• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.1-9
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• 2012

The purpose of ecological risk assessment in soil ecosystem is to protect ecological receptors and to provide a scheme of efficient management for soil contaminants. Developed countries have already prepared the methodologies of ecological risk assessment by considering their soil properties, land use, and ecological receptors. In this study, we compared the soil ecological risk assessment processes in the similarity and differences in methodology. Four countries, except for USA, adjusted the toxicological data for ecological risk assessment, based on their representative soil properties because the soil properties affect toxic effects to ecological receptors. The soil ecological risk assessment methodology of Netherlands and UK was based on 'Technical guidance document on risk assessment (TGD)' of European Chemical Bureau (ECB). Australia, USA, and Canada developed their autonomous methodology. In the Netherlands, UK, Australia, and Canada, they employed the species sensitivity distribution (SSD) approach if sufficient toxicity data are available. The USA determined the ecological soil screening level by obtaining the geometric mean of toxicological data for three species. Furthermore, all countries consider secondary poisoning in their soil ecological risk assessment. The latest risk assessment methodology of soil ecosystem that this study investigated can be used to explore what Korea needs to develop the Korean ecological risk assessment methodology of soil ecosystem in the future.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.385-403
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• 2017

This study showed the national ecosystem classification for the spatial standards of ecosystems-based approaches to the risk assessments and adaptation plan. The characteristics of climate change risk assessment, implement national adaptation plans, and ecosystem/habitat classification status was evaluated. Focusing on the land cover classification widely utilized as spatial data for the assessments of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the UK and other countries in Europe, the applicability of the national land cover classification for climate change risk assessments was reviewed. Considering the ecosystem classification for climate change risk assessment and establishing adaptation measures, it is difficult to apply rough classification method to the land cover system because of lack of information on habitat trend by categorization. The results indicated that forest ecosystems and agro-ecosystem occupied 62.3% and 25.0% of land cover, respectively, of the entire country. Although the area is small compared with the land area, wetland ecosystem (2.9%), marine ecosystem (0.4%), coastal ecosystem (0.6%), and urban ecosystem (6.1%) can be included in the risk assessments. Therefore, it is necessary to subdivide below the medium classification for the forest and agricultural land, as well as Inland wetland, which has a higher proportion of habitat preference of taxa than land area, marine/coastal habitat, and transition areas such as urban and natural ecosystem.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.369-389
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• 2011

Changes in ecosystem risks were evaluated using the ecosystem-based fisheries assessment (EBFA) approach of Zhang et al. (2009, 2010) and the comprehensive ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) plan was made for the southern sea of Korea in this study. The risk assessment of the southern sea ecosystem was conducted by establishing ecosystem management objectives and by estimating risk scores (RS) for indicators. To conduct this analysis a number of indicators and their reference points for assessing these risk scores were developed in this study. The number of indicators in the risk analysis was 28 for the quantitative tier 1 analysis and 30 for the qualitative tier 2 analysis. The objective risk index (ORI), species risk index (SRI) and fisheries risk index (FRI) were calculated from the risk scores. Comparing the past (1988) and the current (2008) status of fisheries resources, management implications were discussed. The fishery risk index (FRI) of large purse seine fishery in the southern sea of Korea decreased substantially from 0.972 in 1988 to 0.883 in 2008, and improvement in the management of fisheries operated in the southern sea of Korea.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.353-359
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• 2006

Transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana plants harboring the coat protein(CP) gene of Zucchini green mottle mosaic virus(ZGMMV) were chosen as a model host for the environmental risk assessment of genetically modified plants with virus resistance. This study was focused on whether new virus type may arise during serial inoculation of one point CP mutant of ZGMMV on the transgenic plants. In vitro transcripts derived from the non-functional CP mutant were inoculated onto the virus-tolerant and -susceptible transgenic N. benthamiana plants. Any notable viral symptoms that could arise on the inoculated transgenic host plants were not detected, even though the inoculation experiment was repeated a total of ten times. This result suggests that potential risk associated with the CP-expressiing transgenic plants may not be significant. However, cautions must be taken as it does not guarantee environmental safety of these CP-mediated virus-resistant plants, considering the limited number of the transgenic plants tested in this study. Further study at a larger scale is needed to evaluate the environmental risk that might be associated with the CP-mediated virus resistant plant.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.449-461
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• 2023

The aim of this study was to conduct an ecosystem-based fishery risk assessment of tuna fisheries in the Western Indian Ocean. We selected gillnet, purse seine, hand line, baitboat, and longline fisheries as the target fisheries method, and selected longtail tuna (Thunnus tonggol), narrow-barred Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus commerson), kawakawa (Euthynnus affinis), skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis), yellowfin tuna (T. albacares), bigeye tuna (T. obesus), albacore tuna (T. alalunga) and swordfish (Xiphias gladius) as the target species. The risk score for the size at the first capture in sustainability objective was high, especially, for the purse seine and baitboat fisheries using the fish aggregating devices (FADs). The risk score for the bycatch in the biodiversity objective was high for the gillnet fishery, and the gillnet fisheries using FADs showed high risks for the habitat quality objective due to the loss of the fishing gears. With regards to the socio-economic benefits objective, the risk score of the sales profits was low due to high sales of the tuna fisheries. The ecosystem risk score in the Western Indian Ocean was estimated to be moderate, although management is required for some of the indicators that have high-risk scores.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.459-468
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• 2013

