• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.21 no.11
• /
• pp.477-493
• /
• 2020

This study conducted a seasonal survey to analyze the spatio-temporal variations of marine environments and phytoplankton community in Gochang Coastal Waters (GCW) from August 2016 to April 2017. In the results, the water temperature ranged from 2.1℃ to 34.5℃, showing a large seasonal variation, but the salinity changed from 31.14 psu to 32.64 psu. Therefore, the seasonal variations of water types in GCW were mainly determined by water temperature. The phytoplankton community consisted of 53 genera and 86 species, showing a relatively simple distribution. The phytoplankton cell density ranged from 2.2 to 689.2 cells mL^-1, with an average of 577.2 cells mL^-1, which was low in autumn and high in winter. The seasonal succession of phytoplankton dominant species was mainly diatoms during the whole year, Leptocylindrus danicus, Chaetoceros curvisetus, Skeletonema costatum-ls in summer, Paralia sulcata, Eucampia zodiacus in autumn, S. costatum-ls, Thalassiosira nordenskioeldii in winter, and S. costatum-ls, Asterionella glacialis in spring. In other words, the phytoplankton community showed high diversity in GCW throughout the year. According to the PCA, GCW were easily heated and cooled by radiant energy at lower depth, and the seasonal distributions of phytoplankton were determined by the supply of nutrients by re-fuelling of surface sediments due to the seawater mixing such as tidal mixing.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.43 no.2
• /
• pp.134-141
• /
• 2015

An agarolytic marine bacterium (H9) was isolated from the coastal seawater of the West Sea, South Korea. The isolate, H9, was gram-negative and rod-shaped with a smooth surface and polar flagellum. Cells grew at 20-30℃, between pH 5.0 and 9.0, and in ASW-YP (Artificial Sea Water-Yeast extract, Peptone) media containing 1-5% (w/v) NaCl. The G+C content was 41.56 mol%. The predominant isoprenoid quinone in strain H9 was ubiquinone-8. The major fatty acids (>10%) were C_16:1ω7c (34.3%), C_16:0 (23.72%), and C_18:1ω7c (13.64%). Based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and biochemical and chemotaxonomic characterization, the strain was designated as Pseudoalteromonas sp. H9 (=KCTC23887). In liquid culture supplemented with 0.2% agar, the cell density and agarase activity reached a maximum level of OD = 4.32 (48 h) and OD = 3.87 (24 h), respectively. The optimum pH and temperature for the extracellular crude agarases of H9 were 7.0 and 40℃, respectively. Thin-layer chromatography analysis of the agarase hydrolysis products revealed that the crude agarases hydrolyze agarose into neoagarotetraose and neoagarohexaose. Therefore, the new agar-degrading strain, H9, can be applicable for the production of valuable neoagarooligosaccharides and for the complete degradation of agar in bio-industries.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.45 no.2
• /
• pp.168-177
• /
• 2017

Strain A28-5, which can degrade xylan and agar in solid medium, was isolated from a coastal seawater sample collected from Jeju Island, South Korea. This strain was found to be a gram-negative, $Na^+$-requiring bacterial strain with a polar flagellum for motility. Additionally, the strain was tolerant to antibiotics such as ampicillin and thiostrepton. The G+C content of the genome was 43.96% and menaquinone-7 was found to be the predominant quinone. Major fatty acids constituting the cell wall of the strain were $C_{16:1}$ ${\omega}7c/iso-C_{15:0}$ 2-OH (23.32%), $C_{16:0}$ (21.83%), and $C_{18:1}$ ${\omega}7c$ (17.98%). The 16S rRNA gene sequence of the strain showed the highest similarity (98.94%) to that of Catenovulum agarivorans YM01, which was demonstrated by constructing a neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree. A28-5 was identified as a novel species of the genus Catenovulum via DNA-DNA hybridization with Catenovulum agarivorans YM01, and thus was named as Catenovulum jejuensis A28-5. The formation of tetramers and hexamers of xylooligosaccharides and (neo)agarooligosaccharides, respectively, were confirmed by thin-layer chromatography analysis using an enzyme reaction solution containing xylan or agarose with two crude enzymes prepared from the liquid culture of the strain.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.39 no.2
• /
• pp.97-103
• /
• 2011

