• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.43-51
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• 2020

The present study was designed to characterize the bioaccumulation of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in marine organisms (zooplankton, oyster, crab, and goby) on different trophic level. In the present study, sedentary bivalve (oyster) showed strong correlations in OCPs levels with surface sediment in the study area. This indicates the two compartments can be used as alternative for pollution monitoring of OCPs even in narrow scale in space. Bioaccumulation and trophic transfer of OCPs was strongly associated with their hydrophobicity (i.e., K_OW). HCHs with log K_OW < 5 did not show any enrichment through food-chain. However, log BAF values of OCPs with log K_OW > 5 positioned over the 1:1 lines of log BAF and log K_OW of the top predator, indicating the greater fugacities in the higher trophic level and thus the occurrence of biomagnification via ingestion. Based on trophic transfer factors (TTF), more hydrophobic OCPs with log K_OW > 5 were enriched by several to several ten times in the highest trophic level relative to the lowest trophic level. This finding can be used in the establishment of marine environmental water quality criteria by considering biomagnification factors (TTF in this study) of OCPs.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.67-77
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• 2008

It has been observed that the linear relationship between the logarithm of bioconcentration factor (log BCF) of highly hydrophobic chemicals and their log $K_{ow}$ breaks when log $K_{ow}$ becomes greater than 6.0. Consequently, super hydrophobic chemicals were not thought to cause baseline toxicity as a single compound. Researchers often call this phenomenon as "hydrophobicity cutoff" meaning that bioconcentration or corresponding baseline toxicity has a certain cutoff at high log $K_{ow}$ value of hydrophobic organic pollutants. The underlying assumption is that the increased molecular size with increasing hydrophobicity prohibits highly hydrophobic compounds from crossing biological membranes. However, there are debates among scientists about mechanisms and at which log $K_{ow}$ this phenomenon occurs. This paper reviews three hypotheses to explain observed "cutoff": steric effects, kinetic or physiological limitations, and chemical activity cutoff. Although the critical molecular size that makes biological membranes not permeable to hydrophobic organic chemicals is uncertain, size effects in combination with kinetic limitation would explain observed non-linearity between log BCF and log $K_{ow}$. Chemical activity of hydrophobic chemicals generally decreases with increasing melting point at their aqueous solubility. Thus, there may be a chemical activity cutoff of baseline toxicity if there is a critical chemical activity over which baseline effects can be observed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.947-956
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• 2009

Residual petroleum hydrocarbons after an oil spill may accumulate in the marine benthic ecosystem due to their high hydrophobicity. A lot of monitoring data are required for the estimation of ecosystem exposure to residual petrochemicals in an ecological risk assessment in the affected region. To save time and cost, the environmental exposure to them in the affected ecosystem can also be assessed using a simple food-web bioaccumulation model. In this study, we evaluated residual concentrations of four selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (phenanthrene, anthracene, pyrene, and benzo[a]pyrene) in a hypothetic benthic ecosystem composed of six species under two exposure scenarios. Body-residue concentration ranged 5~250 mg/kg body depending on trophic positions in an extreme scenario in which the aqueous concentrations of PAHs were assumed to be one-tenth of their aqueous solubility. In addition, bioconcentration factors (BCFs) and bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) were evaluated for model species. The logarithm of bioconcentration factor (log BCF) linearly increased with increasing the logarithm of 1-octanol-water partition coefficient (log $K_{OW}$) until log $K_{OW}$ of 7.0, followed by a gradual decrease with further increase in log $K_{OW}$ without metabolic degradation. Biomagnification became significant when log $K_{OW}$ of a pollutant exceeded 5.0 in the model ecosystem, indicating that investigation of food-web structure should be critical to predict biomagnifications in the affected ecosystem because log $K_{OW}$ values of many petrochemicals are higher than 5.0. Although further research is required for better site-specific evaluation of exposure, the model simulation can be used to estimate the level of the ecosystem exposure to residual oil contaminants at the screening level.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.91-97
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• 1996

