• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.293-300
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• 2011

Many countries of the world, including IMO, has noticed that foreign marine hazardous organisms, which were introduced by ballast water, have disturbed the marine ecosystem of its own nation, and posed a serious threat to human health and the value of environment and economy. Therefore, IMO has tried to manage the introduced species by assessing the risk of ballast water, and suggested three risk assessment methods, such as environmental matching risk assessment, speciesbiogeographical risk assessment, and species-specific risk assessment. In this thesis, species-specific risk assessment method was considered, and a risk assessment program established by applying it was described.

• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.210-218
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• 2021

Recently, pest-resistant living modified (LM) crops developed using RNA interference (RNAi) technology have been imported into South Korea. However, the potential adverse effects of unintentionally released RNAi-based LM crops on non-target species have not yet been reported. Coccinella septempunctata, which feeds on aphids, is an important natural enemy insect which can be exposed to the double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) produced by RNAi-based LM plants. To assess the risk of ingestion of Snf7 dsRNA by C. septempunctata, we first identified the species through morphological analysis of collected insects. A method for species identification at the gene level was developed using a specific C. septempunctata 12S rRNA. Furthermore, an experimental model was devised to assess the risk of Snf7 dsRNA ingestion in C. septempunctata. Snf7 dsRNA was mass-purified using an effective dsRNA synthesis method and its presence in C. septempunctata was confirmed after treatment with purified Snf7 dsRNA. Finally, the survival rate, development time, and dry weight of Snf7 dsRNA-treated C. septempunctata were compared with those of GFP and vATPase A dsRNA control treatments, and no risk was found. This study illustrates an effective Snf7 dsRNA synthesis method, as well as a high-concentration domestic insect risk assessment method which uses dsRNA to assess the risk of unintentional released of LM organisms against non-target species.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.22 no.2 s.57
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• pp.171-175
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• 2007

Indigenous species means a species that is likely, due to historical presence, to occur at a specified site for some portion of its life span. Therefore, indigenous species can be useful as an indicator to assess environmental risk caused by hazardous chemicals in a specific site. So far a few toxicity studies using freshwater species which are indigenous to Korea have been carried out. In this study, a freshwater shrimp (Neocardina denticulata) indigenous to Korea was used for acute toxicity test of heavy metals. Neocardina denticulata were exposed to cadmium chloride $(CdCl_2)$, copper chloride $(CuCl_2)$ and zinc chloride $(ZnCl_2)$ using automatic flow-through system for 96 hours. The 96h LC50s were calculated as 0.043 $(0.042{\sim}0.045)mg\;CdCl_2/L,\;0.104(0.098{\sim}0.113)mg\; CuCl_2/L\;and\;2.021\;(1.633{\sim}2.594)mg\;ZnCl_2/L$. When compaired with some international standard species such as medaka(Oryzias latipes), Neocardina denticulata had high sensitivity. Therefore, this study suggested that Neocardina denticulata have possibilities for a sensitive test species to test heavy metal toxicity in aqua-system.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.487-493
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• 2017

Recent years have seen steadily increasing concerns about human exposure to heavy metals through seafood consumption. In Korea, the diverse dietary patterns of different bivalve shellfish necessitate tissue-specific evaluation of heavy metal contents for risk assessment. We analyzed the heavy metal contents of various tissues in scallops (Patinopecten yessoensis) and pen shells (Atrina pectinate). In both species, we found higher levels of cadmium (Cd) in the mantle than in the adductive muscle, while there was no significant difference between the two tissue types in total mercury (THg) and lead (Pb) (P<0.05). Levels of THg and Pb were acceptable by Korean standards. However, the level of Cd in pen shell mantle tissue exceeded the standard by 40%. The rate of heavy metal exposure from consumption of these species was shown to be 0.003-0.010% of the provisional tolerable weekly intake of THg and 0.312-0.600% of the provisional tolerable monthly intake (PTWI) of Cd as recommended by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives. These findings on the tissue-specific heavy metal contents of these species will be useful in assessing the health risks of Korean dietary habits.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2010

Monitoring toxicity levels in specific biological compartments is necessary to evaluate the ecotoxicological risk associated with soil environmental pollution. Gene expression, as potential biomarker, is increasingly used as rapid early warning systems in environmental monitoring and ecological risk assessment procedures. Various representative species are currently used for the purpose of assessing soil toxicity, however, investigations on toxicological assessments using endpoint based on gene-level have been limited. In this review, we will present the current trends in organisms and endpoints used in soil toxicity study and report gene expression related to toxicity using soil organism, and C. elegans as promising organisms for this approach.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.272-279
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• 2011

Copper cyanide is a chemical produced in large quantities with 2,500 tonnes being produced in 2006. It is mainly used for electroplating copper, particularly alkali-Cu plate and brass plating. The purpose of this study is to reassess the physicochemical properties and environmental fate of copper cyanide based on reliable data and and to conduct an ecotoxicity test according to the OECD test guidelines as an initial environmental risk assessment (need to state where this was done). Metal containing inorganic substances are not subject to degradation, biodegradation or hydrolysis. Aquatic toxicity tests of copper cyanide were conducted according to OECD test guideline 201, 202 and 203 for green algae, daphnia, and fish, respectively. The following acute toxicity test results were obtained for aquatic species: 0.089 mg $L^{-1}$ (Algae, 72 Hr-$EC_{50}$); 0.21 mg $L^{-1}$ (flea, 48 Hr-$LC_{50}$); 0.62 mg $L^{-1}$ (Fish, 96 Hr-$ErC_{50}$). The chemical possesses properties indicating a hazard for the aquatic environment (acute toxicity in fish, daphnia and algae below 1.0 mg $L^{-1}$). As a result of this study, copper cyanide has become a candidate for detailed risk assessment. Countries that produce this chemical in significant quantities are recommended to perform specific assessments.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.307-319
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• 2009

Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technology has been regarded as one of the most possible and practical option to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) and consequently to mitigate the climate change. Korean government also have started a 10-year R&D project on $CO_2$ storage in sea-bed geological structure including gas field and deep saline aquifer since 2005. Various relevant researches are carried out to cover the initial survey of suitable geological structure storage site, monitoring of the stored $CO_2$ behavior, basic design of $CO_2$ transport and storage process and the risk assessment and management related to $CO_2$ leakage from engineered and geological processes. Leakage of $CO_2$ to the marine environment can change the chemistry of seawater including the pH and carbonate composition and also influence adversely on the diverse living organisms in ecosystems. Recently, IMO (International Maritime Organization) have developed the risk assessment and management framework for the $CO_2$ sequestration in sub-seabed geological structures (CS-SSGS) and considered the sequestration as a waste management option to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. This framework for CS-SSGS aims to provide generic guidance to the Contracting Parties to the London Convention and Protocol, in order to characterize the risks to the marine environment from CS-SSGS on a site-specific basis and also to collect the necessary information to develop a management strategy to address uncertainties and any residual risks. The environmental risk assessment (ERA) plan for $CO_2$ storage work should include site selection and characterization, exposure assessment with probable leak scenario, risk assessment from direct and in-direct impact to the living organisms and risk management strategy. Domestic trial of the $CO_2$ capture and sequestration in to the marine geologic formation also should be accomplished through risk management with specified ERA approaches based on the IMO framework. The risk assessment procedure for $CO_2$ marine storage should contain the following components; 1) prediction of leakage probabilities with the reliable leakage scenarios from both engineered and geological part, 2) understanding on physio-chemical fate of $CO_2$ in marine environment especially for the candidate sites, 3) exposure assessment methods for various receptors in marine environments, 4) database production on the toxic effect of $CO_2$ to the ecologically and economically important species, and finally 5) development of surveillance procedures on the environmental changes with adequate monitoring techniques.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.320-331
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• 2013

The National Center for AgroMeteorology (NCAM) has designed a risk management solution for individual farms threatened by the climate change and variability. The new service produces weather risk indices tailored to the crop species and phenology by using site-specific weather forecasts and analysis derived from digital products of the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). If the risk is high enough to cause any damage to the crops, agrometeorological warnings or watches are delivered to the growers' cellular phones with relevant countermeasures to help protect their crops against the potential damage. Core techniques such as scaling down of weather data to individual farm level and the crop specific risk assessment for operational service were developed and integrated into a cloud based service system. The system was employed and implemented in a rural catchment of 50 $km^2$ with diverse agricultural activities and 230 volunteer farmers are participating in this project to get the user-specific weather information from and to feed their evaluations back to NCAM. The experience obtained through this project will be useful in planning and developing the nation-wide early warning service in agricultural sector exposed to the climate and weather extremes under climate change and climate variability.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.280-291
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• 2007

Much research has been conducted in the field of phytoremediation since the discovery of the range of plants known as hyperaccumulators. Research has focused simultaneously on elucidating the mechanism of metal(loid) accumulation and development of practical techniques to enhance accumulation efficiency. To date, it is generally understood that there are five specific mechanisms employed by hyperaccumulating plant species that are either not or under utilized by non-hyperaccumulators. These include 1) enhanced metal(loid)s uptake through the root cell, 2) enhanced translocation in plant tissue, 3) detoxification and sequestration, 4) enhanced metal availability in soil:root interface, and 5) active root foraging toward metal(loid) enriched soils. Among these mechanisms, understanding of the plant-root effect on metal(loid) dynamics and subsequent plant uptake is vital to overcome the inherit limitation of phytoremediation caused by low metal(loid) solubility in soils. Plant roots can influence the soil chemistry in the rhizosphere through changes in pH and exudation of organic compounds such as low-molecular-weight organic acids (LMWOAs) which consequently change metal(loid) solubility. The decrease in soil pH by plant release of $H^+$ results in increased metal solubility. Elevated levels of organic compounds in response to high metal soil concentrations by plant exudation may also increases metal concentration in soil solution through formation of organometallic complexes.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.60-70
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• 2011

The sediment removal index derived from the chemical contaminants, $CI_{HC}$, is currently in use to identify and define the spatial extent of the contaminated sediments in the sea. In order to analyze the sensitivity of the ecological and human risk associated with contaminated sediment, we evaluated five hypothetical contaminated sediments, whose $CI_{HC}$ values are identical but consisted of different contaminant contents, using $TrophicTrace^{(R)}$ model dedicated to evaluate sediment risk, against the resident greenling (Hexagrammos otakii) and humans by calculating No-Observed-Adverse-Effect-Level based Toxicity Quotient (NOAEL TQ) and Lowest-Observed-Adverse-Effect-Level based Toxicity Quotient (LOAEL TQ), and cancer risks and hazard indices (HI), respectively, based on the site conceptual model and exposure assumptions of fish ingestion to human receptor populations. NOAEL and LOAEL TQ values varied as much as a factor of 2 among 5 hypothetical sediments. Chemical element specific contribution to the carcinogenic risk and HI varied also greatly in these sediments. The reason for this significant dissimilarity in ecological and human risk stems from the different risk of each contaminant to the resident fish and human receptor. When the conceptual food web model is constructed for the target biological species for a given site, the ecological and human risk analysis considering trophic transfer of contaminants will add a ecosystem based tool for the management of contaminated sediments.