Two Gram positive bacterial strains, designated strain GC-1 and GC-4, were isolated from coastal seawater near Jeju Island in the Republic of Korea. The two strains were identified as members of the genus Bacillus, based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing and data for physiological characteristics analyses. A subtle difference in physiological and genotypical characteristics has led us to designate the strains GC-1 and GC-4. The strain GC-1 showed a 99.91% similarity in 16S rRNA gene sequencing with B. tequiliensis and B. subtilis subsp. inaquosorum and the strain GC-4 showed a 100% similarity in 16S rRNA gene sequencing with those of B. altitudinis, B. stratosphericus, and B. aerophilus. However, both strains exhibited different physiological and genotypical characteristics in many aspects from those of their phylogenetically closest neighbors listed above, which implies that genus Bacillus has diversified into various species during its evolutionary process.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.553-568
• /
• 2018

Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM) plays a dominant role in absorbing UV-VIS light and is also important in the biogeochemical carbon cycle due to the production of carbon dioxide from photo-oxidation at the sea surface in marine environments. Since absorption by CDOM was recently found to be responsible for increasing the energy absorbed in the mixed layer by 40 % over pure seawater, the importance of CDOM absorption in seawater for increasing sea surface temperature has come to be well recognized. We measured aCDOM and the absorption characteristics of CDOM during spring 2012 and 2014 in the southwestern East Sea. Distribution of CDOM in spring 2012 and 2014 was compared and S value was used to find the source of CDOM in the study area. As a result, the average $a_{CDOM}$ was $0.237m^{-1}$ ($0.009{\sim}0.988m^{-1}$) and the average S value was $16{\mu}m^{-1}$,which shows coastal properties. Also a positive correlation between Chl a and CDOM was observed ($r^2=0.34$), with an especially strong correlation near coastal stations. aCDOM in 2014 was about 40 % higher than aCDOM in 2012 during spring in the study area. This difference in aCDOM concentration resulted not only from annual variation but also from stratification and photobleaching in late spring 2012. This observation implies the possibility of flux of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as a result of photo-oxidation in the East Sea.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.37 no.5_1
• /
• pp.1125-1133
• /
• 2021

This study attempted to understand seawater characteristics like chlorophyll concentration (CHL), total suspended matter concentration (TSM), absorption characteristics, and remote sensing reflectance around Weno Island, Micronesia, located in the South Pacific Ocean near the equator. 50 in-situ measurement from May to June 2013 were analyzed and compared with data from around Korean peninsula. CHL around Weno Island was 0.11-0.49 mg/m³ (average 0.26 mg/m³), and TSM was 0.03-0.31 g/m³, (average 0.16 g/m³), showing typical clear water characteristics. Absorption coefficient of total suspended matters at 443 nm showed over 0.5 times less than that from East Sea and the slope of absorption coefficient spectrum of dissolved organic matter showed much larger than that of Korean peninsula, indicating the concentration of organic matter is very low and dissolved organic matter of marine origin is considered to be the main component in the study area. As a result of comparing the remote sensing reflectance spectrum with that of coastal waters around the Korean peninsula, coastal waters around Weno Island showed typical CASE-1 water properties. It was possible to understand the marine optical characteristics of coral reef habitats in tropical waters, and it can be used to develop seawater algorithms specialized in the study area.

• Journal of Marine Life Science
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.68-77
• /
• 2023

In this study, we investigated the quantitative distribution of microplastics in the surface seawater at 8 points near the Taean Peninsula using fluorescence staining. The study revealed a detection range of microplastics from 0 to 360.5 particles/l, with an average of 149.7 ± 46.0 particles/l. When classifying the microplastics by size, it was found that particles smaller than 50 ㎛ were dominant, although there were differences at Site 3. Moreover, it was not possible to identify clear correlations when comparing the number of microplastics based on collection area and particle size. Various physical and chemical factors, including plastic material, dynamic ocean conditions (such as currents, wind, waves, tides), geological characteristics (topography, slope), sediment materials including coastal organisms, human activities (fishing, development, tourism), and weather conditions (floods, rainfall), affect the behavior of microplastics. Therefore, future efforts should focus on standardizing quantitative analysis methods and conducting fundamental research on microplastic monitoring, including the analysis of environmental factors.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.478-490
• /
• 2007

