• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.280-291
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• 2011

Bottom-up approaches to control of Microcystis aeruginosa blooms were comparatively investigated through an in situ mesocosm experiment using aquatic plants (Iris pseudoacorus). In the mesocosm experiments, floating I. pseudoacorus, seemed to be effective in controlling massive M. aeruginosa blooms in an agricultural reservoir, exhibiting a close coupling with temporal variations in Chl-a and DO concentration. Shading by floating I. pseudoacorus resulted in a reduced phytoplankton abundance inhibiting light energy availability. Moreover, I. pseudoacorus may suppress phytoplankton growth through the excretion of chemical substances, likes a allelopathy, that inhibit phytoplankton photosynthetic activity. The $^{15}N$ atom % of I. pseudoacorus showed higher values than POM, suggesting that I. pseudoacorus assimilates DIN predominantly compared to phytoplankton, which was mostly M. aeruginosa. This result strongly suggests that the M. aeruginosa bloom should be regulated by aquatic plants, like I. pseudoacorus, this approach can affect zooplankton composition. This is the first study that has used stable isotope tracers to evaluate the biomanipulation efficiency through floating I. pseudoacorus.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.53-61
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• 2015

Habitat creation for endangered species Menyanthes trifoliata L. using planting module represents a habitat type such as the rhizome grows horizontally to open water at the margin of the lake. The objectives of this mesocosm experiment are habitat creation with easy construction and low management effort, and to investigate the potential of providing a habitat for aquatic macroinvertebrates. Planting modules had three different substrates of bed soil, perlite and K-SOIL (artificial lightweight soil using bottom ash). These modules were established in two different size of the tub($1170{\times}2250{\times}300mm^3$, $900{\times}1360{\times}190mm^3$). According to the monitoring results, number of leaves and coverage of M. trifoliata showed significant difference with substrate and tub size. The number of leaves showed similar growth responses in bed soil (mean 22.979) and K-SOIL (mean 28.042) substrates but growth was poor in perlite substrate (mean 1.667). The number of leaves in the large tub was more than small tub (p=0.015). Similar responses were obtained with the coverage, the length of rhizome and the number of rhizome in M. trifoliata. A total of 21 taxa of aquatic macroinvertebrates including 1,145 individuals was found in the mesocosm. The Shannon diversity index and colonization index in the mesocosm were similar to the previous studies. These results suggest that the experimental mesocosm could provide sufficient habitats for aquatic macroinvertebrates. If planting modules use bed soil or K-SOIL by planting substrate, establish that taking into account open water surfaces for M. trifoliata growth and manage about 30cm of water depth control, then habitat creation for M. trifoilata will be successful.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.72-81
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• 2020

Blooms of the small centric diatom Stephanodiscus is quite occasional in winter season in temperate freshwater ecosystems. Often, it leads to degradation of water quality and affects quality of supplied drinking water. In previous studies, naphthoquinone (NQ) compounds have been shown to be effective and selective for controlling winter bloom species Stephanodiscus hantzschii. We conducted a 5 ton scale mesocosm experiment to investigate the effects of NQ on native Stephanodiscus sp. collected from Nakdonggang River in water. After treatment with NQ 4-6 compound (0.2 μM), the cell density of Stephanodiscus sp. was rapidly reduced from 5 × 10³ cells mL^-1 to 0.2 × 10³ cells mL^-1 for 10 days. Additionally, NQ 4-6 compound did not affect physicochemical factors (water temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, nutrients) and biological factors (bacteria, heterotrophic nanoflagellates, zooplankton). Therefore, these findings suggest that the NQ 4-6 compound has potential as an alternative algicidal substances to effectively mitigate natural Stephanodiscus sp. blooms, and the application of NQ 4-6 compound will restore the healthy aquatic ecosystems.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.141-150
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• 2013

