• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.631-640
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• 2024

In the traditional slope stability analysis, ignoring the spatial variability of slope soil will lead to inaccurate analysis. In this paper, the K-L series expansion method is adopted to simulate random field of soil strength parameters. Based on Random Limit Equilibrium Method (RLEM), the influence of variation coefficient and fluctuation range on reliability of soil slope supported by micro-pile is investigated. The results show that the fluctuation ranges and the variation coefficients significantly influence the failure probability of soil slope supported by micro-pile. With the increase of fluctuation range of soil strength parameters, the mean safety factor of the slope increases slightly. The failure probability of the soil slope increases with the increase of fluctuation range when the mean safety factor of the slope is greater than 1. The failure probability of the slope increases by nearly 8.5% when the fluctuation range is increased from δ_v=2 m to δ_v =8 m. With the increase of the variation coefficient of soil strength parameters, the mean safety factor of the slope decreases slightly, and the probability of failure of soil slope increases accordingly. The failure probability of the slope increases by nearly 31% when the variation coefficient increases from COV_c=0.2, COV_φ=0.05 to COV_c=0.5, COV_φ=0.2.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.564-574
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• 2022

Microbial diversity in the soil is responsive to changes in soil composition. However, the impact of soil amendments on the diversity and structure of rare and abundant sub-communities in agricultural systems is poorly understood. We investigated the effects of different Chinese herb residue (CHR) soil amendments and cropping systems on bacterial rare and abundant sub-communities. Our results showed that the bacterial diversity and structure of these sub-communities in soil had a specific distribution under the application of different soil amendments. The CHR soil amendments with high nitrogen and organic matter additives significantly increased the relative abundance and stability of rare taxa, which increased the structural and functional redundancy of soil bacterial communities. Rare and abundant sub-communities also showed different preferences in terms of bacterial community composition, as the former was enriched with Bacteroidetes while the latter had more Alphaproteobacteria and Betaproteobacteria. All applications of soil amendments significantly improved soil quality of newly created farmlands in whole maize cropping system. Rare sub-communitiy genera Niastella and Ohtaekwangia were enriched during the maize cropping process, and Nitrososphaera was enriched under the application of simple amendment group soil. Thus, Chinese medicine residue soil amendments with appropriate additives could affect soil rare and abundant sub-communities and enhance physicochemical properties. These findings suggest that applying soil composite amendments based on CHR in the field could improve soil microbial diversity, microbial redundancy, and soil fertility for sustainable agriculture on the Loess Plateau.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.907-914
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• 2019

Ammonia (NH₃) that reacts with nitric or sulfuric acid in the air is the major culprit contributing to the formation of fine particulate matter (PM_2.5). NH₃ volatilization mainly originates from nitrogen fertilizer and livestock manure applied to arable soil. Cation exchange capacity (CEC) of peat moss (PM) and zeolite (ZL) is high enough to adsorb ammonium (NH₄⁺) in soil. Therefore, they might inhibit volatilization of NH₃. The objective of this study was to compare the effect of PM and ZL on NH₃ volatilization from upland soil. For this, a laboratory experiment was carried out, and NH₃ volatilization from the soil was monitored for 12 days. PM and ZL were added at the rate of 0, 1, 2, and 4% (wt wt^-1) with 354 N g m^-2 of urea. Cumulative NH₃-N volatilization decreased with increasing addition rate of both materials. Mean value of cumulative NH₃-N volatilization across application rate with PM was lower than that with ZL. CEC increased with increasing addition rate of both materials. While the soil pH increased with ZL, it decreased with PM. Increase in CEC resulted in NH₄⁺ adsorption on the negative charge of the external surface of both materials. In addition, decrease in soil pH hinders the conversion of NH₄⁺ to NH₃. Based on the above results, the addition of PM or ZL could be an optimum management to reduce NH₃ volatilization from the soil. However, PM was more effective in decreasing NH₃ volatilization than ZL due to the combined effect of CEC and pH.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.471-484
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• 2023

Compost is widely used as an organic additive to improve the bioremediation of diesel-contaminated soil. In this study, the effects of compost amendment on the remediation performance, functional genes, and bacterial community are evaluated during the bioremediation of diesel-contaminated soils with various ratios of compost (0-20%, w/w). The study reveals that the diesel removal efficiency, soil enzyme (dehydrogenase and urease) activity, soil CH₄ oxidation potential, and soil N₂O reduction potential have a positive correlation with the compost amendment (p < 0.05). The ratios of denitrifying genes (nosZI, cnorB and qnorB) to 16S rRNA genes each show a positive correlation with compost amendment, whereas the ratio of the CH₄-oxidizing gene (pmoA) to the 16S rRNA genes shows a negative correlation. Interestingly, the genera Acidibacter, Blastochloris, Erythrobacter, Hyphomicrobium, Marinobacter, Parvibaculum, Pseudoxanthomonas, and Terrimonas are strongly associated with diesel degradation, and have a strong positive correlation with soil CH₄ oxidation potential. Meanwhile, the genera Atopostipes, Bacillus, Halomonas, Oblitimonas, Pusillimonas, Truepera, and Wenahouziangella are found to be strongly associated with soil N₂O reduction potential. These results provide useful data for developing technologies that improve diesel removal efficiency while minimizing greenhouse gas emissions in the bioremediation process of diesel-contaminated soil.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.245-253
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• 2019

