• Mycobiology
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.150-159
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• 2017

This study analyzed the distribution of endophytic fungi in 3 coastal environments with different climatic, geographical, and geological characteristics: the volcanic islands of Dokdo, the East Sea, and the West Sea of Korea. The isolated fungal endophytes were characterized and analyzed with respect to the characteristics of their host environments. For this purpose, we selected common native coastal halophyte communities from three regions. Molecular identification of the fungal endophytes showed clear differences among the sampling sites and halophyte host species. Isolates were also characterized by growth at specific salinities or pH gradients, with reference to previous geographical, geological, and climate studies. Unlike the East Sea or West Sea isolates, some Dokdo Islands isolates showed endurable traits with growth in high salinity, and many showed growth under extremely alkaline conditions. A smaller proportion of West Sea coast isolates tolerate compared to the East Sea or Dokdo Islands isolates. These results suggest that these unique fungal biota developed through a close interaction between the host halophyte and their environment, even within the same halophyte species. Therefore, this study proposes the application of specific fungal resources for restoring sand dunes and salt-damaged agricultural lands and industrialization of halophytic plants.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.237-245
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• 2010

Bioaccumulation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides was studied in sediment dwelling bivalves, Manila clams (Ruditapes philippinarum), collected from the midwestern coast of Korea. As witnessed by the dominance of tetra- to penta-chlorinated congeners in sediments and the penta- to hexa-chlorinated congener dominance in clams, the profile of PCBs in the sediments and Manila clams differed. Lipid and organic carbon-normalized biota-sediment accumulation factors (BSAFs) were determined for organochlorine pesticides. BSAFs of $\beta$-hexachlorocyclohexane ($\beta$-HCH) and $\Sigma$DDTs were in the range of 0.06~1.36 and 0.31~1.06. No clear relationships were found between BSAFs of $\Sigma$DDTs in Manila clams and the concentrations of DDTs in the associated sediment. The accumulated PCBs and organochlorine pesticides were compared in Manila clams and oysters (Crassostrea gigas) collected from 3 sites. Highly chlorinated PCBs were more commonly found in oyster tissues than in clam tissues. The reasons for the different accumulation pattern of organic pollutants in the two organisms are discussed.

• Journal of Marine Bioscience and Biotechnology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.10-17
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• 2016

A wide-spread contamination of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as dioxins, PCBs, PBDEs in the aquatic ecosystem has generated a great concern over the potential risk for these substances to impact marine biotas and food web. Since a major exposure route of these substances to the humans is through the consumption of food including fish and marine byproducts, the consumption of contaminated products has been a great public health concern. Exposure to POPs has been associated with a wide spectrum of adverse effects including reproductive, developmental, immunologic, carcinogenic, and neurotoxic effects. This review covers the background information of key POPs substances and the recent development of toxicity studies including the mode of action. Because neurotoxic effects of some POPs have been observed in humans at low concentrations, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), a representative chemical of POPs, is focused to discuss the possible mode(s) of action for the neurotoxic effects. This review provides the updates of toxicity studies on POPs and paves ways to discuss a possible implication of contaminated marine biota over the human health among the marine biotechnology researchers.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.21 no.5_2
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• pp.501-518
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• 1998

Mt. Paektu(2,749.6m)m the biggest mountain in Northeast Asia, located on the border line of Korea and China is characterized as an aspite with broad gentle mountain area and rich biota. however, it seems that the study of forest vegetational feature or vegetation zones in the whole area of this mountain is not yet sufficient in spite of contribution by many investigators. in this paper thermal climatic approach was carried out for the determination of vegetation zones of the mountain with the meteorological data of four stations including Cheonjj and various vegetational data. the application of Warmth Index and/or coldness Index(Kira 1977) for the determination of forest vegetation boundary was useful also here, and their boundaries largely coincided with those of thermal indicies obtained in the Korean Peninsula(Yim and Kira, 1975), including the lapse rate of air temperature along increasing elevation. However, in the mountain the boundary of vegetation zones in not clear like those of mountains in Korea. It may be due so the topographic differences between this area and the Korean Peninsula. Besides, the broad ecotones between different vegetations in this area support the vegetation continum concept rather than the unit concept, and the limit of timber line or tree line reflects various hypothesis(Steven and fox 1991). Therefore, for the explantion of vegetation zone of this area should be considered topography or soil condition, for example, as known the hierachy of ecological units (zonobiomes, orobiomes and pedobiomes, Walter, 1973).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.37-48
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• 2020

This study was aimed to design core areas applied by the global conservation criteria to promote the public awareness to the protected areas and the value cognition of the Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs), targeting the Mt Seorak, according to the designation of globally important biodiversity areas. As a method for carrying out this study, the biota were cataloged through literature reviews and field trips. With applied by the Global Red List criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), only nine species were categorized in the studied area; plants were classified into six species as follows: Megaleranthis saniculifolia ohwi, Bupleurum euphorbioides Nakai, Hanabusaya asiatica Nakai, Thuja koraiensis Nakai, Leontopodium leiolepis Nakai, Androsace cortusaefolia Nakai, fish was classified one species as follow: Pungitius sinensis Tanaka, and the mammal was classified as two species as follows: Hydropotes inermis, Naemorhedus caudatus. According to the occupation area (EoO, Extent of Occurrence) and Minimum Viable Population(MVP), the size of protected area was 234.56㎢ for plants, 235.07㎢ for mammals, and 0.14㎢ for fish, and the Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) of Mt. Seolak suggested as 286.72㎢.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.107-111
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• 2008

