• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.38 no.3 s.113
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• pp.372-381
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• 2005

This study was conducted to test the efficiency of water quality improvement using the dissolved air flotation (DAF) technique in a shallow eutrophic reservoir. The application of DAF was followed by the addition of a chemical coagulant (poly aluminum chloride; PAC). The experiment was conducted in the mesocosm scale (wide ${\times}$ length ${\times}$ depth: 6 m ${\times}$ 6 m ${\times}$ 3 m). Suspended solids (SS) and volatile SS (VSS) concentration decreased by 54 ${\sim}$ 71% and 57 ${\sim}$ 79% of the initial concentrations, respectively. Total phosphorus and Chl- a concentration also decreased by 74 ${\sim}$ 92% and 54 ${\sim}$ 98%, respectively. BOD decreased by>86% while COD decrease ranged 29 ${\sim}$ 63%. Dissolved inorganic P (DIP) and dissolved total P (DTP) concentration decreased by 34 ${\sim}$ 88% and 62 ${\sim}$ 88%, respectively. After DAF application further onto the sediment, DIP-release rates from the sediment decreased by 17% (0.82 ${\to}$ 0.68 mg $m^{-2}$$day^{-1}$ in the oxic condition and 23% (2.27 ${\to}$ 1.76 mg $m^{-2}$$day^{-1}$) in the anoxic condition, compared to the release rate from the untreated sediment. DTP-release rate from both the oxic and anoxic sediments also decreased by 33% (5.62 ${\to}$ 3.78 mg $m^{-2}$$day^{-1}$) and 20% (6.23 ${\to}$ 4.99 mg $m^{-2}$$day^{-1}$), respectively. These results suggest that the DAF application both to the water column and onto the sediment be effective to improve water quality by removing particulate matters in the water column as well as reducing P-release from the sediment.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.75-80
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• 2007

This study evaluated groundwater quality around an uncontrolled landfill in W sity, Korea, which was monitored for about two years (2005-2006). Parameters of concern include redox-sensitive indicators such as pH, DO, EC, ORP, DOC (dissolved organic carbon), NH3, NO3 and SO4. About 10 years have elapsed after closing dumping of municipal wastes in the landfill. Leachates showed widely varying concentrations in COD(136${\sim}$263 mg/L), T-N(121${\sim}$186 mg/L), and NH3-N(14${\sim}$369 mg/L). Groundwater at the immediate downgradient of the landfill showed weakly acidic pH condition but very high levels of EC (3,000-4,000 ${\mu}S/cm$), which indicated that the groundwater was largely affected by the landfill leachate. Cl, a conservative ion, showed over 200 mg/L at the landfill border, but a gradually decreasing level with distance from the landfill, representing dispersion and dilution (natural attenuation) due to mixing with surrounding groundwater and replenished rainwater. Redox potential showed negative value at the landfill border but it increased up to 350 mV at downgradient wells, which indicated conversion of redox condition from reducing oxic ones. Ammonia, was largely enriched at most of the monitoring wells and its level greatly exceeded drinking water standard. In summary, all the parameters evidenced occurrence of natural attenuation with distance and with time but further monitoring is still required.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.610-618
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• 2008

It is not easy to compare the treatment processes and find an optimum operating condition by the experiments due to influent conditions, treatment processes, various operational conditions and complex factors in real wastewater treatment system and also need a lot of time and costs. In this paper, the activated sludge models are applied to four principal biological wastewater treatment processes, $A_2O$(anaerobic/anoxic/oxic process), Bardenpho(4 steps), VIP(Virginia Initiative Plant) and UCT(University of Cape Town), and are used to compare their environmental and economic assessment for four key processes. In order to evaluate each processes, a new assessment index which can compare the efficiency of treatment performances in various processes is proposed, which considers both environmental and economic cost. It shows that the proposed index can be used to select the optimum processes among the candidate treatment processes as well as to find the optimum condition in each process. And it can find the change of economic and environmental index under the changes of influent flowrate and aerobic reaction size and predict the optimum index under various operation conditions.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.69-77
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• 1997

