• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.99-111
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• 2022

Together with the development of measurement techniques, radiocarbon (¹⁴C) has been increasingly used as a key tool to investigate carbon cycling and associated biogeochemistry in the ocean. In this paper, the current status of radiocarbon studies in the East Sea (Japan Sea) is reviewed. Previously, spatiotemporal distribution and change of the water masses in the East Sea from 1979 to 1999 were investigated by using the ¹⁴C in the dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC). Researches on sinking particulate organic carbon (POC) revealed that POC in the deep ocean has more complex and heterogeneous origins than we expected. In particular, since 2011, Korean researchers have been collecting sinking particle samples for more than 10 years, so it is expected that ¹⁴C of POC will provide important information to understand carbon cycling in relation to climate change. Although the quantity of ¹⁴C data published in the East Sea is still limited, the importance and the future direction of using ¹⁴C to understand the biogeochemical mechanisms of carbon cycling and its role as a carbon reservoir in the East Sea are detailed herein.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.29-37
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• 2013

The study was carried out in two different forest types viz., Banj oak and Chir pine forests to assess the variation in forest species composition and soil properties along altitudinal gradients in the Garhwal Himalayas. The results of the study showed that between the forests soil moisture was higher in Banj oak forest because of closed canopy and dense forest compared to Chir pine forest. The sand particles were reported higher in Banj oak forest which might be due to the addition of organic matter favouring coarse structure of soil, helping in holding maximum water in soils. However in the Chir pine forest low amount of soil organic matter and presence of clayey soil, develops soil compactness which reduces the penetration of water resulting in high soil bulk density. The higher accumulation of litter and presence of moisture in Banj oak forest favours higher nutrient level of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium compared to Chir pine forest. The soil organic carbon also reduced with increasing altitude at both gradients. While bulk density has reverse trend with soil organic carbon in both the forests at different peaks of same region. In Banj oak forest, the highest density and total basal cover was reported 1,100 tree $ha^{-1}$ and 58.86 $m^2\;ha^{-1}$ respectively. However, the highest values of density and total basal cover of Chir pine forest was 560 tree$ha^{-1}$ and 56.94 $m^2\;ha^{-1}$ respectively. The total density and basal cover of both the forests reduced with increasing altitude. The study concludes that Banj oak forest has better nutrient cycling ability, well developed foest floor and has a greater protective and productive features compared to the Chir pine forest which is without lower vegetation cover and having only pine litter accumulation which does not allow any other species to grow.

• Environmental Sciences Bulletin of The Korean Environmental Sciences Society
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.71-78
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• 2000

The chlorination of municipal drinking water supplies leads to the formation of so-called disinfection by-products(DBPs), many of which have been reported to cause harmful health effects based on animal studies. This study was conducted: 1) to observe seasonal changes in the major DBPs at four sampling sites on a drinking water distribution system located in Chunchon, Kangwon Do; and 2) to examine the effects of major water quality parameters on the formation of DBPs. During the field sampling, the water temperature, pH, and total and free chlorine residuals were all measured. The water samples were then analyzed for total organic carbon(TOC) and eight disinfection by-products in the laboratory. Chloroform, dichloroacetic acid, and trichloroacetic acid were the major constituents of the measured DBPs. The concentrations of the total DBPs were highest in fall, particularly in October, and lowest in summer. The concentrations of the total DBPs increased with increasing TOC concentrations. Multiple regression analyses showed that the concentrations of chloroform, bromodichloromethane, and chloral hydrate were linearly correlated with the pH. Other water parameters were not included in the regression equations. Accordingly, these results suggest that TOC and pH are both important factors in the formation of DBPs.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.85-92
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• 2000

The purpose of this study was to identify the controlling factors to construct tidal flat ecosystems having similar characteristics as natural ones. We transplanted the soil in a constructed tidal flat to a natural one and vice versa. Parameters monitored after these transplantations were silt content, organic matter, bacterial population and oxidation-reduction potential. Moreover, the relationship among silt content, organic matter and bacterial population was investigated by laboratory column experiment. The silt content, organic matter, bacterial population and vortical profile of oxidation-reduction potential in the soil transplanted from the constructed tidal flat to the natural one changed to similar values to those In the natural one. On the contrary, all the parameters for the soil transplanted from the natural tidal flat to the constructed one changed to similar values as those in the constructed one. The silt contents in these two transplanted soils were in proportion to the organic carbon contents and bacterial population. Similarly, the bacterial population in laboratory column experiment increased with the increase in silt and organic matter contents. It seemed to be important to select a place to enhance accumulative of silt and/or to maintain the silt content by hydrodynamic control of seawater in order to construct a tidal flat having similar characteristics as natural one.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.70-80
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• 2018

Natural organic matter (NOM) is among the most common pollutant in underground and surface waters. It comprises of humic substances which contains anionic macromolecules such as aliphatic and aromatic compounds of a wide range of molecular weights along with carboxylic, phenolic functional groups. Although the concentration of NOM in potable water usually lies in the range of 1-10 ppm. Conventional treatment technologies are facing challenge in removing NOM effectively. The main issues are concentrated to low efficiency, membrane fouling, and harmful by-product formation. Ion-exchangers can be considered as an efficient and economic pretreatment technology for the removal of NOM. It not only consumes less time for pretreatment but also resist formation of trihalomethanes (THMs), an unwanted harmful by-product. This article provides a comprehensive review of ion exchange processes for the removal of NOM.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2014

