• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.66 no.4
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• pp.271-278
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• 2021

Azolla is a genus of small aquatic ferns native to Asia, Africa, and America. Azolla is potentially significant as a nitrogen source in agriculture, particularly in conjunction with rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivation. In addition, Azolla may either control weeds or act as a weed depending on management; therefore, we aimed to determine the effect of Azolla incorporation on weed (e.g., Monochoria vaginalis, Rotala indica, Aeschynomene indica, and Cyperus amuricus) control and its other benefits during rice cultivation. The effects of Azolla on weed emergence were evaluated based on plot area coverage by the Azolla mat, which appears as a green sheet over water, and the rate of weed emergence in paddy field. Weed occurrence was investigated 40 days after Azolla inoculation. Soil samples from the experimental plots were collected following harvest in 2014-2015, and analyzed. Moreover, rice growth, yield, and grain quality were measured. Azolla suppressed weed growth by 72%. Azolla mat incorporation in rice fields suppressed weed growth by over 60%. In addition, Azolla promoted nitrogen fixation. Compared with nitrogen management using chemical fertilizers, Azolla incorporation showed the potential for various positive effects, including the improvement of soil fertility by increasing total nitrogen, and organic matter content. Rice grown with Azolla maintained its yield without additional herbicide treatment. Moreover, the palatability of cooked rice was better when grown with Azolla.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.66 no.2
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• pp.124-135
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• 2022

The purpose of this study was to analyze the chemisry education contents of South Korea and North Korea for understanding chemistry education of North Korea. Chemistry education in South and North Korea was investigated in terms of learning period and learning quantaty. Especially, what content North Korea learned prior to South Korea and what contents learned more were analyzed. The subjects of this study were South Korean 2015 revised National Science Curriculum and North Korean science textbooks in Kim Jong-un era. The North Korean textbooks analyzed are 'Nature' for North Korean elementary school 3, 'Natural Science' for North Korean middle school 1 and 2, and 'Chemistry' for North Korean high school 1 and 2. The analysis results are as follows. First, the content elements to be learned in advance in North Korean textbooks were density, oxidation and reduction, battery, and atomic weight. Second, the content elements additionally learned in North Korean textbooks include separation of mixtures, fuels, oxidation and reduction, metals, organic and inorganic substances, metals and non-metal oxides and hydroxides, inorganic substances used as fertilizers, nutritional substances, and salt reaction and utilization, atomic orbitals, hybridization of orbitals, coordination bonds and complexes. As a future research task, a qualitative analysis of the elements of North Korean chemistry, the activities of textbooks, and an experimental analysis were proposed.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.17-27
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• 2021

Background and objective: This study was conducted as part of research to promote garden diversity and seek sustainable garden management plans, as well as to determine the trends in understanding and use of companion plants as an eco-friendly farming method and provide the results as the basic data for sustainable urban agriculture. Methods: To determine the trends in garden activities, eco-friendly pest control, and use of companion plants, a survey was conducted on 230 urban residents participating in the Urban Agriculture Expert course. 223 copies of the questionnaire were collected excluding missing values, and IBM SPSS statistics Ver. 25 Program was used for frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, and regression analysis. Results: Most of the respondents were female (71.3%), homemakers (26.5%), were in their 50s (29.1%), and had 2 members in the family (27.8%). 164 respondents (73.5%) had experience in gardening, most of them once a week (31.7%) and for self-consumption (55.5%). Both men and women raised crops for safe food production (32.3%), and they most preferred the city garden type (39.9%). For the preparation of nourishment for eco-friendly garden management, most respondents (60.1%) purchased fertilizers from the market. For the reason why eco-friendly pest control is necessary, all respondents except 4 of them (98.2%) responded that it is necessary 'because it affects my health as I eat it (73.5%)', indicating that they still had a high level of interest in health. Only 43.9% of the respondents said that they had heard of companion plants, 89.2% responded that companion plants were effective in eco-friendly management, and 87.4% showed the will to participate in gardening using companion plants in the future. Finally, the regression analysis confirmed that the awareness of companion plants and satisfaction with gardening activities are key variables that increase the intention to participate in gardening activities in the future. Conclusion: Since plants require special care depending on the period and various diseases and insect pests occur, there must be continuous research on companion plants as an eco-friendly farming method. Moreover, by actively using companion plants in urban gardens with the utility value in not only eco-friendly pest control but also in helping plant growth, urban agriculture is expected to be continuously activated and promoted by increasing satisfaction in gardening activities with aesthetic landscaping and pest control.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.861-866
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• 2023

