• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.214-218
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• 2014

We introduce a technical equipment of GATe (Green (algae)-tide) water combine developed by K-water. The GATe water combine consists of five modules: main body and buoyant, transfer hopper, screen conveyer, sludge remover, and separator of algae and waste. Also a sprinkler, as the pre-treatment step if necessary, is equipped to the device to spread out environmental-friendly algaecide under the circumstance that the level of algal bloom does not reach to the scum-forming condition. The overall module system of this device is very simple. Based on the field test, the device covers surface area of ca. $500,000m^2day^{-1}$ during the period from May to July, and treats water volume as much as $500,000m^3day^{-1}$ in spite of some variation depending on the water quality condition. The removal efficiency of the device appeared to be over 90%. In addition, the operating duration of the device was able to expand to cover the period between March and November. We expect this new technology can be used to solve algal bloom problems in drinking water resource and public water area.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.61-65
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• 2012

Once oil has spilled, oil spill responders use a variety of countermeasures to reduce the adverse effects of spilled oil on the environment. Mechanical methods of containment and recovery are preferred as the first response when the use of other methods fail or are ineffective. In these cases, the application of oil dispersants shall be use only as a last resort. While effectiveness of dispersants in removing oil form the sea surface is proven, the use of dispersants is controlled in almost all countries due to the toxicity of their active agents and the dispersed oil on the marine environment. However, according to reports, after dispersant application, no significant toxicity to fish or shrimp was observed in the field-collected samples. Moreover, the results also indicate that dispersant-oil mixtures are generally no more toxic to the aquatic test species than oil alone. During the Deepwater Horizon Incident, dispersants were applied to floating oil and injected into the oil plume at depth. These decisions were carefully considered by state and federal agencies, as well as BP, to prevent as much oil as possible from reaching sensitive shoreline habitats. Net Environmental Benefit Analysis for dispersant use assumed that dispersants appear to prevent long-term contamination resulting absence of oil in the substrate and will benefit marine wildlife by decreasing the risk of significant contamination to feathers or fur. Further study to use dispersants with scientific baseline is needed for our maritime environment which consistently threaten huge oil spill incidents occurrence.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.163-168
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• 2008

Ship detection from satellite remote sensing is a crucial application for global monitoring for the purpose of protecting the marine environment and ensuring marine security. It permits to monitor sea traffic including fisheries, and to associate ships with oil discharge. An automatic ship detection approach for RADARSAT Fine Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image is described and assessed using in situ ship validation information collected during field experiments conducted on August 6, 2004. Ship detection algorithms developed here consist of five stages: calibration, land masking, prescreening, point positioning, and discrimination. The fine image was acquired of Ulsan Port, located in southeast Korea, and during the acquisition, wind speeds between 0 m/s and 0.4 m/s were reported. The detection approach is applied to anchoring ships in the anchorage area of the port and its results are compared with validation data based on Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) radar. Our analysis for anchoring ships, above 68 m in length (LOA), indicates a 100% ship detection rate for the RADARSAT single beam mode. It is shown that the ship detection performance of SAR for smaller ships like barge could be higher than the land-based radar. The proposed method is also applied to estimate the ship's dimensions of length and breadth from SAR radar cross section(RCS), but those values were comparatively higher than the actual sizes because of layover and shadow effects of SAR.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.261-273
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• 2010

This study intended to investigate the environmental factors including soil and vegetation in order to understand the environmental and ecological characteristics of seven different habitats of Viola websteri. These habitats, according to investigations, are mostly located on the slope of mountains facing north at an altitude of 343 m to 991 m above sea level with angle of inclination from 1 degree to 33 degrees. The type of soil is mostly sandy loam and the average field capacity of soil is 28.97%. Their average organic matter is 16.63%, soil pH 5.62, and available phosphorus is 14.75%. A total of 133 vascular plants are identified in 18 quadrates of seven habitats. Dominant species of woody plants in seven habitats are represented as Acer pictum subsp. mono and Quercus mongolica in tree layer, and Acer pictum subsp. mono in subtree layer. Importance value of Viola websteri is 9.66%, as regards the herbaceous layer, and five highly ranked species such as Meehania urticifolia(8.53%), Pseudostellaria heterophylla(6.51%), Hylomecon vernalis(5.15%), Oxalis obtriangulata (4.52%), and Pseudostellaria davidii(4.15%) are considered to be an affinity with Viola websteri in their habitats. The degree of their average species diversity is 1.32, and that of dominance and evenness are 0.08 and 0.89, respectively. Correlation coefficients analysis based on environmental factors, vegetation and soil analysis shows that the coverage of Viola websteri is correlated with silt and sand ratio, and coverage of tree layers are correlated with species richness and altitude. Cluster analysis based on vegetation structure of each habitats are forms a three groups.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.186-193
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• 2010

