• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.441-452
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• 2020

The assessment of the river environment is widely applied as a method to establish the purpose and direction of river rehabilitation projects. This includes surveying and assessing the current state of the river environment and determining whether a previous river project was properly executed. The city of Seoul executed ecological river rehabilitation activities for the tributaries of the Han River from the 2000s following a masterplan to recover the physical shape and ecological functionality of damaged rivers. After the rehabilitation activities, the river environment had been changed substantially. In this study, physical properties, water quality properties, and ecological properties were assessed for 28 tributaries underthe control of the city of Seoul, and then those 3 properties were synthetically reassessed. From the result of the study on the physical properties, it was found that mostrivers had II-III grades. As for water quality properties, rivers had III-IV grades. The damaged rivers showed low grades of D-E based on the Aquatic Ecosystem Health evaluation. Accordingly, we concluded that all rivers of Seoul City have an unhealthy environment in terms of water quality and Aquatic Ecosystem Health, therefore it is regarded that long-term and systematic improvements are required.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.409-415
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• 2009

Galactomyces geotrichum MTCC 1360 degraded the Scarlet RR(100 mg/l) dye within 18 h, under shaking conditions(150 rpm) in malt yeast medium. The optimum pH and the temperature for decolorization were pH 12 and $50^{\circ}C$, respectively. Enzymatic studies revealed an induction of the enzymes, including flavin reductase during the initial stage and lignin peroxidase after complete decolorization of the dye. Decolorization of the dye was induced by the addition of $CaCO_3$ to the medium. EDTA had an inhibitory effect on the dye decolorization along with the laccase activity. The metabolites formed after complete decolorization were analyzed by UV-VIS, HPLC, and FTIR. The GC/MS identification of 3 H quinazolin-4-one, 2-ethylamino-acetamide, 1-chloro-4-nitro-benzene, N-(4-chloro-phenyl)-hydroxylamine, and 4-chloro-pheny-lamine as the final metabolites corroborated with the degradation of Scarlet RR. The phytotoxicity study revealed the nontoxic nature of the final metabolites. A possible degradation pathway is suggested to understand the mechanism used by G. geotrichum and thereby aiding development of technologies for the application of this organism to the cleaning-up of aquatic and terrestrial environments.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1156-1163
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• 2008

We performed RT-nested PCR to study the distribution of human enteric viruses in urban rivers in Korea. During 2002-2003, water samples were collected from four rivers in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. Among 58 samples, 45 (77.6%), 32 (55.2%), 12 (20.7%), 2 (3.4%), 4 (6.9%), and 4 (6.9%) showed positive results with adenoviruses (AdVs), enteroviruses (EVs), reoviruses (ReVs), hepatitis A viruses (HAVs), rotaviruses (RoVs), and sapoviruses (SVs), respectively. According to the binary logistic regression model, the occurrence of each enteric virus, except ReVs and HAVs, was not statistically correlated with the water temperature and levels of fecal coliforms (P<0.05). AdVs were most often detected; only 4 samples (6.9%) were negative for AdVs while positive for other enteric viruses in the studied sites. Our results indicated that monitoring human enteric viruses is necessary to improve microbial quality, and that AdVs detection by PCR can be a useful index for the presence of other enteric viruses in aquatic environments.

• Journal of Aquaculture
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.196-199
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• 2005

Farmed red sea breams, Pagrus major, were fed for 60 days with pellets containing different concentrations of benzo(a)pyrene (0, 0.2, 2, 20 mg/kg) to generate a biomarker of the chemical toxicity in the fish. The fish exposed to the chemical concentrations did not show any significant difference in the weight gain, conditioning, factor, and hepatosomatic index. However, some haematological parameters, such as glucose, calcium, magnesium, GOT (glutamic oxalate transaminase), and GPT (glutamic pyruvate transaminase) were influenced by the chemical exposure. Of them, two enzymes, GOT and GPT, increased significantly 60 days after the exposure in a way of concentration dependence (P<0.05). In the study of ecotoxicological biomarker, sensitivity to adverse environments is one of the key available factors. The fish changes in GOT and GPT were an earlier and reliable sign of the fish response against the chemical exposure, rendering the two enzymatic factors as a useful biomarker at least to benzo(a)pyrene exposure in the farming waters.

