom were soil, gravel and vegetation in the order. The range of withering branch rate was 0~40%, and peeled bark rate was 0~60%. The sites made holes were 23 spots, and the hole size of Aphananthe aspera of No.12 was the largest. The sites disturbed by human trampling were 7 spots, the sites by disease and insects of 2 spots, the sites by injury of 23 spots and the sites by exposed roots of 13 spots. In the results of soil analysis, there showed that acidity was pH 4.5~8.0, organic matter content of 3.5~69.8g/kg, electrical conductivity(EC) of 0.11~2.87dS/m, available $P_2O_5$ of 3.0~490.6mg/kg, exchangeable K of 0.10~1.05cmol+/kg, exchangeable Ca of 1.41~16.45cmol+/kg, exchangeable Mg of 0.37~1.96cmol+/kg, exchangeable Na of 0.25~2.41cmol+/kg and cation exchange capacity(C.E.C) of 8.35~26.55cmol+/kg.