• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.118-133
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• 2023

Background: Free-living amoebae (FLA) are widely distributed in freshwater, seawater, soil, and extreme environments, and play a critical role as feeders on diverse preys in the ecosystem. Also, some FLA can become opportunistic pathogens in animals including humans. The taxa Amoebozoa and Heterolobosea are important amoeboid groups associated with human pathogens. However, the identification and habitat of amoebae belonging to Amoebozoa and Heterolobosea remain poorly reported in the Republic of Korea. This study highlights the first record for identification and source of four amoebae including putative pathogens in the Republic of Korea. Results: In the present study, four previously reported FLA were isolated from freshwaters in Sangju Gonggeomji Reservoir (strain GO001), one of the largest reservoirs during the Joseon Dynasty period, and along the Nakdong River, the largest river in the Republic of Korea (strains NR5-2, NR12-1, and NR14-1) for the first time. Microscopic observations and 18S rDNA phylogenetic trees revealed the four isolated strains to be Acanthamoeba polyphaga (strains NR5-2 and NR12-1), Tetramitus waccamawensis (strain GO001), and Naegleria australiensis (strain NR14-1). Strains NR5-2 and NR12-1 might be the same species and belonged to the morphological Group 2 and the T4 genotype of Acanthamoeba. Strain GO001 formed a clade with T. waccamawensis in 18S rDNA phylogeny, and showed morphological characteristics similar to previously recorded strains, although the species' flagellate form was not observed. Strain NR14-1 had the typical morphology of Naegleria and formed a strongly supported clade with previously recorded strains of N. australiensis in phylogenetic analysis of 18S rDNA sequences. Conclusions: On the bases of morphological and molecular analyses, four strains of FLA were newly observed and classified in the Republic of Korea. Three strains belonging to the two species (A. polyphaga and N. australiensis) isolated from the Nakdong River have the potential to act as opportunistic pathogens that can cause fatal diseases (i.e. granulomatous amoebic encephalitis, Acanthamoeba Keratitis, and meningoencephalitis) in animals including humans. The Nakdong River in the Republic of Korea may provide a habitat for potentially pathogenic amoebae, but additional research is required to confirm the true pathogenicity of these FLA now known in the Republic of Korea.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.1276-1286
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• 2024

