• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.286-294
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• 2020

The Chironomus(Diptera: Chironomidae) is a freshwater benthic invertebrate that is an important indicator organism used for environmental pollution and water quality monitoring. In this study, we performed morphological classification and genetic species identification using the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene on mitochondrial DNA for an accurate species classification of Chironomus larvae found in tap water purification plants in Incheon, Korea. Twenty larvae in six water purification plants consist of four species, including twelve Chironomus kiiensis, six Chironomus flaviplumus, one Chironomus dorsalis, and one Polypedilum yongsanensis (not included Genus Chironomus). Morphological characteristics of each larvae were identified based on the head capsule, the mentum, the mandible, the antenna, and the claw. Based on the COI sequences of 21 individuals of 17 Chironomus species registered in NCBI Genbank, phylogenetic analysis indicated that the 20 individuals investigated in this study consist of the same clade with corresponding species of the high homology (99~100%) including C. kiiensis, C. flaviplumus, C. dorsalis, and P. yongsanensis. These results will be used as main classification indicator for monitoring freshwater ecosystems by providing integrated morphological and genetic information for the species identification of Korean Chironomus.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.361-364
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• 2016

Waterbirds using rice fields has increased due to a decline of natural wetlands. The rice field is an essential habitat to supports the waterbird population. Although use of rice field by waterbirds has been widely documented, little information is available on distribution patterns of waterbirds under the pesticide use in rice fields. The current study conducted to understand the relationship between habitat use by waterbirds and pesticide applicatioins in rice fields. We monitored the distribution of waterbirds at Daeho reclaimed area in July 2013 to June 2014 and September 2014 to August 2015. As a results, three heron species (Black-crowned Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax, Eastern Cattle Egret Bubulcus coromandus and Intermediate Egret Egretta intermedia) are more sensitive to pesticides use than other waterbird species in rice fields. Future studies are necessary to explore the relationship between bird's distribution and management practices including pesticide use at different spatiotemporal scales.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.481-489
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• 2017

Tick-borne pathogens can cause serious problems in grazing cattle. However, little information is available on tick-mediated diseases in cattle grazing on mountains. Thus, this study aimed to understand the potential problems related to tick-borne diseases in grazing cattle through the investigation of prevalent tick-transmitted infections, and their associated hematological changes, in terms of season and grazing type in Korean indigenous cattle (=Hanwoo). Hanwoo cattle from 3 regions of the Republic of Korea (=Korea) were either maintained indoors or placed on grassy mountains from spring to fall of 2014 and 2015. Cattle that grazed in mountainous areas showed a greater prevalence of tick-borne infections with an increased Theileria orientalis infection rate (54.7%) compared to that in non-grazing cattle (16.3%) (P<0.001). Accordingly, the red blood cell (RBC) count and hematocrit (HCT) values of grazing cattle were significantly lower than those of non-grazing cattle throughout the season (P<0.05). Moreover, RBC, hemoglobin (Hb), and HCT of T. orientalis-positive group were significantly lower than those of T. orientalis-negative group (P<0.05). T. orientalis is a widespread tick-borne pathogen in Korea. Grazing of cattle in mountainous areas is closely associated with an increase in T. orientalis infection (RR=3.4, P<0.001), and with consequent decreases in RBC count and HCT. Thus, these findings suggest that the Hanwoo cattle in mountainous areas of Korea are at a high risk of infection by T. orientalis, which can lead to hematological alterations. This study highlights the necessity of preventive strategies that target T. orientalis infection.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.37-48
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• 1996