• Journal of Aquaculture
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.155-161
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• 1999

In order to obtain the basic information for seeding production of Echiuroid worm, Urechis unicinctus, the influence of pH and salinity on egg development was investigated. Mature adult of U. unicinctus were collected at the Diving Cooperation of Yosu in Korea and reared during 5 weeks. We carried out the artificial insemination in the laboratory on Dec. 29, 1998, and reared the embryo under different pH and salinity. Treatments were carried out with different pH(4~10) and salinity($0~45\textperthousand$). Embryos in pH 4, salinity $0\textperthousand$, $10\textperthousand$, $40\textperthousand$ and $45\textperthousand$ tanks did not develope after fertilization and became deformed or dead, before swimming embryo. In these pH and salinity conditions, deformation rate of embryo was high at 8-cell stage and 16-cell stage. But embryos in pH 5~10, salinity $20~35\textperthousand$ tanks developed into swimming embryo stage. These result indicate that an echiuran inhabits in both intertidal and subtidal mudflates. After fertilization, sixteen-cell stage took 5.3~5.6 hours in pH 5~10 tanks, and 5.1~5.8 hours in $20~35\textperthousand$ tanks. And swimming embryo took 13.3~ 14.1 hours in all conditions. The desirable pH and salinity for egg development were 7~8 and $30\textperthousand$, respectively.

• ALGAE
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.185-193
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• 2009

Geothermal springs in India, formed as a result of volcanic or tectonic activities, are characterized by high temperature and relatively abundant reduced compounds. These thermal springs are inhabited by characteristic thermophilic organisms including cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria are among the few organisms that can occupy high temperature aquatic environments including hot springs. In alkaline and neutral hot springs and streams flowing from them cyanobacteria can form thick colourful mats that exhibit banding patterns. The present investigation involves study of mat forming cyanobacterial flora from hot springs located in Bakreswar, West Bengal, India. The important species found are Synechococcus bigranulatus, S. lividus, Gloeocapsa gelatinosa, G. muralis, Phormidium laminosum, P. frigidum, Oscillatoria princes, O. fragilis, Lyngbya lutea, Pseudanabaena sp., Calothrix thermalis, and Fischerella thermalis. Their distribution pattern in relation to physico-chemical parameters of spring water has also been studied. Three cyanobacterial strains of the above mentioned list were grown in culture and their pigment content and nitrogen fixing capacity were also studied. Nitrogen fixing capacities of Calothrix thermalis, Nostoc sp. (isolated in culture) and Fischerella thermalis are 5.14, 0.29, and 2.60 n mole $C_2H_4/{\mu}g$ of Chl-${\alpha}$/hr respectively. Carotenoid : Chlorophyll-${\alpha}$ ratio of four mat samples collected from Kharkunda, Suryakunda, Dudhkunda and bathing pool are 2.45, 1.60, 1.48, and 1.34, respectively. Higher value of Carotenoid : Chlorophyll-${\alpha}$ ratio coincided with higher temperature.

