• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.615-622
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to evaluate microbial contamination of melons in Korea. A total of 123 samples including melon fruits, leaves, seeds, soils, and irrigation water were collected from farms and markets to detect total aerobic bacteria, coliform, Escherichia coli, and pathogenic bacteria such as Bacillus cereus, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., and Staphylococcus aureus. Samples were collected from Iksan and Nonsan farms to monitor bacterial levels on pre-market melons. The total aerobic and coliform bacteria on melon cultivation were between 0.43 and 6.65 log CFU $g^{-1}$, and 0.67 and 2.91 log CFU $g^{-1}$, respectively. Bacillus cereus, a fecal coliform, was detected in soils and melon leaves from Iksan farm at 2.95, 0.73 log CFU $g^{-1}$, respectively, and in soils from Nonsan farm at 3.16 log CFU $g^{-1}$. Market melon samples were collected to assay bacterial load on melon being sold to consumers. The contamination levels of total aerobic bacteria in agricultural markets, big-box retailers, and traditional markets were 4.82, 3.94, 3.99 log CFU $g^{-1}$, respectively. The numbers of coliform in melon on the markets ranged from 0.09 to 0.49 log CFU $g^{-1}$. Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., and Staphylococcus aureus were not detected in any samples. The count of total aerobic bacteria on melon seeds ranged from 0.33 to 3.34 log CFU $g^{-1}$. This study found that irrigation water, soil, manure and various farm work activities including post-harvest processes were latent sources of microbial contamination. These results suggest that hygienic management and monitoring of soil, water, and agricultural material should be performed to reduce microbial contamination in melon production.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.62-74
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• 2015

Urban areas are variously under threat including deterioration of ecological functions. Many pond wetland types have been created as part of an effort to improve and restore this urban environment. This study was arranged to examine improvement plans of wetlands in urban areas by analyzing semi-natural wetlands in farm areas. As for environment for water quality, it suggested the inflow of natural water neighboring rivers or the direct inflow of rain as the improvement plans. The result which analyzed soil pH, OM, and T-N content of the soil environment mentioned that urban areas supplied artificial sluices, removed apoptotic bodies, and used artificial soil and waterproofing materials and use of natural materials in design and construction, the sluice state of the natural form, and negligence of autumn plants were suggested as the improvement plans. Florae appeared in the subject sites of the study have found that there are 35 families 69 species in urban areas and 53 families 142 species in rural areas. As the average has found that there are 18.5 families 29.3 species in 4 urban areas and 26.3 families 53.5 species in 4 rural areas, the big difference between them was analyzed. As the cause has found that there are differences in yearly plants in farming areas when compared to urban areas, creation of various basic environments including soil and water quality was suggested to make yearly plants settle down widely. Naturalized plants have found that there are no big differences between urban areas and rural areas. However, the average of the naturalized ratio in urban areas is 17.4% as the naturalized plants are about 1/4 of the appeared plants. As it was analyzed to be higher than 7.7%, the average of the naturalized ratio in farming areas as the big difference, creation of various inhabiting environments was suggested to make more yearly plants appear like the analyzed result of the life type. Consideration of placement, materials, and inhabiting environments was suggested to make creation of wetlands well appreciated to improve functions of wetlands in urban areas. It is expected that the above results of the study will be utilized in creation and improvement of the pond wetlands which can play a huge role in increase and improvement of biological diversity in urban areas.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.469-477
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• 2018

Hanabusaya asiatica is an endemic species whose distribution is limited in the mid-eastern part of the Korean peninsula. Due to its narrow range and small population, it is necessary to protect its habitats by identifying it as Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) adopted by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In this paper, we estimated potential natural habitats for H. asiatica using maximum entropy model (MaxEnt) and identified candidate sites for KBA based on the model results. MaxEnt is a machine learning algorithm that can predict habitats for species of interest unbiasedly with presence-only data. This property is particularly useful for the study area where data collection via a field survey is unavailable. We trained MaxEnt using 38 locations of H. asiatica and 11 environmental variables that measured climate, topography, and vegetation status of the study area which encompassed all locations of the border region between South and North Korea. Results showed that the potential habitats where the occurrence probabilities of H. asiatica exceeded 0.5 were $778km^2$, and the KBA candidate area identified by taking into account existing protected areas was $1,321km^2$. Of 11 environmental variables, elevation, annual average precipitation, average precipitation in growing seasons, and the average temperature in the coldest month had impacts on habitat selection, indicating that H. asiatica prefers cool regions at a relatively high elevation. These results can be used not only for identifying KBAs but also for the reference to a protection plan for H. asiatica in preparation of Korean reunification and climate change.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.93-100
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• 2011