The purpose of this study is to provide the valuable basic information that helps set the advanced direction of study in environmental pollution in the future. It classifies and analyzes 6, 531 papers according to their years, fields, and contents from 1962 to 1993 in Korea through Chunrian, a PC communication network, National Environment Research Institute(1989) in Seoul. Classifying papers by their fields, this study shows 19.6%(1, 281 papers) of total papers on water pollution, on which most emphasis was placed in the studies, 17.2%(1, 121 papers) on general remarks, 14.6%(952 papers) on environmental ecology, and 13.6%(891 papers) on air pollution. Classifying papers by their contents, this study tells us that the survey of state and evaluation of pollution degree took 28%(1, 829 papers) of total papers, and it seemed the most active study was carried out on this content. It then shows us that the treatment technology and mechanism shared 17.5%(1, 144 papers), and facilities and design took 1.9%(127 papers) which needed more studies in the future. As for the trends of study, the papers published until 1979 show that the water pollution accounted for 28.9% of total studies, on which the greatest emphasis was placed, while the papers in 1990s tell us that general remarks 34.7%, air pollution 14.9%, and water pollution 14.1%. It also shows that treatment technology and mechanism has had more importance since 1980s in water pollution, noise and vibration, waste materials, human wastes, and radioactive pollution. However, in sea pollution, policy and standard rather than treatment technology or method of measurement and analysis has been considered a more important one in 1990s. Analyzing the studies on general remarks, it tell us that the paper on environmental act, which were frequently conducted, accounted for 33.3% until 1979, while the papers on the environmental policy, in which the highest interest was kept, accounted 34.6% in 1990s. This study concludes that most papers had examined the survey on status and evaluation of pollution degree before 1980, while studies on solving the problems of environmental pollution have had more importance in the 1980s and 1990s. Therefore, in the future, more studies should be conducted actively on policy development to solve the problems of environment pollution as well as on encouragement of environmental consciousness.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.79-84
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• 1998

This study was conducted to obtain information on occurrance ecology of Aneilema keisak Hassk. and establish its effective control system in direct-seeded rice. Optimum germination temperature and storage temperature to break dormancy were $22^{\circ}C$ and $4^{\circ}C$, respectively. Optimum content of soil moisture for germination was 35%(w/w) in clay loam soil, where recorded 85% of germination rate. In the inter-specific competition between density of Aneilema keisak Hassk. and constant rice-mixed stands, the plant height and the tiller of rice were decreased with increase of density of Aneilema keisak Hassk. Among the herbicides tested, piperophos+dimethametryn(8.2+2.2 g ai/10a) GR and. pyrazosulfuron-ethyl+mefenacet(2.1 + 105 g ai/10g) GR were found to be effective for control of Aneilema keisak Hassk., having more herbicidal effect with an earlier application.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.35 no.6_4
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• pp.1391-1401
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• 2019

The KOMPSAT-3A is a high-resolution optical satellite launched in 2015 by Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). KOMPSAT-3A provides Panchromatic (PAN-0.55 m), Multispectral (MS-2.2 m), and Mid-wavelength infrared (MIR_OR-5.5 m) image. However, due to security or military problems, MIR_OR image with 5.5m spatial resolution are provided down sampled at 33 m spatial resolution (MIR_rd). In this study, we propose spatial sharpening method to improve the spatial resolution of MIR_rd image (33 m) using virtual High Frequency (HF) image and optimal fusion factor. Using MS image and MIR_rd image, we generated virtual high resolution (5.5 m) MIR_OR^fus image and then compared them to actual high-resolution MIR_OR image. The test results show that the proposed method merges the spatial resolution of MS image and the spectral information of MIR_rd image efficiently.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.187-192
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• 2016

Diarrhea is reported as one of the most common diseases in calves. It is thought to be a major cause of productivity and economic loss to cattle producers. The aim of this study is to provide a better understanding of well-known diarrheagenic pathogens and incidence of diarrhea in Korean calves. In this study, the relationship of calf diarrhea and pathogens were investigated from calves under 60 days of age in five areas of Korea from April to July, 2016. Of examined fecal samples, 38.3% was positive for any pathogens, and Giardia was the most common pathogen (25.5%). The incidence of diarrhea was 31% from pathogen-negative fecal samples whereas 61.1% from pathogen-positive fecal samples, suggesting high correlation between pathogenic factor and diarrhea. In addition, 80% of E. coli (K99) positive calves showed diarrhea, suggesting E. coli (K99) could be highly pathogenic. The incidence of diarrhea and infection rate increased with age. Rotavirus was revealed as a major pathogen in calves under 20 days of age, and the infection rate of Giardia increased rapidly in calves 20 to 39 days of age. The information on interconnections between clinical diarrhea and pathogens would contribute to developing strategies for treatment of calf diarrhea.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.38 no.2 s.112
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• pp.137-145
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• 2005