• Journal of Species Research
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.123-134
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• 2018

A total of 22 bacterial strains belonging to the phylum Bacteroidetes were isolated primarily from aquatic environments such as seawater, freshwater, lagoon and tidal flat. One of these 22 strains was isolated from ginseng soil. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that 21 strains showed the high sequence similarities(${\geq}98.7%$) to the closest type strains and formed robust phylogenetic clades with closely related species in the phylum Bacteroidetes. One strain, which had been previously classified as Balneola vulgaris in the phylum Bacteroidetes, was identified as a member of the newly described phylum Rhodothermaeota. These strains had not been previously reported in Korea. Here, we report 21 species of 13 genera in the phylum Bacteroidetes and one species in the phylum Rhodothermaeota which were not reported in Korea. Morphological, biochemical, and physiological characteristics, isolation sources, and NIBR deposit numbers are described in the species descriptions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.81-84
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• 1999

The aqueous geochemical characteristics of Cr(III) and Cr(Ⅵ) in environmental systems are very different from one another: Cr(Ⅵ) is highly soluble, mobile and toxic relative to Cr(III) Reduction of Cr(Ⅵ) to Cr(III) are beneficial in aquatic systems because of the transformation of a highly mobile and toxic species to one having a low solubility in water, thus simultaneously decreasing chromium mobility and toxicity. Fe(II) species are excellent reductants for transforming Cr(Ⅵ) to Cr(III), and in addition, keeping Cr(III) concentrations below the drinking water standard of 52 ppb at pH values between 5 and 11. Investigations of the effects of NOM on Cr(Ⅵ) reduction are for examining the feasibility of using ferrous iron to reduce hexavalent chromium in subsurface environments. Experiments in the presence of soils, however, showed that the solid phase consumes some of the reducing capacity of Fe(II) and makes the overall reduction kinetics slower. The soil components bring about consumption of the ferrous iron reductant. Particular attention is devoted to the complexation of Fe(II) by NOM and the subsequent effect on Cr(Ⅵ) reduction. Cr(Ⅵ) reduction rate by Fe(II) was affected by the presence of NOM (humic acid), The effects of humic acid was different from the solution pH values and the concentration of humic acid. It was probably due to the reactions between humic acid and Cr(Ⅵ), humic acid and Fe(II), and between Cr(Ⅵ) and Fe(II), at each pH.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.26 no.10
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• pp.1125-1133
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• 2017

In this study a method for filling in missing data of river water temperature using a pre-constructed mathematical relationship between air and water temperatures is presented. A regression between water temperatures at individual stations and ambient air temperatures at nearby weather stations can provide a practical method for representing missing water temperature data for an entire region. Air and water temperature data that were collected from two test sites (one coastal and, one inland) were individually fitted to a nonlinear regression model. To consider seasonal hysteresis effects, separate functions were fitted to the data in the rising and falling limbs. A single-criterion, multi-parameter optimization technique was used to determine the optimal parameter sets. This method minimizes the differences between the time series of the measured and estimated data. The constructed air-water temperature relationship was subsequently applied to represent missing water temperature data. It was found that the RMSEs(MBEs) were in the range of $1.843-1.976^{\circ}C(-0.329-0.201^{\circ}C)$ and the coefficient of determination were in the range of 0.92-0.96. The results demonstrate that the predicted water temperatures using the regression equations were reasonably accurate.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.433-446
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• 2009

Pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment are trace contaminants of growing importance in environmental health due to their physiologically active nature. Pharmaceuticals could affect non-target species and might eventually damage sustainability of susceptible populations in the ecosystem. Potentials for health consequences among susceptible human population cannot be ruled out since long-term exposure to cocktails of pharmaceuticals, which might be present in drinking water, is possible. Selection of antibiotic resistant microorganisms is of another concern. In order to understand, and if needed, to properly address the environmental health issues of pharmaceutical residues, knowledge gaps need to be filled. Knowledge gaps exist in many important areas such as prioritization of target pharmaceuticals for further risk studies, occurrence patterns in different environments, chronic toxicities, and toxicities of pharmaceutical mixtures. Appropriate treatment technologies for drinking water and wastewater could be developed when they are deemed necessary. One of the simplest, yet most efficient measures that could be undertaken is to implement a return program for unused or expired drugs. In addition, implementation of environmental risk assessment frameworks for pharmaceuticals would make it possible to efficiently manage potential environmental health problems associated with pharmaceutical residues in the environment.