Maintenance of adequate soil water potential during the period of crop growth is necessary to support optimum plant growth and yields. A better understanding of soil water movement within and below the rooting zone can facilitate optimal irrigation scheduling aimed at minimizing the adverse effects of water stress on crop growth and development and the leaching of water below the root zone which can have adverse environmental effects. The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of using a portable irrigation controller with an Watermark sensor for the cultivation of drip-irrigated vegetable crops in a greenhouse. The control capability of the irrigation controller for a soil water potential of -20 kPa was evaluated under summer conditions by cultivating 45-day-old tomato plants grown in three differently textured soils (sandy loam, loam, and loamy sands). Water contents through each soil profile were continuously monitored using three Sentek probes, each consisting of three capacitance sensors at 10, 20, and 30 cm depths. Even though a repeatable cycling of soil water potential occurred for the potential treatment, the lower limit of the Watermark (about 0 kPa) obtained in this study presented a limitation of using the Watermark sensor for optimal irrigation of tomato plants where -20 kPa was used as a point for triggering irrigations. This problem might be related to the slow response time and inadequate soil-sensor interface of the Watermark sensor as compared to a porous and ceramic cup-based tensiometer with a sensitive pressure transducer. In addition, the irrigation time of 50 to 60 min at each of the irrigation operation gave a rapid drop of the potential to zero, resulting in over irrigation of tomatoes. There were differences in water content among the three different soil types under the variable rate irrigation, showing a range of water contents of 16 to 24%, 17 to 28%, and 24 to 32% for loamy sand, sandy loam, and loam soils, respectively. The greatest rate increase in water content was observed in the top of 10 cm depth of sandy loam soil within almost 60 min from the start of irrigation.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.449-469
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• 2011

This article reviews the papers published in the Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigerating Engineering during 2010. It is intended to understand the status of current research in the areas of heating, cooling, ventilation, sanitation, and indoor environments of buildings and plant facilities. Conclusions are as follows. (1) Research trends of thermal and fluid engineering have been surveyed as groups of general thermal and fluid flow, fluid machinery, and new and renewable energy. Various topics were presented in the field of general thermal and fluid flow. Research issues mainly focused on the thermal reliability of axial fan and compressor in the field of fluid machinery. Studies on the design of ground source heat pump systems and solar chemical reactors were executed in the field of new and renewable energy. (2) Research works on heat transfer area have been reviewed in the categories of heat transfer characteristics and industrial heat exchangers. Researches on heat transfer characteristics included heat transfer in thermoelectric cooling/power generation systems, combined heat and power systems, carbon nano fluid with PVP, channel filled with metal foam and smoke ventilation in a rescue station of a railroad tunnel. Also the studies on flow boiling of R123/oil mixture in a plain tube bundle and R410A charge amount in an air cooled mini-channel condenser were reported. In the area of industrial heat exchangers, researches on plate heat exchanger, shell and tube heat exchanger, enthalpy exchanger, micro channel PCHE were performed. (2) Research works on heat transfer area have been reviewed in the categories of heat transfer characteristics and industrial heat exchangers. Researches on heat transfer characteristics included heat transfer in thermoelectric cooling/power generation systems, combined heat and power systems, carbon nano fluid with PVP, channel filled with metal foam and smoke ventilation in a rescue station of a railroad tunnel. Also the studies on flow boiling of R123/oil mixture in a plain tube bundle and R410A charge amount in an air cooled mini-channel condenser were reported. In the area of industrial heat exchangers, researches on plate heat exchanger, shell and tube heat exchanger, enthalpy exchanger, micro channel PCHE were performed. (3) Refrigeration systems with alternative refrigerants such as hydrocarbons, mixed refrigerants, and CO2 were studied. Performance improvement of refrigeration systems are tried applying various ideas of refrigerant subcooling, dual evaporator with hot gas bypass control and feedforward control. The hybrid solar systems combining the solar collection devices with absorption chillers or compression heat pumps are simulated and studied experimentally as well to improve the understanding and the feasibility for actual applications. (4) Research trend in the field of mechanical building facilities has been found to be mainly focused on field applications rather than performance improvements. Various studies on heating and cooling systems, HVAC facilities, indoor air environments and energy resources were carried to improve the maintenance and management of building service equipments. In the field of heating and cooling systems, papers on a transformer cooling system, a combined heat and power, a slab thermal storage and a heat pump were reported. In the field of HVAC facilities, papers on a cooling load, an ondol and a drying were presented. Also, studies on HVAC systems using unutilized indoor air environments and energy resources such as air curtains, bioviolence, cleanrooms, ventilation, district heating, landfill gas were studied. (5) In the field of architectural environment and energy, studies of various purposes were conducted such as indoor environment, building energy, renewable energy and green building. In particular, renewable energy and building energy-related researches have mainly been studied reflecting the global interest. In addition, many researches which related the domestic green building certification of school building were performed to improve the indoor environment of school.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.636-644
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to investigate the callings of nocturnal birds using bioacoustic recording technology to identify species and to analyze the ecological characteristics of each species. Three sites - Seoraksan National Park, National Institute of Ecology, and Mudeungsan National Park - were investigated. The investigation period was from the middle of April 2018 to early March 2019 for Seoraksan national park, from late February of 2018 to the middle of February 2019 for the National Institute of Ecology, and from the middle of February 2018 to the end of August 2018 for Mudeungsan National Park. The main research results are as follows. Firstly, nocturnal bird species identified by the survey included Caprimulgus indicus, Otus sunia, Zoothera aurea, Bubo bubo, and Strix uralensis, 5 species in total. Secondly, the breeding call period of each species was from early May to early August for C. indicus, from early April to the end of September for O. sunia, from early March to early October for Z. aurea, from late September to early February for B. bubo, and from mid-January to early March for S. uralensis. Thirdly, the mating call rhythm was between 16:00 and 10:00 on the following day for all the observed species in the three regions, and the peak time zone was from 20:00 to 06:00 on the following day. Fourthly, there was no correlation between the cumulative call frequency and the precipitation for each species. Fifthly, the mean temperature during the period when the specific calls of nocturnal birds were detected was -4.00 ℃ for S. uralensis, 2.58 ℃ for B. bubo, 13.66 ℃ for Z. aurea, 19.50 ℃ for O. sunia, and 20.77 ℃ for C. indicus. The ANOVA results showed that there was a significant difference in mean temperature for the calling by species and that the mean temperature was S. uralensis, B. bubo, Z. aurea, and O. sunia-C. indicus, in the ascending order, for 4 groups in total. The period of the specific mating calls confirmed by the study is a period in which the frequency of calls was the highest among the periods when the specific calls were detected. Since it is associated with the known mating period of each species, the period of the high frequency of calls confirmed by the bioacoustic monitoring can be regarded as the mating season. This study is meaningful in that it is the early research that has used the bioacoustic recording technology to identify species and ecological characteristics of species of nocturnal birds in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.570-579
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• 2015

