• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.544-550
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• 2008

This study conducted a survey on the ecosystem of Wonju stream from May until November in 2004 and made an health assessment of Wonju stream using family biotic indices(FBI) and physical habitat assessment(PHA) of the aquatic insects. Through this survey, aquatic insects covering 8 orders, 37 families, 62 genuses, and 92 species were observed at 9 stations along Wonju stream. In terms of family biotic indices, it was confirmed that station 1,2 and 3 were maintaining the healthiest stream ecosystem with the value ranging from 4.55 to 4.82. In addition, station 2 was found to have the best habitat environment in the correlation between physical habitat assessment and family biotic indices with its value of 100 and 4.82, respectively. However, station 7 and 9 showed the lowest habitat environment with the value of 45, 6.17 and 45, 6.97, respectively. posing the need for improvement in PHA; further, station 7 and 9 showed inverted correlationship between PHA and FBI.

• Toxicology and Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.279-282
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• 2017

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) provide numerous beneficial effects on the host body, especially on the intestine. Two LAB strains isolated from Kimchi, Leuconostoc mesenteroides and Lactobacillus sakei, were studied for its anti-inflammatory activity in acidinduced acute colitis in mice. To induce acute colitis in model mice (C57BL/6), 3% of dextran sulfate sodium treatment was treated for 7 days. Assessment of necropsy and histopathology analysis showed that oral supplementation of both L. mesenteroides and L. sakei ameliorated the symptoms of acute colitis. Moreover, the mixture of L. meseneroides and L. sakei showed synergistic effect on colitis. The results suggest that the formulation of L. mesenteroides and L. sakei mixture could be used as an oral supplementation to decrease the inflammatory harmful environment associated with colitis.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.343-352
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• 2015

The landscape setting of a habitat strongly influences the distribution, abundance, and species composition of waterfowl. Thus, habitat assessment is very important to understand the habitat characteristics that sustain waterfowl assemblages. In this study, we hypothesized that the excessive use of artificial materials when new wetlands are constructed negatively influences wintering waterfowl. To test this hypothesis, we measured environmental factors, assessed habitat, and investigated waterfowl at 13 artificial wetlands in the Nakdong River Basin. There were greater numbers of waterfowl species and individuals in artificial wetlands with high habitat assessment scores. In contrast, environmental factors did not affect waterfowl distribution. In particular, features of natural habitats, such as macrophytes and sandbars, and the surrounding land-use patterns were important factors for sustaining waterfowl assemblages in each created wetland. Our results show that promoting naturalness in wetlands and surrounding areas would increase the species diversity and abundance of waterfowl. Further, complex habitats, such as wetlands and some terrestrial habitats, support both aquatic and terrestrial species because mixed habitats feature a larger array of food sources than more limited habitats do.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2010

Discharged materials from the point or non-point source are released into the sea, and as the results, marine environment is directly affected. We must estimate the impacts of contaminants to marine pollution rapidly and accurately. Therefore, it is needed on early warning system for appreciating marine environmental impacts, and required a bioassay to evaluate abnormal changes. A bioassay test was developed to examine the effects of heavy metal contaminants on the early life stages of the marine annimals. We have studied the effects of metals on early development of a sea urchin species, Strongylocentrotus intermedius. S. intermedius embryos were tested with six metals (Cu, Ag, Zn, Cd, Cr, Ni) and showed the highest sensitivity to Cu as well as the lowest sensitivity to Cd. The order of biological impact for metals was Cu>Ag>Ni>Zn>Cr>Cd. In accordance with the results, sea urchins embryos can provide biological criteria for seawater quality assessment. The sensitivity of developmental bioassay whith S. intermedius is at intermediate level among marine organisms commonly used in aquatic bioassays. And this sea urchin can be routinely employed as a test organism for ecotoxicity assays.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.151-160
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• 2009

In order to use fundamental data for conservation of species diversity and stream health with dam development, fish investigation in up- and downstream of Pyeonglim Dam was seasonally conducted in 2007~2008. In addition, data of water qualities, investigated for environmental impact assessment, were used to determine a water quality standard level in Pyeonglim Stream, and it revealed that water environment condition was good in the stream. During the study period, a total number of fish caught from the 4 study sites was 5,449 representing 9 families 25 species, and there were 8 Korean endemic species (32.0%) including Rhodeus uyekii, Squalidus gracilis majimae, and Microphysogobio yaluensis. Two species of Zacco temminckii (37.5%) and Zacco platypus (26.3%) were dominant and subdominant in all sites. There were few individuals of the $2^{nd}$-class endangered species (Sand lamprey, Lampetra reissneri) and the introduced species (Bluegill, Lepomis macrochirus), found in the upstream of the dam. and further investigation for conservation of the endangered species and for prevention of the introduced species is needed in future. With fish fauna and multi-metric health assessment model in each sampling attempt, index of biotic integrity(IBI) was evaluated and it resulted mostly in good(26~35) and excellent(36~40) condition in all sites. The results indicate that it is very important to study not only environmental impact assessment with fish composition but also stream health assessment in order to conserve healthy aquatic ecosystem.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.131-167
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• 2019

Securing reference information (inventory) is essential for proper conservation and management of protected areas. Moreover, the investigation results should be available for comparison and evaluation. For this study, we established seven investigational lattices and carried out the field examinations to obtain comparable data in the Donggang river basin ecological and scenery conservation area, We conducted a total of 16 field surveys and identified a total of 830 taxa that is composed of 127 families, 408 genera, 716 species, 10 subspecies, 88 varieties, and 16 forms. We identified a total of 487 taxa in the 6th investigational lattice and 457 taxa in the 4th. We observed 6 species (grade II) designated by the Ministry of Environment as the endangered plants, one "species to monitor" designated by the Ministry of Environment, and 23 taxa designated as endemic species. Regarding the floristic characteristics plants, 15 taxa of grade V, 27 taxa of grade IV, 38 taxa of grade III, 31 taxa of grade II, and 19 taxa of grade I were identified. The 6th investigational lattice showed the largest number of taxa at 70. A total of 58 taxa were identified as the naturalized plant, and the 6th investigational lattice showed the most at 35 taxa. The Donggang river basin ecological and scenery conservation area was assessed to be an extremely important area to conserve and maintain plants species diversity not only in the regional scale but also national scale.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.569-580
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• 2008