In order to examine the traits of sluice gate water control, halophyte community formation and their inter-relations in Saemangeum, both water level condition and halophyte community formation were analyzed periodically and spatially on the topographic map with Surfer, Saemageum Spatial Analysis System, and related field reports. The traits of water level condition are that average water level in the growing period of halophytes was similar to annual average water level, annual low level and high level appeared in the growing period, and water level was usually maintained within a range of -1.0m~0.5m above mean sea level, but it has changed more frequently year by year. Routine water level control, natural disaster prevention, construction, and civil appeal took major percentages of the reasons for sluice gate's opening and shutting. Since 2007, not only the overall control frequency of sluice gate but also its control frequency for construction and natural disaster prevention have increased outstandingly. Halophyte community had formed at a rate of 1,209ha/year in the 4,315 ha land in 2008, 6.3 times larger than in 2005, and 2,382 ha above around 1.0m was estimated to be artificially vegetated, 89.1 % of the 2,673ha-size sown area. High water level was found to be a more possible determinant than average water level or low water level in halophyte community formation and it was thought to be secondary factors whether tillage was conducted or/and whether surface sealing formed.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 2008

This study was conducted to provide basic information that can be used to restore habitats of Nannophya pygmaea. Nannophya pygmaea is an endangered species of wildlife fauna in Korea and its habitats are distributed very scarcely in Korea. Ten wetland sites throughout Korea, where N. pygmaea inhabited (2 sites in Incheon Muui-do, 1 site in Gokseong Singi-ri, 4 sites in Gokseong Wolbong-ri, and 3 sites in Mungyeong Yulsu-ri) were investigated from June 2006 to August 2007. Investigation was made on landscape properties, habitat sizes, vegetation types, water environments, and water sources. N. pygmaea was generally found in the abandoned paddy fields surrounded by mountains. The habitats ranged from $113.4m^2$ to $1,153.1m^2$ in area, and were mostly dominated by Juncus effusus and Persicaria thunbergii. The water level was $2.6\sim7.3cm$, and the water temperature ranged from $16^{\circ}C$ to $27.8^{\circ}C$. The elevation of the habitats ranged from 139 to 243 m above sea level, which was mostly lower than that of other high mountain wetland habitats. In conclusion, the habitats of N. pygmaea can be restored at wetlands, which have similar condition with field habitat such as abandoned paddy fields in the beginning stage of oligotrophy. Because N. pygmaea is sensitive to microtopography and other surrounding environments, the approach to restore the habitats for N. pygmaea should consider those microhabitat conditions shown in this study.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.132-143
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• 2015

Water is an essential resource for humans, but fresh water becomes scarce due to population growth and contamination of limited resources. Membrane technology has been widely used for water treatment, and forward osmosis is a process which does not need high hydraulic pressure for the operation. However, there are needs for (1) development of novel draw solutes causing low internal concentration polarization and reverse salt flux for high water flux, and (2) development of economic recovery method of the draw solutes in the diluted draw solution. Previous researches on the draw solute include $NaHCO_3$ which can be regenerated by about $60^{\circ}C$ heating, sucrose which can make potable water without additional process, and magnetic nanoparticles which can be regenerated by external magnetic field. Using the principles of forward osmosis process, sea water desalination, wastewater treatment, refinement of proteins, energy generation using pressure retarded osmosis process, preparation of diluted fertilizer, and growing algae for biofuel can be conducted. This paper summarizes characteristics of ideal draw solutes, recovery method of the draw solutes, and various application examples.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.52-61
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• 2000