A 12-cm long sediment core was collected from a station in Lake Shihwa where high salinity-anoxic deep water is isolated from low salinity-oxic surface water by a strong halocline barrier. Unprecedented concentrations of porewater ammonia and lead are encountered: at 9 cm sediment depth ammonia builds up to 1420 ${\mu}M$ and at 3 cm lead to 1348 nM. As they are stable in anoxic condition, high concentrations of ammonia and lead suggest a development of notorious anoxic condition in the benthic environment of the lake. The degree of pollution of the deep water is likely to be directly proportional to the magnitude of benthic flux, because the deep water is isolated from the surface water by the halocline. Apparent coincidence of the ammonia residence time in the deep water with the elapsing time after the completion of the artificial lake construction, as about three years, suggests that the deep water pollution is being progressed entirely by benthic flux at least with respect to ammonia. The residence time for lead is such a short 20 days that it suggests a rapid return of the bottom water lead, which is originated from porewater by benthic flux, back to sediments probably as metal sulfide phases. The speculation on the return of lead as sulfide phases is likely to be supported by high concentration of hydrogen sulfide in the deep water and by high sinking rate of non-organic particles in Lake Shihwa.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.551-561
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• 2007

This case study is about the sampling and interpretation of soil pore water in order to understand and to predict the diffusion and behavior of soil pollution. For the measurement of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs) in two representative hydrocarbon-contaminated sites, the extraction system of the soil pore water was set up with respect to soil depths and the behavior of contaminants was interpreted. The soil solution extraction system consisted of peristaltic pump, and extraction and sampling compartment, and can measure simultaneously the soil water pressure. The concentration of PAHs with respect to extraction pressure and time decreased due to dilution through soil pore water. Particularly, the concentration of PAHs was more reduced under the unsaturated oxic condition than saturated anoxic condition. Therefore, the soil solution extraction with respect to soil water pressure can interpret the extent of equilibrium between porewater and soil surface.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.39-50
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• 2013

The study area is located on the western coastal region of Korea, partly had been reclaimed lands. Groundwaters of the coastal area show lower Eh and DO values (Eh: 0.57 V ${\rightarrow}$ 0.13 V, DO; 9.7 mg/l ${\rightarrow}$ 1.3 mg/l), and higher Fe concentrations (> 20 mg/l) than those of the inner land (< 0.3 mg/l), indicating that the redox condition of groundwater changes from oxic into suboxic/anoxic conditions as it flows from the inland toward the coastal area. In addition, Fe speciation of groundwater from the coastal area demonstrates that the most dissolved Fe exist as $Fe^{2+}$, reflecting that groundwater is under the anoxic condition to sufficiently occur Fe reduction. According to the result of Fe extraction with the sediment samples from three wells (A, B, C), the sediments provide enough $Fe^{3+}$ to occur the Fe reduction in the groundwater. Integrated all results of the groundwater and sediment, we infer that the Fe reduction to occur in groundwater is associated with the reclamation processes of the study area.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.727-736
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• 2022

Ice wedges are subsurface ice mass structures that formed mainly by freezing precipitation with airborne dust and surrounding soil particles flowed through the active layer into the cracks growing by repeating thermal contractions in the deeper permafrost layer over time. These ice masses characteristically contain high concentrations of solutes and solids. Because of their unique properties and distribution, the possibility of harnessing ice wedges as an alternative archive for reconstructing paleoclimate and paleoenvironment has been recently suggested despite limited studies. It is imperative to preserve the physicochemical properties of the ice wedge (e.g., solute concentration, mineral particles) without any potential alteration to use it as a proxy for reconstructing the paleo-information. Thawing the ice wedge samples is prerequisite for the assessment of their physicochemical properties, during which the paleo-information could be unintentionally altered by any methodological artifact. This study examined the effect of thawing conditions and procedures on the physicochemical properties of solutes and solid particles in ice wedge samples collected from Cyuie, East Siberia. Four different thawing conditions with varying temperatures (4 and 23℃) and oxygen exposures (oxic and anoxic) for the ice wedge sample treatment were examined. Ice wedge samples thawed at 4℃ under anoxic conditions, wherein biological activity and oxidation were kept to a minimum, were set as the standard thawing conditions to which the effects of temperature and oxygen were compared. The results indicate that temperature and oxygen exposure have negligible effects on the physicochemical characteristics of the solid particles. However, the chemical features of the solution (e.g., pH, electric conductivity, alkalinity, and concentration of major cations and trace elements) at 4℃ under oxic conditions were considerably altered, compared to those measured under the standard thawing conditions. This study shows that the thawing condition of ice wedge samples can affect their chemical features and thereby the geochemical information therein for the reconstruction of the paleoclimate and/or paleoenvironment.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.60-71
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• 2007