Natural organic matter (NOM) is a primary component of fouling in low-pressure membrane filtration, either solely, or in concert with colloidal particles. Various preventive measures to interfere with NOM fouling have been developed and extensively tested, such as coagulation, oxidation, ion exchange, carbon adsorption, and mineral oxide adsorption. Therefore, this article aims to conduct a literature review covering the topics of low-pressure membrane processes, NOM characteristics and fouling behaviors, and diverse fouling control strategies. In-depth explanations and discussion are made regarding why some treatment options are able to remove NOM from source water, but do not reduce fouling. This review provides insight for hybridized membrane processes with respect to NOM removal and fouling mitigation in water treatment.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.349-358
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• 2007

In order to understand biogeochemical cycles of organic carbon in the permeable intertidal sandy sediments of the Nakdong estuary, we estimated the organic carbon production and consumption rates both in situ and in the laboratory. The Chl-a content of the sediment and the nutrient concentrations in below surface pore water in the sandy sediment were lower than in the muddy sediment. The sediment oxygen consumption rates were relatively high, especially when compared with rates reported from other coastal muddy sediments with higher organic carbon contents. This implied that both the organic carbon degradation and material transport in the sandy sediment were enhanced by advection-related process. The simple mass balance estimation of organic carbon fluxes showed that the major sources of carbon in the sediment would originate from benthic microalgae and detrital organic carbon derived from salt marsh. The daily natural biocatalzed filtration, extrapolated from filtration rates and the total area of the Nakdong estuary, was one order higher than the maximum capability of sewage plants in Busan metropolitan city. This implies that the sandy sediment contributes greatly to biogeochemical purification in the area, and is important for the re-distribution of materials in the coastal environment.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.297-311
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• 2012

Since 1997, Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy and Ministry of Environment have established data on some 400 basic raw and subsidiary materials and process like energy, petro-chemical, steel, cement, glass, paper, construction materials, transportation, recycling and disposal etc by initiating establishment of LCI database. Regarding agriculture, Rural Development Administration has conducted establishment of LCI database for major farm products like rice, barley, beans, cabbage and radish etc from 2009, and released that they would establish LCI database for 50 items until 2020 later on. The domestic LCI database for seeds, seedling, agrochemical, inorganic fertilizer and organic fertilizer etc is only at initial stage of establishment, so overseas LCI databases are brought and being used. However, since the domestic and overseas natural environments differ, they fall behind in reliability. Therefore, this study has the purpose to select organic farming materials, survey the production process for various types of organic farming materials and establish LCI database for the effects of greenhouse gas emitted during the process in order to select carbon basic units for agricultural production system compliant in domestic situation instead of relying on overseas data and apply life cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emitted by each crop during the process. As for selecting methods, in this study organic farming materials were selected in the method of direct observation of material and bottom-up method a survey method with focus on the organic farming materials admitted into rice production. For the basic unit of carbon emission amount by the production of 1kg of organic farming material, the software PASS 4.1.1 developed by Korea Accreditation Board under Ministry of Knowledge Economy was used. The study had the goal to ultimately provide basic unit to calculate carbon emission amount in executing many institutions like goal management system and carbon performance display system etc in agricultural sector to be conducted later on. As a result, emission basic units per 1kg of production were calculated to be 0.0088kg-$CO_2$ for charcoal, 0.1319kg-$CO_2$ for grass liquid, and 0.2804kg-$CO_2$ for microbial agent.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.36 no.9
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• pp.604-608
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• 2014

This study investigated influence of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) in natural organic matter (NOM) on the formation of organic chloramines upon monochloramination. Ratios of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to DON of the 16 NOM isolates ranged from 7 to 47 mg-C/mg-N. Levels of organic chloramines maxed in 24 hours at $0.16mg-Cl_2/mg-N$ in average. The yields were relatively lower, but decay of organic chloramines were slower than those upon chlorination. Organic chloramines formed upon monochloramination decreased by 56% in average in 120 h. NOM with lower DOC/DON ratios formed more organic chloramines. NOM fractions such as hydrophobic, hydrophilic, transphilic, and colloidal did not significantly impact formation of organic chloramines. As the monochloramine doses increased, more organic chloramines were produced ($R^2=0.91$). Overestimation of disinfection capacity due to the formation of organic chloramines may not be concerns for monochloramine systems since only 6% of monochloramine could be converted to organic chloramines upon monochloramination of NOM.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.141-153
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• 2009

$PM_{2.5}$ samples were collected from December 2005 through November 2007 in two cities including Chuncheon and Seoul in order to investigate the characteristics of carbonaceous aerosol. The average $PM_{2.5}$ concentration in Seoul ($43.2{\mu}g/m^3$) was approximately 1.2 times higher than that measured in Chuncheon ($36.1{\mu}g/m^3$), however there was no statistical difference on $PM_{2.5}$ concentration between those two cities. Backward trajectories were passing through Seoul area before arriving Chuncheon for about half of the samples, and $PM_{2.5}$ largely increased in Chuncheon when back-trajectories originated from Seoul area. Total carbon (TC) was calculated as sum of OC and EC, contributing 20.5% and 29.2% to total $PM_{2.5}$ mass in Chuncheon and Seoul, respectively. The average ratio of secondary organic carbon (SOC) to total OC was 40% at both sites, and the highest SOC concentration was observed in summer probably due to enhanced volatilization of organic species and active photochemical reaction. J value was calculated to determine if acidic condition affected the increase of secondary organic carbon. In both Chuncheon and Seoul SOC/OC ratios were fairly enhanced when J<100% of acidic condition.