• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.341-352
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• 2009

This study was carried out to investigated community structure of macrobenthic assemblages around the Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant, East Sea of Korea and seasonal sampling was performed from October 2007 to July 2008. A total of 163 macrobenthic fauna were collected. The overall average macrobenthos density and biomass were 1,005 individuals $m^{-2}$ and $21.81\;gWWt\;m^{-2}$, respectively. Based on the LeBris (1988) index, there were 10 dominant species accounting for approximately 69.00% of total individuals. The major dominant species were the polychaetes Spiophanes bombyx (349 inds. $m^{-2}$), Mediomastus californiensis (82 inds. $m^{-2}$), Sigambra tentaculata (55 inds. $m^{-2}$), Magelona japonica (50 inds. $m^{-2}$), Scoletoma longifolia (33 inds. $m^{-2}$) and the Unidentified amphipod (Amphipoda spp., 72 inds. $m^{-2}$). The conventional multi-variate statistics (cluster analysis and non-metric multi-dimensional scaling) applied to assess spatial variation in macrobenthic assemblages. Cluster analysis and nMDS ordination analysis based on the Bray-Curtis similarity identified 2 major station groups. The major group 1 was associated with sand dominated stations and was characterized by high abundance of the bivalves Mactra chinensis, Siliqua pulchella and the polychaete Protodorvillea egena. On the other hand, major group 2 was connected with mud dominated stations and was numerically dominated by the polychaetes M. californiensis, M. japonica, Sternaspis scutata, S. longifolia and the bivalves Thyasira tokunagai and Theora fragilis. However, macrobenthic community structure were no significant differences between the environmental variables (sediment type and depth) and heated discharge.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.358-383
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• 2015

The concept of 'carbon footprint' has been developed as a means of quantifying the specific emissions of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) that cause global warming. Although there are still neither clear definitions of the term nor rules for units or the scope of its estimation, it is broadly accepted that the carbon footprint is the total amount of GHGs, expressed as $CO_2$ equivalents, emitted into the atmosphere directly or indirectly at all processes of the production by an individual or organization. According to the ISO/TS 14067, the carbon footprint of a product is calculated by multiplying the units of activity of processes that emit GHGs by emission factor of the processes, and by summing them up. Based on this, 'carbon labelling' system has been implemented in various ways over the world to provide consumers the opportunities of comparison and choice, and to encourage voluntary activities of producers to reduce GHG emissions. In the agricultural sector, as a judgment basis to help purchaser with ethical consumption, 'low-carbon agricultural and livestock products certification' system is expected to have more utilization value. In this process, the 'cradle to gate' approach (which excludes stages for usage and disposal) is mainly used to set the boundaries of the life cycle assessment for agricultural products. The estimation of carbon footprint for the entire agricultural and forestry sector should take both removals and emissions into account in the "National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report". The carbon accumulation in the biomass of perennial trees in cropland should be considered also to reduce the total GHG emissions. In order to accomplish this, tower-based flux measurements can be used, which provide a direct quantification of $CO_2$ exchange during the entire life cycle. Carbon footprint information can be combined with other indicators to develop more holistic assessment indicators for sustainable agricultural and forestry ecosystems.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.27-38
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• 2011

The distributions of phytoplankton assemblages and environmental factors in Jinhae Bay and their relationships were investigated to estimate the potential limiting nutrient for phytoplankton growth and community structure. In situ algal bioassay experiments were also conducted to assess the species-specific characteristics in phytoplankton responses under different nutrient conditions (control, N(+) and P(+) treatment). During the study periods, bacillariophyceae and cryptophyceae occupied more than 90% of total phytoplankton assemblages. Phytoplankton standing crops in the inner part of Masan Bay were higher than that of Jinhae Bay. The DIN:DIP ratio, pH and transparency showed the significant positive correlation with phytoplankton biomass. According to cluster and multidimensiolnal scaling (MDS) analysis based on phytoplankton community data from each station, the bay was divided into three groups. The first group included stations from the south-western part of Jinhae bay where cryptophyta species were dominated. The second group was distinguished from inner stations in Masan Bay. These stations showed low transpancy and high DIN:DIP ratio. The other cluster included the stations from the eastern part and central part of Jinhae Bay, which was characterized by the high DSi:DIP ratio and dominant of diatom species. Phosphorous (P) was limited in Masan Bay due to significantly increases in the phytoplankton abundances. Based on stoichiometric limitation and algal bio-assay in Jinhae Bay, nitrogen (N) was a major limiting factor for phytoplankton production. However, silicate (Si) was not considered as limiting factor, since Si/DIN and Si/P ratio and absolute concentration of nutrient did not create any potential stoichiometric limitation in the bay. This implies that high Si availability in winter season contributes favorably to the maintenances of diatom species.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.168-175
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• 2014

