• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.241-249
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• 2009

Heavy metal contaminants on the aquatic environment are of interest because they can have severe effects on economy and public health. Recently, the studies for monitoring of heavy metals try to do on aquatic system to assess safety and health of ecosystem by heavy metals. Thus, biological responses were investigated on Korean fairy shrimp Branchinella kugenumaensis exposed to cadmium (Cd) or copper (Cu) for long-periods (30 days). The survival rate decreased significantly (p<0.05) on B. kugenumaensis exposed to Cd and Cu at all concentrations. Especially, the highest decrease was observed at the relatively high concentration of Cd and Cu (p<0.01) and the response by Cd exposure was at dose-dependent. The growth rates were also decreased significantly (p<0.05) on B. kugenumaensis exposed to Cd and Cu for at all concentrations. Then, the reproduction rate, numbering cyst, was decreased significantly (p<0.01) on B. kugenumaensis after Cd or Cu exposures. Long exposure of the relatively high concentration Cd and Cu can have severe effects on the reproduction, while exposures of Cd and Cu can not have effects on sex ratios of B. kugenumaensis. Additionally, asymmetric telson deformity was only observed after Cd exposure. Therefore, these results suggest that B. kugenumaensis is a sensitive bio-indicator of heavy metal exposure and these biological responses of B. kugenumaensis give important information for long-term monitoring on aquatic ecosystem.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.255-264
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• 2020

The use of fishway has been investigated up to 2~9 years, continuously each month and over the long term that installed in 6 domestic rivers. The fish's use of fishway has been investigated as direct collection by trap in exit section of the fishway. The population structure of fish using 6 fishway and the fish that live in the river showed difference. About 2 to 7 species of fish took possession of more than 80% of total use of fish in fishways. This seems to be not the results of attraction flow in fishway but specialized result of physiology characteristic followed by species of fish. In addition, the distribution of fish species using fishway was different with the fishways installed in river. This difference seems to be consequence of the place that of the river and fishway types. Generally, the fish species were less and had high ratio of home migratory fish in vertical slot type fishway, which shows relatively fast velocity of water flow. This analysis result of major fish species using fishway can be used in planning fishway and to choose major targeted species for the planning.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.757-767
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• 2006

Biological assessments are the primary tool for evaluating the biological condition of a water body and makes it possible to understand accumulative and long-term effect of stressors. They also provide reliable biological information for which disturbed systems are to be restored. Sustainable water environment is not enough with attaining only the clean water, but it should sustain healthy and diverse aquatic life. Aquatic organisms are affected by various factors, including not only water quality but also habitat condition and stressors, and thus good condition of both physical and chemical water quality is prerequisite for sustaining healthy organisms. Therefore, biological assessment, along with other physical and chemical assessments, are crucial for evaluating the health of a water body. Overall, sustainability of water environment demands the attainment and maintenance of ecological integrity, which is resulted from the combination of physical, chemical and biological integrity. The biological criteria will play very important role in the water resource management and policy issues, and thus bioassessment program should be fully implemented and supported eventually by the law. To keep ecosystem health of water environment safely from the toxic pollutants and other stressors, the following suggestions need to be considered in environmental quality standards in Korea. For the first step, the biological indicators need to be introduced in evaluating river quality condition; they provide a qualitative description of biological condition of water body. Secondly, the biological water quality standards using biotic indices should be developed and implemented under the consideration of characteristics of Korean river systems. Lastly, the ecological status classification regime (ESCR) should be developed and introduced; it could be used in quality assessment of the water environment in general. In developing ESCR, integration of physico-chemical, biological, and habitat parameters should be taken into account.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.136-142
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• 2019

Water spider(Argyroneta aquatica) inhabits only a small size wetland in Eundae-ri, Yeoncheon-gun. In this study to investigate environmental factors influencing on population of A. aquatica, we analyzed the relationship between density of A. aquatica and various physicochemical and biological factors. Density of A. aquatica increased with small habitat area and high $NH_4$ and electric conductivity. The relationship between density of A. aquatica and prey or predator was low but the water spider decreased with density of Pomacea canaliculata. And density of A. aquatica was not related to the coverage of emergent plant. However density of A. aquatica decreased as the increase of floating plant and increased as the increase of submerged plant. These results indicated that aquatic plants are important in the habitat environment of A. aquatica. Therefore we suggest necessity of management strategies for the invasive species, P. canaliculata which is a notorious predator of aquatic plants.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.441-452
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• 2020

The assessment of the river environment is widely applied as a method to establish the purpose and direction of river rehabilitation projects. This includes surveying and assessing the current state of the river environment and determining whether a previous river project was properly executed. The city of Seoul executed ecological river rehabilitation activities for the tributaries of the Han River from the 2000s following a masterplan to recover the physical shape and ecological functionality of damaged rivers. After the rehabilitation activities, the river environment had been changed substantially. In this study, physical properties, water quality properties, and ecological properties were assessed for 28 tributaries underthe control of the city of Seoul, and then those 3 properties were synthetically reassessed. From the result of the study on the physical properties, it was found that mostrivers had II-III grades. As for water quality properties, rivers had III-IV grades. The damaged rivers showed low grades of D-E based on the Aquatic Ecosystem Health evaluation. Accordingly, we concluded that all rivers of Seoul City have an unhealthy environment in terms of water quality and Aquatic Ecosystem Health, therefore it is regarded that long-term and systematic improvements are required.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.207-217
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• 2021