Lindera sericea, which belongs to genus Lindera in the Lauraceae family, is labeled under Least Concerned (LC) among Korean rare plants, floristics specific species IV grade and also flagpole species of the Mudeung National Park. It is distributed in Mt. Mudeung, Mt. Cheonbong and Mt. Chogye within gradients from $12^{\circ}$ to $51^{\circ}$. The slope area is from northeast to northwest sides and the altitude range of distribution site is between 220 m and 533 m. The vascular plants in the quadrate where Lindera sericea were studied were identified as a total of 72 taxa; 37 families, 54 genera, 66 species, 5 variants and 1 forma. Among the floristics specific species, IV grade species was Lindera sericea and III grade species were Stewartia pseudocamellia and Acer palmatum. Korean endemic species were Stewartia pseudocamellia and Carex okamotoi. As for the vegetation group, Quercus mongolica and Q. serratak - Lindera sericea, Styrax japonicus populations were found in Mt. Mudeung area where Lindera sericea appeared, Stewartia pseudocamellia-Lindera sericea and Sasa borealis populations were found in Mt. Cheonbong areas, Carpinus laxiflora - Lindera sericea and Sasa borealis populations were found in Mt. Chogye area, and Stewartia pseudocamellia-Lindera sericea and Sasa borealis populations were found in Songgwangsa area. A total number of 662 Lindera sericea individuals were examined. The number of trees with 1 trunk including younger individuals was 353 (53.32%), and the number of trees with 2 to 5 stems was 270 (40.79%). The number of trees with the greatest number of sprouts was 27. Of 662 trees in total, the total number of sprouts was 1,198. Among these, 699 trees (58.34%) were between 50 cm and 150 cm in height. The tallest tree was 585 cm. The most common root-collar diameter of sprouts (992, 82.81%) was under 1 cm, followed by the sprouts with collar diameter from 1.0 to 1.5 cm(156, 13.2%). Among them, the largest root-collar diameter was 3.2 cm. This Lindera sericea specimen had the tallest trunk (565 cm) which was torn lengthwise on one side. Its root and breast parts were decayed by 50% and 25 respectively. Some branches of the three trunks that were more than 4 m in length were dead in the apical portion. Therefore, it is proposed that the Korean Lindera sericea maintains an apical dominance tree type while showing morphological adaptation as a typical shrub because it autonomously decays some branches and trunks over a certain height while increasing the number of its sprouts.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.244-251
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• 2018

