• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.471-477
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• 2013

Biochar amendment to agricultural soil is regarded as a promising option to mitigate climate change and enhance soil quality. It could sequester more carbon within the soil system and increase plant yield by changing soil physicochemical characteristics. However, sustainable use of biochar requires comprehensive environmental assessment. In this sense, it is important to measure additional greenhouse gas emission from soils after biochar addition. We investigated emissions of $CO_2$, $N_2O$, and $CH_4$ from incubated soils collected from rice paddy and cultivated grassland after amendment of 3% biochar (wt.) produced from rice chaff. During incubation, soils were exposed to three wet-dry cycles ranging from 5~85% soil gravimetric water content (WC) to investigate the changes in effect of biochar when influenced by different water levels. The $CO_2$ emission was reduced in biochar treatment compared to the control at WC of 30~70% both in rice paddy and grassland soils. This indicates that biochar could function as a stabilizer for soil organic carbon and it can be effective in carbon sequestration. The $N_2O$ emission was also reduced from the grassland soil treated with biochar when WC was greater than 30% because the biochar treated soils had lower denitrification due to better aeration. In the rice paddy soil, biochar addition resulted in decrease in $N_2O$ emission when WC was greater than 70%, while an increase was noted when WC was between 30~70%. This increase might be related to the fact that available nutrients on biochar surface stimulated existing nitrifying bacterial community, resulting in higher $N_2O$ emission. Overall results imply that biochar amendment to agricultural soil can stabilize soil carbon from fast decomposition although attention should be paid to additional $N_2O$ emission when biochar addition is combined with the application of nitrogen fertilizer.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.434-439
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• 2016

Anthropogenic soil in cropland is formed in the process of subsoil reversal and the refill of soil into cropland. However, there was little information on the chemical properties within soil profiles in anthropogenic soil under rice paddy near the river. In this study, we investigated the chemical properties within soil profiles in the anthropogenic soil located at 4 sites in Gumi, Kimhae, Chungju, and Euiseong to compare with the natural paddy soil near the river. Among particle sizes, the sand content decreased under soil profiles but the silt and clay contents increased compared to the natural paddy soil in soil profiles. Organic matter content in topsoil of anthropogenic soil was lower than in that of natural soil, which was shown the contrary tendency within soil profiles. Also, the soil pH, available $P_2O_5$, and exchangeable cations were higher in anthropogenic soil compared to natural paddy soil at topsoil, which was maintained these tendency into soil depth. Nutrients may be equally distributed in anthropogenic soil during the process of refill in paddy soil near the river. This results indicated that anthropogenic soil would contribute to carbon sequestration, the mitigation of compaction, and reduction of fertilizer application in paddy soil. Therefore, characteristics of anthropogenic soil can be used for the soil management in cropland.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.16-19
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• 2012

Increasing rice grain yield is critical for feeding rapid increasing of Asian population. However, global warming effect may be negative for sustainable rice production. Therefore it is essential to develop technologies not only for increasing grain yield but also for reducing global warming effect. Biochar, which is carbonized biomass, has a great potential of carbon sequestration and soil quality improvement, which can contribute grain yield increasing. In this study, rice yield responses to biochar application on the rice cropping system were evaluated with field experiments under different water management practices at the research farm of the University of Missouri-Columbia Delta Research Center, Portageville, MO. Biochar (i.e., $4Mg\;ha^{-1}$) was produced using field scale pyrolyzer and incorporated into the field 4 months prior to planting. Rice was grown under three different water management practices. Result showed that no significant yield difference was found in the biochar application plots compared to rice hull and control plots from the 2 years field study at the very fertile soil. However, rainfed management results in severe reduction of yield. Research concludes that the biochar application does not significantly influence on rice yield increasing especially for very fertile soils.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.1286-1294
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• 2011

This paper reviews the future directions and perspectives on the soil environmental researches in the 21 century. Previously, the principal emphasis of soil environmental researches had put on the enhancement of food and fiber productions. Beside the basic function of soil, however, the societal needs on soil resources in the 21st century have demands for several environmental and social challenges, occurring regionally or globally. Typical global issues with which soil science should deal include food security with increasing agronomic production to meet the exploding world population growth, adaptation and mitigation of climate change, increase of the carbon sequestration, supply of the biomass and bioenergy, securing the water resource and quality, protection of environmental pollution, enhancing the biodiversity and ecosystem health, and developing the sustainable farming/cropping system that improve the use efficiency of water and agricultural resources. These challenges can be solved through the sustainable crop production intensification (SCPI) or plant welfare concept in which soil plays a key role in solving the abovementioned global issues. Through implementation of either concept, soil science can fulfill the goal of the modern agriculture which is the sustainable production of crops while maintaining or enhancing the ecosystem function, quality and health. Therefore, directions of the future soil environmental researches should lie on valuing soil as an ecosystem services, translating research across both temporal and spatial scales, sharing and using data already available for other purposes, incorporating existing and new technologies from other disciplines, collaborating across discipline, and translating soil research into information for stakeholders and end users. Through the outcomes of these approaches, soil can enhance the productivity from the same confined land, increase profitability, conserve natural resource, reduce the negative impact on environment, enhance human nutrition and health, and enhance natural capital and the flow of ecosystem services. Soil is the central dogma, final frontier and new engine for the era of sustainability development in the $21^{st}$ century and thus soil environmental researches should be carried according to this main theme.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.46-55
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• 2016

