• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.257-262
• /
• 2012

This study was conducted to verify the performance of the solar water circulation apparatus that was installed in a semi-closed sea area of Tongyeong to improve the water quality through removing thermocline and oxygen depleted water mass, and to prevent the occurrence of red tides caused by eutrophication. From 8 weeks of experiments, we found that the thermocline in the semi-closed sea area has been removed gradually after installation of the apparatus. The initial temperature of surface and bottom was $27.9^{\circ}C$ and $23.8^{\circ}C$, respectively and it was changed to $22.1^{\circ}C$ in both depth. In case of DO concentration, there was a big gap between surface (5.49 mg/L) and bottom (2.61 mg/L) and was an oxygen depleted water mass in the bottom area at initial. However DO concentration in bottom layer has increased gradually after operation (6.19 mg/L) and the oxygen depleted water mass has removed. Due to the effects of seasonal variation and the operation of the solar water circulation apparatus for 8 weeks, COD concentration decreased from 5.61 mg/L to 2.36 mg/L in surface area, and from 6.08 mg/L to 1.73 mg/L in bottom area. Dissolved inorganic nitrogen concentration also decreased from 0.135 mg/L to 0.050 mg/L in surface area, and from 0.076 mg/L to 0.051 mg/L in bottom area. This research was conducted from July to September, and it might be possible that the variation of water quality was affected by both seasonal variation and the operation of the water circulation apparatus. Hence a further research is required to verify the performance of the water circulation apparatus itself and to monitor dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphorous concentrations as well as Chl-a.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.23 no.6
• /
• pp.1049-1060
• /
• 2014

We investigated the spatiotemporal variations of dissolved inorganic nutrients along a saline gradient to estimate nutrient fluxes in the Seomjin River estuary during dry (March 2005, March 2006, March 2007, and March 2008) and rainy seasons (August 2005, July 2006, July 2007, and July 2008). Dissolved inorganic nitrogen concentrations were similar in the endmembers of freshwater for the rainy and dry seasons. In contrast, the concentrations of dissolved inorganic phosphate and silicate in the rainy season were approximately 2-3 times higher than those in the dry season. River discharge was approximately 10 times higher in the rainy season ($212m^3sec^{-1}$) than in the dry season ($21m^3sec^{-1}$). The fluxes of dissolved inorganic nitrogen, phosphate, and silicate were 2.91, 0.004, and 2.51 tons $day^{-1}$ in the dry season and 7.45, 0.421, and 30.5 tons $day^{-1}$ in the rainy season, respectively. Although the range of nutrient concentrations were similar to previous results from investigations in the Seomjin River estuary, the nutrient fluxes were differed according to river discharge for different survey periods.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.313-331
• /
• 2022

Natural or native abiotic molecular hydrogen (H₂) is a major component in natural gas, however yet its importance in the global energy sector's usage as clean and renewable energy is underestimated. Here we review the occurrence and geological settings of native hydrogen to demonstrate the much widesprease H₂ occurrence in nature by comparison with previous estimations. Three main types of source rocks have been identified: (1) ultramafic rocks; (2) cratons comprising iron (Fe²⁺)-rich rocks; and (3) uranium-rich rocks. The rocks are closely associated with Precambrian crystalline basement and serpentinized ultramafic rocks from ophiolite and peridotite either at mid-ocean ridges or within continental margin(Zgonnik, 2020). Inorganic geological processes producing H₂ in the source rocks include (a) the reduction of water during the oxidation of Fe²⁺ in minerals (e.g., olivine), (b) water splitting due to radioactive decay, (c) degassing of magma at low pressure, and (d) the reaction of water with surface radicals during mechanical breaking (e.g., fault) of silicate rocks. Native hydrogen are found as a free gas (51%), fluid inclusions in various rock types (29%), and dissolved gas in underground water (20%) (Zgonnik, 2020). Although research on H₂ has not yet been carried out in Korea, the potential H₂ reservoirs in the Gyeongsang Basin are highly probable based on geological and geochemical characteristics including occurrence of ultramafic rocks, inter-bedded basaltic layers and iron-copper deposits within thick sedimentary basin and igneous activities at an active continental margin during the Permian-Paleogene. The native hydrogen is expected to be clean and renewable energy source in the near future. Therefore it is clear that the origin and exploration of the native hydrogen, not yet been revealed by an integrated studies of rock-fluid interaction studies, are a field of special interest, regardless of the presence of economic native hydrogen reservoirs in Korea.

