• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.17-28
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• 1986

This study was intended to investigate the consolidation characteristics of lowly organic soils and highly organic ones, with organic content 15 of and 68 % respectively. which were sampled from three different soil regions in Chonbuk province. The results were obtained partly from standard consolidation test but mostly from single increment consolidation test in which each sample was held under the first sustained load for weeks. Highly organic soils retained considerably larger void ratio than lowly organic ones. Decrease of void ratio due to load increment was gradual in lowly organic soils and abrupt in highly organic ones. The long-term compression quantity of the highly organic soils became linearly proportional to the logarithm of time after 5 minutes. The lowly organic soils showed a compression pattern similar to that of clay. For highly organic soils, the secondary consolidation coefficient appeared to have a constant relationship with the logarithm of consolidation time, and therefore may be used as a significant factor in estimating the long-term settlement.

• Mycobiology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.272-276
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• 2009

In this study, eight soil samples were collected from organic and conventional farms in a central area of South Korea. Spore communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and glomalin, a glycoprotein produced by AMF, were analyzed. Spores of Glomus clarum, G. etunicatum, G. mosseae, G. sp., Acaulospora longula, A. spinosa, Gigaspora margarita, and Paraglomus occultum were identified at the study sites, based on morphological and molecular characteristics. While Acaulospora longula was the most dominant species in soils at organic farms, Paraglomus occultum was the most dominant species in soils at conventional farms. Species diversity and species number in AMF communities found in soils from organic farms were significantly higher than in soils from conventional farms. Glomalin was also extracted from soil samples collected at organic and conventional farms and was analyzed using both Bradford and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. The glomalin content in soils from organic farms was significantly higher than in soils from conventional farms. These results indicate that agricultural practices significantly affect AMF abundance and community structure.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.337-348
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• 2020

Tropical organic soils having more than 65% of organic matters are named "peat". This soil type is extremely soft, unconsolidated, and possesses low shear strength and stiffness. Different conventional and industrial binders (e.g., lime or Portland cement) are used widely for stabilisation of organic soils. However, due to many factors affecting the behaviour of these soils (e.g., high moisture content, fewer mineral particles, and acidic media), the efficiency of the conventional binders is low and/or cost-intensive. This research investigates the impact of different constituents of cement-sodium silicate grout system on the compressibility behaviour of organic soil, including settlement and void ratio. A microstructure analysis is also carried out on treated organic soil using Scanning Electron Micrographs (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX), and X-ray Diffraction (XRD). The results indicate that the settlement and void ratio of treated organic soils decrease gradually with the increase of cement and kaolinite contents, as well as sodium silicate until an optimum value of 2.5% of the wet soil weight. The microstructure analysis also demonstrates that with the increase of cement, kaolinite and sodium silicate, the void ratio and porosity of treated soil particles decrease, leading to an increase in the soil density by the hydration, pozzolanic, and polymerisation processes. This research contributes an extra useful knowledge to the stabilisation of organic soils and upgrading such problematic soils closer to the non-problematic soils for geotechnical applications such as deep mixing.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.36-42
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• 2007

Korean paddy soils have long been almost uniformly managed throughout the whole country with flooded, deep tillage, puddlling, transplanting, and uncovering after harvest. Management of soil organic carbon could be more important in the sources of green house gases. However, soil organic carbon dynamics were not been studied for Korean paddy soils. Therefore, we evaluated the changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) of paddy soils between 1999 and 2003 at the same locations nationwide except islands. Soil organic carbon tends to increase in Inceptisols, which is predominant soil order for Korean paddy soils, from 1999 to 2003. Soil organic carbon increases in topographically plain paddy soils was greater than in valley soils, and was considerably high in predominant types of paddy soils (i.e., well adapted paddy soils, sandy paddy soils, and poorly drained paddy soils) but low and stable in the saline paddy soils. We also found that clay paddy soils are greater in soil organic carbon than sandy paddy soils. Through this study, we concluded that a proper management of paddy soils could contribute to soil organic carbon storage, which imply that the Korean paddy soils could help to enhance carbon dioxide sequestration via soil organic matter into the soil.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.161-174
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• 1979

A review was made on the effect of organic matter application on the chemical characteristics of soils such as pH, solubilities of minerals, and cation exchange capacity mainly at flooded rice soils. The review can be summarized as follows: 1. Application of organic material such as rice straw and compost in flooded rice soil leads to a temporary lowering of soil pH at the earlier stage of soil reduction, due to the production of various organic acids and carbonic acid. This temporary lowered pH is replaced with the production of alkaline substances such as ammonia as the reduction of soil proceeds. 2. Incorporation of organic materials intensifies the ferrous iron, dissolving various minerals, virtually to the increase in electrical conductivity of soils. 3. Organic materials also play an important role in dissolving soil minerals through the production of various chelating agents. 4. Application of soil organic matter significantly increases cation exchange capacity of soils. 5. Continuous application of rice straw or compost leads to the increase in soil organic matter content to some extent, up to the level of equilibrium. In soils low in organic matter the equilibrium level is attained with five years continuous application of compost. 6. The manner of chemical fertilizer application influences the accumulation of organic matter applied in soils. Low levels of fertilization lowers the accumulation while high levels of fertilization accerelates the accumulation.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.346-351
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• 2001

