• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.100-117
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• 2022

This study examines the spatio-temporal characteristics of the macrobenthic community in the coastal areas of South Korea for the past six years(2015-2020). The relationship between the number of individuals of macrobenthic species and the benthic environments were investigated using data collected at a total of 154 stations located in the West (70), the South (61), and the East Seas (23), except for the Jeju Sea. We examined the benthic environmental characteristics such as water depth, sediment, grain size, ignition loss, and total organic carbon. A total of 1,614 macrobenthic species were found in the coastal area, with a mean density of 0.62 ind./m² by station. The mean density was relatively high in the spring and summer seasons (May to August) with more than 450 species. The most dominant species belong to Polychaetes and the top five of them accounted for more than 20% of the total number of populations. The top five species were Heteromastus filiformis, Scoletoma longifolia, Sigambra tentaculata, Sternaspis scutata, and Notomastus latericeus. Cluster analysis was performed on the top five dominant species. The stations were clustered into three groups with similar locations on the West, South, and East Sea. Cluster 1 and 3 represent Heteromastus filiformis (44% each), but cluster 2 represents Scoletoma longifolia (66%). Each cluster has different benthic environmental characteristics, especially in the sediment's sand (31.0%, 51.9%) and clay (15.9%, 9.7%) contents.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2022

We investigated the effects of stunning methods and gas treatments during slaughter on the quality characteristics of chicken breast and small intestine. Broilers (Ross 308) were stunned and slaughtered using halal, CO₂, or N₂ gas stunning methods (for 10 birds). After slaughter, the pH, proximate composition, color, water-holding capacity, cooking loss, and shear force of chicken breast muscle and small intestine were determined. Compared with the halal treatment, CO₂ treatment resulted in higher pH and lower cooking loss (P<0.05), and the pH, color, and shear force of chicken breast muscle with N₂ treatment were similar to those of the halal treatment (P>0.05). Compared with the halal treatment, the gas treatments resulted in lower pH and lightness and higher redness, yellowness, thickness, and shear force of the small intestine (P<0.05). However, compared with the CO₂ treatment, the N₂ treatment resulted in lower pH, redness, and yellowness, and higher lightness, thickness, and shear force. Overall, compared with the halal method, our results suggest that the use of N₂ gas suppresses the discoloration and deterioration of the texture of chicken meat and small intestine caused by CO₂ gas treatment in the gas stunning method.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.11-46
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• 2022

This study was carried out to examine vascular plants and invasive alien plants in Gyodong Island, located at the northwestern Civilian Control Line (CCL) of Ganghwa-gun, Incheon, and to use them as basic data for systematic management of identified plants and establishing biodiversity conservation measures. The survey was conducted 13 times from April 2019 to August 2021. The vascularflora in Gyodong Island was identified as 109 families, 378 genera, 641 species, 15 subspecies, 49 variants, 8 forma, a total of 713 taxa. This was found to be about 15.36% of the total 4,641 taxa of vascular plants in Korea. The northern linage plants on the Korean Peninsula appearing in the Gyodong Island area were identified in 83 classification groups, including Red-based leaf edge (Carex erythrobasis H.Lev. & Vaniot). Korea endemic plants were identified as 16 taxa such as Seoul wild-ginger [Asarum heterotropoides var. seoulense (Nakai) Kitag.], and a total of 20 taxa of rare plants designated by IUCN were observed, including the endangered grade Beardless iris (Iris ruthenica Ker Gawl.). Floristic target species were classified with a total of 99 taxa. For V grade, Beardless iris 1 taxon was found. and also IV grade and III grade were identified in 8 taxa and 20 taxa respectively. The invasive alien plants identified as 75 taxa, such as Verbesina alternifolia (L.) Britton ex Kearney. The naturalization rate was 10.51%, and the urbanization index was calculated as 23.29%. Since large-scale construction has been currently underway on Hwagae Mt. in Gyodong Island as the target of survey area, the influx of invasive plants will be expected to promote. Therefore, it is urgent to establish in-situ protection and conservation measures for notable plants such as Beardless iris and Water smartweed [Persicaria amphibia (L.) S.F.Gray].

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.194-210
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• 2022

The monthly inventory of dissolved inorganic carbon (C_T) and its fluxes were simulated using a box-model for the southeastern Yellow Sea, bordering the northern East China Sea. The monthly C_T data was constructed by combining the observed data representing four seasons with the data adopted from the recent publications. A 2-box-model of the surface and deep layers was used, assuming that the annual C_T inventory was at the steady state and its fluctuations due to the advection in the surface box were negligible. Results of the simulation point out that the monthly C_T inventory variation between the surface and deep box was driven primarily by the mixing flux due to the variation of the mixed layer depth, on the scale of -40~35 mol C m^-2 month^-1. The air to sea CO₂ flux was about 2 mol C m^-2 yr^-1 and was lower than 1/100 of the mixing flux. The biological pump flux estimated magnitude, in the range of 4-5 mol C m^-2 yr^-1, is about half the in situ measurement value reported. The C_T inventory of the water column was maximum in April, when mixing by cooling ceases, and decreases slightly throughout the stratified period. Therefore, the total C_T inventory is larger in the stratified period than that of the mixing period. In order to maintain a steady state, 18 mol C m^-2 yr^-1 (= 216 g C m^-2 yr^-1), the difference between the maximum and minimum monthly CT inventory, should be transported out to the East China Sea. Extrapolating this flux over the entire southern Yellow Sea boundary yields 4 × 10⁹ g C yr^-1. Conceptually this flux is equivalent to the proposed continental shelf pump. Since this flux must go through the vast shelf area of the East China Sea before it joins the open Pacific waters the actual contribution as a continental shelf pump would be significantly lower than reported value. Although errors accompanied the simple box model simulation imposed by the paucity of data and assumptions are considerably large, nevertheless it was possible to constrain the relative contribution among the major fluxes and their range that caused the C_T inventory variations, and was able to suggest recommendations for the future studies.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.83-92
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• 2022