The environment has been identified as an origin, reservoir, and transmission route of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Among diverse environments, freshwater environments have been recognized as pivotal in the transmission of ARGs between opportunistic pathogens and autochthonous bacteria such as Aeromonas spp. In this study, five environmental strains of Aeromonas spp. exhibiting multidrug resistance (MDR) were selected for whole-genome sequencing to ascertain their taxonomic assignment at the species-level and to delineate their ARG repertoires. Analyses of their genomes revealed the presence of one protein almost identical to AhQnr (A. hydrophila Qnr protein) and four novel proteins similar to AhQnr. To scrutinize the classification and taxonomic distribution of these proteins, all Aeromonas genomes deposited in the NCBI RefSeq genome database (1,222 genomes) were investigated. This revealed that these Aeromonas Qnr (AQnr) proteins are conserved intrinsic resistance determinants of the genus, exhibiting species-specific diversity. Additionally, structure prediction and analysis of contribution to quinolone resistance by AQnr proteins of the isolates, confirmed their functionality as quinolone resistance determinants. Given the origin of mobile qnr genes from aquatic bacteria and the crucial role of Aeromonas spp. in ARG dissemination in aquatic environments, a thorough understanding and strict surveillance of AQnr families prior to the clinical emergence are imperative. In this study, using comparative genome analyses and functional characterization of AQnr proteins in the genus Aeromonas, novel Aeromonas ARGs requiring surveillance has suggested.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.14-30
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to evaluate trophic conditions of various Korean reservoirs using Trophic State Index (TSI) and predict the reservoir conditions by empirical models. The water quality dataset (2000, 2001) used here were obtained from the Ministry of Environment, Korea. The water quality, based on multi-parameters of dissolved oxygen (DO), biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), suspended solid (SS), Secchi depth (SD), chlorophyll-${\alpha}$ (CHL), and conductivity largely varied depending on the sampling watersheds and seasons. In general, trophic conditions declined along the longitudinal axis of headwater-to-the dam and the largest seasonal variations occurred during the summer monsoon of July-August. Major inputs of TP occurred during the monsoon (r=0.656, p=0.002) and this pattern was similar to solid dynamics of SS (r=0.678, p<0.001). Trophic parameters including CHL, TP, SD, and TN were employed to evaluate how the water systems varies with season. Trophic State Index (TSI, Carlson, 1977), based on TSI (CHL), TSI (TP), and TSI (SD), ranged from mesotrophic to eutrophic. However, the trophic state, based on TSI (TN), indicated eutrophic-hypereutrophic conditions in the entire reservoirs, regardless of the seasons, indicating a N-rich system. Overall, nutrient data showed that phosphorus was a primary factor regulating the trophic state. The relationships between CHL (eutrophication index) vs. trophic parameters (TN, TP, and SD) were analysed to develop empirical models which can predict the trophic status. Regression analyses of log-transformed seasonal CHL against TP showed that the value of $R^2$ was 0.31 (p=0.017) in the premonsoon but was 0.69 (p<0.001) during the postmonsoon, indicating a greater algal response to the phosphorus during the postmonsoon. In contrast, SD had reverse relation with TP, CHL during all season. TN had weak relations with CHL during all seasons. Overall, data suggest that TP seems to be a good predictor for algal biomass, estimated by CHL, as shown in the empirical models.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.34 no.4 s.96
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• pp.327-336
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• 2001

Physical, chemical, and biological parameters were measured during the period from July 1993 to August 1994 near the Munui intake tower of Taechung Reservoir to evaluate effects of nutrients and suspended solids on algal chlorophyll-a and water clarity. Large amounts of precipitation during summer 1993 produced minimum conductivity ($88\;{\mu}S/cm$), minimum TN : TP (<40), and maximum total phosphorus (TP;$59\;{\mu}g/L$) and resulted in a chlorophyll-a peak ($79\;{\mu}g/L$) and minimum transparency (<1.5 m) among the seasons. At the same time, ratios of volatile suspended solids (VSS): non-volatile suspended solids (NVSS) were maximum (13.0),indicating that the reduced transparency was mainly attributed to biogenic turbidity in relation to phytoplankton growth. In contrast, severe drought in summer 1994 resulted in greater conductivity (>$120\;{\mu}S/cm$), water clarity (%gt;2 m), and lower TP and chlorophyll- a (<$10\;{\mu}g/L$) relative to those of summer 1993. Total phosphorus ($R^2=0.46$, n=59) accounted more variations of chlorophyll- a compared to total nitrogen ($R^2=0,29$, n=59). The mass ratios of TN : TP ranged from 39 to 222 and were strongly correlated with TP (r = -0.80) but not with concentrations of TN (r = 0.05). Ambient nutrient concentrations and TN : TP mass ratios indicated that seasonality of chlorophyll- a was likely determined by concentrations of phosphorus reflected by the distribution of rainfall. It was concluded that reductions of phosphorus during heavy rainfall may provide better water quality for the drinking water in the intake tower.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.19-32
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• 2007

