• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.210-221
• /
• 2008

The mesoscale environmental surveys were conducted between $5^{\circ}N\;and\;17^{\circ}N$ mainly along the $131.5^{\circ}W$ meridian from 1997 to 2002 to investigate controlling factors of carbon and nitrogen contents in bottom sediments. Sediments of the study area showed zonal distribution pattern depending on latitudinal position and can be classified into four types; calcareous ooze($5{\sim}6^{\circ}N$), siliceous sediments($8{\sim}12^{\circ}N$), pelagic red clay($16{\sim}17^{\circ}N$), and mixed sediments($7^{\circ}N$). Inorganic carbon(IC) contents varied depending on water depth and carbonate compensation depth(CCD). Carbonate materials were well preserved in the low latitude region, where water depths are shallower than CCD. In contrast, the higher latitude region dominated by siliceous sediment and pelagic red clays has low productivity in water column as well as the water depths deeper than CCD. Thus, most of carbonate materials were dissolved, which resulted in IC contents of less than 0.05% in the sediments. Organic carbon(OC) and total nitrogen contents(TN) in siliceous sediments were higher than in pelagic red clay sediments simply because of higher primary productivity in the siliceous sediment dominated area. The contents of OC and TN were lower in the calcareous ooze than in the siliceous sediments. It is attributed to the high input of calcareous material to the bottom due to relatively shallow water depth of the area, which diluted organic matter contents in the sediment. Overall results indicated that water depth relative to CCD, primary production in water column, and sedimentation rate largely controls the large-scale distribution of carbon and nitrogen contents in the study area.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.26 no.6
• /
• pp.606-615
• /
• 2010

This study aims to identify the characteristics of soil in Mongolia, one of the major Asian dust sources that influence the Korean Peninsula. Soil particle size was analyzed and the result shows that sand (57.5~97.3%) was identified prominently in most regions, followed by silt (2.5~34.7%) and clay (0.0~7.8%). Soil pH of the covered regions were in the range 7.1~10.1, either weak alkaline or strong alkaline. Analysis of ion species in the soil samples exhibited that $Na^+$ ($91.9\;mg\;kg^{-1}$), $Cl^-$ ($65.9\;mg\;kg^{-1}$), and $Ca^{2+}$ ($53.5\;mg\;kg^{-1}$) were detected more in the soil than other species such as ${SO_4}^{2-}$ ($19.2\;mg\;kg^{-1}$), ${NO_3}^-$ ($46.6\;mg\;kg^{-1}$), ${NH_4}^+$ ($3.9\;mg\;kg^{-1}$), $K^+$ ($22.0\;mg\;kg^{-1}$), and $Mg^{2+}$ ($10.2\;mg\;kg^{-1}$). As for heavy metal content in the soil, concentrations of soil-borne metals including Fe, Al, Ca, Mg, and K tended to be high, while metals that come from manmade sources Pb, Cd, Cr, V, and Ni were remarkably low. The concentration of organic carbon (OC) was relatively high at $15.9\;{\mu}g\;mg^{-1}$, while elemental carbon (EC), directly released in the process of fossil fuel combustion, was not detected at all or found in very small amounts. The result indicates that pollution from manmade sources scarcely occurred. The analysis results from this study may contribute to improving modeling accuracy by providing input data for Asian dust prediction models, and be used as base data for determining the process of physiochemical transformation of Asian dust during long-range transport.