• Journal of Marine Life Science
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.61-73
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• 2022

Stable isotope analysis (SIA) is being used in various research fields including environmental science, ecology, biogeochemistry, forensics, and archeology. In this paper, for the purpose of enhancing applications and utilizations stable isotope analysis techniques to aquaculture research, we would like to introduce the background knowledge necessary to utilize stable isotope analysis techniques. In particular, with a focus on the approach using natural abundance, the principle of fractionation (change in isotope ratio) that occurs in the process of the integration of elements into biological tissues and how stable isotope ratios are determined by fractionation. This paper is intended to suggest whether SIA is used as a valuable tool in the fields of ecology and environmental science. With the understanding of the field of stable isotopes through this paper, various applications of stable isotope ratios are expected in fisheries science and aquaculture research in the future.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.79-88
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• 2024

This study employed field measurements and biogeochemical analysis to examine the effects of seasonal conditions (e.g., temperature and precipitation) and human intervention (e.g., dam or weir construction) on the chemical composition of dissolved organic matter, flocculation kinetics of suspended particulate matter, and formation of the fluid mud layer on riverbeds. The results indicated that a water environment with a substantial amount of biopolymers offered favorable conditions for flocculation kinetics during an algal bloom period in summer; a thick fluid mud layer was found to be predominated with cohesive materials during this period. However, after high rainfall, a substantial influx of terrigenous humic substances led to enhanced stabilization of the particulate matter, thereby decreasing flocculation and deposition, and the reduced biopolymer composition served to weaken the erosion resistance of the fluid mud on the riverbed. Moreover, a high-turbulence condition disaggregated the flocs and the fluid mud layer and resuspended the suspended particulate matter in the water column. This study demonstrates the mutual relationship that exists between biogeochemistry, flocculation kinetics, and the formation of the fluid mud layer on the riverine area during different seasons and under varying hydrological conditions. These findings are expected to eventually help inform the more optimal management of water resources, which is an urgent task in the face of anthropogenic stressors and climate change.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.264-271
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• 2023

Environmental crises caused by climate change and human-induced disturbances have become urgent challenges to the sustainability of human beings. These issues can be addressed based on a data-driven understanding and forecasting of ecosystem responses to environmental changes. In this study, we introduce a long-term ecological monitoring system in Korean Long-Term Ecological Research (KLTER), and a plan for the Korean Ecological Observatory Network (KEON). KLTER has been conducted since 2004 and has yielded valuable scientific results. However, the KLTER approach has limitations in data integration and coordinated observations. To overcome these limitations, we developed a KEON plan focused on multidisciplinary monitoring of the physiochemical, meteorological, and biological components of ecosystems to deepen process-based understanding of ecosystem functions and detect changes. KEON aims to answer nationwide and long-term ecological questions by using a standardized monitoring approach. We are preparing three types of observatories: two supersites depending on the climate-vegetation zones, three local sites depending on the ecosystem types, and two mobile deployment platforms to act on urgent ecological issues. The main observation topics were species diversity, population dynamics, biogeochemistry (carbon, methane, and water cycles), phenology, and remote sensing. We believe that KEON can address environmental challenges and play an important role in ecological observations through partnerships with international observatories.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.37 no.4 s.109
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• pp.436-447
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• 2004

Wetland plants have evolved specialized adaptations to survive in the low-oxygen conditions associated with prolonged flooding. The development of internal gas space by means of aerenchyma is crucial for wetland plants to transport $O_2$ from the atmosphere into the roots and rhizome. The formation of tissue with high porosity depends on the species and environmental condition, which can control the depth of root penetration and the duration of root tolerance in the flooded sediments. The oxygen in the internal gas space of plants can be delivered from the atmosphere to the root and rhizome by both passive molecular diffusion and convective throughflow. The release of $O_2$ from the roots supplies oxygen demand for root respiration, microbial respiration, and chemical oxidation processes and stimulates aerobic decomposition of organic matter. Another essential mechanism of wetland plants is downward water movement across the root zone induced by water uptake. Natural and constructed wetlands sediments have low hydraulic conductivity due to the relatively fine particle sizes in the litter layer and, therefore, negligible water movement. Under such condition, the water uptake by wetland plants creates a water potential difference in the rhizosphere which acts as a driving force to draw water and dissolved solutes into the sediments. A large number of anatomical, morphological and physiological studies have been conducted to investigate the specialized adaptations of wetland plants that enable them to tolerate water saturated environment and to support their biochemical activities. Despite this, there is little knowledge regarding how the combined effects of wetland plants influence the biogeochemistry of wetland sediments. A further investigation of how the Presence of plants and their growth cycle affects the biogeochemistry of sediments will be of particular importance to understand the role of wetland in the ecological environment.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.36 no.4 s.105
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• pp.434-446
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• 2003