In order to understand the phytoplankton community structure based on their cell size duringlow water temperature periods, we studied 10 stations in the East Sea, Korea on March, 2012. The minimum standing crops of total phytoplankton were $3.4{\times}10^6cells\;L^{-1}$ at the station 5. The maximum values were $7.6{\times}10^6cells\;L^{-1}$ at the station 8, which is two times the amount of the minimum. The carbon mass at the station 4 ($6.3{\times}10^8pg\;L^{-1}$) was more than forty times higher compared with station 5 ($0.08{\times}10^8pg\;L^{-1}$). From these results, we found a significant difference between standing crops and carbon mass which might have caused due to their differences in community structure and cell size. Therefore, we considered the types of plankton biomass to estimate the primary product in the specific location and/or time. The phytoplankton communities were classified in 3 types: microplankton (> $20{\mu}m$), nanoplankton (< $20{\mu}m$) and picoplankton (< $2{\mu}m$). In the case of picoplankton, various morphological types were observed during the study period. These various picoplankton species were further classified as S (spherical), SF (spherical&flagella), O (oval), OF (oval&flagella) or R (rod) type, and we analyzed their community structure based on these categories. The picoplankton was found to be the most dominant type at 8 stations and S type as the most popular. The picoplankton seems to be the significant organism in the marine ecology during low water temperature periods in the coastal waters of East Sea. Therefore, picoplankton \;-with scientific surveys can be considered as the database for their identification. In conclusion, we suggest that cell size of the phytoplankton would be the best criteria to accurately analyze their community structure and to reveal groups having more ecological influence.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.174-189
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• 2012

The objective of this study was to determine the weight-length relations and condition factor (K) of Zacco platypus, along the trophic gradients from oligotrophic to eutrophic state in six reservoir ecosystems ($B_aR$, $Y_yR$, $J_yR$, $G_pR$, $Y_dR$, and $M_sR$), during 2008~2010. The species was selected as a sentinel species for the study, due to its wide distribution and wide trophic gradient. The analysis of trophic state index (TSI), based on total phosphorus (TP) and chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), indicated that reservoirs of $Y_yR$ and $B_aR$ were classified as to be in an oligotrophic state (30~40), the $J_yR$ and $G_pR$ as mesotrophic (40~50), and the $Y_dR$ and $M_sR$ as eutrophic state (50~70). Total 47 species and 26,226 individuals were sampled from 6 reservoirs and sensitive species dominated in the oligotrophic reservoirs ($Y_yR$ and $B_aR$). In the mean time, the tolerant speciesdominated the community in the mesotrophic ($J_yR$ and $G_pR$) and eutrophic ($Y_dR$ and $M_sR$) reservoirs. Regression analysis of body weight, against the total length, indicated that the regression coefficient (b value) was lower in the oligotrophic reservoir (2.77~2.79) than the mesotrophic (3.07~3.17) and eutrophic reservoirs (3.15~ 3.21). This result suggests that the population growth rate Zacco platypus reflected the trophic gradients of the reservoirs. The analysis of condition factor (K) against the total length showed positive slopes (b>3.0) in mesotrophic and eutrophic reservoirs, and a negative slope (b<3.0) in oligotrophic reservoir. The variation of the regression slope of "b" in Z. platypus was accounted for 79.7% [$b=0.012{\times}TSI(TP)+2.395$, p=0.017] by the variation of TSI (TP) and 82.2% [$b=0.013{\times}TSI(Chl-a)+2.36$, p=0.013] by the variation of TSI (Chl-a). The proportion of DELT abnormality increased as the trophic state increases in the reservoirs. The overall data suggest that the growth of the fish populations, based on the length-weight relations and condition factor, reflected the trophic state of nutrient and phytoplankton biomass of the reservoir waters. Thus, in spite of the tolerant characteristics of Z. platypus, hypertrophic states might negatively affect the health of the population.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.789-792
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• 2010