• 한국해양학회지
• /
• v.30 no.5
• /
• pp.442-457
• /
• 1995

The relationships of environmental factors to the distribution patterns of the three species of ophiuroids, Ophiura kinbergi, O. sarsi and ). sarsi vadicola from Yellow Sea southeast seas and East Sea of Korea were studied to characterize their habitual niches. These three species chosen for study illustrated distinct niche and patterns according to their various preferences mainly for bottom water temperature, bottom water salinity and depth from seven environmental variables which were depth, bottom water temperature and salinity, density, bottom water oxygen content, grain size of the surface sediment, and sediment sorting coefficient. The results of habitat niche study mainly dealing with O. sarsi vadicola suggested that the optimum habitat rages were approximately 6$^{\circ}C$∼10$^{\circ}C$ in bottom temperature and 31%∼33.5% in bottom water salinity which also corresponded with the characteristic ranges of Yellow Sea Bottom Cold Water and higher probabilities of occurrence (more than 70%) were found in depth ranging from 100 to 200 m. In addition, the habitats of O. kinbergi and O. sarsi were compared with that of O. sarsi vadicola. Their ranges of habitat niches were found to have different niches in physical space of bottom water temperature, bottom water salinity and depth. Based on the distribution pattern of O. sarsi vadicola in the Yellow Sea, the ecological barrier which confined the distribution of benthic macro-invertebrates in southern Yellow Sea was determined to be the Yellow Sea Warm Current (approximately 34% < and 18$^{\circ}C$ in December) which occurs between 33$^{\circ}$ and 34$^{\circ}$N of southern Yellow Sea in winter time.

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.36 no.2
• /
• pp.111-119
• /
• 2014

This study examined the spatial and temporal variation of dissolved inorganic radiocarbon in the East Sea. Five vertical profiles of radiocarbon values were obtained from samples collected in 1999 in three basins (Japan Basin, Ulleung Basin, Yamato Basin) of the East Sea. Radiocarbon values decreased from 63- 85‰ at the surface to about -50‰ with increasing depth (up to 2,000 m) and were nearly constant in the layer deeper than 2,000 m in all basins. Radiocarbon values did not show significant basin-to-basin differences in the surface and the bottom layers. In the intermediate layer (200-2,000 m), however, they decreased in the order of Japan Basin > Ulleung Basin > Yamato Basin, which is consistent with the suggested circulation pattern in the intermediate layer of the East Sea. Radiocarbon was found to have decreased at ~2%/year in the surface water of the East Sea. In contrast, in the interior of the East Sea, radiocarbon values have increased with time in all three basins. In the Central Water, the annual increase rate was about 3.3‰, which is faster than the rates in the Deep and Bottom Waters. The radiocarbon in the Deep and Bottom Waters had increased until mid-1990s, after which time it has been almost constant.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.38 no.4 s.114
• /
• pp.461-474
• /
• 2005

Physicochemical parameters, plankton community structure, and sediment were surveyed from 1988 to 2002, at two months interval, in a eutrophic coastal lagoon (Lake Songji, Korea). The lake basin is separated from the sea by a narrow sand dune, and a shallow sill divides the lake basin into two sub-basins. The stable stratifications and chemoclines are maintained all through the year at 1-2 m depth. DO was often very low (<1 $mgO_2\;{\cdot}\;L^{-1}$) in the monimolimnion. Secchi disc transparency was in the range of 0.5-2.7 m. TP, TN, and Chl. a concentration in the mixolimnion were 0.015-0.396 $mgP\;{\cdot}\;L^{-1}$), 0.223-3.521 $mgN\;{\cdot}\;L^{-1}$, and 0.5-129.8 mg ${\cdot}\;m^{-3}$, respectively. TSI was in the eutrophic range of 54 to 62. Sediment was composed of silt and coarse silt. COD, TP, and TN content of the sediment were 51.4-116.9 $mgO_2\;{\cdot}\;gdw^{-1}$, 0.04-1.46 $mgP\;{\cdot}\;gdw^{-1}$ and, 0.12-1.03 $mgN\;{\cdot}\;gdw^{-1}$, respectively. The 49 phytoplankton species were identified. The maximum phytoplankton abundance obscured the lake in September 2001 (max. density: 23,350 cells ${\cdot}\;mL^{-1}$. The Chlorophyte Schroederia judayi was dominant species in summer (max. density: 20,417 cells ${\cdot}\;mL^{-1}$). The lake showed unique limnological features of a brackish lagoon in respect to biological community, chemical characteristics, and physical phenomena.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.53-68
• /
• 1997

Lake Shihwa, artificially constructed since 1988, shows a typical two-layered system depending on strong haline density stratification. Sill of the water gate at 6 m depth greatly restricts physical mixing with outer seawater and circulation in the lake, and contributes to the enhancement of anoxic environment in the deeper layer. With this enclosed physical environment, Lake Shihwa receives enormous amounts of organics, ammonia, and other pollutants from the neighboring municipal and industrial complexes through six major streams, thus developing biogeochemical differentiation of anoxic to suboxic environment in the high saline bottom water and highly eutrophicated brackish surface water. This study investigated vertical structures, biogeochemical behaviors and processes of various organic and inorganic compounds around oxic-anoxic interface. Nitrite and nitrate rapidly decreased below the pycnocline where about $1{\times}10^8$ tons of hypoxic bottom water exist. In this bottom layer, ammonium ranged from 75 to 360 ${\mu}M$ mainly resulting from deamination of dissolved organic nitrogen and ammonification of precipitated organic particles. Despite large amounts of surface water discharge and dilution by outer seawater inflow about $3{\times}10^8$ tons from April to August, 1996, bottom layer did not show any improvement of water quality and maintained highly reduced environment. The main reason seems to be imbalance between ineffectiveness of dilution due to shallow depth and large surface area, overloaded POC influx from the eutrophicated surface biological activity, and poor replenishment of oxygen in this artificial lake system. Therefore, as long as current salinity dependent two-layered system maintains with its physical limitations, any improvement of water quality cannot be foreseen in Lake Shihwa.