BACKGROUND: Weathering of bottom ash (BA) might induce change of its surface texture and pH and affect physical and chemical properties of soil associated with greenhouse gas emission, when it is applied to the arable soil. This study was conducted to determine effect of weathering of BA in mitigating emission of greenhouse gases from upland soil. METHODS AND RESULTS: In a field experiment, methane (CH₄), carbon dioxide (CO₂), and nitrous oxide (N₂O) emitted from the soil was periodically monitored using closed chamber. Three month-weathered BA and non-weathered BA were applied to an upland soil at the rates of 0, 200 Mg ha^-1. Maize (Zea mays L.) was grown from July 1_st to Oct 8_th in 2018. Both BAs did not affect cumulative CH₄ emission. Cumulative CO₂ emission were 23.1, 19.8, and 18.8 Mg/ha/100days and cumulative N₂O emission were 35.8, 20.9, and 17.7 kg/ha/100days for the control, non-weathered BA, and weathered BA, respectively. Weathering of BA did not decrease emission of greenhouse gases significantly, compared to the weathered BA in this study. In addition, both BAs did not decrease biomass yields of maize. CONCLUSION: BA might be a good soil amendment to mitigate emissions of CO₂ and N₂O from arable soil without adverse effect on crop productivity.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.47-51
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• 2015

Biocatalytic degradation of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) in contaminated soil by hemoglobin and hydrogen peroxide is an effective soil remediation method. This study used a laboratory soil reactor experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of a nonspecific biocatalytic reaction with hemoglobin and H₂O₂ for treating TPH-contaminated soil. We also quantified changes in the soil microbial community using real-time PCR analysis during the experimental treatment. The results show that the measured rate constant for the reaction with added hemoglobin was 0.051/day, about 3.5 times higher than the constant for the reaction with only H₂O₂ (0.014/day). After four weeks of treatment, 76% of the initial soil TPH concentration was removed with hemoglobin and hydrogen peroxide treatment. The removal of initial soil TPH concentration was 26% when only hydrogen peroxide was used. The soil microbial community, based on 16S rRNA gene copy number, was higher (7.1 × 10⁶ copy number/g of bacteria, and 7.4 × 10⁵ copy number/g of Archaea, respectively) in the hemoglobin catalyzed treatment. Our results show that TPH treatment in contaminated soil using hemoglobin catalyzed oxidation led to the enhanced removal effectiveness and was non-toxic to the native soil microbial community in the initial soil.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.65-73
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• 2021

Since the amount of red mud, generated from aluminum smelting process as a by-product, has increased worldwide, the recycle and metal resource recovery from the red mud is becoming more important. In this study, in order to recycle the red mud as a soil stabilizer to remediate arsenic contaminated soils, neutralization of red mud was investigated. Red mud was neutralized by washing with distilled water and NaCl, CaCl₂, FeCl₃, and HCl solutions and heating at 200-800℃, and arsenic stabilization characteristics in soils were evaluated with the neutralized red mud. Although washing with distilled water was not effective in neutralizing red mud, the application of the washed red mud to soils lowered the soil pH compared to the application of untreated red mud. Among NaCl, CaCl₂, FeCl₃, and HCl solutions, washing with FeCl₃ showed the most effective in lowering pH of the red mud from pH 10.73 to pH 4.26. Application of the neutralized red mud in soils resulted in quite different arsenic stabilization efficiency depending on soil samples. In M1 soil, which showed relatively high arsenic stabilization efficiency by untreated red mud, the neutralization of red mud resulted in little effect on arsenic stabilization in soil. On the other hand, in M2 soil, which showed low arsenic stabilization efficiency by untreated red mud, the neutralization of red mud increased arsenic stabilization significantly. Soil characteristics such as clay minerals and pH buffering capacity seemed to affect reactions between red mud and soils, which resulted in different effects of the red mud application on soil pH and arsenic stabilization efficiencies.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.379-387
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• 2022