This experimental study was aimed to estimate interfacial tension of brine-$CO_2$ by using a pendant bubble method and image analysis. Measurements were performed for wide ranges of temperatures, pressures, and salinities covering reservoir conditions in Pohang basin, a possible candidate for $CO_2$ storage operation in Korea. The profiles of $CO_2$ bubbles in brine obtained from image analysis with the densities of brine and $CO_2$ from previous studies were applied to Laplace-Young equation for calculating interfacial twnsion in brine-$CO_2$ system. The experimental results reveals that the interfacial tension is significantly affected by reservoir conditions such as pressure, temperature and water salinity. For conditions of constant temperature and water salinity, the interfacial tension decreases as pressure increases for low pressures (P < $P_c$), and approaches to a constant value for high pressures. For conditions of constant pressure and water salinity, the interfacial tension increases as temperature increases for T < $T_c$, with an asymptotic trend towards a constant value for high temperatures. For conditions of constant pressure and temperature, the interfacial tension increases with increasing water salinity. The trends in changes of interfacial tension can be explained by the effects of the reservoir conditions on the density difference of brine and $CO_2$, and the solubility of $CO_2$ in brine. The information on interfacial tensions obtained from this research can be applied in predicting the migration and distribution of injecting and residual fluids in brine-$CO_2$-rock systems in deep geological environments during geological $CO_2$ sequestrations.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.715-725
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• 2017

Importance of climate change and its impact on agriculture and environment has increased with the rise in the levels of Green House Gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere. To slow down the speed of climate change, numerous efforts have been applied in industrial sectors to reduce GHGs emission and to enhance carbon storage. In the agricultural sector, several types of research have been performed with emphasis on GHGs emission reduction; however, only a few work has been done in understanding the role of carbon sink on reduction in GHGs emission. In this study, we investigated ecosystem carbon balance and soil carbon storage in an agricultural paddy field. The results obtained were as follows: 1) Evaluation of soil C sequestration in paddy field was average $3.88Mg\;CO_2\;ha^{-1}$ following NPK+rice straw compost treatment, average $3.22Mg\;C\;ha^{-1}$ following NPK+hairy vetch treatment, and average $1.97Mg\;CO_2\;ha^{-1}$ following NPK treatment; and 2) Net ecosystem production (NEP) during the paddy growing season was average $14.01Mg\;CO_2\;ha^{-1}$ following NPK+hairy vetch treatment, average $12.60Mg\;CO_2\;ha^{-1}$ following NPK+rice straw compost treatment, and average $11.31Mg\;CO_2\;ha^{-1}$ following NPK treatment. Therefore, it is proposed that organic matter treatment can lead to an increase in soil organic carbon accumulation and carbon sock of crop ecosystem in fields compared to chemical fertilizers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.123-134
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• 2014

Identification of methods to optimize the growth of a plant community, including the capacity of the soil to further sequester carbon, is important in urban design and planning. In this study, to construct and manage an urban park to mitigate carbon emissions, soil organic carbon of varying biomass, different park construction times, and a range of vegetation types were analyzed by measuring aboveground and belowground carbon in Seoseoul Lake Park and Yangjae Citizen's Forest. The urban parks were constructed during different periods; Seoseoul Lake Park was constructed in 2009, whereas Yangjae Citizen's Forest was constructed in 1986. To identify the differences in soil organic carbon in various plant communities and soil types, above and belowground carbon were measured based on biomass, as well as the physical and chemical features of the soil. Allometric equations were used to measure biomass. Soil total organic carbon (TOC) and chemical properties such as pH, cation exchange capacity (CEC), total nitrogen (TN), and soil microbes were analyzed. The analysis results show that the biomass of the Yangjae Citizen's Forest was higher than that of the Seoseoul Lake Park, indicating that older park has higher biomass. On the other hand, TOC was lower in the Yangjae Citizen's Forest than in the Seoseoul Lake Park; air pollution and acid rain probably changed the acidity of the soil in the Yangjae Citizen's Forest. Furthermore, TOC was higher in mono-layered plantation area compared to that in multi-layered plantation area. Improving the soil texture would, in the long term, result in better vegetation growth. To improve the soil texture of an urban park, park management, including pH control by using lime fertilization, soil compaction control, and leaving litter for soil nutrition is necessary.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.65-74
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• 2020