The extent of binding($K_B$) between chemical compound and humic acid was measured as an indicator of decrease in toxicity. From the experimental $K_B$ and estimated $K_B$ calculated from $K_{ow}$, no reduction of toxicity among test chemicals in aquatic systems were predicted except P,P'-DDT. The effect of humic acid on aquatic organisms is not expected to be significant for the compounds with $K_B{\leq}10^5$ or $K_{ow}{\leq}10^6$.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.325-334
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• 2009

Many bacteria that are capable to tolerate and degrade organic solvents have been isolated from seawater. However, their roles in the biodegradation of organic solvents in the marine environment have remained unknown. Aeromonas hydrophila IB$B_{ct4}$, isolated from Constanta seawater, was able to tolerate and degrade different organic solvents. Toluene, styrene, xylene isomers, ethylbenzene, with the logarithm of the partition coefficient in octanol-water mixture (log $P_{ow}$) between 2.64 and 3.17, were more toxic for bacterial cells, compared with propylbenzene, n-hexane, n-heptane, with log $P_{ow}$ between 3.69 and 4.39. There were revealed cellular and molecular modifications induced by organic solvents to Aeromonas hydrophila IB$B_{ct4}$. The study of cellular and molecular modifications induced by different organic solvents showed a complex response of bacterial cells to the presence of organic solvents in the culture media.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.47-57
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• 2022

A number of different methods have been used for modeling the sorption of volatile organic chlorinated compounds such as tetrachloroethylene/perchloroethylene (PCE). In this study, PCE was adsorbed in several natural sorbents, i.e., Pahokee peat, vermicompost, BionSoil^®, and natural soil, in the batch experiments. Several sorption models such as linear, Freundlich, solubility-normalized Freundlich model, and Polanyi-Manes model (PMM) were used to analyze sorption isotherms. The relationship between sorption model parameters, organic carbon content (f_oc), and elemental C/N ratio was studied. The organic carbon normalized partition coefficient values (log K_oc = 1.50-3.13) in four different sorbents were less than the logarithm of the octanol-water partition coefficient (log K_ow = 3.40) of PCE due to high organic carbon contents. The log K_oc decreased linearly with log f_oc and log C/N ratio, but increased linearly with log O/C, log H/C, and log (N+O)/C ratio. Both log K_F,oc or log K_F,oc decreased linearly with log f_oc (R² = 0.88-0.92) and log C/N ratio (R² = 0.57-0.76), but increased linearly with log (N+O)/C (R² = 0.93-0.95). The log q_max,oc decreased linearly as log f_oc and log C/N increased, whereas it increased with log O/C, log H/C and log (N+O)/C ratios. The log q_max,oc increased linearly with (N+O)/C indicating a strong dependence of q_max,oc on the polarity index. The results showed that PCE sorption behaviors were strongly correlated with the physicochemical properties of soil organic matter (SOM).

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 1996.11a
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• pp.50-53
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• 1996

This paper reports the experimental results for the determination of the overall partition coefficient of VOCs in unsaturated soil, A chromatographic method was used for the determination of gaseous partition coefficients to natural soil under various water content conditions. The equilibrium vapor pressure of water over saturated salt solution was used to fix the relative humidity of the air and control the water content of the soil systems. The transport behavior was studied for dichloromethane, trichloroethane and dichlorobenzene pollutants, with log octanol-water partition coefficients(log $K_{ow}$ ) which range from 1.25 to 3.39, or water to soil partitioning which varies by 135 times; water solubility constants which vary by 3 times; and vapor pressures which range from 1 to 362 torr. Water content of the soil had a pronounced effect on the effective partition coefficient(between gas and soil + water stationary phase) as well as on the effective dispersion coefficient.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.46-52
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• 2010