In this study, area-weighted slope and slope length module, considering measured field slope and slope length of the agricultural fields within the subwatershed, was developed using the ArcView Avenue programming to reflect the field topography of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) HRU in simulating the hydrology and water quality. Flow and sediment yield estimated values of the SWAT were compared with and without applying area-weighted slope and slope length module, developed in this study. There was 103% increases in estimated sediment with area-weighted slope and slope length module for the study watershed. The soil erosion and sediment yield from only agricultural field in Hae-an watershed was also assessed. There are 111% increase in estimated soil erosion and 112% increase in estimated sediment by applying area-weighted slope and slope length module. This study shows that the area-weighted slope and slope length module needs to be utilized in estimating the HRU field slope and slope length for accurate estimation of soil erosion and nonponit source pollutant modeling with the SWAT although it is not feasible to measure topographic information for every agricultural fields within the watershed. The area-weighted slope and slope length module can be used in identifying soil erosion hot spot areas for developing cost effective and efficient soil erosion management practices.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.291-301
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• 2017

This study was carried out to investigate distribution on the alien plants in the Gyeong-in Ara Waterway. The alien plants were a total of 82 taxa: 17 families, 63 genera, 80 species, and 2 varieties. This number corresponds to 25.5% of alien plants identified in Korea. The proportion of alien plants in every year was increased from upstream to downstream. As the result of the analysis on vegetation stratification, bank of waterside was covered with artificial materials preventing existence of vegetation, and had step-type cross section. Floodplain was composed of waterfront area. An array of vegetation was not typical dispersion, and terrestrial and alien plants were dominated the Gyeong-in Ara Waterway. Evaluation of naturalness based on the vegetation stratification showed grade 3 or 4. In order to solve a problem, method and level of restoration should be decided based on the result of diagnostic assessment. Therefore, we need to restore the step-type cross section as pool type one. From waterside to bank in this waterway, we recommend to introduce natural plants by imitating reference species composition. Since, an invasion of alien plants is expected to be accelerated due to the continuous artificial disturbance, we recommend to quantitative investigation on the invasion of alien plants and monitoring on the change of distribution.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.785-795
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• 2018

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has recognized the risk of hull fouling and announced '2011 Guidelines for the control and management of ship's biofouling to minimize the transfer of invasive aquatic species'and is planning international regulations to enforce them in the future. In this study, to effectively respond to future international regulation, we introduce the case of leading countries related to management of hull fouling and also investigate environmental risk assessment techniques for in-water cleaning. Australia and New Zealand, the leading countries in hull fouling management, have established hull fouling regulations through biological and chemical risk assessment based on in-water cleaning scenarios. Most European countries without their government regulation have been found to perform in-water cleaning in accordance with the IMO's hull fouling regulations. In the Republic of Korea, there is no domestic law for hull fouling organisms, and only approximately 17 species of marine ecological disturbance organisms, are designated and managed under the Marine Ecosystem Law. Since in-water cleaning is accompanied by diffusion of alien species and release of chemical substances into aquatic environments, results from biological as well as chemical risk assessment are performed separately, and then evaluation of in-water cleaning permission is judged by combining these two results. Biological risk assessment created 40 codes of in-water cleaning scenarios, and calculated Risk Priority Number (RPN) scores based on key factors that affect intrusion of alien species during in-water cleaning. Chemical risk assessment was performed using the MAMPEC (Marine Antifoulant Model to Predict Environmental Concentrations), to determine PEC and PNEC values based on copper concentration released during in-water cleaning. Finally, if the PEC/PNEC ratio is >1, it means that chemical risk is high. Based on the assumption that the R/V EARDO ship performs in-water cleaning at Busan's Gamcheon Port, biological risk was estimated to be low due to the RPN value was <10,000, but the PEC/PNEC ratio was higher than 1, it was evaluated as impossible for in-water cleaning. Therefore, it will be necessary for the Republic of Korea to develop the in-water cleaning technology by referring to the case of leading countries and to establish domestic law of ship's hull fouling management, suitable for domestic harbors.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.189-196
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• 2014

In Korea, over 4,700 animal carcass disposal sites were installed until 2011 due to the outbreak of foot and mouth disease. Due to the putrefaction of buried animals, the leachate containing veterinary antibiotics may release into surrounding environments. Antibiotic residues in the environment cause the formation of antibiotic resistance bacteria threatening human and ecosystem health. This study reports the concentrations of five antibiotics, including tetracycline (TC), chlortetracycline (CTC), oxytetracycline (OTC), sulfamethazine (SMZ), and sulfamethoxazole (SMX), in soils from animal carcass disposal site and adjacent agricultural field. Concentrations of antibiotics at animal carcass disposal sites (TC: $144.26-350.73{\mu}g/kg$, SMZ: $17.72-44.94{\mu}g/kg$) were higher than those at agricultural field (TC: $134.16-320.73{\mu}g/kg$, SMZ: $6.48-8.85{\mu}g/kg$) whereas the concentrations of CTC, OTC, and SMX were below detection limit in both sites. Results showed that the antibiotics in animal carcass site might leach to the soil and possibly contaminating the groundwater. Future studies will focus on the transfer of antibiotics residues into food crops.