In Korea, there have been various methods of estimating groundwater recharge which generally can be subdivided into three types: baseflow separation method by means of groundwater recession curve, water budget analysis based on lumped conceptual model in watershed, and water table fluctuation method (WTF) by using the data from groundwater monitoring wells. However, groundwater recharge rate shows the spatial-temporal variability due to climatic condition, land use and hydrogeological heterogeneity, so these methods have various limits to deal with these characteristics. To overcome these limitations, we present a new method of estimating recharge based on water balance components from the SWAT-MODFLOW which is an integrated surface-ground water model. Groundwater levels in the interest area close to the stream have dynamics similar to stream flow, whereas levels further upslope respond to precipitation with a delay. As these behaviours are related to the physical process of recharge, it is needed to account for the time delay in aquifer recharge once the water exits the soil profile to represent these features. In SWAT, a single linear reservoir storage module with an exponential decay weighting function is used to compute the recharge from soil to aquifer on a given day. However, this module has some limitations expressing recharge variation when the delay time is too long and transient recharge trend does not match to the groundwater table time series, the multi-reservoir storage routing module which represents more realistic time delay through vadose zone is newly suggested in this study. In this module, the parameter related to the delay time should be optimized by checking the correlation between simulated recharge and observed groundwater levels. The final step of this procedure is to compare simulated groundwater table with observed one as well as to compare simulated watershed runoff with observed one. This method is applied to Mihocheon watershed in Korea for the purpose of testing the procedure of proper estimation of spatio-temporal groundwater recharge distribution. As the newly suggested method of estimating recharge has the advantages of effectiveness of watershed model as well as the accuracy of WTF method, the estimated daily recharge rate would be an advanced quantity reflecting the heterogeneity of hydrogeology, climatic condition, land use as well as physical behaviour of water in soil layers and aquifers.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.146-154
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• 2016

In this study, understanding the habitats on spot-billed duck that wintering-breed in the korea, which using the GPS-Mobile based Telemtry (WT-200), I tried to take advantage as the basic data of the protection and management of the habitats of the waterbirds of Korea. Study area is Gyeonggi-do Bokhacheon, Chonmichon, Chungcheongnam-do Gokugyochon, Chungcheongbuk-do Byeongcheoncheon, Jeollabuk-do Mangyunggang, which Five rivers and Jeju Island reservoir, I have attached the tracking of the location(WT -200) to the twenty-five spot-billed ducks. among twenty five ducks, twelve ducks moved to overseas countries, the arrival site was China, North Korea, Russia. Moving average distance was 683km, the largest distance was 1,238km. The average northbound starting date was April 26. The average daily movement distance of thirteen ducks remaining in the domestic country is $1.0{\pm}0.89km$, maximum travel distance was 23.8km. The average daily movement distance of wintering prior to average going north dating is a 0.9km, is the largest 14.6km, the breeding season is an average 1.3km, maximum was 14.4km. Spot-billed duck used the rivers in domestic country most frequently, following was rice field, a filed, reservoir. It used the river most frequently during the wintering period, in the breeding season it used paddy paddies most frequently. While wintering, during the day and night's utilization rate was the highest in the river, but utilization rate was incleased on filed, paddy filed at night. During breeding season, daytime and night's utilization rate was the highest but, utilization rate was increased on river and utilization rate was decreased on river. In accordance with time change, spot-billed duck showed different tendency in paddy fields, and they utilized the filed adjacent to rivers mostly.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.279-288
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• 2016

Stable Isotope Analysis(SIA) of carbon and nitrogen is useful tool for the understanding functional roles of target organisms in biological interactions in the food web. Recently, mixing model based on SIA is frequently used to determine which of the potential food sources predominantly assimilated by consumers, however, application of model is often limited and difficult for non-expert users of software. In the present study, we suggest easy manual of R software and package SIAR with example data regarding selective feeding of crustaceans dominated freshwater zooplankton community. We collected SIA data from the experimental mesocosms set up at the littoral area of eutrophic Chodae Reservoir, and analyzed the dominant crustacean species main food sources among small sized particulate organic matters (POM, <$50{\mu}m$), large sized POM (>$50{\mu}m$), and attached POM using mixing model. From the results obtained by SIAR model, Daphnia galeata and Ostracoda mainly consumed small sized POM while Simocephalus vetulus consumed both small and large sized POM simultaneously. Copepods collected from the reservoir showed no preferences on various food items, but in the mesocosm tanks, main food sources for the copepods was attached POM rather than planktonic preys including rotifers. The results have suggested that their roles as grazers in food web of eutrophicated reservoirs are different, and S. vetulus is more efficient grazer on wide range of food items such as large colony of phytoplankton and cyanobacteria during water bloom period.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.313-321
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• 2012

