• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.338-346
• /
• 2017

Natural seaweed beds and habitat environments were investigated using quantitative and qualitative methods from May to December 2015 at 3 sites in Gangneung, Uljin, and Busan along the eastern coast of Korea. In total, 9 green, 23 brown, and 64 red algal taxa were identified. The biomass of the seaweed at Gangneung was 173.2 to $613.8wet\;wt.g/m^2$ of Dictyota divaricata, 360.8 to $520.4wet\;wt.g/m^2$ of Symphyocladia linearis, and 25.9 to $470.8wet\;wt.g/m^2$ of Undaria pinnatifida. At Uljin, these numbers were 5.5 to $256.2wet\;wt.g/m^2$ of Plocamium telfarirae and 46.8 to $241.5wet\;wt.g/m^2$ of Agarum clathratum. The biomass of Sargassum coreanum and Ecklonia cava were 388.1 to $6,972.4wet\;wt.g/m^2$ and 194.9 to $958.5wet\;wt.g/m^2$, respectively, at Busan. S. coreanum and E. cava showed higher biomass compared to other seaweed at Busan. The biomass rate represented an average of 19.2 percent of the total population, ranging from 0.0 to 55.5 percent in Gangneung. In Uljin, the average was calculated as 63.8 percent, and this figure was 48.5 percent in Busan. The percentage of barren ground averaged 46.7 percent in Gangneung and 91.1 percent in Uljin. Uljin showed the highest percentage of barren ground compared to other regions. Sea urchin density appeared to be $6.0ind./m^2$ in Gangneung, $7.0ind./m^2$ in Uljin, and $2.0ind./m^2$ in Busan, with the lowest sea urchin density being that of Busan. In conclusion, the composition of species, appearance ratio, and abundance of vegetation found were similar to previous studies, but it is thought that continuous monitoring is needed due to concerns about physical and chemical pollution caused by global warming, climate change, and coastal development.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.175-185
• /
• 2020

Quantitative and qualitative surveys were conducted during scuba diving activity between May 2017 and June 2017 in order to analyze spring marine algal community structure at Gijang-gun, Busan. A total of 121 species including 13 (10.7 %) Chlorophyta, 18 (14.9 %) Phaeophyta, and 90 (74.4 %) Rhodophyta were identified. The species count in the subtidal zone (110 species) was twice as high as in the intertidal zone (56 species). In terms of regions, 88,76, and 75 species were found in Mundong, Gongsu, and Daebyeon, respectively. Mean biomass for the whole study area was 1,501.5 g·m^-2, higher for the subtidal zone (1,869.4 g·m^-2) than for the intertidal zone (1,133.5 g·m^-2). Mean biomass by region values were 2,234.0 g·m^-2, 1,228.1 g·m^-2, and 1,044.4 g·m^-2 for Mundong, Gongsu, and Daebyeon, respectively. Ulva australis, Sargassum thunbergii, and Corallina pilulifera had high biomass in the intertidal zone, while Sargassum macrocarpum, Undaria pinnatifida, and Phycodrys fimbriata had high biomass in the subtidal zone. The composition ratio of marine algal functional forms suggests that the entire study area had 'Low' status, and all sites fell within 'Low' to 'Moderate' status. Results indicate that opportunistic species are widely distributed throughout the Gijang-gun coast, hence potential effects of disturbance and environmental pollution should be considered. Seaweed farming in particular - a major activity along the Gijang-gun coast -, together with effects of other anthropogenic activities such as national fishing port development and the coastal improvement project, could have long-term effects on marine algal communities. Therefore, long-term monitoring and management plans for marine algal communities will be required.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.31 no.11
• /
• pp.947-956
• /
• 2009

Residual petroleum hydrocarbons after an oil spill may accumulate in the marine benthic ecosystem due to their high hydrophobicity. A lot of monitoring data are required for the estimation of ecosystem exposure to residual petrochemicals in an ecological risk assessment in the affected region. To save time and cost, the environmental exposure to them in the affected ecosystem can also be assessed using a simple food-web bioaccumulation model. In this study, we evaluated residual concentrations of four selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (phenanthrene, anthracene, pyrene, and benzo[a]pyrene) in a hypothetic benthic ecosystem composed of six species under two exposure scenarios. Body-residue concentration ranged 5~250 mg/kg body depending on trophic positions in an extreme scenario in which the aqueous concentrations of PAHs were assumed to be one-tenth of their aqueous solubility. In addition, bioconcentration factors (BCFs) and bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) were evaluated for model species. The logarithm of bioconcentration factor (log BCF) linearly increased with increasing the logarithm of 1-octanol-water partition coefficient (log $K_{OW}$) until log $K_{OW}$ of 7.0, followed by a gradual decrease with further increase in log $K_{OW}$ without metabolic degradation. Biomagnification became significant when log $K_{OW}$ of a pollutant exceeded 5.0 in the model ecosystem, indicating that investigation of food-web structure should be critical to predict biomagnifications in the affected ecosystem because log $K_{OW}$ values of many petrochemicals are higher than 5.0. Although further research is required for better site-specific evaluation of exposure, the model simulation can be used to estimate the level of the ecosystem exposure to residual oil contaminants at the screening level.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.79-89
• /
• 2009