Natural zooplankton communities are composed of many different species at different trophic levels in the aquatic food web. Several researchers have reported that in mesocosm/enclosure experiments, larger cladocerans tend to be more sensitive to carbamate insecticides than smaller ones (Daphnia > Moina, Diaphanosoma > Bosmina). In contrast, results from individual-level laboratory tests have suggested that large cladoceran species are more tolerant than small species. To clarify this inconsistency, we conducted a microcosm experiment using model zooplankton communities with different species compositions, where animals were exposed to lethal (near to the 24 h LC50, concentration estimated to kill 50% of individuals within 24-h for the small cladoceran Bosmina) and lower, sublethal concentrations of carbaryl. In the experiment, population densities of the small cladocerans (Bosmina and Bosminopsis) decreased subsequent to the applications of chemical, but no impacts were observed on the large cladoceran Daphnia. Our results supported the reports of previous individual level toxicity tests, and indicated that the sensitivity of zooplankton to the insecticide was unchanged by biological interactions but the response of population can be modified by compensation of population through hatching from resting eggs and/or the persistence of insecticide in the systems.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.228-235
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• 2016

Aquatic ecosystems are receiving various harmful effects due to anthropogenic chemical pollutions. To protect wildlife, risk assessments of the chemicals are conducted using reference indexes of toxicity estimated by species-level laboratory tests and/or micro-/mesocosm community-level studies. However, the existing micro-/mesocosm communities are structurally too complicated, and it is also difficult to compare the experimental results directly with those from species-level tests. Here, we developed a procedure of a simple bi-trophic microcosm experiment which contains the common species (a green algae, Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata and a cladoceran, Daphnia magna) for testing chemical toxicities. For the proper operation of bitrophic microcosm experiment, the minimum required concentration of primary producer (P. subcapitata) is $5{\times}10^5cells\;mL^{-1}$. The microcosm system showed higher stability when the initially introduced D. magna population was composed of neonates (<24-h old) than adults and those mixture. This simple microcosm system would be an applicable tool to estimate the disturbing impacts of pollutants on plant-herbivore interactions, and linking the species- and population-/community level risk assessments in the future studies.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.78-87
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• 2021

Background: To understand shade and wind effects on seedling traits of common reed (Phragmites australis), we conducted a mesocosm experiment manipulating day length (10 h daytime a day as open canopy conditions or 6 h daytime a day as partially closed canopy conditions) and wind speed (0 m/s as windless conditions or 4 m/s as windy conditions). Results: Most values of functional traits of leaf blades, culms, and biomass production of P. australis were higher under long day length. In particular, we found sole positive effects of long day length in several functional traits such as internode and leaf blade lengths and the values of above-ground dry weight (DW), rhizome DW, and total DW. Wind-induced effects on functional traits were different depending on functional traits. Wind contributed to relatively low values of chlorophyll contents, angles between leaf blades, mean culm height, and maximum culm height. In contrast, wind contributed to relatively high values of culm density and below-ground DW. Conclusions: Although wind appeared to inhibit the vertical growth of P. australis through physiological and morphological changes in leaf blades, it seemed that P. australis might compensate the inhibited vertical growth with increased horizontal growth such as more numerous culms, indicating a highly adaptive characteristic of P. australis in terms of phenotypic plasticity under windy environments.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.914-919
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• 2019

A mesocosm experiment considering water exchange was conducted to evaluate the change in the properties of contaminated coastal sediment. The contaminated coastal sediment sample was prepared by mixing with granulated coal ash(GCA), which is an alkaline industrial by-product. During one month of observation time, the phosphate concentration of the GCA sample case was measured to be 19.0 and 0.4 mg/L lower than that of the control sample at the pore water and overlying water, respectively. The hydrogen sulfide concentration of the GCA sample case was 5.0 mg/L, which is significantly lower than that of the control sample(112.5 mg/L). Further addition of GCA in the sediment reduced the concentrations of phosphate and hydrogen sulfide, and could enhance the adsorption reaction, when compared to the sediment without GCA. The dissolved oxygen concentration in the overlying water of the GCA sample was measured to be 3.47 mg/L higher than the control sample. From the above results, we confirmed that GCA is an effective material for reducing pollutants in coastal sediment.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.109-119
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• 2006