Major impacts of climate change expert that soil erosion rate may increase during the $21^{st}$ century. This study was conducted to assess the potential impacts of climate change on soil erosion by water in Korea. The soil loss was estimated for regions with the potential risk of soil erosion on a national scale. For computation, Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) with rainfall and runoff erosivity factors (R), cover management factors (C), support practice factors (P) and revised USLE with soil erodibility factors (K) and topographic factors (LS) were used. RUSLE, the revised version of USLE, was modified for Korean conditions and re-evaluate to estimate the national-scale of soil loss based on the digital soil maps for Korea. The change of precipitation for 2010 to 2090s were predicted under A1B scenarios made by National Institute of Meteorological Research in Korea. Future soil loss was predicted based on a change of R factor. As results, the predicted precipitations were increased by 6.7% for 2010 to 2030s, 9.5% for 2040 to 2060s and 190% for 2070 to 2090s, respectively. The total soil loss from uplands in 2005 was estimated approximately $28{\times}10^6$ ton. Total soil losses were estimated as $31{\times}10^6$ ton in 2010 to 2030s, $31{\times}10^6$ ton in 2040 to 2060s and $33{\times}10^6$ ton in 2070 to 2090s, respectively. As precipitation increased by 17% in the end of $21^{st}$ century, the total soil loss was increased by 12.9%. Overall, these results emphasize the significance of precipitation. However, it should be noted that when precipitation becomes insignificant, the results may turn out to be complex due to the large interaction among plant biomass, runoff and erosion. This may cause increase or decrease the overall erosion.

• Clean Technology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.129-139
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• 2019

Bamboo is an evergreen perennial plant, and it is known as one of the most productive and fastest-growing plants in the world. It grows quickly in moderate climates with only moderate water and fertilizer. Traditionally in Asia, bamboo is used for building materials, as a food source, and as versatile raw materials. Bamboo as a biomass feedstock can be transformed to prepare activated carbon using the thermal treatment of pyrolysis. The effect of process variables such as carbonization temperature, activation temperature, activation time, the amount of steam, and the mixing ratio of phosphoric acid and bamboo were systematically investigated to optimize the preparation conditions. Steam activation was proceeded after carbonization with a vapor flow rate of $0.8{\sim}1.8mL-H_2O\;g-char^{-1}\;h^{-1}$ and activation time of 1 ~ 3 h at $700{\sim}900^{\circ}C$. Carbon yield and surface area reached 2.04 ~ 20.59 wt% and $499.17{\sim}1074.04m^2\;g^{-1}$, respectively, with a steam flow rate of $1.4mL-H_2O\;g-char^{-1}\;h^{-1}$ for 2 h. Also, the carbon yield and surface area were 24.67 wt% and $1389.59m^2\;g^{-1}$, respectively, when the bamboo and phosphoric acid were mixed in a 1:1 weight ratio ($700^{\circ}C$, 2 h, $1.4mL-H_2O\;g-char^{-1}\;h^{-1}$). The adsorption of methylene blue into the bamboo activated carbon was studied based on pseudo first order and second order kinetics models. The adsorption kinetics were found to follow the pseudo second order model, which is governed by chemisorption.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.198-221
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• 2021