For preliminary diagnosis on current fishing ground environment and basic information for establishment of effective and rational management policy in fisheries resources protection area, water and sediment quality and changes of total area in the 10 marine protection areas designated for fisheries resources management in Korea were assessed. Results showed that environmental quality in these areas has been degraded by pollution sources, coastal utilization and development stress, etc. The pattern and degree of contamination differed by protection areas, suggesting that it is necessary for optimum environmental management plan considering the regional characteristics. The total designated area of protection areas in 2003 changed by $-22.9{\sim}2.4%$, on average -6.4%, compared with the first year of designation; Wando-Doam Bay showd the highest increase rate (2.4%), and Hansan Bay has the highest decrease rate (-22.9%) Decrease rate of land and sea in total area showd 6.1% and 6.6%. An integrated management of environmental data in protection areas is required for systematic assessment. Therefore, the suitable environmental and information management is needed specifically considering the environment characteristics such as development and utilization conditions of land and sea area Furthermore, bemuse urbanization and industrialization threats the junctions of the protection areas, authorized ministry (MIFAFF) should develope and establish monitoring and management procedures based on the related laws.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.45-58
• /
• 2012

For the development of reference values and evaluation of water quality in various environmental conditions, we divided the coastal region around Korean peninsular into 5 distinctive ecological regions based on the influence of surface current, depth, tidal range, turbidity, and climate condition. We used national marine environment monitoring data collected by National Fisheries Research & Development Institute(NFRDI) from 2000-2009. For the reference values, we used maximum seasonal mean from 2000 to 2007 for DIN, DIP, and chlorophyll-a and minimum seasonal mean for secchi depth measured at stations without the influence of river runoff in each ecological regions. For the reference value of bottom dissolved oxygen saturation, we used minimum mean value of 90% calculated from minimal riverine influence stations of whole regions. We calculated enrichment score for each assessment criteria. The enrichment score of DIN, DIP, and Chlorophyll-a was 1 (=< reference value), 2 (< 110% of reference value), 3 (< 125% of reference value), 4 (< 150% of reference value), and 5 (> 150% of reference value). The enrichment score of DO saturation and Secchi depth was 1 (> reference value), 2 (> 90% of reference value), 3 (>75 % of reference value), 4 (> 50% of reference value), and 5 (< 50% of reference value). We calculated water quality index using weighted linear combination of five enrichment score for the comparison of whole regions. From the water quality index distribution calculated from all stations between 2000 and 2007 period, we classified into 5 grade based on the standard deviation calculated from total water quality index. We assigned grade very good(I), good(II), moderate(III), bad(IV), and very bad(V) when the water quality index was less than 23, minimum + 1 sd, +2 sd, +3 sd, and grater than minium+ 3 sd, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
• /
• v.13 no.9
• /
• pp.17-29
• /
• 2012

To investigate the characteristics of shear strength and soil deformation in soft grounds, in which various vertical drains were placed, two hundreds field monitoring data of embankments performed in thirteen road construction sites at west and south coastal areas of the Korean Peninsula were collected. At first, the relationship between settlement and lateral displacement was investigated into three stages, in which embankment construction works were divided into initial filling stage, final filling stage and stage after complete filling. And then, the relationship of surcharge pressures and embankment heights with undrained shear strength of soft grounds were investigated. The investigation on settlement and lateral displacement illustrated that the increment of lateral flow to the increment of settlement was low during initial filling stage, but increased gradually with filling and showed largest during final filling stage. After complete filling, the lateral displacement was converged, even though the settlement was increased continuously. Therefore, most of lateral flow was occurred during embankment filling. The ratio of the lateral displacement increment to the settlement increment was 20% for initial filling stage, which coincided with the one presented by Tavenas et al.(1979), but became 50% for final filling stage, which was half of the one presented by Tavenas et al.(1979). However, the ratio reduced to 1% to 9%, which was quite lower than the one presented by Tavenas et al.(1979). Shear deformations, even shear failures, were predicted in soft grounds under initial undrained shear strength, since the design heights of embankments were higher than the yield height in all the sites. However, embankment construction would be possible since the yield height became higher than the design height due to improvement of shear strength of soft grounds with application of the vertical drains. In order to perform safely embankments for road constructions, the embankment loads should be designed not to be exceed 5.14 times the initial undrained shear strength of soft grounds and to be less than 3.0 times the undrained shear strength improved with application of vertical drains in soft grounds.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.49 no.5
• /
• pp.381-388
• /
• 2016