The field surveys and the seawater analyses were conducted over the southern waters of Cheju island every month from July 1997 to June 1988. The distributions of dissolved inorganic nitrogen(DIN), dissolved inorganic phosphorus(DIP), chemical oxygen demand(COD) and dissolved oxygen(DO) in the southern water area of Cheju island were simulated and reproduced by an ecosystem model. In order to estimate the environmental capacity of the southern coastal area of Cheju island, the simulations for predicting the situation of unfavorable environment in which marine water quality might not be satisfied with Korean standards were performed with an ecosystem model by controlling quantitatively the pollution loads of discharge sources including streams flowing into the sea. The more the loads of 4 major pollution sources flowing into model region increase, the more evident appear the increases of COD, DIN and DIP concentrations around the water areas adjacent to pollution sources. In case the pollution loads of all 4 discharge sources including streams become 3 times as high as the present loads, the concentration of DIN at near-shore waters appears to be increased to about 14.5mmol/m³(=0.20mg/ℓ) which is the third class criterion of Korean standards for marine water quality. In case of 10 times as high as the present loads, COD at near-shore waters appears to be increased to about 1.0mg/ℓ which is the first class criterion of Korean standards. In case of 20 times as high as the present loads, DIP at near-shore waters appears to be increased to about 0.50mmol/m³(=0.015mg/ℓ) which is the second class criterion of Korean standards.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.238-244
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• 2001

A method of estimating the fluid drag of a fishing gear and otter board spread in a midwater trawl on full scale was described by implementing a three-dimensional semi-analytic treatment of the towing cable (warp) of a trawl system with the field experiments obtained with the SCANMAR system. The shape of hand rope, bridle and float(or ground) rope attached behind otter boards in a horizontal plane was assumed to be of form $y_r=Ax_r^B$. The distance between otter boards (otter board spread) obtained by the three dimensional analysis of a towing cable must be equal to that obtained by the functional equation of the shape of ropes behind otter boards, The angle of attack of ropes which can be obtained from the functional equation enables one to estimate the fluid drag of trawl net (net drag) by subtracting the fluid drag of the hand rope and bridles from the drag component of the tension of hand rope attached just behind the otter boards.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.884-894
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• 2015

To examine the relationship between microphytobenthos biomass and the condition index of Ruditapes philippinarum (manila clam), field observations were conducted seasonally at the tidal flats of Jeongsanpo and Hwangdo, Taean, Korea from February to November, 2012. A total of 122 species of microphytobenthos were identified over the study period with 85 species (30-45 species in season) at Jeongsanpo and 92 species (32-57 species) at Hwangdo. Chlorophyll a concentrations and cell number of microphytobenthos were $79.75mg/m^2$ and $3,255cells/cm^2$ at Jeongsanpo, and $151.50mg/m^2$ and $15,943cells/cm^2$ at Hwangdo, respectively. The dominant species were slightly different: Cylindrotheca closterium, Fallacia forcipata, Fogedia sp., Gyrosigma sp., and Navicula sp. at Jeongsanpo and C. closterium, Detonula pumila, Diploneis sp., Navicula sp. and Merismopedia sp. at Hwangdo tidal flat. Paralia sulcata was the representative species based on cell number at the two study sites. The number of microphytobenthos identified from the digestive organs of manila clams seasonally varied from 18 to 31 species at Jeongsanpo and dominant genus were Amphora, Navicula, Nitzschia and Paralia sulcata. At Hwangdo, the species number of microphytobenthos found in the digestive organs of manila clams were in the range of between 19 and 25 species in season and the dominant genus were Actinocyclus, Amphora, Coscinodiscus, Diploneis, Gyrosigma, Navicula, and Diploneis. The condition index of manila clams were greater at Hwangdo (0.57) than at Jeongsanpo (0.42). Present results could support that the condition index of manila clams is positively correlated with the species richness and chlorophyll a contents of microphytobenthos.