Derivative analysis, based on the derivative of the drawdown as a function of time (i.e., rate of drawdown change), was applied to the evaluation of hydraulic parameters of the aquifer as an aid of the aquifer test interpretation based on the Theis solutions. Pumping tests were conducted at a coastal fractured aquifer in Muan county, Korea, of which the drawdown data, measured at the two observation wells, were used for derivative analysis. Wellbore storage and transition period were hard to identify at conventional log-log and semi long plots, but was easily recognized by distinctive curves of positive unit slope, hump and negative unit slope in the derivative plot. For the observation well of OW-2 at which wellbore storage and transition lasted over an hour, conventional aquifer analysis would suffer from the uniqueness problems and in further result in erroneous hydraulic parameters. Derivative analysis was found to be effective for distinguishing the drawdown data directly reflecting the aquifer property from those reflecting non aquifer effects such as wellbore storage and transition, which offers a unified methodology to yield correct hydraulic parameters from aquifer test data.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.153-164
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• 1999

The solubilization of BTEX was evaluated in aqueous surfactant solutions with and without several additives. Anionic surfactant(Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate, SDS) and nonionic surfactants (NEODOL(equation omitted)25-3 and $SOFTANOL\circledR-90$ were used as test surfactants. The effects of surfactant HLB(Hydrophile-Lipophile Balance) Number and hydrocarbon molar volume and polarity of BTEX on the MSR(Molar Solubilization Ratio), micelle-water partition coefficient of BTEX, and CMC(C,itical Micelle Concentration) were investigated. Optimizing treatment conditions applicable to enhanced solubilization was also studied by manupulating salinity or electrolyte control with additives of ethyl alcohol, hydrotrope, and electrolyte solution. The most effective surfactant for solubilization was found $SOFTANOL\circledR-90$, since HLB number of 13.6 is similar to those values of BTEX ranging between 11.4 and 12.2, which was also proved experimentally. Ethyl alchohol of 3% was the most effective additives in reducing CMC and improving solubilization among the conditions using SDS, NEODOL(equation omitted)25-3, and $SOFTANOL\circledR-90$ with three additives. The partitioning of BTEX between surfactant micelles and aqueous solutions was characterized by a mole fraction micelle-phase/aqueous phase partion coefficient, $K_m$. Values of log $K_m$. for BTEX compounds in surfactant solutions of this study range from 2.95 to 3.76(100mM SDS) and 2.95 to 3.49(117mM $SOFTANOL\circledR-90$. Log $K_m$ appears to be a linear function of log $K_{ow}$ for SDS and $SOFTANOL\circledR-90$. A knowledge of partitioning of BTEX in aqueous surfactant system can be a prerequisite for the understanding of the behavior of hydrophobic organic compounds in soil-water systems in which surfactants play a role in remediation of contaminated soil and facilitated transport.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2009

Distribution characteristics of organophosphorous pesticides (OPs) were studied over the period from May to September, 2006 in Asan Bay, Korea. During the study period, 28 kinds of organophosphorous pesticides dissolved in surface water and adsorbed on suspended particle were measured. In the surface water, the dominant OPs were IBP and DDVP, and the concentration were in the ranges from not detected to 2014.4 ng/L for IBP and 3.2 to 696.3 ng/L for DDVP. The highest concentrations of OPs in the surface waters in Asan Bay appeared in July and August showing that seasonal distributions of OPs depend on application time and precipitation. The concentrations of OPs generally decreased with the increase of distance from the mouth of Asan Bay, implying progressive dilution of pesticides in the estuarine system. OPs residue in Asan Bay was relatively higher than in other area of Korea. The concentrations of the observed OPs concentrations did not exceed the seawater quality standard of Korea. DDVP, IBP, Diazinon, Phorate, Azinphos ethyl and Chlorfenvinfos had higher adsorption capacity onto suspended particle than the other OPs. In the study area, adsorption coefficients $(K_d)$ of OPs were closely related to the Log $K_ow$ of each compound.