The amount of the plastic waste has been increasing according to global demand for plastic. Microplastics are the most hazardous among all plastic pollutants due to their toxicity and unknown physicochemical properties. This study investigates the optimal methodology that can be applied to sewage samples for detecting microplastics before discussing reducing microplastics in MWTPs. In this study, the effect of different pretreatment methods while detecting microplastic analysis of MWTP influent samples was investigated; the samples were collected from the J sewage treatment plant. There are many pretreatment methods but two of them are widely used: Fenton digestion and hydrogen peroxide oxidation. Although there are many pretreatment methods that can be applied to investigate microplastics, the most widely used methods for sewage treatment plant samples are Fenton digestion and H₂O₂ oxidation. For each pretreatment method, there were factors that could cause an error in the measurement. To overcome this, in the case of the Fenton digestion pretreatment, it is recommended to proceed with the analysis by filtration instead of the density separation method. In the case of the H₂O₂ oxidation method, the process of washing with distilled water after the reaction is recommended. As a result of the analysis, the concentration of microplastics was measured to be 2.75ea/L for the sample using the H₂O₂ oxidation method and 3.2ea/L for the sample using the Fenton oxidation method, and most of them were present in the form of fibers. In addition, it is difficult to guarantee the reliability of measurement results from quantitative analysis performed via microscope with eyes. A calibration curve was created for prove the reliability. A total of three calibration curves were drawn, and as a result of analysis of the calibration curves, all R² values were more than 0.9. This ensures high reliability for quantitative analysis. The qualitative analysis could determine the series of microplastics flowing into the MWTP, but could not confirm the chemical composition of each microplastic. This study can be used to confirm the chemical composition of microplastics introduced into MWTP in the future research.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.194-205
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• 2022

Sandbars formed by sediment transportation and sedimentation are some of the most important habitats for specific wildlife and they provide an aesthetic landscape in streams. The purpose of this study was to understand the successional process of the colonization and development of early vegetation over time on sandbars exposed by the opening of a gate at a downstream weir. We selected the following four study sites in the Geumgang River, South Korea: three weir-upstream sites with different gate-opening times and a control site that was not affected by weir operation. Changes in the structural characteristics and spatial distribution of the riparian vegetation on the sandbars exposed after opening the gate at the weir were surveyed according to the different exposure periods of the sandbars at the study sites. The newly formed sandbars accounted for more than 33% of the area of the existing floodplain in the three weir-upstream sites of the Geumgang River after opening the gate at the weir. Nine main plant communities were distributed on the exposed sandbars. These communities were classified as annual mesophytic, perennial hydrophytic, perennial hygrophytic, subtree, and tree vegetation based on their species traits. As the duration of exposure of the sandbar increased, the area of the bare sandbar and the annual herbaceous and perennial hydrophytic communities decreased, and the areas occupied by perennial hygrophytic, subtree, and tree communities increased. Changes in vegetation on the sandbar were classified into three types of succession according to the condition of the aquatic habitat before the gate-opening and the degree of physical disturbance caused by the water flow after the gate-opening. The types of succession were: 1) succession starting from hydrophytes in the lentic aquatic zone, 2) succession starting from annual herbaceous hygrophytes in the lotic aquatic zone, and 3) willow-dominated succession in the disturbed channel side. Our results suggested that the dynamics of successional changes in vegetation should be considered during weir operation to ecologically manage the habitats and landscape of the fluvial landforms, including sandbars in streams.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.511-519
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• 2022