Unlike conventional smart farms that require chemical fertilizers and large spaces, aquaponics farming, which utilizes the symbiotic relationship between aquatic organisms and crops to grow crops even in abnormal environments such as environmental pollution and climate change, is being actively researched. Different crops require different environments and nutrients for growth, so it is necessary to configure the ratio of aquatic organisms optimized for crop growth. This study proposes a method to measure the degree of growth based on area and volume using image processing techniques in an aquaponics environment. Tilapia, carp, catfish, and lettuce crops, which are aquatic organisms that produce organic matter through excrement, were tested in an aquaponics environment. Through 2D and 3D image analysis of lettuce and real-time data analysis, the growth degree was evaluated using the area and volume information of lettuce. The results of the experiment proved that it is possible to manage cultivation by utilizing the area and volume information of lettuce. It is expected that it will be possible to provide production prediction services to farmers by utilizing aquatic life and growth information. It will also be a starting point for solving problems in the changing agricultural environment.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.323-331
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• 2013

BACKGROUND: Liquid pig manure(LPM) is a useful resource if it is sufficiently fermented and utilized in the agriculture; it provides nutrients to soils, circulates organic materials and replaces chemical fertilizers(CF) with reasonable costs. Currently, there are not many trials in paddy field to continuously cultivate the crops in winter and summer season using LPM. METHODS AND RESULTS: When cultivating winter forage crops (Whole-crop-barley(WCB), Rye, Triticale, Italian ryegrass(IRG)) and summer feed corns in the rice field, CF was treated with $N-P_2O_5-K_2O$(winter forage crops: 120-100-100kg/ha, summer feed corn: 200-150-150 kg/ha), and subsequently, growth, yields, feed values and chemical properties of soil were investigated. LPM-applied areas in both winter and summer forage crops showed higher plant lengths and tillers than those of CF-applied areas, but the yield in CF-applied areas was higher than that of LPM-applied areas under continuous application of 2 years. Crude protein, neutral detergent fiber(NDF), acid detergent fiber(ADF) and total digestion nutrient(TDN) in feed values showed almost similar results between LPM and CF-applied areas. EC, organic matter, available phosphate and exchangeable cations of soils after the experiment increased in LPM applied areas, and especially, the contents of available phosphate and exchangeable sodium were high. CONCLUSION(S): Considering the above results, it was concluded that if LPM are properly utilized for continuous winter and summer cultivation of feed crops at paddy field, the cultivation costs could be decreased and be helpful to the stable production of domestic feeds.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.97-108
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• 1995

Nitrate concentration and ${\delta}^{15}N$ value in the groundwater in Miyakojima Island, Okinawa, were measured during 1992-1993. Water from the shallow and the deep wells at the ten separate sites were sampled. Mineral contents and natural nitrogen isotope abundance(${\delta}^{15}N$) were analyzed using a liquid chromatography and a mass spectrometry (Finnigan MAT 252). Except for waters which were directly influenced by sea water invasion, most of the groundwater showed small variations among their mineral contents and ${\delta}^{15}N$ values. The average nitrate nitrogen concentrations were $1.4{\sim}11.5mgL^{-1}$ and average ${\delta}^{15}N$ values were +4.3${\sim}$+9.7$%_o$. From the nitrate concentration and ${\delta}^{15}N$ value observed, the types of the groundwater could be categorized into four groups, such as high ${\delta}^{15}N$ and high nitrate, high ${\delta}^{15}N$ and medium nitrate, low ${\delta}^{15}N$ and medium nitrate, and low ${\delta}^{15}N$ and low nitrate, reflecting the main source of nitrate contamination, such as animal and domestic waste, animal waste and soil organic matter, soil organic matter and chemical fertilizer, and chemical fertilizer, respectively. It was discussed that the lowest ${\delta}^{15}N$ value was higher than the ${\delta}^{15}N$ value of the chemical fertilizers used in this island(-3.9${\sim}$-1.4$%_o$), then considerable amounts of nitrogen must be lost by ammonium evaporation or denitrification after fertilization.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.63-75
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• 2004

This research sought to determine the status of the installation and operation of domestic public resource-making facilities of resource-making facilities and come up with corresponding improvement measures. Currently compost is most numerous set-up out of facilties already established ever since, then the rest of them are feeds, anaerobic degradation, sewage combination, and combination of compost and feeds in order. As such, food waste is processed more into compost than into feeds, presumably because relevant facilities, which were originally designed for processing into feeds, were converted into composting facilities due to little demand for the processed feeds. The finding says that many related firms had yet to register their businesses in accordance with feeds and fertilizers management laws, and that food waste resources-making facilities used various basic facilities but few of them treated food waste in linkage with leaching water, bad odors, and energy. Some of current facilities were found to be 7 years old and thus outdated. Due to lack of skilled operational manpower, many facilities had less than 300 days of normal operation yearly, and some needed minor and serious repairs periodically. In overall facilities, 87% of the planned food waste was rolled in, thus requiring measures to treat the whole planned volume. For costs of resource-making facilities, some with a capacity of below 50 tons topped 100 million won, and facilities with a capacity of over 50 tons required less installation costs. Overall, installation costs ranged from 10 million to 20 million, and to 200 million won per ton, and this suggests a need to establish the installation cost calculation criteria, as well as to reshape the facility criteria. With operating costs varying greatly according to the size and treatment methods of facilities, the finding indicates a need to rationalize the operating costs, and to plan appropriate-size installation and operation of facilities to ensure economic operation.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.38 no.3 s.172
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• pp.207-219
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• 2005