Using the data from the national survey of fish, we determined the population size and the distribution of Micropterus salmoides, which is a translocated species into the aquatic ecosystem of Korea. . The spatial concentration of this species was determined by performing an optimized hot spot analysis. After determining potential invasiveness and risk assessment, we measured the disturbance of biodiversity in the aquatic ecosystem. The result of distribution analysis indicates that the population of M. salmoides was concentrated in the major basins of Han river, Geum river, Nakdong river, and Yeongsan-Seomjin river, including the Jeju island. In particular, Nakdong river basin showed the highest appearance rate. On the contrary, Yeongsan-Seomjin river basin showed the lowest appearance rate. The Nakdong river and the Nakdong river basin were the areas with the high spatial concentration of M. salmoides. On the other hand, only Han river basin and Geum river basin had the lowest spatial concentration. The fish invasiveness screening kit(FISK) was used to assess M. salmoides, which inhabited a broad region of aquatic ecosystem: the assessment score was 31.0, indicating its 'highly invasive' nature. Our study aims to encourage research that improves the biodiversity and the conservation of M. salmoides in a priority area.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.313-319
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• 2012

Various nanomaterials may flow into the aquatic ecosystem via production, use, and treatment processes. Especially, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were categorized as manufactured nanomaterials presented by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (OECD WPMN) in 2010. AuNPs have been used in medical area, however, they were reported to induce cytotoxicity and oxidative DNA damage, as well as down-regulation of the DNA repair gene in mice and human cell lines. In this study, the aquatic toxicity data of AuNPs and gold ions were collected, with the specific test methods analyzed with respect to the form and size of AuNPs, test species, exposure duration, and endpoints. Currently, aquatic toxicity data of AuNPs and gold ions have been presented in 14 studies including 4 fish, 6 crustacean, 2 green algae, and 2 macrophytes studies, as well as a further 8 studies including 4 fish, 4 crustacean, 1 platyhelminthes, and 1 green algae, respectively. The AuNPs were 0.8-100 nm in size, as gold nanoparticles, gold nanorod, glycodendrimer-coated gold nanoparticles, and amine-coated gold nanoparticles. The tested endpoints were the individual toxicities, such as mortality, malformation, reproduction inhibition, growth inhibition and genetic toxicity such as oxidative stress, gene expression, and reactive oxygen species formation. The accumulation of AuNPs was also confirmed in the various receptor organs. These results are expected to be useful in understanding the aquatic toxicity of AuNPs and gold ions, as well as being applicable to future toxicity studies on AuNPs.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.96-104
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• 2018

Stable isotope approach for aquatic ecology and environmental sciences has been introduced as very useful technique since 1980s and also has been applied to investigate various issues in aquatic ecology and environmental study last 10 years in Korea. Especially carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios have been mainly used to understand food web energy flow and ecosystem structure. In addition, nitrogen isotope ratio has been applied for nitrogen cycle and source identification as well as biomagnification studies. However, large temporal or spatial variations of nitrogen isotope ratio of primary producer have been found in many aquatic environments, and it is regarded as the critical problems to determine trophic level of aquatic animals. Recently, the compound specific isotope analysis of nitrogen within individual amino acids has been developed as an alternative method for trophic ecology. This article introduces the progress history of stable isotope application in aquatic ecology and environmental sciences, and also suggests new direction based on future prospects in stable isotope ecology and environmental study.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2011

Amphibian population declines globally. Aquatic contamination by organic pollutants including endocrine disrupters has been suspected to the one of the reason for distinction of amphibia which has obligate aquatic life style during larval period. Amphibians have been widely accepted as animal model for the study of endocrine disruption in aquatic ecosystem at molecular as well as individual levels. There are increasing need for toxicological data in amphibians at multiple endpoints for management of contamination and development of safety guideline for important EDs in aquatic media. Alkylphenols have been widely used in agricultural, industrial, and housekeeping activities, contaminating the aquatic media and evoking endocrine disruption in aquatic animals. In this review, we summarized data concerning the endocrine disruption by alkylphenol organic pollutants on amphibians according to route, concentration, terms, and developmental stage of exposure together with mechanism of endocrine disruption.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.309-314
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• 2023

Shark populations are constantly decreasing owing to environmental destruction and overfishing; thus, sharks are now at risk of extinction, with 30.5% of species classified as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List. Sharks are apex predators and keystone species in balancing the marine food chain; their extinction would create an imbalance in the entire marine ecosystem. Assisted reproductive technology is a last resort for protecting animals facing extinction. Here, as a proactive effort toward building a hormone-induced artificial insemination protocol for endangered wild sharks, we identified the possibility of germ cell maturation by administration of GnRH, a commercially produced synthetic salmon gonadotropin-releasing hormone, and calculated its optimum dosage and injection timing. The experiment was conducted on one shark species, Chiloscyllium plagiosum. Injections were administered in 24 h intervals to C. plagiosum females, and 0.2 mL/kg+0.2 mL/kg were the optimal doses. These doses effectively induced maturation and, and ovulation, and oocyte release. Our results confirm that GnRH is a suitable tool for shark hormone-induced artificial insemination and indicate that this method may facilitate the conservation of endangered shark species.