• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.69-83
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• 2013

Metal concentrations in creek water, sewer outlets and core sediments were analyzed to identify the potential origin of metal pollution and to evaluate the extent of metal pollution and potential toxicity of Lake Shihwa. Mean concentrations for dissolved metals in creek water and sewer outlets were 1.6~136 times higher than those in the surface seawater of Lake Shihwa. Metal concentrations in creek water from an industrial region were also higher than those from municipal and agricultural regions, indicating that the potential source of metal pollution in the study area might be mainly due to industrial activities. The vertical profiles of metals in core sediments showed an increasing trend toward the upper sediments. Extremely higher concentrations of metals were observed in the vicinity of Banweol industrial complex. The results of a geo-accumulation index indicated that Cu, Zn and Cd were highly polluted. By comparing the sediment quality guidelines such as TEL and PEL, six metals such as Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb levels in core sediments nearby industrial complex exceeded the PEL value. Mean PEL quotient (mPELQ) was used to integrate the estimate of potential toxicity for measured metals in the present study. Mean PELQs in core sediments from Lake Shihwa ranged from 0.2~2.3, indicating that benthic organisms nearby the industrial complex may have been adversely affected.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.413-433
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• 1994

Jinhae Bay once was a productive area of fisheries. It is, however, now notorious for its red tides; and oxygen deficient water-masses extensively develop at present in summer. Therefore the shellfish production of the bay has been decreasing and mass mortality often occurs. Under these circumstances, the three-dimensional numerical hydrodynamic and the material cycle models, which were developed by the Institute for Resources and Environment of Japan, were applied to analyze the processes affecting the oxygen depletion and also to evaluate the environment capacity for the reception of pollutant loads without dissolved oxygen depletion. In field surveys, oxygen deficient water-masses were formed with concentrations of below 2.0mg/l at the bottom layer in Masan Bay and the western part of Jinhae Bay during the summer. Current directions, computed by the $M_2$ constituent, were mainly toward the western part of Jinhae Bay during flood flows and in opposite directions during ebb flows. Tidal currents velocities during the ebb tide were stronger than that of the flood tide. The comparision between the simulated and observed tidal ellipses showed fairly good agreement. The residual currents, which were obtained by averaging the simulated tidal currents over 1 tidal cycle, showed the presence of counterclockwise eddies in the central part of Jinhae Bay. Density driven currents were generated southward at surface and northward at the bottom in Masan Bay and Jindong Bay, where the fresh water of rivers entered. The material cycle model was calibrated with the data surveyed in the field of the study area from June to July, 1992. The calibrated results are in fairly good agreement with measured values within relative error of $28\%$. The simulated dissolved oxygen distributions of bottom layer were relatively high with the concentration of $6.0{\sim}8.0mg/l$ at the boundaries, but an oxygen deficient water-masses were formed within the concentration of 2.0mg/l at the inner part of Masan Bay and the western part of Jinhae Bay. The results of sensitivity analyses showed that sediment oxygen demand(SOD) was one of the most important influence on the formation of oxygen depletion. Therefore, to control the oxygen deficient water-masses and to conserve the coastal environment, it is an effective method to reduce the SOD by improving the polluted sediment. As the results of simulations, in Masan Bay, oxygen deficient water-masses recovered to 5.0mg/l when the $50\%$ reduction in input COD loads from Masan basin and $70\%$ reduction in SOD was conducted. In the western part of Jinhae Bay, oxygen deficient water-masses recovered to 5.0mg/l when the $95\%$ reduction in SOD and $90\%$ reduction in culturing ground fecal loads was conducted.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.54-63
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• 2019