The present study aimed to identify the influence of climate change on mating songs of Cicadidae in a phenological perspective. The research sites were located in the central part of the Korean peninsula in which phenological observations by the Meteorological Office are made. The material provided by the Meteorological Office was used for long term phenological analysis. The findings demonstrated, First, the phenological monitoring of cicada is an effective index to detect ecological changes due to climate change, thus indicating the importance of long term phenological investigations for future studies. Second, the analysis on the phenological changes of H. fuscata presented a trend in which the first songs were made at increasingly earlier and later dates, respectively. The phenological data on H. fuscata and average temperatures exhibited a significant negative correlation between the initial mating song period and the average temperatures of June. Furthermore, there was also a significant negative correlation for precipitation in October with the end time and total duration of H. fuscata song. Third, in the regression analysis of the start of H. fuscata song and meteorological factors in Seoul, increasing average air temperature in spring (March to June), which includes June, was associated with an earlier start time of H. fuscata song, with calling starting approximately 3.0-4.5 days earlier per $1^{\circ}C$ increase. Fourth, in the regression analysis of the end of H. fuscata song and meteorological factors in Seoul, increased mean precipitation in October was associated with an early end time and an overall reduction in the length of the song period. The end time of song decreased by approximately 0.78 days per 1mm increase in precipitation, and the total length of the song period decreased by 0.8 days/1mm. This research is important, as it is the initial research to identify the phenological changes in H. fuscata due to climate change.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.85 no.1
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• pp.84-95
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• 1996

Environmental pollution has recently been progressed in the metropolitan and industrial areas of Korea and concerns have been evolved against the chronic effects of the pollution on natural ecosystem. This study was carried out to investigate the environmental pollution impacts on ion input into forest ecosystems and soil environmental changes. Study plots were established at Seoul, Ulsan, Yeochon, and Seosan for pollution sites and at Pyungchang for a non-pollution site. Atmospheric deposition was measured with rain, throughfall, and stem flow samples collected in the forest areas. Soil chemical properties were investigated to compare the pollution impacts on the sites. Precipitation acidity in the metropolitan and industrial areas ranged from pH 4.5 to 5.5, showing the levels lower than pH 5.8 of mountain area. Ion concentrations in the precipitation had increased significantly while passing the crown layer in the metropolitan and industrial areas, showing the increase by 4 times at the maximum. Total ion input in the metropolitan and industrial areas was greater than that in mountain area by approximately 2-3 times. Soil acidification caused by acidic ion input seemed to be greatest at Seoul, showing pH 1 decrease compared to that of Pyungchang. Soil canon contents were relatively high in the metropolitan and industrial areas. Although the canon leaching loss was not apparent, soil acidification process seemed to be continued by acidic ion input. Environmental pollution in the metropolitan and industrial areas exerted changes in ion input into the forest ecosystems and soil conditions. The chronic effects of environmental pollution should be monitored and investigated further to explain the processes of ecosystem change and the impacts on plant growth.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.487-497
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• 2013

This study was conducted to suggest vegetation management plan for Gugok landscape maintenance and improvement by deducing the vegetation landscape factors inherent in Yongha Gugok and understanding vegetation structure through the investigate of existing vegetation and plant community structure of Yongha valley in Woraksan National Park. There were broad and flat rocks, natural layered stones, clear water, light stones, stream, valleys, waterfalls, Pinus densiflora and Acer pseudosieboldianum as a result of deducing natural factors on poetry. There were P. densiflora and A. pseudosieboldianum appeared as one of main vegetation landscape elements. The actual vegetation analysis results were as followed. The natural vegetation occupied 67.5% and it was classified as P. densiflora community, Quercus variabilis community, Q. variabilis-P. densiflora community, Q. variabilis-Q. serrata community, Q. serrata community, Q. mongolica community, Q. mongolica-P. densiflora community, Deciduous broad-leaved tree community. The artificial vegetation(18.7%) was classified as Q. serrata community-Larix kaempferi community, Q. mongolica- Castanea crenata community, L. kaempferi community, L. kaempferi-C. crenata community, fruticeta, L. kaempferi-Q. mongolica community. The grassland area(2.0%) was classified as Miscanthus sinensis community, Phragmites communis community, and other areas were classified as landscape tree planting area, farm, orchard, residential area. The representative vegetation were P. densiflora community, Q. variabilis-Q. serrata community, L. kaempferi community, Deciduous broad-leaved tree community in Yongha Gugok. The species diversity index of Shannon was 0.6274~0.9908 on the whole. Yongha Gugok, as a symbol of succession on confucianism and reverence for nature, should be preserved natural valley landscape being clean and wijungchuksa at the end of Joseon Dynasty and Japanese Colonial era. In this historical and cultural Gugok, vegetation landscape management plan is needed to landscape maintenance with P. densiflora community, density control with L. kaempferi community. And it is considered when natural disasters and artificial damages happened, P. densiflora-oriented vegetation restoration plan should be applied in order to restore.