Oxidation of Cr(III) to Cr(VI) can increase availability and toxicity of chromium. In this study, possible mechanisms by which pH and organic matter can control the chromium oxidation and reduction in soil system were examined using four soils of different pHs and organic matter contents. Reduction of Mn-oxides occurred in the soils of higher organic matter content (4.0%), but Mn-oxide was quite stable during the incubation in the soil of pH 7.0 and 0.5% organic matter content. Manganese oxides can be reductively dissolved at lower pH and higher organic matter conditions. The soil of pH 7.0 and 4.0% organic matter content showed the highest Cr-oxidation potential. Reduction of soluble Cr(VI) was observed in all the soils examined. The most rapid reduction was found in soil of pH 5.5 and 4.0% organic matter content, but the reduction was slow in soil of pH 7.0 and 0.5% organic matter content. Thus, the reductive capacity of organic matter added soils was much higher as compared to other two soils of lower organic matter content. In all the soils examined, the reductive capacity of soluble chromium was much higher than the oxidative capacity. Organic matter was found to be the most important controlling factor in the chromium oxidation and reduction. Reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) could be a potentially useful remediation or detoxification process, and availability and toxicity of chromium in soil would be controlled by controlling organic matter content and pH of the soils.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.175-194
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• 1979

The soil organic matter contents in arable land are generally low in Korea. Thus it is generally agreed that the application of organic materials to soils would be much beneficial. Present paper is a review on the effectiveness of organic mat ter application in uplands and lowlands. 1. The effect of organic matter application in uplands are of more clear and simple to explain as compared to that in lowlands. In uplands, appropriate application of organic matters such as compost and various crops residues improves the physical properties of soils leasing to increased water holding capacity, better aeration, and decrease in soil erosion. 2. In lowland, rice soils under water logged conditions the effect of organic matter application on rice yield is not straight borward and demands more refined knowledges for the interpretation of it. 3. It is found that the application of compost in rice soils is more effective when nitrogen fertilizer application is limited it dicating that nitrogen contained in the organic maerials can become available to rice plant and plays an important role for increased yield of rice under the condition where nitrogen fertilizer supply is limited. 4. Application of organic matter does not always bring about the desirable effects. Very often the organic matter application results in more intensive soil reduction leading to the accumulation of harmful substances which would can cancel out the positive effects of organic matter. This is partiunlarly true in poorly drained soils. 5. Rice straw or compost, when applied rice soils, supply sizeable amounts of available silicate to rice plant resulting in yield increase. 6. Although the effectiveness of organic matter application on rice yield in short term experiments is not consistent due to many reasons, the long term effect of organic matter is significant. 7. The term of the $O.M/SiO_2$ ratio in rice soils can serve as a criterion for the judgement of whether organic matter or silicate fertilizer is needed to be applied in a certain soil.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.1175-1180
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• 2008

This study explored the compacition characteristics of organic weathered soils. Weathered soils were collected around the Gwangju University in Jinwol-dong, Gwangju city, and coal was used as organic material. Weathered soils were mixed with coal so that the ratio of organic elements against mixed soil can be 0%, 25%, 50%, and 75% respectively. Compaction tests were carried out on these organic mixture soils in different ratios of organic materials. And soap water instead of water in compaction tests was used. Through this study, We knew that the bigger the organic material ratio was, the more the optimum moisture content increased and the less the maximum dry unit weight reduced. In case of using small compaction energy, using soap water instead of water improved the compaction efficiency a little.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.783-788
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• 2016

Agricultural management of paddy soil depends on the effects of soil microbial activities. The present study evaluated the soil microbial community of 25 paddy soils in Gyeongnam Province by fatty acid methyl ester (FAME). The average of microbial communities in paddy soils were 32.2% of total bacteria, 16.7% of Gram-negative bacteria, 12.9% of Gram-positive bacteria, 2.0% of actinomycetes, 14.9% of fungi, and 1.3% of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. The communities of total bacteria (34.9%) and Gram-negative bacteria (19.4%) in soils with $30{\sim}35g\;kg^{-1}$ of organic matter were significantly larger than those in soils with other organic matter levels. However, soils with $20{\sim}30g\;kg^{-1}$ of organic matter had significantly low ratio of cy17:0 to $16:1{\omega}7c$ and cy19:0 to $18:1{\omega}7c$ as compared with soils with $30{\sim}35g\;kg^{-1}$ of organic matter, indicating microbial stress decreased (p < 0.05). In principal component analyses of soil microbial communities, Gram-negative bacteria should be considered as a potential responsible factor for the obvious microbial community differentiation that was observed between the two different organic matter levels in paddy fields. Thus, soils containing $20{\sim}30g\;kg^{-1}$ of organic matter were responsible for strong effect on microbial biomass and stress in paddy fields.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.26-29
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• 2001

Sorption/desorption Study was conducted to determine desorption-resistance hydrophobic organic compounds in natural soils with low organic carbon content. Sorption/desorption characteristics of chlorobenzene and phenanthrene for both PPI (Petro Processors, Inc. Superfund site) and BM (Bayou Manchac), soils were investigated. Desorption was biphasic including reversible and desorption-resistant compartments. The biphasic sorption parameters indicated the presence of appreciable size of desorption-resistant phase in these soils. A finite maximum capacity of desorption-resistant fraction (equation omitted) was observed after several desorption steps. The apparent organic carbon based Partition coefficient, K(equation omitted) was 10$^{4.92{\pm}0.27}$ for PPI soil and 10$^{4.92{\pm}0.27}$ for BM soil, respectively. The difference in K(equation omitted) was attributed to different characteristics in soil organic matter. The results suggest that desorption-resistance should be considered in remediation and risk assessments in natural soils and sediments.