To analyze the bird communities by the land use type, we surveyed 43 plots in Siheung City, Korea from Mar. 2009 to Feb. 2010 and classified the community by TWINSPAN and DCA. Classification result by TWINSPAN was classified into 4 communities. In the first division, waterbirds, such as spot-billed duck(Anas poecilorhyncha) and great egret(Egretta alba) operated as the differential species. In the second and third division, little grebe(Tachybaptus ruficollis) and eurasian sparrow(Passer montanus) were operated as the differential species. The relationship between land use types and classified bird communities, all plots of community I were located in the forest. Community II plots were contained all urban and several semi-natural land use types. Community III contains stream and rice paddy. Plots in the reservoir were classified community IV. The stream and rice paddy were classified into different communities, which were colsely related with the size of wetland paddy. Community III had the highest species diversity index and community II had lowest. Community III also had the highest maximum species diversity index and evenness index. The result of this study, small stream and small rice paddy located within the city have insignificant characteristics as the habitat for birds. Management size of semi-natural land use for wildbird habitat in the urban area should be considered for showing their habitat characteristics. If the classification of biotope type based on the scale of rice paddy and urban park and the type of landuse type in the riverside then we should be consider the standard of minium area.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.2343-2348
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• 2014

Main ground net of power plant is formed to protect human body from increase in potential gradient caused by grounding current during ground fault. Calculations during ground design are generally performed according to IEEE Std-80-2000 (Kepco Design Standard 2602). However, it is difficult to apply this Standard to water environment, and a grounding technology is required to secure grounding resistance of floating photovoltaic system. Therefore the aim of this paper is to investigate and analyze ground resistivity on the water surface and underwater of reservoir using Wenner 4-pin method, a general method of measuring ground resistivity. Also, grounding resistance of floating photovoltaic systems currently in operation was measured and analyzed using the voltage drop method suggested in the international standard (IEEE Std-81) to propose a grounding method for stable grounding of floating photovoltaic system. The resistivity at 1m below the surface of water ($126.3969[{\Omega}{\cdot}m]$) is mostly higher than resistivity at the river bed ($97.5713[{\Omega}{\cdot}m]$). Also the proposed grounding anchor method was determined as the most effective method of securing stable grounding resistance in floating photovoltaic systems and is expected to be utilized as a ground method for future floating photovoltaic generation systems.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.187-194
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• 2017

This study was intended to evaluate the removal efficiency of nutrients in effluents of wastewater using microalgae. Microalgae used in the culture experiment collected in stream and reservoir located in Gyeongsangbuk-do. Dominant species in prior-culture tank were Monoraphidium contortum, Scenedesmus acutus, Coelastrum microporum and Chlorella sp. Dominant species in synthetic wastewater culture under the 4000 Lux and 8000 Lux were Chlorella sp. and Scenedesmus obliquus. The removal efficiency of $NO_3-N$ under the 4000 Lux and 8000 Lux were 27.2%~88.1% and 63.0%~83.6% respectively. The removal efficiency of $PO_4-P$ under the 4000 Lux and 8000 Lux showed above 93%. Removal efficiency of nutrients of $1.0{\times}10^6cells\;mL^{-1}$ inoculation concentration was more higher than that of nutrients of $1.0{\times}10^5cells\;mL^{-1}$ and $1.0{\times}10^7cells\;mL^{-1}$ inoculation concentration. Microalgae cultured in synthetic wastewater removed 94.9% of TN and 90.0% of TP. The removal rate of TN and TP in synthetic wastewater were $1.961mg\;L^{-1}\;day^{-1}$ and $0.200mg\;L^{-1}\;day^{-1}$ respectively. Nutrient removal efficiency of microalgae according to kinds of wastewater showed the highest in the private sewage.