• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.151-158
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• 2013

Objective: This study was carried out to determine the depositional characteristics of pine needles, pine tree bark, moss, and soil, which are used as a passive air sampler (PAS) of atmospheric polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Methods: All four media were sampled from the same site. PCB concentrations were analyzed by GC/MSD, and the lipid contents were measured using the gravimetric method. Results: The total PCB concentration (IUPAC No. 28, 52, 101, 138, 153, 180) was the highest in soil (227.97 pg/g dry), followed by pine needles (71.36 pg/g dry), pine tree bark (44.58 pg/g dry), then moss (21.91 pg/g dry). Pine needles contained the highest lipid contents (21.31 mg/g dry), whereas soil (10.01 mg/g dry), pine tree bark (4.85 mg/g dry), and moss (1.92 mg/g dry) contained less. The concentration of lower-chlorinated PCBs was relatively high in pine needles, pine tree bark and moss, but not in soil. The PCB concentrations were proportional to their lipid contents in pine needles, pine tree bark and moss, but a different trend was revealed in soil. Conclusions: The PCBs concentrations in the media were affected by various factors including atmospheric PCB concentrations, lipid contents, and depositional pathways. However, each of these factors had a varying influence depending on the type of medium.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.469-487
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• 2007

Grain-Size Trend Analysis is the methodology to identify net sediment transport pathways, based on the assumption that the movement of sediment from the source to deposit leaves the identifiable spatial pattern of mean, sorting, and skewness of grain size. It can easily be implemented with low cost, so it has great potentials to contribute to geomorphological research, whereas it can also be used inadequately without recognition of its limitations. This research aims to compare three established methods of grain-size trend analysis to search for the adequate way of application, and also suggest the research tasks needed in improving this methodology 1D pathway method can corporate the field experience into analyzing the pathway, provide the useful information of depositional environments through X-distribution, and identify the long-term trend effectively. However, it has disadvantage of the dependence on subjective interpretation, and a relatively coarse temporal scale. Gao-Collins's 2D transport vector method has the objective procedure, has the capability to visualize the transport pattern in 2D format, and to identify the pattern at a finer temporal scale, whereas characteristic distance and semiquantitative filtering are controversial. Le Roux's alternative 2D transport vector method has two improvement of Gao-Collins's in that it expands the empirical rules, considers the gradient of each parameters as well as the order, and has the ability to identify the pattern at a finer temporal scale, while the basic concepts are arbitrary and complicated. The application of grain sire trend analysis requires the selection of adequate method and the design of proper sampling scheme, based on the field knowledge of researcher, the temporal scale of sediment transport pattern targeted, and information needed. Besides, the relationship between the depth of sample and representative temporal scale should be systematically investigated in improving this methodology.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.265-274
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• 2019

To trace the provenance of fine-grained sediments in response to the growth and retreat of glaciers (i.e., Ross Ice Sheet) that affects the depositional process, various kinds of analyses including magnetic susceptibility, granulometry, and clay mineral composition with AMS ¹⁴C age dating were carried out using a gravity core KI-13-GC2 obtained from the Central Basin of the Ross Sea continental margin. The sediments mostly consist of silty mud to sand with ice-rafted debris, the sediment colors alternate repeatedly between light brown and gray, and the sedimentary structures are almost bioturbated with some faint laminations. Among the fine-grained clay mineral compositions, illite is highest (59.1-76.2%), followed by chlorite (12.4-21.4%), kaolinite (4.1-11.6%), and smectite (1.2-22.6%). Illite and chlorite originated from the Transantarctic mountains (metamorphic rocks and granitic rocks) situated to the south of the Ross Sea. Kaolinite might be supplied from the sedimentary rocks of Antarctic continent underneath the ice sheet. The provenance of smectite was considered as McMurdo volcanic group around the Victoria Land in the western part of the Ross Sea. Chlorite content was higher and smectite content was lower during the glacial periods, although illite and kaolinite contents are almost consistent between the glacial and interglacial periods. The glacial increase of chlorite content may be due to more supply of the reworked continental shelf sediments deposited during the interglacial periods to the Central Basin. On the contrary, the glacial decrease of smectite content may be attributed to less transport from the McMurdo volcanic group to the Central Basin due to the advanced ice sheet. Although the source areas of the clay minerals in the Central Basin have not changed significantly between the interglacial and glacial periods, the transport pathways and delivery mechanism of the clay minerals were different between the glacial and interglacial periods in response to the growth and retreat of Ross Ice Sheet in the Ross Sea.