• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.64 no.3
• /
• pp.33-43
• /
• 2022

South Korea's agricultural nitrogen balance and phosphorus balance rank first and second, respectively, among OECD countries, and proper nutrient management is required to preserve the water quality of rivers and lakes. This study evaluates the effects of furrow mulching on the reduction of non-point source pollution (NPS) load from a sloped upland. The study site was Wanju-gun, Jeollabuk-do, and the survey period was from 2018 to 2019. The slope of the testbed was 13%, and the soil type was sandy loam. The cropping system consisted of maize-autumn Chinese cabbage rotation. The testbed was composed of bare soil (bare), control (Cont.), furrow vegetation mulching (FVM), and furrow nonwoven fabric mulching (FFM) plots. Runoff was collected for each rainfall event with a 1/100 sampler, and the NPS load was calculated by measuring the concentrations of SS, T-N, and T-P. The NPS load was then analyzed for the entire monitoring and crop cultivation periods. During the monitoring period, the effect of reducing the NPS load was 1.5%~44.5% for FVM and 13.1%~55.2% for FFM. During the crop cultivation period, it was 1.2%~80.5% for FVM and 27.0%~65.1% for FFM, indicating that FFM was more effective than FVM. As the NPS load was fairly high during the crop conversion period, an appropriate management method needs to be implemented during this period.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
• /
• v.24 no.6
• /
• pp.573-584
• /
• 2021

Background and objective: This study was conducted with 10 men and women in their 50s-60s to investigate the effect of agro-healing activities on the improvement of mental health. Methods: The experimental group participated in total 8 sessions of agro-healing activities, once a week for 2 hours each, at a care farm in Wanju-gun. Physiological measurements were taken with an electroencephalogram (EEG), Salivettes samples, and blood pressure before and after the activities. Results: As a result of analyzing the changes in brainwaves of the experimental group before and after agro-healing activities, relative slow alpha (RSA), relative fast alpha (RFA), and ratio of alpha to high beta (RAHB), the indices of stability and relaxation, increased after the program with statistical significance. Also, the ratio of SMR to theta (RST) of the attention index increased on the right frontal lobes, temporal lobes, and left occipital lobes, and relative low beta (RLB) increasd on the frontal lobes, temporal lobes, and occipital lobes after the program with statistical significance. The sympathetic nervous system activity, which is a stress index, decreased after the program, whereas the parasympathetic nervous system activity, which is a relaxation index, increased, showing statistical significance (p < .05). As a result of analyzing the changes in blood pressure after the program, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure decreased from prehypertension to normal blood pressure, showing statistical significance. SThese results indicate that participating in agro-healing activities at a care farm for the 50-60s helps reduce stress and improve stability and relaxation as well as attention. Conclusion: Thus, developing and applying customized agro-healing programs for participants will have a positive effect on brain activity and psychophysiological improvement by relieving tension and stress. However, there are limitations in generalizing the results of this study since most of agro-healing farms have low accessibility that leads to a low level of participants.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.1-14
• /
• 2023

This study was conducted to explore the change in the market issues on HMR (Home Meal Replacements) using local foods after the COVID-19 outbreak. Online text data were collected from internet news, social media posts, and web documents before (from January 2016 to December 2019) and after (from January 2020 to November 2022) the COVID-19 outbreak. TF-IDF analysis showed that 'Trend', 'Market', 'Consumption', and 'Food service industry' were the major keywords before the COVID-19 outbreak, whereas 'Wanju-gun', 'Distribution', 'Development', and 'Meal-kit' were main keywords after the COVID-19 outbreak. The results of topic modeling analysis and categorization showed that after the COVID-19 outbreak, the 'Market' category included 'Non-face-to-face market' instead of 'Event,' and 'Delivery' instead of 'Distribution'. In the 'Product' category, 'Marketing' was included instead of 'Trend'. Additionally, in the 'Support' category, 'Start-up' and 'School food service' appeared as new topics after the COVID-19 outbreak. In conclusion, this study showed that meaningful change had occurred in market issues on HMR using local foods after the COVID-19 outbreak. Therefore, governments should take advantage of such market opportunity by implementing policy and programs to promote the development and marketing of HMR using local foods.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.65 no.4
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 2023

As a result of climate change, non-point source pollution (NPS) from farmland with the steep slope during the rainy season is expected to have a significant impact on the water system. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of furrow mulching using alfalfa and PAM (Polyacrylamide) materials for each rainfall event, while considering the load characteristics of NPS. The study was conducted in Wanju-gun, Jeollabuk-do, in 2022, with a testbed that had a slope of 13%, sandy loam soil, and maize crops. The testbed was composed of four plots: bare soil (Bare), No mulching (Cont.), Vegetation mulching (VM), and PAM mulching (PM). Runoff was collected from each rainfall event using a 1/40 sampler and the NPS load was calculated by measuring the concentrations of SS, T-N, T-P, and TOC. During farming season, the reduction efficiency of NPS load was 37.1~59.5% for VM and 38.2~75.7% for PM. The analysis found that VM had a linear regression correlation (R²=0.28~0.86, P-value=0.01~0.1) with elapsed time of application, while PM had a quadratic regression correlation (R²=0.35~0.80, P-value=0.1). These results suggest that the selection of furrow mulch materials and the appropriate application method play a crucial role in reducing non-point pollution in farmland. Therefore, further studies on the time-series reduction effect based on the application method are recommended to develop more effective preemptive reduction technologies.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
• /
• 2022.10a
• /
• pp.168-168
• /
• 2022

