• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.53 no.6
• /
• pp.655-666
• /
• 2020

This study evaluated the characteristics of arsenic production in groundwater through microbial community analysis of groundwater contaminated with high arsenic in Haman area. Groundwater in Haman area is contaminated with arsenic in the range of 0-757.2 ㎍/L, which represents the highest arsenic contamination concentration reported in Korea as natural groundwater pollution source. Of the total 200 samples, 29 samples (14.5%) showed higher arsenic concentration than that of 10 ㎍/L, which is the standard for drinking water quality, and 8 samples (4%) found in wells with 80-100 m depth were above 50 ㎍/L. In addition, seven wells with arsenic concentration more than 100 ㎍/L located in the northern part of Haman. As a result of microbial community analysis for high arsenic-contaminated groundwater, the microbial community compositions were significantly different between each sample, and Proteobacteria was the most dominant phyla with an average of 61.5%. At the genus level, the Gallinonella genus was predominant with about 12.8% proportion, followed by the Acinetobacter and Methermicoccus genus with about 7.8 and 7.3%, respectively. It is expected that high arsenic groundwater in the study area was caused by a complex reaction of geochemical characteristics and biogeochemical processes. Therefore, it is expected that the constructed information on geochemical characteristics and microbial communities through this study could be used to identify the origin of high arsenic groundwater and the development of its controlling technology.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
• /
• v.38 no.2
• /
• pp.103-112
• /
• 2022

A gold amalgam voltammetric microelectrode (GAVM) system was developed for the quantification of dissolved biogeochemical species, such as O₂, Fe²⁺, Mn²⁺, and HS^- in sediment porewater. Commercially available Ag/AgCl and platinum electrodes were used as the reference and counter electrode, respectively, and a gold amalgam microelectrode was fabricated in the laboratory using 150-um diameter gold wire and a borosilicate capillary tube with a 1.6-mm diameter. A portable potentiostat (Metrohm, DropSens) was used for the application of voltage sweeping and to acquire the electric current. For sediment profiling, a commercially available actuator was customized and modified. The analysis method used in the system used the most widely used analysis method among the electrochemical analysis currently used The GAVM system was successively calibrated with the species and applied to estuarine sediments. The porewater analysis showed that the oxygen concentration was decreased to zero at a depth of 0.6 mm, and maximum Mn²⁺ and Fe²⁺ concentrations of 50 uM and 20 uM were detected at 2 and 3-cm depths, respectively. Maximum HS^- concentrations of 10 uM were detected at 4 cm in the deeper sediments. The GAVM system was successfully developed and applied to the sediment and can be used to better understand biogeochemical reactions.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.6 no.6
• /
• pp.595-604
• /
• 1997

To investigate characteristics of biogeochemical environment of the Korea Deep Ocean Study(KODOSI area in the northeast Pacific Ocean, we preferentially measured Inorganic nutrients and fluorescent organic matters. Typically. the permanent thermocline was well developed at the depth of 200~1000m In the study area. Nitrate. phosphate and silicate were low In the surface mixed layer and Increased with depth. N/P and N/Si showed 15 and 0.2 respectively In the deeper layer. Two fluorophores, biomacromolecule(protein-like) and geomacromolecule (humid-like) , were observed by three dimensional fluorescence excltatlon/ emission spectra matrix. Biomacromolecule(maximum fluorescence at $Ex_{280m}/Em_{330nm}$) ranged from 41.9 to 147.0 TU with its maximum In the surface mixed layer and minimum in deeper water, This is a same trend that has been reported for DOC in the equatorial Pacific. This suggests that biomacromolecule might be labile and converted to refractory humic substance after bacterial degradation In the deeper layer. On the contrary, geomacromolecule(maximum fluorescence at $Ex_{330m}/Em_{430m}$), ranged from 7.6 to 46.5 QSU, showed minimum in the surface nixed layer(euphotic zone) Implying photodegradation and then increased with depth at all stations. In the characteristics of vertical profiles, the relationship between biomacromolecule and geomacromolecule showed negative correlation. Such trend can be attributed to biochemical regeneration or formation of fluorescent materials accompanying oxidation and rennnerallzation of settling organic matter.

• Ocean Science Journal
• /
• v.41 no.4
• /
• pp.235-244
• /
• 2006

Determining 'photosynthetically active radiation' (PAR) is a key part of calculating phytoplankton productivity in a biogeochemical model. We explore the daily and seasonal variability in the ratio of PAR irradiance to total irradiance that occurred at Ieodo Ocean Research Station (IORS) in the East China Sea under clear-sky conditions in 2004 using a simple radiative transfer model (RTM). Meteorological data observed at IORS and aerosol optical properties derived from Aerosol Robotic Network observations at Gosan are used for the RTM. Preliminary results suggest that the use of simple PAR irradiance-ratio values is appropriate in calculating phytoplankton productivity as follows: an average of $0.44\;({\pm}0.01)$ in January to an average of $0.48\;({\pm}0.01)$ in July, with average daily variabilities over these periods of about $0.016\;({\pm}0.008)$ and $0.025\;({\pm}0.008)$, respectively. The model experiments demonstrate that variations in the major controlling input parameters (i.e. solar zenith angle, precipitable water vapor and aerosol optical thickness) cause PAR irradiance ratio variation at daily and seasonal timescales. Further, increases (>0.012) in the PAR irradiance ratio just below the sea-surface are positively correlated with high solar zenith angles and strong wind stresses relative to those just above the sea-surface.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.26-37
• /
• 2012