The purpose of this study is to integrate and visualize using mapping techniques based on precise seabed geomorphology, seafloor backscattering images and high-resolution underwater images of the nearshore area around the Dokdo, in the East Sea. We have been obtained the precise topography map using multibeam echosounder system around the nearshore area(~50 m) of the southern part of the Seodo. Side scan sonar survey for analysis seafloor backscattering images was carried out in the same area of topography data. High-resolution underwater images(zone(a), zone(b), zone(c)) were taken in significant habitat scope of the nearshore area of the southern part of the Seodo. Using the results of bathymetry, seafloor backscattering images, high-resolution underwater images, we performed an integrated visualization about the nearshore area of the Dokdo. The integrated visualizing techniques are possible to make the seabed characteristic mapping results of the nearshore area of the Dokdo. The integrated visualization results present more complex and reliable information than separate geological products for seabed environmental mapping study and it is useful to understand the relation between seafloor characteristics and topographic environments of the study area. The integrated visualizing techniques and mapping analysis need to study sustainably and periodically, for effective monitoring of the nearshore ecosystem of the Dokdo.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.97-105
• /
• 2009

A constructed wetland which was composed of aerobic and anaerobic areas was evaluated for 3 years to effectively treat the sewage produced in farming and fishing communities. For 3 years in a constructed wetland, biochemical oxygen demand(BOD), chemical oxygen demand(COD), suspended solids(SS), total nitrogen(T-N), and total phosphorus(T-P) in effluent were 0.2${\sim}$11.8, 1.0${\sim}$41.9, 1.1${\sim}$6.5, 4${\sim}$60 and 0.02${\sim}$3.51 mg/L, respectively. Removal rate of BOD, COD and SS in effluent were 97, 92 and 99%, respectively, in the third year. As time goes by, removal rate of T-N and T-P in treated water in aerobic area and effluent were gradually increased in a constructed wetland. In the third year, removal rate in effluent were 62 and 73%, respectively. By the seasons, removal rate of BOD, COD, SS, T-N and T-P were 97${\sim}$98, 87${\sim}$91, 99, 43${\sim}$61 and 76${\sim}$86%, respectively. Removal rate of BOD, COD, SS and T-P were not affected by the seasons, but that of T-N in winter and spring were decreased than the other seasons.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 1997

For the recent years, considerable efforts have been made to rationalize the techniques of research and monitoring of biological effects of marine pollutants such as heavy metals, polychlorinate biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), organophosphorus pesticides. This study was designed as a part of efforts to investigate the biochemical pollutant markers for diagnosis of marine pollutions by the changes in lipid components of the flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) in Yellow Sea of Korea. Homoglobin levels in serum of cultured and wild flounders in Yellow Sea were significantly lower (5 - 15% and 20 -25 % , respectively) than those of wild flounder in Pohang. Triglyceride (TG) contents in serum of cultured flounders in Yellow Sea were 10 - 40% higher than those of wild flounder in Pohang. Total and low density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol contents in serum of flounders in Yellow Sea were significantly 10-15% and 30-35% (cultured), and 10-20% (wild), respectively, higher than those of wild flounder in Pohang. Atherogenic index (AI) and T-Chol/PL rations in serum of cultured and wild flounders in Yellow sea were significantly 20-45% and 10-!5%, 6-35% and 15-35%, respectively, higher than those of wild flounder in pohang. These results suggest that near-coastal waters as well as neritic waters of the Yellow Sea might be affected by pollutant input.

• The Korean Journal of Malacology
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.157-165
• /
• 2006

The present study was conducted to confirm that a bivalve Ruditapes philippinarum can be used as a biomarker for the monitoring of the heavy metal pollution in the silt of the marine environment. The clams were collected from the silt of Cheonsu-bay, Buheung-ri, and Tan-island of the West Sea, Korea. To observe the normal structures of the target organs (hepatopancreas and gill), they were dissected out for the immunohistochemical study and the electron microscopy with TEM, SEM, and SEM-EDS. The immunohistochemical study showed that the interdiverticular connective tissues of the hepatopancreas, and the outer epithelium of the gill lamellae was strongly reacted to anti-metallothionein (MT), indicating the presence of MT, a metal-binding protein, involved in metal detoxifying process. According to the examinations under the TEM, the epithelial cells of the hepatopancreas of the clams collected from polluted area (Tan-island) showed certain changes such as swollen rER, swollen nuclear envelope and inclusion bodies in the nulcei. In the SEM-EDS analysis, tissue of the hepatopancreas showed relatively higher concentration of S, Zn, and Cd. These elements are supposed to be concerning with the MT-reaction in the hepatopancreas. Considering that the coastal bivalve R. philippinarum showed immediate subcellular responses to heavy metal pollution in the overall experiments conducted, this species might act as one of efficient biomarkers for the heavy metal contamination in the marine environment.