As a part of the national marine ecosystem monitoring program, the temporal and spatial variation of sedimentary environment and pollution of organic matters and trace metals from four major tidal flats, i.e., Ganghwa Is., Garolim bay, Jeung Is., Suncheon bay, was investigated for 3 yerars from 2015 to 2017. The mean grain size of the sediment was $5.0-5.3{\varnothing}$ at Ganghwa Is, $4.5-4.8{\varnothing}$ at Garolim bay, $6.1-6.5{\varnothing}$ at Jeung Is, and $8.6-8.7{\varnothing}$ at Suncheon bay. The mean grain size (Mz) tended to decrease from the north (Ganghwa Is.) to the south (Suncheon bay). The ignition loss (IL) was 15.5% in Suncheon bay in 2015, which was relatively high compared to other sites, but gradually decreased over time from 8.3% in 2016 to 7.0% in 2017. In Jeung Is. and Suncheon bay, the concentration of Zn and As exceeded the threshold effect level (TEL) at some stations, but the range of trace metals in the other sites was below the level. In Jeung Is., the Mz and concentration of trace metals except Hg was positively correlated (r= 0.40-0.88, P<0.05). On the other hand, Mz was negatively correlated with trace metals (P<0.05) in Suncheon bay. The geoaccumulation index ($I_{geo}$) to evaluate contamination status of sediments for trace metal was less than 1(not contaminated) for Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd and Hg, and 2-3 (moderately to strongly polluted) for As at several stations in Suncheon bay and Jeung Is.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.11-23
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• 2016

An ecological study on subtidal macrobenthic fauna was conducted off the Namhaedo Island, south coast of Korea from July 2012 to April 2013. A total of 247 species of macrobenthos occurred with a mean density of $1,027ind./m^2$ and a mean biomass of $148.7g/m^2$. Polychaetes was the richest and most abundant faunal group that comprised 37% in both total species number and density whereas echinoderms were biomass-dominant faunal group that accounted for 44% of the mean biomass. There was a seasonal variation in the species richness and abundance of macrobenthos with more species in winter and higher density in spring. Mean faunal density was relatively high at the stations near Namhaedo Island, but gradually decreased toward offshore stations. The most dominant species in terms of density was an amphipod species, Eriopisella sechellensis which occurred as a top ranker during three seasons except spring recorded the fourth rank. E. sechellensis showed its high density at the near shore stations of Namhaedo Island, but this species did not occur around the entrance of Gwangyang and Saryang Bays where Theora fragilis and Lumbrineris longifolia showed high densities. In particular, Tharyx sp., recorded high density between Gwangyang Bay entrance and offshore after Sea Prince oil spill, did not occur in the same area during this study period. The bottom temperature and sorting value of the surface sediments were highly correlated to the spatial distribution of macrobenthic fauna from the Bio-Env analysis. From the cluster analysis, the study area has five station groups with more similar faunal affinities from inner area toward offshore area. Based on the SIMPER analysis T. fragilis, Magelona japonica, E. sechellensis, L. longifolia and Paraprionospio cordifolia were mainly contributed to the classification of station groups. From the BPI, benthic communities in the entrance of Gwangyang Bay and Saryang Bay were considered to be in a slightly polluted condition in contrast to the normal healthy community at the offshore of Namhaedo Island. These results suggested that the benthic community of this area should be regularly monitored to assess the health status of this benthic ecosystem.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Groundwater Environment
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.23-32
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• 1994

To determine the apparent equilibrium constants, K$_{ad,app}$, for the adsorption reactions of trace metals on amorphous iron oxyhydroxide (AIO) in the Taebag coal mine area, time-adsorption and pH-adsorption experiments were performed for a selected bottom sediment mainly comprised of AIO from the study area. The results from the adsorption experiments indicate that most of the trace metals, except Pb, achieve equilibrium states with AIO and thus, the calculated K$_{ad,app}$ may represent the true apparent equilibrium constants. K$_{ad,app}$ and the stoichiometric coefficients of proton, x, of the adsorption reactions between the trace metals and AIO were respectively calculated from the intercepts and slopes of the regression lines of log($\Gamma$/ ［M］$_{aq}$)against pH provided by pH-adsorption experiments. The calculated K$_{ad,app}$ this study has the values of the range from 10$^{－4.5}$ to 10$^{2.75}$ , which is much different from the reported values by other investigators for simple experimental systems. K$_{ad,app}$ of this study is more or less close but not exactly pertinent to the estimated values for the other natural systems. It indicates that K$_{ad,app}$ for the adsorption reactions in the aquatic system in the study area is unique and thus should be determined befor the adsorption modelling. The calculated x of this study has the values of the range from -0.3 to 0.7, which is also much different from what most geochemists generally accept. The discrepancy in x may be due to the competition among different kinds of ionic species on the adsorption site or simulataneous occurrence of different kinds of adsorption reactions. The results from this study should help construct an appropriate adsorption model for the aquatic systems polluted by the coal mine drainage in the Taebag area. With the constructed model, one can describe the concentration variations of trace metals due to the adsorption in the system, which is an essential part of the investigation on the water quality affected by coal mine drainage in the Taebag coal field.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.571-581
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• 2007