BACKGROUND: Soil carbon sequestration has been investigated for a long time because of its potential to mitigate the greenhouse effect. No- or reduced tillage, crop rotations, or cover crops have been investigated and practiced to sequester carbon in soils but the roles of soil biota, particularly microorganisms, have been mostly ignored although they affect the amount and stability of soil organic matters. METHODS AND RESULTS: In this study we analyzed the organic matter and microbial community in organically cultivated corn field soils where no-tillage (NT) or conventional tillage (CT) had been practiced for about three years. The amounts of organic matter and recalcitrant carbon pool were 18.3 g/kg dry soil and 4.1 g C/kg dry soil, respectively in NT soils, while they were 12.4 and 2.5, respectively in CT soils. The amounts of RNA and DNA, and the copy numbers of bacterial 16S rRNA genes and fungal ITS sequences were higher in NT soils than in CT soils. No-tillage treatment increased the diversities of soil bacterial and fungal communities and clearly shifted the bacterial and fungal community structures. In NT soils the relative abundances of bacterial phyla known as copiotrophs, Betaproteobacteria and Bacteroidetes, increased while those known as oligotrophs, Acidobacteria and Verrucomicrobia, decreased compared to CT soils. The relative abundance of a fungal phylum, Glomeromycota, whose members are known as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, was about two time higher in NT soils than in CT soils, suggesting that the higher amount of organic matter in NT soils is related to its abundance. CONCLUSION: This study shows that no-tillage treatment greatly affects soil microbial abundance and community structure, which may affect the amount and stability of soil organic matter.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.143-152
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• 2013

No-till farming system has been extensively studied all over the world as the effective method for maintaining the soil fertility. The general advantages of this system have been well known for reducing the labor, fuel, machinery, and irrigation cost as well as for increasing the soil quality through soil aggregation, water infiltration, microbial population and etc. Recently, it becomes more popular with the increase of interest on sustainable agriculture, especially because of its higher carbon sequestration potential compared to conventional tillage. Crop residue management should be essentially included to look forward to achieving the positive effect on reduction of greenhouse gas. Nonetheless, there are also negative opinions on effect of no-till farming system. For example, some researchers reported that soil physical properties were not improved by no-till under certain soil and climatic conditions. This means no-till farming systems were strongly affected by the soil characters and climatic conditions. Therefore, the researches to meet the specific-regional characters are greatly needed in order for no-till farming system to successfully settle in Korea. The objective of the review article is to present the future direction and perspective on no-till farming system in Korea. For this purpose, we summarized the results of domestic and foreign researches about no-till farming system until now. Specifically, the chapter on foreign research consisted of four parts: positive and negative effects, the effect in paddy soil, and latest research direction (2012-2013) of no-till farming systems. Whereas, review for domestic researches was divided into two main parts: paddy and upland soils. In the final chapter, the priorities for the optimum conservation tillage in Korea were discussed and proposed through the previous researches.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.35-44
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• 2015

Forests contain a huge amount of carbon (C) and climate change could affect forest C dynamics. This study was conducted to predict the C dynamics of Pinus densiflora and Quercus variabilis forests, which are the most dominant needleleaf and broadleaf forests in Korea, using the Korean Forest Soil Carbon (KFSC) model under the two climate change scenarios (2012-2100; Constant Temperature (CT) scenario and Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 scenario). To construct simulation unit, the forest land areas for those two species in the 5th National Forest Inventory (NFI) data were sorted by administrative district and stand age class. The C pools were initialized at 2012, and any disturbance was not considered during the simulation period. Although the forest C stocks of two species generally increased over time, the forest C stocks under the RCP 8.5 scenario were less than those stocks under the CT scenario. The C stocks of P. densiflora forests increased from 260.4 Tg C in 2012 to 395.3 (CT scenario) or 384.1 Tg C (RCP 8.5 scenario) in 2100. For Q. variabilis forests, the C stocks increased from 124.4 Tg C in 2012 to 219.5 (CT scenario) or 204.7 (RCP 8.5 scenario) Tg C in 2100. Compared to 5th NFI data, the initial value of C stocks in dead organic matter C pools seemed valid. Accordingly, the annual C sequestration rates of the two species over the simulation period under the RCP 8.5 scenario (65.8 and $164.2g\;C\;m^{-2}\;yr^{-1}$ for P. densiflora and Q. variabilis) were lower than those values under the CT scenario (71.1 and $193.5g\;C\;m^{-2}\;yr^{-1}$ for P. densiflora and Q. variabilis). We concluded that the C sequestration potential of P. densiflora and Q. variabilis forests could be decreased by climate change. Although there were uncertainties from parameters and model structure, this study could contribute to elucidating the C dynamics of South Korean forests in future.