This study investigated the effect of artificially enhanced mesozooplankton on the phytoplankton dynamics during fall blooming period using a mesocosm in Jangmok bay located in the Southern Sea of Korea in 2001. The four bags with 2,500 liter seawater containment were directly filled with the ambient water. And then, abundances of mesozooplankton in two experimental bags were treated 6 times higher than those in control bags by towing with net($300{\mu}m$) through the ambient water. Phytoplankton community between control and experimental bags were not significantly different in terms of chlorophyll-a(chl-a) concentration and standing crop (one-way ANOVA, p>0.05) during the study period. Initial high standing crop and chl-a concentration of phytoplankton drastically decreased and remained low until the end of the experiment in all bags. Diatoms, accounting for most of the phytoplankton community, consisted of Skeletonema costatum, Pseudo-nitzschia seriata, Chaetoceros curvisetus, Ch. debilis, Cerataulina pelagica, Thalassiosira pacifica, Cylindrotheca closterium, and Leptocylindrus danicus. Noctiluca scintillans dominated the temporal variation of mesozooplankton abundances, which peaked on Day 10 in the control and experimental bags, while the next dominant copepods showed their peak on Day 7. Shortly after mesozooplankton addition, copepod abundance in the experimental bags was obviously higher than that in the control bags on Day 1, however, it became similar to that in the control bags during the remnant period. It was supported by the higher abundance and length of both ctenophores and hydromedusae in experimental bags relative to the control bags. However, the cascading trophic effect, commonly leading to re-increase of phytoplankton abundance, was not found in the experimental bags, indicating that copepods were not able to control the phytoplankton in the bags based on the low grazing rate of Acartia erythraea. Besides that, rapidly sunken diatoms in the absence of natural turbulence as well as N-limited condition likely contributed the no occurrence of re-increased phytoplankton in the experimental bags.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.497-508
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• 2017

This study aimed to investigate correlations between concentrations of extractable Arsenic (As) with varying chemical solutions (0.1 M $Ca(NO_3)_2$, 0.1 M $(NH_4)2HPO_4$, 0.5 M EDTA, Mehlich 3, and 0.5 M $NaHCO_3$) and those of As in crops, and then to seek the most suitable soil extraction method for predicting the potential of As uptake in crops cultivated in soils contaminated with As. For a mesocosm experiment, pepper (Capsicum annuum L.), soybean (Glycine max L.), and rice (Oryza sativa L.) were cultivated for three months in pots containing soils taken from the arable areas near abandoned mines in Korea. Following the cultivation, soil pH and DOC significantly increased by treatments of lime and lime plus compost, respectively, while insignificant influences in changing total and all extractable As concentrations were found in all soils. Arsenic concentration in edible part of all crops considerably depended on the extractable As concentration in the soils, particularly with Mehlich 3. All extractable As concentrations in the soils of C. annuum and G. max were significantly correlated with As concentration in their edible parts. For O. sativa, the extractable concentrations of Mehlich 3 ($R^2$: 0.18 at p: 0.006) and EDTA ($R^2$: 0.11 at p: 0.036) showed only marked relationships with As concentration in the edible part. These results may indicate that the Mehlich 3 and EDTA are soil extractants to determine phytoavailable As in soil that provide better prediction for As transfer from soil to crop.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.74-80
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• 2019

In this study, pyrolyzed oyster shells at a low temperature ($350^{\circ}C$) were applied for a mesocosm experiment to confirm resulting changes in the properties of sediment. After creating a covering of oyster shells, an increase in ORP and decrease in ammonia in the overlying water was observed in an experimental case. The decrease of TOC in this experiment was due to the dilution of organic matter due to the addition of inorganic matter (pyrolyzed oyster shells). The decrease in the concentration of AVS was observed due to the adsorption of AVS by the surface of the oyster shells. From the results obtained in this experiment, it has been concluded that pyrolyzed oyster shells at a low temperature can be used for remediation of polluted sediment.