• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.579-603
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• 2020

In order to provide fundamental information about the floristic composition of the area along with an assessment of the environmental impact, a floristic study of the vascular plants in the Tamjin River estuary in Gangjin-gun was conducted for a total of nine days, in the period from June 2014 to September 2014. We found that the vascular plants in this region comprised 424 taxa belong to 102 families, 281 genera, 390 species, 5 subspecies, 26 varieties, and 3 forma. Five taxa of Korean endemic plants including Weigela subsessilis (Nakai) L.H.Bailey, Lespedeza maximowiczii var. tricolor (Nakai) Nakai, and Clematis trichotoma Nakai were collected. Two least concern (LC) taxa of rare plants (as designated by the Korea Forest Service) were collected: Hydrocharis dubia (Blume) Backer and Platycladus orientalis (L.) Franco. Ten the floristic regional indicator taxa from the third to the fifth grade were identified: two taxa belonged to grade IV, and eight taxa belonged to grade III. Twenty-four taxa of salt-tolerant plants, including Artemisia fukudo Makino, Carex rugulosa Kuk., and Suaeda glauca (Bunge) Bunge, as well as 44 taxa of aquatic plants, including Najas marina L., Nuphar oguraensis Miki, and Nymphoides indica (L.) Kuntze, were investigated in this region. Fifty-nine taxa of naturalized plants were recorded, among which the following six taxa were plants that caused ecosystem disturbance: Ambrosia artemisiifolia L., Humulus scandens (Lour.) Merr., Lactuca scariola L., Rumex acetosella L., Solidago altissima L., and Symphyotrichum pilosum (Willd.) G.L.Nesom.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.34-41
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• 2012

The variation of dissolved oxygen (DO) was monitored with high frequency by an automatic data-logging sensor in a eutrophic urban stream (the Anyang Stream) located in a metropolitan area of Seoul, South Korea. In general, DO showed the diel variation of increase in daytime and decrease at night, implying that primary production is a major mechanism of oxygen supply in this ecosystem. The fluctuation of oxygen was determined by rainfall. DO depletion was most obvious after a rainfall resulting in an anoxic condition for a day, which is thought to be caused by scouring of periphyton and organic ooze at the stream bottom. Seasonally DO was higher in winter and frequently depleted in warm seasons. DO depletion was often at a dangerous level for fish survival. Fish survey showed that little fish was living at the study site and oxygen depletion may be the major stress factor for aquatic animals. From the results it can be suggested that a high frequency monitoring of oxygen should be established for the proper assessment of aquatic habitats and better management strategy.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.796-804
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• 2006

The objective of this research was to develop ecological multi-metric models using natural fish assemblages for a diagnosis of current stream health condition, and apply the model to nationwide lotic ecosystems of the Geum River, the Youngsan River, and the Sumjin River. The ecological stream health model was based on the index of biological integrity (IBI), which was originally developed in North American streams by Karr (1981), and the Rapid Bioassessment Protocol (RBP), which was scientifically established by the US EPA (1999). The metric numbers and metric attributes were partially changed for the regional applications, so the scoring criteria was modified for the assessment. Overall, metric values, based on the IBI calculations, reflected conventional water quality characteristics, based on nutrient regime, and agreed with results of staticeco-toxicity tests. Some stations impaired in terms of stream health were identified by the IBI approach, and also major key stressors affecting the stream health were identified by additional evaluations of physical habitats. Our preliminary results suggested that biological integrity in stream ecosystems was largely disturbed by habitat degradation as well as chemical pollutions. This new approach would be used as a key tool for ecological restorations and species conservations in the degraded aquatic ecosystems in Korea and applied for elucidating major causes of ecological disturbances. Ultimately, this approach provides us an effective management strategy of stream ecosystems through establishments of ecological networks in various watersheds.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.33-44
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• 2019

Due to the recent climate change realization (timing, rainfall pattern changes), the flow regime is changing according to the watershed. The long-term change of flow regime is causing a significant change in structure and function of aquatic ecosystems. However, there is no analysis from the viewpoint of the aquatic ecosystem including flow rate alteration and ecological characteristics as well as the climate change connection in Korea yet. Therefore, We quantitatively assessed the impact of present-future flow regime alteration due to climate change on the Pseudopungtungia nigra habitat in the Mankyung river and floodplain area. As a result, it was confirmed that extreme hydrological conditions such as flood and drought are intensified in the future than the present. Especially, the changes of flow regime characteristics were clarified by comparing and analyzing the magnitude, frequency, duration, rate of change, and by linking flow regime characteristics with physical habitat analysis, it could be suggested that climate change would significantly increase the risk of future ecological changes.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.473-483
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• 2023

This study was conducted to better understand the impact of marine fish farming by estimating mass balances of carbon and nitrogen. According to the results, 94.55% of carbon and 95.66% of nitrogen inputs were from the feed supplied in the farm. Of the total carbon emissions in the farm, 47.28% was due to fish respiration, which was subsequently released into seawater. Advection and diffusion in the farm contributed to 30.29% of the carbon released. In the case of nitrogen, 50.70% of the nitrogen released into the seawater was produced by fish excreta, and 31.37% was advected and diffused into the system. The sedimentary environment received 3.82% and 3.10% of the carbon and nitrogen released from the farm, respectively. The fish feed used for healthy growth contained 11.64% carbon and 9.17% nitrogen. Since the feed type was floating pellets, the load released into the sedimentary environment was relatively lower than that released into the marine environment. These findings suggest that the identification of an optimal fish feed that respects fish physiology and preserves a healthy ecology is critical for the future of aquaculture. Furthermore, ecosystem-based aquaculture systems that decrease environmental burden, while endeavoring to improve environmental health, are required.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.8-18
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• 2015