In order to develop an air-stripping based remediation process to remove the TOC (Total Organic Carbon) in groundwater around the underground LPG storage cavern, the laboratory scale experiments at various conditions (change of air injection volume and temperature, the application of ultrasonic treatment, etc.) for two types of groundwater (initial TOC concentration of 608 mg/L and 153 mg/L, respectively). From results of experiment, as the air injection rate for stripping into groundwater increased from 2 L/min to 11 L/min and as the air-stripping time increased from 1 hour to 24 hour, the TOC removal efficiency of air-stripping increased. However, the TOC concentration of treated groundwater was higher than the discharge tolerance limit (100 mg/L) even after 24 hour stripping at the maximum air injection rate of 11 L/min. The main compounds of the TOC in groundwater were identified as methanol and propane and the long stripping time (more than 24 hour) was needed to separate the methanol from groundwater because of the affinity between water and methanol. At 20℃ and 4 L/min of air injection, the TOC removal efficiency increased to 59.1% after 24 hour air-stripping. When the temperature of groundwater increased to 30℃ and 40℃, the TOC removal efficiency increased up to 80.0% and 82.8%, suggesting that more than 24 hour air-stripping at 40℃ is needed to lower the TOC concentration to below 100 mg/L and the additional TOC removal process as well as the air-stripping is necessary. When the temperature increased to 60℃ and the ultrasonic treatment was conjugated with the air-stripping, the TOC removal efficiency increased to 87.8% within 5 hour stripping and the final TOC concentration (72.4 mg/L) was satisfied with the TOC discharge tolerance limit. The TOC removal efficiency for groundwater having low TOC concentration (153 mg/L) also showed similar removal efficiency of 89.7% (the final TOC concentration: 18.9 mg/L). Results in this study supported that the air-stripping conjugated with the ultrasonic treatment could remove successfully the TOC in groundwater around the underground LPG strorage cavern.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.185-195
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• 2022

This study conducted a survey over spring and autumn from 2014 to 2020 to confirm the ecological characteristics of the size of streams and habitats, centering on the ecological landscape conservation area, and a total 256 species of benthic macroinvertebrates in 105 families, 25 orders, 8 classes, and 5 phyla appeared. In terms of appearance species, by region, the rate of appearance of Ephemeroptera and Trichoptera was high in regions consisting of lotic area and the rate of appearance of Coleoptera and Odonata was high in regions consisting of lentic areas. When comparing the population of Ephemeroptera-Plecoptera-Trichoptera (EPT) groups by region, they were classified into three groups: upstream area, mainstream area, and lentic areas, and it was confirmed that the population ratio of EPT changed as it moved from upstream to downstream. As the stream order increased, the number of species and populations increased. The Shredder group (SH) tended to decrease as the size of stream increased(r=0.9925), and the Collector-Filtering (CF) tended to increase as the size of stream increased(r=0.9319). It was confirmed that the Scraper (SC) replaced each other between species with the same ecological status as it went downstream from upstream, and it is thought that the SC did not differ significantly by stream order. In order to maintain a healthy ecosystem in the designation and management of ecological landscape conservation areas, it is necessary to consider ecological factors such as competition and physico-chemistry factors such as water quality and substrate conditions. Therefore, if the competent authority designated survey areas including buffer areas that include streams and physical habitats of various sizes, it will be advantageous to the conservative area and securing more biological resources.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.143-148
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• 2022

This study was to investigate an analytical method for determining dieckol content in Ecklonia stolonifera extract. According to the guidelines of International Conference on Harmonization. Method validation was performed by measuring the specificity, linearity, precision, accuracy, limit of detection (LOD), and limit of quantification (LOQ) of dieckol using high-performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array. The results showed that the correlation coefficient of calibration curve (R²) for dieckol was 0.9997. The LOD and LOQ for dieckol were 0.18 and 0.56 ㎍/mL, respectively. The intra- and inter-day precision values of dieckol were approximately 1.58-4.39% and 1.37-4.64%, respectively. Moreover, intra- and inter-day accuracies of dieckol were approximately 96.91-102.33% and 98.41-105.71%, respectively. Thus, we successfully validated the analytical method for estimating dieckol content in E. stolonifera extract.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.746-752
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• 2022

Kiribati, a South Pacific island, and its surrounding countries are gradually submerging to rising sea levels. The sea level continues to change according to the degree of thermal expansion of glaciers and seawater that decreases with increase in temperature. Global warming affects both the amount and volume of seawater, thus increasing sea level. Tidal phenomena occur twice a day to the attraction of celestial bodies such as the moon and the sun. The moon changes the angle of orbiting surface with the Earth equator every 18.6 years, and the magnitude of the tidal force changes depending on the distance between the Earth equator and the moon orbital surface. The University of Hawaii Sea Level Center selected Tarawa, Christmas, Kanton of Kiribati,, Lautoka, Suva of Fiji,Funafuti of Tuvalu, Nuk1u'alofa of Tonga, and Port Vila of Vanuatu. When comparing tide levels for each year for 19 years, the focus was on checking the change in sleep to Tide levels, and rising sea levels was the effect of Tide levels. The highest astronomical tides (HAT) and lowest astronomical tides (LAT) were identified as Tarawa 297.0, 50.8 cm, Christmas 123.8, 19.9 cm, Kanton 173.7, 39.9 cm, Lautoka 240.7, 11.3 cm, Funafuti 328.6, 98.4 cm, Nuk1u'alofa 188.8, 15.5 cm, Port Vila 161.5, -0.5cm, respectively. The Sea level rising speed was Tarawa 3.1 mm/year, Christmas -1.0 mm/year, Kanton 1.6 mm/year, Lautoka 3.1 mm/year, Suva 7.4 mm/year, Funafuti 1.4 mm/year, Nuk1u'alofa 4.2 mm/year, and Port Vila -1.2 mm/year, respectively