The physical and chemical characteristics of soils in a small watershed were investigated and the effect of geology and land use on soil quality were examined by using multivariate statistical methods, principal components analysis and discriminant analysis. The soil developed from andesite had finer texture and higher contents of water extractable inorganic components, clay, and mafic minerals than the soil developed from granite. It is considered that the accumulation of salts in the farmland soils indicated by electrical conductivity, contents of cations and anions and pH was caused by fertilizer input during cultivation. The low contents of organic matter in the farmland soils was due to the enhanced oxidation of organic matter by tillage and by the harvest of crops. The contents of inorganic components are increased as following order: upland > orchard > paddy field > forest. The high contents of water soluble $SO_4\;^{2-}$ of paddy soils is due to the oxidation of sulfides mineral formed during the flooding period during the air-dry and extraction. The results of principal components analysis show the difference of soil quality was controlled by geology and land use. PCI indicate the input of fertilizer, mineral weathering and ion exchange reaction by application of nitrogenous fertilizers. The results of two discriminant analyses using water extractable inorganic components and their ratios by land use were also clearly classified by discriminant function 1 and 2. In discriminant analysis by components, discriminant function 1 indicated the effect of fertilizer application and increased as following order: upland > orchard > paddy field > forest soil. The investigated and predicted data for land use from discriminant analysis showed similar results. The discriminant analysis can be used as a useful method certifying the change of land use.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.51-62
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• 2009

This study was carried out development a new composting system to lower copper and zinc concentration in plg sludge compost and conduct an inquiry into the possibility of crop cultivation. The concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus and pH averaged 4.4%, 6.3% and 7.57, respectively, which were higher concentrations than in commercial organic fertilizers, and the concentrations of copper and zinc averaged 805 and 1,704 mg/kg, respectively, which were beyond the heavy metal concentration limit in byproduct compost. Hydrated citric acid I lowered the concentrations of copper and zinc by 58% and 97%, respectively and hydrated oxalic acid II lowered the concentrations of copper and zinc by 48% and 56%, respectively in pig sludge compost. Lower concentrations of copper and zinc in pig sludge resulted from the enhanced hydrated-citric acid concentration in organic acid solution mixed with distilled water. The concentrations of copper and zinc were 330, and 41 mg/kg in the pig sludge treated with 100% hydrated citric acid. Agitation composting system stabilized the compost earlier than the stationary composting system, in which the stabilization condition was confirmed by higher temperature by $4^{\circ}C$ at highest temperature and 7 days earlier cooling down after highest temperature. The levels of germination index (G.I) 80 were obtained 15 and 20 days after composting in agitation and stationary composting system, respectively. The concentrations of copper and zinc were 2.4 and 4.26 mg/kg respectively in soils amended with pig sludge compost after removing process of heavy metals by citric acid, but 8.0 and 22.37 mg/kg, respectively in soils amended with Pig Sludge. The concentrations of heavy metals was highest in com cultivated in soils amended with pig sludge. The copper and zinc concentrations In corn leaves were 75.2 and 50.56 mg/kg respectively, which were 4 and 2 fold higher than the com cultivated in soils amended with pig sludge compost after heavy metal removing process by hydrated citric acid.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2001

Total upland area for cultivating the vegetable crops in the Alpine soils of Northeastern South Korea has been extending its limit to meet the increasing demand of vegetable food in recent decades. About 70% of these alpine soils are located in over 7% of the slope and most of vegetable crops have been cultivated intensively without practicing the best management systems. Thus, soil erosion and continuous cropping system have degenerated the soil fertility and shown detrimental effects on water quality. We initiated an intensive and extensive investigation to characterize the fertility problems encountered in these uplands. Objectives of this paper were to characterize the fertility status in the Alpine soils cultivated with vegetable crops for many years and to provide the recommendations for adequate soil management measures including fertilization and erosion control. Soils in general have good drainage with textural classes of loam or sandy loam. Their topographical characteristics tended to lead them to shallow plow layers, and the steepness of the terrain created erosion hazard. Of the soils examined, about 11% of uplands over 30% gradient was found in need of an urgent reforestation. A high content of gravel and firm hardness of soil attributed to inhibit the utilization of farm machinery and plant-root development. The average soil pH 5.6 was slightly low relative to pH 5.70 of the national average. Organic matter content was high compared with 2.0% of national average, but decreased with the prolonged cultivation periods. Available $P_2O_5$ concentration was unusually high due to the consequence of over dose application with chemical and organic fertilizers. Exchangeable cations as Ca, Mg, and K were appeared to be decreased in these regions with prolonging the cultivation periods. There were no significant differences in cation exchange capacity (CEC) and electrical conductivity (EC) among locations. Heavy metal contents were mostly lower than the threshold of danger level designated by Soil Environment Conservation Law of South Korea. Results indicated that a proper countermeasure and the best management practice should be immediately implemented to conserve the top soil and fertility in the Alpine regions.