Traditional screening techniques have missed up to 99% of microbial resources existing in the nature. Strategies of direct cloning of environmental DNAs comprising tine genetic blueprints of entire microbial metagenomes provide vastly more genetic information than is contained in the culturable. Therefore, one way to screening the useful gene in a variety of environments is the construction of metagenomic DNA library. In this study, the water samples were collected from Daecheong Reservoir in the mid Korea, and analyzed by T-RFLP to examine the diversity of the microbial communities. The crude DNAs were extracted by SDS-based freezing-thawing method and then further purified using an $UltraClean^{TM}kit$ (MoBio, USA). The metagenomic libraries were constructed with the DNAs partially digested with EcoRI, BamHI, and SacII in Escherichia coli DH10B using the pBACe3.6 vector. About 14.0 Mb of metagenomic libraries were obtained with average inserts 13 ${\sim}$ 15 kb in size. The genes responsible for degradation of 1, 2-dichloroethane (1, 2-DCE) via hydrolytic dehalogenation were identified from the metagenomic libraries by colony hybridization. The 1, 2-dichloroethane dehalogenase gene (dhlA) was cloned and its nucleotide sequence was analyzed. The activity of the 1, 2-DCE dehalogenase was highly expressed to the substrate. These results indicated that the dhlA gene identified from the metagenomes derived from Deacheong Reservoir might be useful to develop a potent strain for degradation of 1, 2-DCE.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.271-279
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• 2009

Vinyl chloride (VC) is a known human carcinogen, and it is released to multi-environmental media via several exposure routes. VC was potentially evaluated as a water quality pollutant based on human health risk assessment in Korean water environments. In this study, we investigated physicochemical and toxicological properties of VC, human health and ecological risk assessment, and the regulation of VC as a water quality pollutant in developed countries. Currently there are no standard or guideline values of VC in Korean legal system for the protection of human health and aquatic ecosystem, except that it is designated as a specific toxic substance and a water quality pollutant. Human health risk assessment of VC was previously performed based on the limited water quality monitoring data. The monitoring level of VC in Korean water system is more higher than other countries'. VC was assessed as potential hazardous chemical based on the US EPA's cancer risk assessment. There were a few ecotoxicity data of VC available using very limited kinds of aquatic organisms, and the toxicity results obtained seem to be overestimated without considering the losses of VC in open exposure system. Therefore it is needed to monitor the VC in various areas and to carry out the ecotoxicity research using multi-level organisms. We expect that these results can be useful information for implementing VC as a water quality pollutant in legal system for the protection of human health and aquatic ecosystem in near future.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.419-428
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• 2013

We identified the diversity, geographical distribution, ecological characteristics of birds, trees, and flowers species designated as local government symbols as a means for understanding public awareness on biodiversity. A total of 114 species including 48 birds, 40 flowers, 36 tree species belonging to 40 orders 59 families 90 genus were designated as natural symbols. Pica pica (L.) in birds, Rhododendron schlippenbachii Maxim. among flowers, have also been designated as symbols. The tree Ginkgo biloba L. was designated with the highest frequency. Local governments located coastal area were selected bird species of the Laridae family and the tree species Camellia japonica L., of Pinaceae as their natural symbols. In contrast, local governments located inland have designated resident bird species such as P. pica and Columba rupestris (Pallas) and flower species from the Ericaceae as natural symbols widely distributed and easily observed throughout South Korea. However, many local governments have designated the same species as a natural symbol based on their size color and public appeal and popularity. The information about the popular species and their ecological traits are useful for establishing the criteria as flagship or iconic species selection and their roles in habitat conservation.