Water quality contamination issues are of critical concern to human health, whilst pesticide release generated from irrigated land should be considered for protecting natural habitats and human health. This paper suggests new method for evaluation and analysis using the GIS technique based on integrated spatial modeling framework. The pesticide use on irrigated land is a subset of the larger spectrum of industrial chemicals used in modern society. The behavior of a pesticide is affected by the natural affinity of the chemical for one of four environmental compartments; solid matter, liquid, gaseous form, and biota. However, the major movements are a physical transport over the ground surface by rainfall-runoff and irrigation-runoff. The irrigated water carries out with the transporting sediments and makes contaminated water by pesticide. This paper focuses on risk impact identification and assessment using GIS technique. Also, generated data on pesticide residues on farmland and surface water through GIS simulation will be reflected to environmental research programs. Finally, this study indicates that GIS application is a beneficial tool for spatial pesticide impact analysis as well as environmental risk assessment.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2012

In spite of colossal efforts taken for safe handling and storage of radioactive waste, the uncontrolled release of radiocesium ($^{137}Cs$ and $^{134}Cs$ isotopes) into the natural environment is inevitable. $^{137}Cs$ is of particular concern because of its long half-life, ability to transfer into biota through food chains, as well as its great mobility, bioavailability, and chemical and ecophysiological similarity with potassium. Radiocesium is released anthropogenically into the environment. Mushrooms are known for their ability to accumulate radionuclides, particularly radiocesium, which is heterogeneously distributed in the individual parts of mushrooms, and it is found that mushrooms are a hyper-accumulator of radiocesium from their environment than other vegetation. Mushrooms play a major role in the mobilization, accumulation, and translocation of cesium, i.e., decontamination of soils (mycoextraction) polluted with cesium radioisotopes, and this capacity appears to be a relevant bioindicator of cesium contamination in the environment. Moreover, the extension of mycelium into the soil makes the use of mushrooms as bioindicators of radiocesium possible. This paper reviews the potential of mushrooms in the accumulation of radiocesium from the environment, and dissertates the salient features to support the employment of mushrooms in environmental biomonitoring as a sensitive bioindicator of radiocesium contamination.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.117-129
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• 2021

In this review, we aimed to synthesize the current knowledge on the observed and projected effects of climate change on the ecosystems of Korea (i.e., the Republic of Korea (ROK) or South Korea), as well as the main causes of vulnerability and options for adaptation in these ecosystems based on a range of ecological and biogeographical data. To this end, we compiled a set of peer-reviewed papers published since 2014. We found that publication of climate-related studies on plants has decreased in the field of plant phenology and physiology, whereas such publication has rapidly increased in plant and animal community ecology, reflecting the range shifts and abundance change that are occurring under climate change. Plant phenology studies showed that climate change has increased growing seasons by advancing the timing of flowering and budburst while delaying the timing of leafing out. Community ecology studies indicated that the future ranges of cold-adapted plants and animals could shrink or shift toward northern and high-elevation areas, whereas the ranges of warm-adapted organisms could expand and/or shift toward the areas that the aforementioned cold-adapted biota previously occupied. This review provides useful information and new insights that will improve understanding of climate change effects on the ecosystems of Korea. Moreover, it will serve as a reference for policy-makers seeking to establish future sectoral adaptation options for protection against climate change.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.954-959
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• 2022

Marine outfalls are used to discharge treated liquid effluents to the environment. An efficiently designed, constructed and operated marine outfall effectively dilutes the discharged effluent, thereby reducing the risk to biota and humans dependent upon the marine environment. In this study, we investigated the effluent transport from a marine outfall at different depths in Masan Bay. A particle-tracking model was used to predict the dispersion of effluent. The model results indicate that some particles released from a depth of 13 m move to the inner area of Masan Bay within 48 h. As the release depth increases after 48 h, the particles move further southward. This suggests that effluent from the outer area of Masan Bay can affect the inner area, and that this effect can be reduced by increasing the depth of effluent release.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.352-366
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• 2022

Nuclear power plant operations for electricity generation, rare-earth mining, nuclear medical research, and nuclear weapons reprocessing considerably increase radioactive waste, necessitating massive efforts to eradicate radioactive waste from aquatic environments. Cobalt (⁵⁸Co) and strontium (⁹⁰Sr) radioactive elements have been extensively employed in energy generation, nuclear weapon testing, and the manufacture of healthcare products. The erroneous discharge of these elements as pollutants into the aquatic system, radiation emissions, and long-term disposal is extremely detrimental to humans and aquatic biota. Numerous methods for treating radioactive waste-contaminated water have emerged, among which the adsorption process has been promoted for its efficacy in eliminating radioactive waste from aquatic habitats. The current review discusses the adsorptive removal of radioactive waste from aqueous solutions using low-cost adsorbents, such as graphene oxide, metal-organic frameworks, and inorganic metal oxides, as well as their composites. The chemical modification of adsorbents to increase their removal efficiency is also discussed. Finally, the current state of ⁵⁸Co and ⁹⁰Sr removal performances is summarized and the efficiencies of various adsorbents are compared.