In the application of the ecosystem-based fisheries assessment Jeonnam marine ranching ecosystem, two fisheries, funnel fishery and trap fishery, were selected as target fisheries. Black seabream, Acanthopagru schlegelii, rock bream, Sebastes inermis, gray mullet, Mugil cephalus, were selected as target species for the funnel fishery, and conger eel, Conger myriaster, was target species for the trap fishery. For assessing indicators of four management objectives, that is the maintenance of sustainability, biodiversity, habitat quality and socio-economic benefits, indicators were selected considering the availability of data, which were 5 indicators for sustainability, 3 indicators for biodiversity, 4 indicators for habitat, 2 indicators for socio-economic benefit. The Objective risk indices for sustainability and biodiversity of two fisheries were estimated at yellow zone, medium risk level. The objective risk indices for habitat and socio-economic benefit were estimated at green zone, safe level. The species risk indices (SRI) were estimated at yellow zone. The fishery risk indices (FRIs) were estimated at 1.143 and 1.400 for funnel net fishery and trap fishery, respectively. Finally the ecosystem risk index estimated at 1.184.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.592-597
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• 2008

Current water quality standard (WQS) in Korea is based on the protection of human health, not considering the protection of aquatic organisms. Most of chemicals can be toxic to ecological biota as well as human. Health of aquatic biota is closely related to the human health via food chain, therefore ecological risk based-WQS needs to be developed to protect the aquatic ecosystem. In this study, we selected the 31 chemicals in the Project entitled 'Development of integrated methodology for evaluation of water environment'. The methodology for calculating water quality criteria was derived from the Australian and New Zealand processes for deriving guideline trigger value for aquatic ecosystem. The available ecotoxicity data were collected from US EPA's ECOTOXicology Database (ECOTOX), TOX-2000 Database, European Chemicals Bureau (ECB)'s International Uniform Chemical Information Database (IUCLID) and Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA)'s report 'Ambient Water Quality Criteria (AWQC)'. The aquatic toxicity data for the Korean species were selected for risk assessment to reflect the Korean water environment. The monitoring values were calculated from the water quality monitoring data four main Korean rivers. We suggested the order of priorities of chemicals based on ecological risk assessment. We expect that these results can be useful information for establishing the WQS for the protection of aquatic ecosystem.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.299-315
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• 2020

Tuna fisheries were applied to an integrated ecosystem-based fishery risk assessment method using indexes of target species status, inhabited species in a target ecosystem, habitat quality and socio-economic benefit of affected fisheries. This study suggested more effective and efficient management measures to break away from traditional management methods, such as limitation of catch and fishing effort. The results presented that the objective risk index (ORI_S) on sustainability of bigeye and yellowfin tunas by purse seine fishery was estimated high due to the high catch ratio of small fishes. The ORIs of biodiversity (ORI_B) and habitat quality (ORI_H) of purse seine fishery were also estimated at a high level from using fish-aggregating devices (FAD). However, due to skipjack tuna's high catches, the ORI of socio-economic benefit (ORI_E) was estimated at a very low level. Due to the high bycatch rate, ORI_B was high, and ORI_S and ORI_H were evaluated at a low level in longline fishery. Due to strengthern of fishing restrictions and increase of fishing costs, the ORI_E was assessed to be very high. The ecosystem risk index (ERI) for two tuna fisheries was assessed low, but the overall FAD management by purse seine fishery is necessary at the ecosystem level.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.169-177
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• 2010

Ecological risk assessment (ERA) has been used to establish environmental quality standards or evaluate ecological risk in site-specific areas. The scope of ERA was expanded based on regions, and the concept of regional-scale ecological risk assessment was recently introduced in developed countries. In the present study, regional ERA approaches of relative risk model (RRM), contaminants in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems (CATS) model, and procedure for ecological tired assessment of risks (PETAR) in advanced countries were extensively investigated. Regional ERA was compared with traditional ERA process. Stressors, receptor and response in traditional ERA were replaced with sources of stressors, habitats, and ecological impacts, respectively in regional ERA. This study introduces the concept and assessment process of regional ERA, and provides a wide perspective how the relative ERA could be applied in Korean ecosystem.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.469-482
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• 2013

This study identified problems of the existing ecosystem-based fisheries assessment approach, and suggested new methods for scoring risk and for the estimation of fishery risk index. First, risk scores of zero to two for target and limit reference points for each indicator were replaced by those of zero to three, and the risk scores were calculated from new formulae which were developed in this study. Second, a new method for estimating fishery risk index (FRI) was developed in this study, considering the level of indicators. New method was applied to the Korean large purse seine fishery, large pair trawl fishery and drag net fishery. More precise and detailed risk scores were obtained from the new method, which can explain the risks by the wider range of both risk levels for 'better than target' and 'beyond limit'. The new method for estimating FRI could avoid the basic problem related with duplicated computations of fishery-level indicators, which improved the estimated FRI to be more accurate. Also, a method for estimating variance of FRI using the bootstrap was proposed in this study.