Groundwater from public wells was monitored during one year with two month interval for hydrogeochemical parameters and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as environmental tracers in Jeju Island. Concentrations of major cations and $SiO_2$ show variation less than 10% whereas $NO_3$ and dissolved oxygen (DO) showed larger variation though DO variation did not change oxic or suboxic condition. $NO_3$ concentration has no consistent seasonal pattern with the largest variation of 35%. Groundwater ages determined by CFCs became temporarily younger by 5 years in October for groundwater with ages of 15 to 25 years, which can be attributed to infiltrating water in rainy season. Compared to air temperature, groundwater temperature has much smaller variation with no phase difference, which can be accounted for by a two-component model consisting of infiltrating water from surface and deeper groundwater with negligible temperature variation. The relatively small variation in groundwater age and temperature indicates that groundwater recharge through fast flow-paths is much smaller compared with basal groundwater in terms of aquifer storage.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.392-400
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• 2003

We used an oxygen microelectrode to measure the vertical profiles of oxygen concentration in sediments located near point sources of organic matter. The measurements were carried out between 13th and 17th May, 2003, in semi-closed bay and coastal sediments in the central part of the South Sea. The measured oxygen penetration depths were extremely shallow and ranged from 1.30 to 3.80 mm. This suggested that the oxidation and reduction reactions in the early diagenesis should be studied at the mm depth scale. In order to estimate the oxygen consumption rate, we applied the one-dimension diffusion-reaction model to vertical profiles of oxygen near the sediment/water interface. Oxygen consumption rates were estimated to be between 10.8 and 27.6 mmol O$_2$ m$\^$-2/ day$\^$-1/(average: 19.1 mmol O$_2$ m$\^$-2/ day$\^$-1/). These rates showed a positive correlation with the organic carbon of the sediments. The corresponding benthic organic carbon oxidation rates calculated using an modified Redfield ratio (170/110) at the sediment/water interface were in the range of 89.5-228.1 mg C m$\^$-2/ day$\^$-1/(average: 158.0 mg C m$\^$-2/ day$\^$-1/). We suggest that these results are maximum values at the presents situation in the bay because the sampling sites were located near point sources of organic materials. This study will need to be carried out at many coastal sites and throughout the seasons to allow an understanding of the mechanisms of eutrophication e.g. the spatial distribution of oxygen consumption within the oxic zone and hypoxic conditions in the coastal sea.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.605-622
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• 2007

Elemental, Rock-Eval pyrolysis and isotopic analysis of the core sediments from the northwestern and eastern Ulleung Basin of the East were carried out to identify their geochemical characteristics, spatial and vertical variation and origin of organic matter in Upper Quaternary sediments from the northwestern and eastern Ulleung Basin of the East Sea. TOC, m and TS did not show spatial variation between the sampling locations whereas they showed systematic vertical variation associated with MIS stages related to the sea-level change of the East Sea. It is suggested that these past changes of sea-level influenced the sedimentary depositional environments and/or diagenesis which resulted the patterns observed in this study. Based on the results of TOC/N, TS/TOC, ${\delta}^{13}C_{org}\;and\;{\delta}^{15}N_{org}$ analysis, organic matters in the study area appears to be predominantly originated from the marine algae rather than land plant and deposited under normal marine oxic condition during MIS I and MIS III period, and under euxinic/anoxic condition during MIS II period. TOC/N, ${\delta}^{13}C_{org}\;and\;{\delta}^{15}N_{org}$ have a relatively constant value irrespective of MIS stages, implying that the organic matter source does not change by the sea-level fluctuations. However, the results of Rock-Eval pyrolysis indicates that the organic matter is in immature stage and originated from land-plant (Type III), locating in the immature stage land plant (Type III). Similar differences were reported from other areas such as the Atlantic Ocean, Iberia Abyssal Plain, Mediterranean Sea, suggesting that Rock-Eval method does not exactly reflect the characteristic of immature organic matters. Accordingly, the application of Rock-Eval pyrolysis for delineating the source of immature organic matters should be approached with caution and all other geochemical proxies should be considered altogether at the same time.