• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.183-200
• /
• 2003

In order to assess the ecological changes induced by organic pollutants of the Shihwa Lake, BPI (Benthic Pollution Index) based on the benthic faunal community was employed. It was modified from Infaunal Trophic Index (ITI), and recommended as a pollution detecting method for the environmental assessment. The BPI values were calculated from the benthos data, which were collected for three terms: in 1980, before the Shihwa Lake was built up; in 1994-1997, which the Shihwa Lake was completely isolated from the outer seawater; in 1997-1999, after inflow of the outer seawater. Since the Shihwa Dike was constructed in February 1994, the pollution intensity of the lake had been increased from the narrow and inner part of the former Gyeonggi Bay and spread fast along the coast line of the Shihwa Lake. Then, in 1996 it showed the very high BPI levels all around the Lake. This serious polluted condition had been lasted till 1997, when the inflow of the seawater was begun. In 1998, from the nearest part of the Shihwa Gate, the BPI levels gradually became low in most area of the Lake, except its inner and narrow part. These greatly lowered BPI levels mean that the seawater inflow could be assumed to affect positively in the lake. Furthermore, BPI gave the same results from the other environmental assessment based on the abundance and the species richness of macrobenthic community. It shows that BPI could be useful as an effective method to assess the marine environment and evaluate the status of environmental conditions.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.326-335
• /
• 2007

This study was conducted to assess the environmental risks of anthracnose resistant transgenic chili peppers with the PepEST gene on non-target organisms in the agroecosystem environments during the chili pepper growing seasons in 2006. We quantitatively collected arthropods assemblages living on leaves and flowers of chili peppers on June 20, July 25, and August 25 by using an insect vacuum collector to compare the patterns of arthropod community structures between non-transgenic chili peppers (nTR, WT512) and anthracnose resistant transgenic chili peppers (TR, line 68). We found the seasonal difference with the highest species richness and Shannon's diversity in July's sampling among the growing seasons (P<0.05) and each sampling season showed the different arthropod community composition. We also found there was no statistical difference between the two types of crops, nTR and TR, at each sampling time (P>0.05). The significance level of arthropod community showed that there were lots of seasonal difference of functional groups as well as taxa but only the herbivore group in the functional groups was significantly different for the types of plants (P<0.05). So, we further examined the herbivore groups to find any potential damage and identified the possibility of herbivorous damage from some herbivores, grasshoppers, aphids and thrips. Although we couldn't find any adverse effects from the environmental risk assessment between the arthropod community structures on two types of plants from our results, we should keep working for the environmental risk assessment because of the herbivorous potential risk possibility.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.479-499
• /
• 2019

This study was conducted to investigate the responses of soil properties and microbial communities to different agricultural management and soil types, including organic management in Andisols (Org-A), organic management in Non-andisols (Org-NA), conventional management in Andisols (Con-A) and conventional management in Non-andisols (Con-NA) by using a pyrosequencing approach of 16S rRNA gene amplicon in Radish farms of volcanic ash soil in Jeju island. The results showed that agricultural management systems had a little influence on the soil chemical properties but had significant influence on microbial communities. In addition, soil types had significant influences on both the soil chemical properties and microbial communities. Organic farming increased the microbial density of bacteria and biomass C compared to conventional farming, regardless of soil types. Additionally, Org-NA had the highest dehydrogenase activity among treatments, whereas no difference was found between Org-A, Con-A and Con-NA and had the highest species richness (Chao 1) and diversity (Phyrogenetic diversity). Particularly, Chao 1 and Phyrogenetic diversity were increased in organic plots by 12% and 20%, compared with conventional plots, respectively. Also, regardless of agricultural management and soil types, Proteobacteria was the most abundant bacterial phylum, accounting for 21.9-25.9% of the bacterial 16S rRNAs. The relative abundance of putative copiotroph such as Firmicutes was highest in Org-NA plot by 21.0%, as follows Con-NA (13.1%), Con-A (6.7%) and Org-A (5.1%.), respectively and those of putative oligotrophs such as Acidobacteria and Planctomycetes were higher in Con-A than those in the other plots. Furthermore, LEfSe indicated that organic system enhanced the abundance of Fumicutes, while conventional system increased the abundance of Acidobacteria, especially in Non-andisols. Correlation analysis showed that total organic carbon (TOC) and nutrient levels (e.g. available P and exchangeable K) were significantly correlated to the structure of the microbial community and microbial activity. Overall, our results showed that the continuous organic farming systems without chemical materials, as well as the soil types made by long-term environmental factors might influence on soil properties and increase microbial abundances and diversity.

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.32 no.3
• /
• pp.269-289
• /
• 2010

In Summer 2008, a multidisciplinary survey was conducted onboard R/V Haeyang 2000 to understand plankton response to the three distinct physico-chemical settings that developed in the Ulleung Basin of the East Sea. Baseline settings of hydrographic conditions included the presence of the thin (<20 m) Tsushima Surface Water (TSW) on top of the Tsushima Middle Water (TMW). It extends from the Korea Strait to $37^{\circ}N$ along the $130^{\circ}E$ and then turns offshore and encompasses the relatively saline (T>$26^{\circ}C$, S>33.7) Ulleung Warm Eddy surface water centered at $36.5^{\circ}N$ and $131^{\circ}E$. A relatively colder and saline water mass appeared off the southeastern coast of Korea. It was accompanied by higher nutrient and chlorophyll-a concentrations, suggesting a coastal upwelling. Most of the offshore surface waters support low phytoplankton biomass (0.3 mg chl-a $m^{-3}$). A much denser phytoplankton biomass (1-2.3 mg $m^{-3}$) accumulated at the subsurface layer between 20-50 m depth. The subsurface chlorophyll-a maximum (SCM) layer was closely related to the nutricline, suggesting an active growth of phytoplankton at depth. The SCM developed at shallow depth (20-30 m) near the coast and deepened offshore (50-60 m). A fucoxanthin/zeaxanthin ratio was high in coastal waters while it was low in offshore waters, which indicated that diatoms dominate coastal waters while cyanobacteria dominate offshore waters. The community structure and biomass of phytoplanktonare closely related to nitrogen availability. Zooplankton biomass was higher in the coastal region than in the offshore region while species richness showed an opposite trend. Zooplankton community structure retained a coastal/offshore contrast. These suggest that summer hydrography is a stable structure, lasting long enough to allow a hydrography-specific plankton community to evolve.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.53 no.4
• /
• pp.365-373
• /
• 2020

Biomonitoring Survey and Assessment Manual for lake ecosystem suggest zooplankton collection methods to compare relatively the number of species, population density, and community indices, taking into account the convenience of the field sampling according to the sites' water depth. In this study, the oblique towing and 20 m vertical towing methods presented in the manual were respectively compared with the whole water column-vertical towing and we analyzed the differences and characteristics of zooplankton community information gathered by each collection method. For community indices, there was no difference in the comparison of oblique/vertical towing methods in the shallow lake, but in the deep lake, the diversity and richness indices increased when vertically towing through whole water column rather than when limiting the towing depth to 20 m. In addition, the total zooplankton density collected by the oblique/20 m vertical towing methods was about three times higher than the whole water column-vertical towing method, which means that the density of zooplankton community can be overestimated depending on the collection methods. It appears to be results of differences in the zooplankton density by water layer arising from their vertical distribution and in filtered raw water quantity according to the towing depth/distance. Hence, for zooplankton community information to be used as a functional quantitative indicator representing the entire lake, it would be more appropriate to apply the whole water column-vertical towing method with considering the distribution of zooplankton density by depth and contribution rate of each water layer when converting total zooplankton density.