• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.348-355
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• 2017

Human activities have resulted in soil pollution problems to us. Human and ecological risk assessment have been suggested as an efficient environmental management strategy for protecting human and ecosystems from soil pollution. However, Korean environmental policy is currently focused on human protection, and fundamental researches for ecology protection are required for institutional frameworks. In this study, we developed a schematic frame of Korean soil ecological risk assessment, and suggested the basic information for its application. This study suggested a soil ecological risk assessment scheme consisting of 4 steps for derivation of Predicted-No-Effect-Concentration (PNEC): 1) ecotoxicity data collection and reliability determination, 2) data standardization, 3) evaluation of data completeness for PNEC calculation, and 4) determination of ecological-risk. The reliability determination of ecotoxicity data was performed using Reliability Index (RI), and the classification of domestic species, acute/chronic, toxicity endpoint, and soil properties was used for data cataloging. The PNEC calculation methodology was determined as low-reliability, middle-reliability, and high-reliability according to their quantitative and qualitative levels of ecotoxicity data. This study would be the introductory plan research for establishment of Korean soil ecological risk assessment, and it can be a fundamental framework to further develop guidelines of Korean environmental regulation.

• Proceedings of the KAIS Fall Conference
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• 2009.12a
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• pp.100-102
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• 2009

Effect of temperature, pH and soil depth on germination of Dianthus chinensis, Dianthus barbatus, and Perennial pennant were investigated in growth chamber and soil condition at the ratio of 7:3 (natural soil and organic soil) in laboratory condition. the optimum temperature for seed germination was recorded for $20^{\circ}C-\;25^{\circ}C$. Maximum germination was observed for Dianthus barbatus (76%) where as in soil condition Perennial pennant (51%) showed maximum germination at 1 cm soil depth. Similarly, optimum pH for seed germination was at pH 6 in all the species. So in lower pH (at pH4) seed germination was inhibited. Germination of these selected species at different environmental condition help to construct the ecological sound proof wall to mitigate the noise especially in urban areas.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.104-112
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• 2015

In this study, several factors which can have an effect on soil during strategic environmental assessment (SEA) are analyzed against a total of 86 administrative plans and development basic plans of the SEA. Other factors which could have influences on soil are also analyzed after examining contents and rules required for preparing the SEA statement. Then, we propose assessment factors on soils during the SEA procedure. We think that this study could give baseline data to set up assessment items, criteria, and techniques that are highly necessitated in preparation of the SEA statement in the near future.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.224-229
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• 2017

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) have been used as additives in a variety of consumer products. While these particles may enter the environment, only a limited number of studies have investigated the effects of ZnO NPs on soil exoenzymes. Here, we investigate the long-term effects of ZnO NPs at concentrations of 50 and 500 mg/kg on the activities of six soil exoenzymes in planted soils: Dehydrogenase, fluorescein diacetate (FDA) hydrolase, urease, acid phosphatase, arylsulfatase, and ${\beta}-glucosidase$. Significant effects were observed at one or more time points for all enzymes except for FDA hydrolase. These effects included both decreases and increases in enzyme activity. Our results suggest that ZnO NP treatments of 50 and 500 mg/kg can adversely affect soil enzymes, particularly acid phosphatase and urease, and thus, these data may have implications for phosphorous and nitrogen cycles in the soil.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.28-37
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• 2011

A preliminary study for energy efficient soil heating and contaminant removal using microwave was conducted. Soils sampled from floodplain were heated with microwave oven, and soil heating property and energy efficiency were compared to those heated with electrical furnace. In addition the effects of water, soil organic matter, and contaminated diesel on soil heating with microwave were investigated. Even though the electrical power consumption of electrical furnace and microwave oven were similar, temperature of soil heated with microwave oven was significantly higher than that of soil heated with electrical furnace. The increase of soil moisture content delays the raise of soil temperature during heating it with microwave oven. However, the effects of total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) (<10%) in contaminated soil matrix and small amount of soil organic matter (<5%) on the increase of soil temperature by microwave were not significant. Further studies for contaminated soils with different texture using pilot scale microwave reactor are required for application of this technique in the field.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.9
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• pp.1310-1320
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• 2020