According to the 5th Climate Change Report, global average temperature in 2081~2100 will increase 1.8℃ based on RCP 4.5 and 3.7℃ based on RCP 8.5 from the current climate value (IPCC Working Group I AR5). As temperature is expected to increase due to global warming and the intensity and frequency of rainfall are expected to increase, damage to crops is expected, and countermeasures must be taken. This study intends to evaluate rice growth in terms of nitrogen utilization efficiency according to future climate change conditions. In this experiment, Oryza sativa cv. Shindongjin were planted at the SPAR facility of the NICS in Wanju-gun, Jeollabuk-do on June 10, and were planted and grown according to the standard cultivation method. Cultivation conditions are high temperature, high CO₂ (current temperature+4.7℃·CO₂ 800ppm), high temperature (current temperature+4.7℃·CO₂ 400ppm), current climate (current tempreture·CO₂ 400 ppm). Nitrogen was varied as 0, 9, 18 kg/10a. The N content and C/N ratio of all rice leaves, stems, and seeds increased at high temperature, and the N content and C/N ratio decreased under high temperature and high CO₂ conditions com pared to high temperature. Compared to the current climate, NUE increases by about 8% under high temperature and high CO₂ conditions and by about 2% under high temperature conditions. This seems to be because the increase in temperature and CO₂ induced the increase in biomass. ANUE related to yield decreased by about 70% compared to the current climate under high temperature conditions, and decreased by about 45% at high temperature and high CO₂, showing a tendency to decrease compared to high temperature. This appears to be due to reduced fertility and poor ripening due to high temperature stress. However, as the nitrogen increased, the number of ears and the number of grains increased, slightly offsetting the production reduction factor.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.710-724
• /
• 2024

Flavobacterium can synthesize xanthophyll, particularly the pigment zeaxanthin, which has significant economic value in nutrition and pharmaceuticals. Recently, the use of carotenoid biosynthesis by bacteria and yeast fermentation technology has shown to be very efficient and offers significant advantages in large-scale production, cost-effectiveness, and safety. In the present study, JSWR-1 strain capable of producing xanthophyll pigment was isolated from a freshwater reservoir in Wanju-gun, Republic of Korea. Based on the morphological, physiological, and molecular characteristics, JSWR-1 classified as belonging to the Flavobacterium species. The bacterium is strictly aerobic, Gram-negative, rod-shaped, and psychrophilic. The completed genome sequence of the strain Flavobacterium sp. JSWR-1 is predicted to be a single circular 3,425,829-bp chromosome with a G+C content of 35.2% and 2,941 protein-coding genes. The optimization of carotenoid production was achieved by small-scale cultivation, resulting in zeaxanthin being identified as the predominant carotenoid pigment. The enhancement of zeaxanthin biosynthesis by applying different light-irradiation, variations in pH and temperature, and adding carbon and nitrogen supplies to the growth medium. A significant increase in intracellular zeaxanthin concentrations was also recorded during fed-batch fermentation achieving a maximum of 16.69 ± 0.71 mg/l, corresponding to a product yield of 4.05 ± 0.15 mg zeaxanthin per gram cell dry weight. Batch and fed-batch culture extracts exhibit significant antioxidant activity. The results demonstrated that the JSWR-1 strain can potentially serve as a source for zeaxanthin biosynthesis.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.211-220
• /
• 2016

This study was to develop the analytical reference material of green-pepper for multi-residue analysis of pesticides. According to the ISO Guide 35, ISO Guide 13528 and EURL-PT protocol, the homogeneity, stability, assigned value and uncertainty were calculated to assess if it was suitable to be used as the proficiency test or quality control. The values of the within-bottle standard variation ($s_{wb}$) and the between-bottle standard variation ($s_{bb}$) were 1.7~3.7% of assigned value according to the requirement of the ISO guide 35. And, the uncertainty ($u^*{_{bb}}$) due to inhomogeneity was 0.8~1.1% for all pesticides. The storage stabilities of ten-pesticides at various conditions were assessed. For all target pesticides, the slop ($b_1$) values were smaller than the corresponding values of $[t_{0.95,n-2}{\times}s(b_1)]$ specified by the ISO guide 35, indicating that there were no statistically significant decreases in the concentration of the target pesticides when the analytical reference material was stored at room temperature ($20{\sim}30^{\circ}C$) for 7 days, freezing ($-20^{\circ}C$) for 30 days and deep freezer ($-80^{\circ}C$. except for bifenthrin, fenpropathrin) for 245 days. For proficiency test by using it developed by Korea Institute of Toxicology, inter-lab test was performed with eight organization performing the residual pesticide analysis. We found that there were some different results among them. Some were assessed as questionable or unacceptable for two pesticides and one organization didn't analyze the six pesticides. From these results, this green-pepper analytical reference material containing ten-pesticides could be used as a tool for the proficiency test to improve the reliability or consistency for pesticide residue's results.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
• /
• v.44 no.4
• /
• pp.463-480
• /
• 2009