The mechanism of water pollution in Lake Shihwa, one of highly eutrophicated artificial lakes in Korea, has been studied using a numerical 3D physical-biochemical coupled model. In this study, the model was applied to estimate the contribution of land-based pollutant load to water quality of heavily polluted Lake Shihwa. The chemical oxygen demand(COD) was adopted as an index of the lake water quality, and the spatial distribution of an average COD concentration during the summer from 1999 to 2000 was simulated by the model. The simulated COD showed a good agreement with the observed data. According to reproducibility of COD, the high-est levels between 8 and 9 mg/L were shown at the inner site of the lake with inflow of many rivers and ditches, while the lowest was found to be about 5 mg/L at the southwestern site near to dike gate. In the pre-diction of water quality of Lake Shihwa, COD showed still higher levels than 3 mg/L in case of reduction of 95% for land-based pollutant load. This suggests that the curtailment of land-based pollutant load is not only sufficient but the improvement of sediment quality or the increase of seawater exchange should be considered together to improve a water quality in Lake Shihwa.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2005

Tidal flats have been regarded to carry out transformation and removal of land-derived organic matter, and this purifying capability of organic matter by tidal flats is one of very important reasons for their conservation. However, integral biogeochemical studies on production and decomposition of organic matter by benthic microbes in tidal flats have been absent in Korea, although the information is indispensable to quantification of the purifying capability. Our major goals in this multidisciplinary research were to understand major biogeochemical processes and rates mediated by diverse groups of microbes dominating material cycles in the tidal flats, and to assess the contribution of benthic microbes to removal of organic matter and nutrients in the tidal flats. Our study sites were Ganghwa and Incheon north-port tidal flats that had been regarded as naturally well reserved and organically polluted, respectively. Our research group measured over 3 years primary production, biomass and community structure of primary producers, abundance and production of bacteria, enzyme activities, distribution of protozoa and protozoan grazing rates, rates of denitrification and sulfate reduction, early sediment diagenesis, primary production and respiration based on oxygen microelectrode. We analyzed major features of each biogeochemical process and their interactions. The results are compiled in the following articles in this special issue: An (2005), Hwang and Cho (2005), Mok et at. (2005), Na and Lee (2005), Yang et at. (2005), and Yoo and Choi (2005).

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.8-25
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• 2020

Industrialization has increased the production of road-deposited sediments (RDS) and the level of heavy metals in those RDS, which can have a significant impact on the surrounding aquatic environments through non-point pollution. Although the relationship between contamination characteristics and particle size of RDS is important for pollution control, there is very little information on this. In this study, we investigated the characteristics of grain size distribution and heavy metal concentrations in the road-deposited sediments (RDS) collected from 25 stations in Shihwa Industrial Complex. The environmental impact of RDS with particle size is also studied. I_geo, the contamination assessment index of each metal concentration, represents the RDS from Shihwa Industrial Complex are very highly polluted with Cu, Zn, Pb and Sb, and the levels of those metals were 633~3605, 130~1483, 120~1997, 5.5~50 mg/kg, respectively. The concentrations of heavy metals in RDS increased with the decrease in particle size. The particle size fraction below 250 ㎛ was very dominant with mass and contamination loads, 78.6 and 70.4%, respectively. Particles less than 125 ㎛ of RDS were highly contaminated and toxic to benthic organisms in rivers. RDS particles larger than 250 ㎛ and smaller than 250 ㎛ were contaminated by the surrounding industrial facility and vehicle activities, respectively. As a result of this study, the clean-up of fine particles of RDS, smaller than 125-250 ㎛, is very important for the control and reduction of non-point pollution to nearby water in Shihwa Industrial Complex.