The fate and transport of many trace metals, metalloids, and radionuclides in porous media is closely linked to the biogeochemical reactions that occur as a result of organic carbon being sequentially degraded by different microorganisms using a series of terminal electron acceptors. The spatial distribution of these biogeochemical reactions is affected by processes that are often unique and/or characteristic to a specific environment. Generic model formulations have been developed and applied to simulate the fate and transport of arsenic in two hydrologic settings, permanently flooded freshwater sediments, namely non-vegetated wetland sediments and vegetated wetland sediments. The key physical processes that have been considered are sedimentation, effects of roots on biogeochemistry, advective transport, and differences in mixing processes. Steady-state formulations were applied to the sedimentary environments. Results of numerical simulations show that these physical processes significantly affect the chemical profiles of different electron acceptors, their reduced species, and arsenate as well as arsenite that will result from the degradation of an organic carbon source in the sediments. Even though specific biological transformations are allowed to proceed only in zones where they are thermodynamically favorable, the results show that mixing as well as abiotic reactions can make the profiles of individual electron acceptors overlap and/or appear to reverse their expected order.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.378-385
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• 2016

This study aims to suggest the framework of functional assessment on lotic area based on HGM(Hydrogeomorphic) approach targeting Wetland Protected Areas which are in the type of river channel, and to set up the fundamental data as a reference wetland. A total of 10 factors in terms of hydrology, biogeochemistry, plant habitat and animal habitat was analyzed based on the original approach of HGM and each Functional Capacity Index(FCI) of those factors was calculated. As the result of the modified FCI analysis, Damyang riverine wetland which is with artificial river bank had high values in the variables of area ratio of actual vegetation in the foreland, the number of plant per area and the area ratio of Salix spp., and those values were highly reflected on the factors of Nutrient Cycling(947,668.00), Species Richness and Maintain Characteristic Plant Communites(6.39) and Maintain Spatial Structure of Habitat(11.00). The Hanbando wetland which is keeping the natural bank had higher values in the variables of structural scale and species diversity, and the those values were highly reflected on the factors of Energy Dissipation(17,805.16), Subsurface Storage of Water(0.54), Removal of Imported Elements and Compounds(103,052.73), Maintain Characteristic Detrital Biomass(2.31), Maintenance of Interspersion and Connectivity (6.50), Species Diversity of Benthic macro-invertebrates(1.60) and Species Diversity of Vertebrate & Species Number of Other Animals(2.52/ 151.50), compared to the Damyang Riverine Wetland.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.170-179
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• 2011

Fly ashes derived from coal fired power plants have unique chemical and mineralogical characteristics. The objective of this research was to study how indigenous bacteria affected heavy metal leaching in fly ash slurry during the fly ash-seawater interactions in the ash pond located in Yeongdong seashore, Korea. The in-situ pH of ash pond seawater was 6.3-8.5. For this study, three sites of the ash pond were chosen to collect a sample of fly ash slurry. Three samples that had a mix of fly ash (0.4 L) and seawater (1.6 L) were collected at each site. First sample was autoclaved ($120^{\circ}C$, 2.5 atm), second one was inoculated with glucose to stimulate the microbial activity, and the last sample was kept in the natural condition. Compared with other samples including autoclaved and natural samples, the glucose added sample showed sharp increase in its alkalinity after 15 days, cation concentration change such as Ca, Mg, and K seemed to increase in early stage, and then decrease 15 days later in slurry solution of glucose added sample, and a possibly considerable decrease in $SO_4^{2-}$ in the fly ash slurry samples when glucose was added to stimulate the microbial activity. Geochemical data of this study is likely to be related to the activity of bacteria at the ash pond. The result may be used to understand about the characteristic of bacteria.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.160-167
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• 2018