A large amount of the mineral nitrogen is necessary for crop growth. With the use of nitrogen fertilizers, agricultural yield has increased during the last few decades. However, at the same time, nitrate from the cultivated land can be a source of environmental pollution, especially in water systems. For nitrogen management, it is necessary to analyze the pattern of nitrogen movement in soil. In this study, nitrogen leaching in upland soils was evaluated using undisturbed lysimeters with different soil textures during sesame cultivation. The soil texture of the lysimeters was clay loam (Songjung series) and sandy loam (Sangju series) soils. Sesame was cultivated from May 25 to August 24 in 2020. The standard amount of NPK fertilizer (N-P₂O₅-K₂O = 2.9-3.1-3.2 kg·10 a^-1) was applied before sowing. The amount of nitrogen leaching was calculated by multiplying the nitrogen (NO₃-N + NH₄-N) concentration and the amount of water drained below 1.5 m soil depth. The water was drained through percolation into macropores in the clay loam lysimeter. In contrast, in the sandy loam lysimeter, water drained more slowly than in the clay loam lysimeter. There was a slight difference in the total amount of leachate during the cultivation period, but the amount of nitrogen leaching was high in sandy loam soil. During the sesame cultivation period, the amount of nitrogen leaching from clay soil was 5.64 kg·10 a^-1, and 10.70 kg·10 a^-1 for sandy soil. We found that there was a difference in leaching depending on the soil physical characteristics. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the characteristics of soil to evaluate the leaching of nitrogen.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.389-398
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• 2022

Many studies have been conducted to accurately predict the correlations between As and heavy metals content in contaminated soil and cultivated crops; however, due to the low correlation between the two, few clear results were obtained to date. This study aimed to create statistical models that predict the As content transferred from soil to polished rice, considering the physicochemical properties of the soil, as well as the total content and the single-extracted content of As in the soil. Predictive models were derived through regression analysis while sequentially classifying soil samples according to pH, soluble As content by single extraction, and organic matter content of the soil. The correlation coefficients between the As content in 80 polished rice and total As content and Mehlich soluble As content in the soil were low, 0.533 and 0.493, respectively. However, the models derived after sequential classification of the soil by pH, a ratio of total As content to Mehlich soluble As content, and organic matter content greatly increased the predictive power; ① 0.963 for 13 soils with a pH higher than 6.5, ② 0.849 for 15 soils with pH lower than 6.5 and a high ratio of As_Tot/As_Mehlich, ③ 0.935 for 30 soils with pH lower than 6.5, a high ratio of As_Tot/As_Mehlich, and organic matter content lower than 8.5%. The suggested prediction model of As transfer from soil to polished rice derived by soil classification may serve as a statistically significant methodology in establishing a rice cultivation standard for arsenic-contaminated soil.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.313-325
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• 2011

From October 2009 to June 2010, major greenhouse gases (GHG: $N_2O$, $CH_4$, $CO_2$) soil emission were measured from upland cabbage field at Kunsan ($35^{\circ}$56'23"N, $126^{\circ}$43'14"E), Korea by using closed static chamber method. The measurements were conducted mostly from 10:00 to 18:00LST during field experiment days (total 28 days). After analyzing GHG concentrations inside of flux chamber by using a GC equipped with a methanizer (Varian CP3800), the GHG fluxes were calculated from a linear regression of the changes in the concentrations with time. Soil parameters (e.g. soil moisture, temperature, pH, organic C, soil N) were also measured at the sampling site. The average soil pH and soil moisture were ~pH $5.42{\pm}0.03$ and $70.0{\pm}1.8$ %WFPS (water filled pore space), respectively. The ranges of GHG flux during the experimental period were $0.08\sim8.40\;mg/m^2{\cdot}hr$ for $N_2O$, $-92.96\sim139.38mg/m^2{\cdot}hr$ for $CO_2$, and $-0.09\sim0.05mg/m^2{\cdot}hr$ for $CH_4$, respectively. It revealed that monthly means of $CO_2$ and $CH_4$ flux during October (fall) were positive and significantly higher than those (negative value) during January (winter) when subsoil have low temperature and relatively high moisture due to snow during the winter measurement period. Soil mean temperature and moisture during these months were $17.5{\pm}1.2^{\circ}C$, $45.7{\pm}8.2$%WFPS for October; and $1.4{\pm}1.3^{\circ}C$, $89.9{\pm}8.8$ %WFPS for January. It may indicate that soil temperature and moisture have significant role in determining whether the $CO_2$ and $CH_4$ emission or uptake take place. Low temperature and high moisture above a certain optimum level during winter could weaken microbial activity and the gas diffusion in soil matrix, and then make soil GHG emission to the atmosphere decrease. Other soil parameters were also discussed with respect to GHG emissions. Both positive and negative gas fluxes in $CH_4$ and $CO_2$ were observed during these measurements, but not for $N_2O$. It is likely that $CH_4$ and $CO_2$ gases emanated from soil surface or up taken by the soil depending on other factors such as background concentrations and physicochemical soil conditions.