With groundwater data of seawater intrusion monitoring network in coastal areas of Korea's main land, we analyzed types of seawater intrusion through the coastal aquifer. The data including groundwater level, temperature and electrical conductivity obtained from 45 monitoring wells at 25 watershed regions were evaluated. Based on statistical analysis, correlation analysis and variation type analysis, groundwater levels were mainly affected by rainfall and artificial pumping. About 78% of the monitoring wells showed average temperature higher than $15^{\circ}C$ and about 58% of them showed minimum variations less than $0.2^{\circ}C$. Electrical conductivities showed a large magnitude of variation and irregular characteristics compared with groundwater levels and temperatures. Average electrical conductivities lower than $2,000\;{\mu}S/cm$ were observed at 28 monitoring wells while those of higher than $10,000\;{\mu}S/cm$ were done at 9 monitoring wells. From the cross-correlation analysis, groundwater levels were mostly affected by precipitation while temperature and electrical conductivity showed very low correlation. Meanwhile tidal variations strongly affected the groundwater levels comparing to precipitation. We classified the long-term monitoring data according to variation types such as constant process, linear trend, cyclic variation, impulse, step function and ramp. Impulse type was dominant for variations of groundwater level, which was largely affected by rainfall or artificial pumping, the constant process was dominant for temperature. Compared with groundwater level and temperature, electrical conductivities showed various types like linear trend, step function and ramp. According to the discrepancy of variation characteristics for monitoring data at each well in the same region, periodical analysis of monitoring data is essentially required.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.37-48
• /
• 2021

A new high speed rotation type-passive sampling device (HSR-PSD), which can rotate seawater at high speed and absorb easily and quickly the freely dissolved hydrophobic organic contaminants from seawater, was developed and then applied around the Korean Peninsula. Freely dissolved concentrations (Cfree) of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were determined using the HSR-PSD with low density polyethylene (LDPE) sheets as a passive sampler. Furthermore, dissolved concentrations (Cdissolved) of PAHs in seawater were also obtained from high volume water sampling as a conventional method to account for actual bioavailability. When the LDPE sheets were rotated in the HSR-PSD at 900 rpm, PAHs with log KOW 3.4 ~ 5.2 were equilibrated between the LDPE and water in 5 hours. Although the high molecular weight PAHs with log KOW 5.6 ~ 6.8 was expected to be 2 to 30 days to reach the equilibrium, the Cfree of the PAHs at equilibrium could be corrected using performance reference compounds in 5 hours. Meanwhile, the total Cfree of PAHs were from 0.32 to 1.2 ng/L, which were higher than reported values in other oceans, but lower than in coastal water such as estuary, harbor, or shore. A bioavailability from the detected PAHs was highest at the sampling line near the dumping site of the Yellow Sea. Predicted residual concentrations in biota were relatively higher in offshore including the dumping site than in coastal regions.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.291-298
• /
• 2001

Seawater, sediment and biota in the Kwangyang Bay were analyzed by gas chromatography/quartz furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy (GC-QFAAS) to investigate concentrations and distribution pattern of butyltin compounds (TBT, DBT, MBT) during February, April and July, 1996, Marine biota analyzed were Tapes japcnicus and Crassostrea gigas. The concentrations of tributyltin (TBT) in seawater were in the range of ND-15.7 ng/L for the surface and ND-68.5 ng/L for the bottom. The highest concentration of TBT in seawater was detected in April for the both, surface and bottom water. The maximum value of $TBT_{(bottom)}/TBT_{(surface)}$, 3.6 in April showed the increased input of TBT from the surface water in April compared to February (2.1) and July (0.9). The concentrations of TBT in the sediment were in the range of ND-8.5 ng/g dry wt. The highest concentration of TBT in the sediment was measured in July, This result seems to attributed to the removal of TBT from water column via sorption onto particulate matters to the relatively undisturbed underlying sediment and increased input of TBT by increased fluxes of detritus of marine plankton after spring bloom, in July. The mean values of partitioning coefficient ($K_d$) of TBT between seawater and sediment were $3.0\times10^3$(February), $7.4\times10^3$(April) and $9.4\times10^3$(July). The concentrations of TBT in biosamples were in the range of ND-93.30 ng/g dru wt. (T. japonicus) and ND-138.53 ng/g dry wt. (C. gigas). The seasonal variation of TBT contents in biota was remarkable. The $K_d$ (biological concentration factor) was $7-41\times10^3$ for T. japonicus. and $5-34\times10^3$ for C. gigas. The measured TBT concentrations in seawater in the study area was sufficient to cause the imposex of shellfish and to retard the growth of aquatic organisms including oyster upon chronic exposure.