After large-scale reforestation in the 1960s and 1970s, forests in Korea have gradually been aging. Net ecosystem CO₂ exchange of old-growth forests is theoretically near zero; however, it can be a CO₂ sink or source depending on the intervention of disturbance or management. In this study, we report the CO₂ budget dynamics of the Gwangneung deciduous old-growth forest (GDK) in Korea and examined the following two questions: (1) is the preserved GDK indeed CO₂ neutral as theoretically known? and (2) can we explain the dynamics of CO₂ budget by the common mechanisms reported in the literature? To answer, we analyzed the 15-year long CO₂ flux data measured by eddy covariance technique along with other biometeorological data at the KoFlux GDK site from 2006 to 2020. The results showed that (1) GDK switched back-and-forth between sink and source of CO₂ but averaged to be a week CO₂ source (and turning to a moderate CO₂ source for the recent five years) and (2) the interannual variability of solar radiation, growing season length, and leaf area index showed a positive correlation with that of gross primary production (GPP) (R²=0.32~0.45); whereas the interannual variability of both air and surface temperature was not significantly correlated with that of ecosystem respiration (RE). Furthermore, the machine learning-based model trained using the dataset of early monitoring period (first 10 years) failed to reproduce the observed interannual variations of GPP and RE for the recent five years. Biomass data analysis suggests that carbon emissions from coarse woody debris may have contributed partly to the conversion to a moderate CO₂ source. To properly understand and interpret the long-term CO₂ budget dynamics of GDK, new framework of analysis and modeling based on complex systems science is needed. Also, it is important to maintain the flux monitoring and data quality along with the monitoring of coarse woody debris and disturbances.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.578-587
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• 2022

Korea, as the world's 7^th largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has raised the national greenhouse gas reduction target as international regulations have been strengthened. As it is possible to utilize coastal and marine ecosystems as important nature-based solutions (NbS) for implementing climate change mitigation or adaptation plans, the blue carbon ecosystem is now receiving attention. Blue carbon refers to carbon that is deposited and stored for a long period after carbon dioxide (CO₂) is absorbed as biomass by coastal ecosystems or oceanic ecosystems through photosynthesis. Currently, there are only three blue carbon ecosystems officially recognized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrasses. However, the results of new research on the high CO₂ sequestration and storage capacity of various new blue carbon sinks, such as seaweeds, microalgae, coral reefs, and non-vegetated tidal flats, have been continuously reported to the academic community recently. The possibility of IPCC international accreditation is gradually increasing through scientific verification related to calculations. In this review, the current status and potential value of seaweeds, seagrass fields, and non-vegetated tidal flats, which are sources of blue carbon on the east coast, are discussed. This paper confirms that seaweed resources are the most effective NbS in the East Sea of Korea. In addition, we would like to suggest the direction of research and development (R&D) and utilization so that new blue carbon sinks can obtain international IPCC certification in the near future.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.57-65
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• 2008

Wastewater containing strong organic matter is very difficult to treat by utilizing general sewage treatment plant. but the wastewater is adequate to generate biomass energy (bio-gas; methane gas) by utilizing anaerobic digestion. EcoDays Plug Flow Reactor (E-PFR), which was already proved as an excellent aerobic wastewater treatment reactor, was adapted for anaerobic food wastewater digestion. This research was performed to improve the efficiency of bio-gas production and to optimize anaerobic wastewater treatment system. Food wastewater from N food waste treatment plant was applied for the pilot scale experiments. The results indicated that the efficiency of anaerobic wastewater treatment and the volume of bio-gas were increased by applying E-PFR to anaerobic digestion. The structural characteristics of E-PFR can cause the high efficiency of anaerobic treatment processes. The unique structure of E-PFR is a diaphragm dividing vertical hydraulic multi-stages and the inversely protruded fluid transfer tubes on each diaphragm. The unique structure of E-PFR can make gas hold-up space at the top part of each stage in the reactor. Also, E-PFR can contain relatively high MLSS concentration in lower stage by vertical up-flow of wastewater. This hydraulic flow can cause high buffering capacity against shock load from the wastewater in the reactor, resulting in stable pH (7.0~8.0), relatively higher wastewater treatment efficiency, and larger volume of bio-gas generation. In addition, relatively longer solid retention time (SRT) in the reactor can increase organic matter degradation and bio-gas production efficiency. These characteristics in the reactor can be regarded as "ideal" anaerobic wastewater treatment conditions. Anaerobic wastewater treatment plant design factor can be assessed for having 70 % of methane gas content, and better bio-gas yielding and stable treatment efficiency based on the results of this research. For example, inner circulation with generated bio-gas in the reactor and better mixing conditions by improving fluid transfer tube structure can be used for achieving better bio-gas yielding efficiency. This research results can be used for acquiring better improved regenerated energy system.