The weathering properties and provenance of loess-paleosol sequence deposited on gravel layer of river terrace in Bongdong-eup, Wangju-gun, Jeonbuk Province are examined using soil analysis, magnetic susceptibility measurement, grain size and element analysis. The Bongdong section consists of, from top to bottom, Layer 1(paleosol), Layer 2(loess), Layer 3(paleosol) and the gravel layer of river terrace. The magnetic susceptibility values show the systematic variations in the sequence and the results of grain size analysis reveal that the sequence was deposited by not fluvial or slope process, but eolian process, and that contains finer materials than the Daecheon loess and Chinese Loess Plateau. Among the results of soil analysis, organic contents indicate systematic variations similar to the magnetic susceptibility. The wet soil colors further reflect the characteristics of the sequence rather than the dry soil colors. Based on the analytical results of major and rare earth elements, the eolian materials contained in the sequence were deposited by the materials originated from the areas where the Chinese Loess Plateau has been originated or the reworked materials from the Chinese Loess Plateau, and after the depositions, the materials experienced the intensive chemical weathering under the humid-warm climatic conditions in the Korean Peninsula.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.36 no.4
• /
• pp.368-380
• /
• 2022

Biomonitoring of an invasive alien crayfish species, Procambarus clarkii (Girard, 1852), was performed from February to October 2021, along with environmental DNA analysis, at five locations including Wanju-gun, Hampyeong-gun, Naju-si, Gurye-gun, and Cheongju-si. For the investigation, an umbrella-shaped trap for adults and a hand net for young crayfish were used, and 8 to 10L of freshwater was collected for eDNA analysis. The current status and past distributional records of crayfish in Korea were analyzed along with benthic macroinvertebrates at each survey site. As a result of the investigation, a total of 122 individuals were identified, and Hampyeong-gun recorded the largest number of populations with 59 individuals (48.36%) and the highest environmental DNA (eDNA). The frequency of appearance of P. clarkii was highest in May. The ratio of females to males was 21:5, and the body size was 72.2±21.1mm for female, 80.5±15.6mm for male, and 25.3±9.8mm for young crayfish. P. clarkii introduced into Korea is mainly spreading in the southwest region and it has not been observed in Seoul where there had been a record of appearance in the past. No external symbiosis (Branchiobdellida) of P. clarkii has been identified, and P. clarkii that has appeared in Korea was presumed to be imported from Japan. There are more than eight kinds of exotic crayfish distributed in Korea, and among them, the marbled crayfish (P. virginalis) was identified as a harmful species to the ecosystem of Korea by the Ministry of Environment in 2021. The identified species of benthic macroinvertebrates inhabiting the survey area where P. clarkii has appeared were 69 belonging to 39 families, 15 orders, five classes, and three phyla. Among them, Odonata were the most abundant (16 spp.; 24.62%), followed by Coleoptera (11 spp.; 16.92%) and Hemiptera (11 spp.; 16.92%). In the survey area, one Korean endemic species (Rhoenanthus coreanus), one species (Helophorus auriculatus) classified as Near Threatened (NT) on the Korean Red List, and six species of Crustaceans appeared. In the functional feeding group, the predators appeared predominantly while in habitat oriented group, the climbers appeared to be abundant. It was confirmed that P. clarkii in the survey area prefers an area rich in aquatic vegetation with waterside vegetation, and has high resistance to turbid water quality. The omnivore invader P. clarkii is expected to maintain a competitive relationship with carnivorous benthic macroinvertebrates that are predominant in the same species, and is expected to continue to generate ecosystem disturbance along the food chains.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.267-273
• /
• 2008

Energy efficiency and nutrient balance are good methods for environmental assessment of the environmentally-friendly agriculture. The objectives of this study were 1) to estimate the energy efficiency and nutrient balance of the organic rice farming, and 2) to suggest a solution to improvement the energy efficiency and nutrient balance. The set of estimation was performed at the organic rice farming area (8.9 ha) in Wanju-gun during the paddy cultivation period from 2006 to 2007. The organic farming complex consists of four weeding methods using 1) duck, 2) apple snail, 3) duck and apple snail and 4) hands and machinery. Results from this estimation should that the organic rice farming area was less efficient than conventional rice farming. The efficiency of organic farming area in 2006 was higher than in 2007. For the calculation of the nutrient balance, the N, P and K contents of input materials (cattle manure, milk vetch, mixed oilcake, rice bran, rice straw and barley straw) and output (farm products) were analysed. Annual environmental loads of N, $P_2O_5$ and $K_2O$ were estimated at 4.4 kg/10a, 13.8 kg/10a and 14.5 kg/10a, respectively. Cattle manure had the largest portion among the inputs items and nutrient concentration of cattle manure was high. Thus energy efficiency and nutrient balance depend on cattle manure input. Therefore it is necessary to control the manure input to improve the efficiency of organic rice farming.