• Journal of Marine Life Science
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.25-33
• /
• 2020

The Asan Bay, which has semi-diurnal tide with macro-tidal range, is affected by both freshwater discharge from the sluice gates in the sea dikes and tidal seawater inputs from the Yellow sea. Understanding water quality change in response to tides is important since tides can impact the short-term variations in physical and chemical water properties as well as the response of biological properties. The diel variations in water quality were seasonally investigated at 2 hour intervals from a fixed station in the Asan Bay. In the results, water temperature and salinity consistently fluctuated in phase or out of phase with tidal height. Especially salinity was positively correlated with tidal height. The concentrations of total suspended solids were higher in the bottom water than in the surface and fluctuated greatly over the tidal cycle recording higher values at low tide than at high tide. Nitrite+nitrate levels also fluctuated out of phase with tidal height and correlated negatively with tidal height. Other nutrients also showed a similar pattern. The pattern was distinct in July when freshwater was discharged before the field sampling. The concentrations of organic materials, total nitrogen and total phosphorus greatly fluctuated over the tidal cycle and were generally out of phase with tidal height. Most materials except particulate organic forms were correlated with salinity indicating that freshwater inputs were sources for the materials similarly to the dissolved inorganic nutrients. The results suggest that water quality (except dissolved oxygen and pH) and nutrients including organic materials was largely affected by tides in the Asan Bay.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.35 no.5
• /
• pp.469-475
• /
• 2002

The rotating biological contactor (RBC) was tested for treatment of aquacultural water in a pilot-scale recirculating aquaculture system. Performance of RBC on the treatment of nitrogen source such as total ammonia nitrogen (TAN), nitrite nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen and chemical oxygen demand (CODcr.) was evaluated. A system was stocked with nile tilapia at an initial rearing densities of $5\%$ and $7\%$ over 30 days. As increasing rearing density from $5\%$ to $7\%$, the TAN removal rates was increased from $39.4 g/m^3{\cdot}day$ to $86.0 g/m^3{\cdot}day$. But TAN removal efficiency was decreased from $24.5\%$ to $16.0\%$. The removal rate of $COD_Cr$ was higher than TAN. The RBC as an aerator was also evaluated for increasing dissolved oxygen concentration. For $5\%$ and $7\%$ of rearing density, the average aeration rate were $280 g/m^3{\cdot}day$ and $255 g/m^3{\cdot}day$, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.1-11
• /
• 2010

In order to understand the biological environmental characteristics with temporal variations of the physico-chemical factors in 2012 Yeosu Expo site of Korea, we investigated at one station, once per week, from April 2006 to December 2007. The surface water temperature ranged from 6.8 to $27.8^{\circ}C$ and the bottom water temperature ranged from 6.3 to 25.9 $25.9^{\circ}C$. The salinity varied from 12.8 to 33.0 psu in the surface water and from 25.2 to 33.6 psu in the bottom water. A strong halocline was observed between the surface and bottom layers in the summer when a rapid decrease of salinity coincided with heavy rainfall. The DIN concentration ranged from 1.36 to $82.7{\mu}M$ in the surface water and from 0.82 to $25.2{\mu}M$ in the bottom water. Phosphate concentration varied from 0.06 to $2.13{\mu}M$ in the surface water and from 0.07 to $1.38{\mu}M$ in the bottom water. Silicate was $1.68-52.0{\mu}M$ in the surface water and $1.37-30.7{\mu}M$ in the bottom water. The nutrient concentrations were generally high during heavy rainfalls and low water temperature periods, and considerably decreased in spring and autumn. The N/P ratio ranged from 4.43 to 325 in the surface water and from 3.8 to 321 in the bottom water. It increased rapidly during the heavy rainfall season and remained at a value of approximately 16 in other periods. The chlorophyll a concentration ranged from 0.46 to $65.0{\mu}g$ $L^{-1}$ in the surface water and from 0.71 to $15.0{\mu}g$ $L^{-1}$ in the bottom water. $Chl-{\alpha}$ concentration remained low in periods of low water temperature, however rapidly increased in periods of high water temperature. From the results of principal component analysis (PCA) and multiple regression analysis (MRA), we conclude that temporal variations of physico-chemical and biological factors were greatly affected by the influx of fresh water, and that nutrients were well controlled by their uptake and assimilation by phytoplankton. Also, during the low water temperature periods, environmental structure in this study site was affected by recycled nutrients through nutrient cycling and mineralization.