The role played by reservoirs in the biogeochemical cycles of elements is a subject of ongoing debate. Recent research has revealed that reservoirs emit significant levels of greenhouse gases. To assess the importance of reservoirs in monsoon climate areas as a source of methane gas into the atmosphere, we investigated variations in organic carbon (OC) input into the reservoir, oxic state changes, and finally the amount of methane emitted (focusing on the ebullition pathway) in Lake Soyang, which is the largest reservoir in South Korea. Total organic carbon (TOC) concentrations were higher during summer after two years of heavy rainfall. The sedimentation rates of particulate organic carbon (POC) and particulate organic nitrogen (PON) were higher in the epilimnion and hypolimnion than the metalimnioin, indicating that autochthonous and allochthonous carbon made separate contributions to the TOC. During stratification, oxygen depletion occurred in the hypolimnion due to the decomposition of organic matter. Under these conditions, $H_2S$ and $CH_4$ can be released from sediment. The methane emissions from the reservoir were much higher than from other natural lakes. However, the temporal and spatial variations of methane ebullition were huge, and were clearly dependent on many factors. Therefore, more research via a well-organized field campaign is needed to investigate methane emissions.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.231-240
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• 2002

Microbial metal reduction influences the biogeochemical cycles of carbon and metals as well as plays an important role in the bioremediation of metals, radionuclides, and organic contaminants. The use of bacteria to facilitate the production of magnetite nanoparticles and the formation of carbonate minerals may provide new biotechnological processes for material synthesis and carbon sequestration. Metal-reducing bacteria were isolated from a variety of extreme environments, such as deep terrestrial subsurface, deep marine sediments, water near Hydrothemal vents, and alkaline ponds. Metal-reducing bacteria isolated from diverse extreme environments were able to reduce Fe(III), Mn(IV), Cr(VI), Co(III), and U(VI) using short chain fatty acids and/or hydrogen as the electron donors. These bacteria exhibited diverse mineral precipitation capabilities including the formation of magnetite ($Fe_3$$O_4$), siderite ($FeCO_3$), calcite ($CaCO_3$), rhodochrosite ($MnCO_3$), vivianite [$Fe_3$($PO_4$)$_2$ .$8H_2$O], and uraninite ($UO_2$). Geochemical and environmental factors such as atmospheres, chemical milieu, and species of bacteria affected the extent of Fe(III)-reduction as well as the mineralogy and morphology of the crystalline iron mineral phases. Thermophilic bacteria use amorphous Fe(III)-oxyhydroxide plus metals (Co, Cr, Ni) as an electron acceptor and organic carbon as an electron donor to synthesize metal-substituted magnetite. Metal reducing bacteria were capable of $CO_2$conversion Into sparingly soluble carbonate minerals, such as siderite and calcite using amorphous Fe(III)-oxyhydroxide or metal-rich fly ash. These results indicate that microbial Fe(III)-reduction may not only play important roles in iron and carbon biogeochemistry in natural environments, but also be potentially useful f3r the synthesis of submicron-sized ferromagnetic materials.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.245-252
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• 2008

The growth characteristics and the Germanium (Ge) uptake of rice plant (Hopyungbyeo) in soil with Ge were investigated under different soil textures to obtain the basic information for agricultural utilization of Ge. This study was carried out in the Wagner pot ($15,000^{-1}a$). Ge concentration in soils such as clay loam, silt loam, loam and sandy loam for rice plant cultivation was treated at $8mg\;kg^{-1}$. The growth status of rice plant was almost similar in all soil texture, and rice yield was higher in the order of silt loam > clay loam > loam > sandy loam. In rice bran, the Ge uptakes in silt loam, clay loam, loam and sandy loam were 980, 868, 754 and $803{\mu}g\;pot^{-1}$, respectively. The Ge uptakes of brown rice and polish rice were greater in the order of silt loam > sandy loam > clay loam > loam. In silt loam, the Ge uptake rates in leaf, stem, root, rice bran and brown rice were 19.7, 2.3, 0.03, 3.1 and 0.44%, respectively. Therefore, under the given experimental condition the optimum soil texture for production of functional rice with Ge is a silt loam.