Low-quality soil for land reuse is a crucial problem in vegetation quality and especially to waste disposal sites in mining areas. It is necessary to find suitable materials to improve the soil quality and especially to increase soil microbial diversity and activity. In this study, pot experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of a mixed material of humic acid, super absorbent polymer and biochar on low-quality soil indexes and the microbial community response. The indexes included soil physicochemical properties and the corresponding plant growth. The results showed that the mixed material could improve chemical properties and physical structure of soil by increasing the bulk density, porosity, macro aggregate, and promote the mineralization of nutrient elements in soil. The best performance was achieved by adding 3 g·kg^-1 super absorbent polymer, 3 g·kg^-1 humic acid, and 10 g·kg^-1 biochar to soil with plant total nitrogen, dry weight and height increased by 85.18%, 266.41% and 74.06%, respectively. Physicochemical properties caused changes in soil microbial diversity. Acidobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Cyanobacteria, Firmicutes, Nitrospirae, Planctomycetes, and Proteobacteria were significantly positively correlated with most of the physical, chemical and plant indicators. Actinobacteria and Armatimonadetes were significantly negatively correlated with most measurement factors. Therefore, this study can contribute to improving the understanding of low-quality soil and how it affects soil microbial functions and sustainability.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.439-444
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• 2019

It is generally known that high strength soil is indicative of well-graded particle size distribution. However, there are some special cases of firm ground despite poor grade distribution, especially a specific gap-graded soil. Based on these discoveries, this study investigated the development of an additive of gap-graded soils designed to increase soil strength. This theoretical concept was used to calculate the mixed ratio required for optimal soil strength of the ground sample. The gap-graded aggregate was added according to Plato's polyhedral theory and subsequently calculated ratio and soil strength characteristics were then compared to characteristics of the original soil sample through various test results. In addition, the underground stress transfer rate was measured according to the test conditions. The test results showed that the ground settlement and stress limit thickness were reduced with the incorporation of gap-graded soil. Further field tests would confirm the reproducibility and reliability of the technology by using gap-graded soil to reinforce soft ground of a new construction site. Gap-graded soil has the potential to reduce the construction cost and time of construction compared to other reinforcing methods.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.277-282
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• 2018

BACKGROUND: At these days, the human health and environmental concerns of pesticide used for turf grass management at golf courses in Korea have increased. The objectives of the study were to determine the pesticide residues for golf course and neighboring area and evaluate the impact moved into neighboring area of pesticides treated at golf courses. METHODS AND RESULTS: Three golf courses and neighboring areas in Korea were monitored from July to October, 2017. The soil sample collection was divided the golf course into its logical parts (such as a greens, fairways, and rough) and neighboring area soil samples were collected at three different points. The water samples of the golf course and neighboring area were collected at three different points, respectively. The pesticide residues for soil and water sample were monitored by the multi-residue screening method of 98 pesticide with HPLC-MS-MS. The concentrations of detected pesticide in soil and water samples of the golf course were in the range of 0.01~1.26 mg/kg and 0.0001~0.0089 mg/kg, respectively. The residue levels for detected pesticides in neighboring area were at 0.01~0.04 mg/kg and 0.0001~0.0029 mg/kg, respectively, well below those level in golf course. CONCLUSION: This study indicate that the pesticide residue levels of golf course and neighboring area in Korea may not a possible risk of exposure on soil and aquatic environment. For future work, more monitoring should be performed so that the evaluation data becomes more valid.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.203-208
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• 1989

This study was objected to figure out the soil microarthropod fauna in forests with different flora, and to elucidate how environmental factors affect the diversity of soil microarthropods. Relationships between the distribution density of soil microarthropods and environmental factors were correlated positively with organic matter and C/N ratio. By the calculation of the contribution coefficients, organic matter, amount of precipitation, C/N ratio, and soil moisture were found to be major environmental factors that affect the distribution of soil microarthropods.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.199-204
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• 2005

Experiments were performed to estimate the organic release from the aquifer soil in riverbank and/or riverbed filtration via a kinetic approach. Organic release was assumed as a reaction of first order regarding concentrations in both soil and water phases. The reaction rate constants were obtained by comparing the model predictions with the experimental data of organic release reaction and the equilibrium distribution of organic matter between water and soil phases. Results show that the organic release from the aquifer soil was not negligible under normal conditions in Korea reaching 4.7mg-COD/L-day. This indicates that manganese and iron start to be released from aquifer soil in the riverbank filtration in the middle reach of the Nakdong river if the travel time of the filtrate exceeds about 5 days. It was also seen that the COD of the soil organic matter was 0.89mg-COD/mg-OM and that 65% of the COD was BOD5.