Pollutants such as heavy metals and explosives originating from the military operational ranges can be migrated to adjacent surface water body or offsite soil, and can affect to local residents and aquatic ecosystem. Therefore, Korea Ministry of the National Defense has established various guidelines for environmental management including the installation of pollutant migration prevention facilities (PMPFs) and monitoring methodologies for heavy metals in the operational range soil and effluent and sediment of PMPFs. However, current guidelines neither address the explosive compounds such as 2, 4, 6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) and hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) nor suggest detailed environmental investigation protocol. This paper introduces the new “Environmental Management Manual for Military Firing Ranges”, which includes the environmental criteria for explosives as well as the detailed investigation protocol for the affected environmental media including soil, effluent and sediment of PMPFs.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.121-121
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• 2010

The water resources of the United States are increasingly at risk and the nation's water policy is in serious difficulty. Water resources protection laws primarily passed since 1950 often contradict water resources development laws passed before 1950. These contradictions complicate efficient and effective responses to the nation's water resources challenges including climate change, our aging infrastructures, changing population dynamics, drought, floods, wetlands and aquatic species loss, ecosystem restoration and many others. In addition, water law and policy determination, management and enforcement are so broadly distributed between, local, state and federal responsibilities that effective responses again are difficult. For example, at the national level alone, more than a dozen federal agencies have water resources responsibilities including resource development, resource assessment, and resource protection. They are presided over by six cabinet (Ministerial) departments, at least 13 congressional (parliamentarian) committees and 23 subcommittees, and are funded by five appropriations subcommittees. Lastly, good science and the public accountability associated with it are often overshadowed by political considerations at local, state and federal levels. The United States approach to solving water resources challenges is ad hoc - we address problems as they appear or as they merit political support rather than using good science to address our long term water resources needs.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.27 no.11
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• pp.1117-1127
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• 2018

This study was carried out to gather basic data for the purpose of proposing a plan to improve the water quality and conserve the aquatic ecosystem of the Singu Agricultural Reservoir in Korea. The water quality, sediment composition, benthic macroinvertebrate distribution, and fish distribution in the Singu Reservoir were analyzed; the reservoir is located close to farmlands, forests, villages, and livestock breeding areas. The results of the water quality analysis are as follows: 5.8~7.8 mg/L for dissolved oxygen, 13.1~20.7 mg/L for chemical oxygen demand, 14.4~18.8 mg/L for suspended solid, 0.96~1.70 mg/L for total nitrogen, 0.07~0.11 mg/L for total phosphorous, and $41.9{\sim}49.8{\mu}g/L$ for $chlorophyll-{\alpha}$. In total, 75 benthic macroinvertebrate specimens belonging to 4 classes, 7 orders, 14 families, and 17 species were recorded. The ecological scores of the benthic macroinvertebrate communities ranged from 11 to 23. Fish specimens recorded belonged to two families and four species. The dominant fish species were Carassius auratus and Pseudorasbora parva, both of which are water-pollutant tolerant species.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.592-610
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• 2020

In South Korea, the concept of water environment was expanded to include aquatic ecosystems with the Integrated Water Management implementation. Watershed-scale modeling is typically performed for hydrologic component analysis, however, there is a need to expand to include ecosystem variability such that the modeling corresponds to the social and political issues around the water environment. For this to be viable, the modeling must account for several distinct features in South Korean watersheds. The modeling must provide reasonable estimations for peak flow rate and apply to paddy areas as they represent 11% of land use area and greatly influence groundwater levels during irrigation. These facts indicate that the modeling time intervals should be sub-daily and the hydrologic model must have sufficient power to process surface flow, subsurface flow, and baseflow. Thus, the features required for watershed-scale modeling are suggested in this study by way of review of frequently used hydrologic models including: Agricultural Policy/Environmental eXtender(APEX), Catchment hydrologic cycle analysis tool(CAT), Hydrological Simulation Program-FORTRAN(HSPF), Spatio-Temporal River-basin Ecohydrology Analysis Model(STREAM), and Soil and Water Assessment Tool(SWAT).

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.181-188
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• 2016

BtPlus is a group of biopesticides that are made of Bacillus thuringiensis and immunosuppressant. A new BtPlus that exhibits high insecticidal activity against mosquito larvae has been investigated in control efficacy in field conditions and its environmental safety against aquatic system. This study assessed the control efficacy of BtPlus against mosquito larvae with two different application methods. In aerial spraying application (100 mL per $3.3m^2$), BtPlus was effective at 50% or above formulation concentrations to control mosquito larvae. For a direct application to aqueous mosquito habitat, a semi-field mimicking paddy rice field was constructed. In this condition, BtPlus showed 80% and 100% control efficacies at 0.1% and 0.2% concentrations, respectively. BtPlus also showed 40% mortality against adults at 0.1% concentration in 10% sugar bait. However, its control efficacies against adults were much less than against larvae. Safety assessment of BtPlus against ecosystem was evaluated using young carp (Cyprinus carpio), a water flea (Daphnia magna), and a honey bee (Apis mellifera). BtPlus did not give any adverse effects on these nontarget organisms. Based on these results, BtPlus can be applied to control mosquitoes by direct aqueous application to paddy rice field.