Multi-dimensional hydrodynamic and water quality models are widely used to simulate the physical and biogeochemical processes in the surface water systems such as reservoirs and estuaries. Most of the models have adopted the Eulerian grid modeling framework, mainly because it can reasonably simulate physical dynamics and chemical species concentrations throughout the entire model domain. Determining the optimum grid cell size is important when using the Eulerian grid-based three-dimensional water quality models because the characteristics of species are assumed uniform in each of the grid cells and chemical species are represented by concentration (mass per volume). The objective of this study was to examine the effect of grid-size of a three dimensional hydrodynamic and water quality model (EFDC) on hydrodynamics and mass transport in the Saemangeum Reservoir. Three grid resolutions, respectively representing coarse (CG), medium (MG), and fine (FG) grid cell sizes, were used for a sensitivity analysis. The simulation results of numerical tracer showed that the grid resolution affects on the flow path, mass transport, and mixing zone of upstream inflow, and results in a bias of temporal and spatial distribution of the tracer. With the CG, in particular, the model overestimates diffusion in the mixing zone, and fails to identify the gradient of concentrations between the inflow and the ambient water.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.171-180
• /
• 2003

The objective of this study is to investigate biogeochemical processes to sequester $CO_2$and metals utilizing metal-rich fly ash (MRFA). Microbial conversion of $CO_2$into sparingly soluble carbonate minerals has been studied using MRFA under different $pCO_2$and different bicarbonate concentrations. Scaling from test tube to fermentation vessels (up to 4-L) using metal-reducing bacteria and MRFA has proved successful at sequestering carbon dioxide and metals. $CO_2$sequestration via precipitation processes using MRFA may complement the process of $CO_2$capture from fossil fuel plants while potentially stabilizing fly ash wastes.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.26 no.5
• /
• pp.883-890
• /
• 2016

Marine sediments are a microbial biosphere with an unknown physiology, and the sediments harbor numerous distinct phylogenetic lineages of Bacteria and Archaea that are at present uncultured. In this study, the structure of the archaeal and bacterial communities was investigated in the surface and subsurface sediments of Jeju Island using a next-generation sequencing method. The microbial communities in the surface sediments were distinct from those in the subsurface sediments; the relative abundance of sequences for Thaumarchaeota, Actinobacteria, Bacteroides, Alphaproteobacteria, and Gammaproteobacteria were higher in the surface than subsurface sediments, whereas the sequences for Euryarchaeota, Acidobacteria, Firmicutes, and Deltaproteobacteria were relatively more abundant in the subsurface than surface sediments. This study presents detailed characterization of the spatial distribution of benthic microbial communities of Jeju Island and provides fundamental information on the potential interactions mediated by microorganisms with the different biogeochemical cycles in coastal sediments.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.61-69
• /
• 2018

Rare earth elements together with Y and Sc (REEs) are essential in the development of technology for clean and efficient use of energy. In recent years coal deposits have much attention and attracted as a promising alternative raw sources for rare earth elements, not only because the REEs concentrations in many coals or coal ashes are equal to or higher than those found in conventional types of REEs ores but also because of the world wide demand for REEs in recent years has been greater than supply. In the coal ashes, REEs are mainly associated with carbonates, silicates and aluminosilicates in ashes at 800 and $1100^{\circ}C$. These elements are known to be powerful environmental tracers in natural biogeochemical compartments. In this study, to reviewed the REEs originating and distribution patterns in coal ash samples from the bedrock and/or soil weathering that were entrapped by lichens and mosses was investigated. The REEs patterns of different organisms species allowed minor influence of the species to be highlighted compared to the regional lithology.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
• /
• 2004.10a
• /
• pp.152-153
• /
• 2004

The growth rate of atmospheric $CO_2$ undergoes significant interannual variability, largely due to temporal variability of partitioning of $CO_2$ between terrestrial biosphere and ocean. In the present paper, as a follow-up to the work by Lee et al. [1], we estimated the year-to-year variability in net global air-sea $CO_2$ fluxes between 1982 and 2003 from observed changes in wind speed and estimated changes in ${\Delta}pCO_2$ Changes in $pCO_{25W}$ were inferred from global records of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies and seasonally varying SST dependence of $pCO_{25W}$. The modeled interannual variability of $\pm0.2\;Pg\;C\;yr^{-1}\;(1{\sigma})$ from the present work is significantly smaller than the values deduced from atmospheric observations of $^{1.3}CO_2/CO_2$ in conjunction with different atmospheric transport models, but it is closer to the recent estimates inferred from a 3-D ocean biogeochemical model and atmospheric transport models constrained with extensive observations of atmospheric $CO_2$.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
• /
• 2006.03a
• /
• pp.95-100
• /
• 2006

Measurements of ocean color from space since 1970s provided vital information with reference to physical and biogeochemical properties of the oceanic waters. The utility of these data has been explored in order to map and monitor highly toxic/or harmful algal blooms (HABs) that affected most of coastal waters throughout the world due to accelerated eutrophication from human activities and certain oceanic processes. However, the global atmospheric correction and bio-optical algorithms developed for oceanic waters were found to yield false information about the HABs in coastal waters. The present study aimed to evaluate the potential use of red tide index (RI) method, which has been developed by Ahn and Shanmugam (2005), for mapping of HABs in Korean and neighboring waters. Here we employed the SSMM to remove the atmospheric effect in the SeaWiFS image data and the achieved indices by RI method were found more appropriate in correctly identifying potential areas of the encountered HABs in Korean South Sea (KSS) and Chinese coastal waters during 1999-2004. But the existence of high absorbing and scattering materials greatly interfered with the standard OC4 algorithm which falsely identified red tides in these waters. In comparison with other methods, the RI approach for the early detection of HABs can provide state managers with accurate identification of the extent and location of these blooms as a management tool.