• Korean Journal of Weed Science
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.271-278
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• 2011

The allelopathic effects of Lantana camara L. (Family:Verbenaceae) on germination and seedling establishment of some agricultural crops and weed species have been identified. Aqueous extracts of dry leaves and contaminated soil where L. camara is grown were used to verify allelopathic effect on seed germination of five bioassay species; Raphanus sativas, Capsicum annum, Lycopersicum esculantem, Crotalaria juncia and Chromoleana odorata. Fifty seeds from each bioassay species were placed in a petri dish containing leaf extracts or contaminated soil, and seed germination were examined after 3 days. The plant house experiments were carried out to evaluate the impact of L. camara contaminated soil and leaf debris using L. esculantem as the indicator plant. Seed germination of L. esculentem, C. junica and Capsicum annum was significantly inhibited by L. camara contaminated soil. However, the degree of inhibition varied among the bioassay species. The aqueous extract of dry leaves of L. camara was highly phytotoxic and it significantly reduced seed germination of all bioassay species. There was a decline in plant height, leaf area and shoot dry weight of tomato only in early growth stages when grown in L. camara contaminated soils. However, incorporation of leaf debris into soil affected the vegetative growth of tomato in early stages when the leaf debris concentration was increased. Growth recovered at the latter part of the life cycle. On the basis of these results it can be concluded that the allelochemicals in L. camara contaminated soils are harmful to the seed germination of crop species. The adverse effect was present only during the early growth stages and it did not suppress the latter part of the plant growth. These responses are attributed to allelopathic effects which need confirmation under field conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.99-110
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• 2018

Compared to yellow dust coming from China or particulate matter created naturally in spring due to Total Suspended Particulate(TSP), particulate matter in winter season have much more serious effect on human body as they penetrate cell membranes. Although such particulate matter are becoming a social issue, there are no concrete plans on how to reduce them. Air-purifying plants are limited in maintaining the indoor air quality of large area because it is usually difficult to quantify their performance. In order to improve this, a bio-filter that can be connected to air conditioner is suggested as an option. This study seeks to improve air conditioning model-based monitoring method for bio-filters from prior studies and objectify correlations between applied vegetation and growing environment into quantitative indicators. By doing so, this study seeks to provide criteria on plants applied to artificial soil-based vegetation bio-filters and basic information to set air-conditioning features. The study results confirmed significant tendency on the growing stability of each purifying plant in mechanical air-conditioning environment. Among three models selected for bio-filter vegetation models, epipremnum aureum showed high performance in quantitative indicators, including soil moisture, EC, and leaf temperature, etc., indicating that it would assure the highest growing stability in this test air-conditioning environment.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.429-434
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• 2007

This study was conducted to estimate site productivity of Quercus acutissima and Quercus mongolica by four forest climatic zones. We used site environmental variables (28 geographical and pedological factors) and site index as a site productivity indicator from nation-wide 23,315 stands. Based on multiple regression analysis between site index and major environmental variables, the best-fit multivaliate models were made by each species and forest climatic zone. Most of site index prediction models by species were regressed with seven to eight factors, including altitude, relief, soil depth, and soil moisture etc. For those models, three evaluation statistics such as mean difference, standard deviation of difference, and standard error of difference were applied to the test data set for the validation of the results. According to the evaluation statistics, it was found that the models by climatic zones and species fitted well to the test data set with relatively low bias and variation. Also having above middle of site index range, total area of productive sites for the two Quercus spp. estimated by those models would be about 6% of total forest area. Northern temperate forest zone and central temperate forest zone had more productive area than southern temperate forest zone and warm temperate forest zone. As a result, it was concluded that the regressive prediction with site environmental variables by climatic zones and species had enough estimation capability of forest site productivity.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.415-418
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• 2008

The application of sludge wastes into agricultural fields has been increasing annually in Korea. In particular, sewage sludge application has been widely accepted in decades. Sewage sludge application aid in the recycling of essential nutrients and act as a source of organic matter improving the structure and water-holding properties of the soil. The efficient use of sludge wastes, however, requires an individual assessment of waste products. This study assessed the biological characteristics of organic waste-treated lysimeter soils and develop its indicator to assess the soil health of organic waste-treated lysimeter soils. Several analytical techniques more recently developed such as restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA), and community level substrate utilization (CLSU) fingerprints allow for detailed analyses of soil microbial communities. PLFA and RFLP was, therefore, used in the study to characterize the microbial communities in soil without the need to isolate individual fungi and bacteria. PLFA, RFLP and CLSU have been utilized to assess microbial characteristics of the lysimeter soils with four different sludge wastes for eight consecutive years. Each of these methods was analyzed for a different aspect of soil microbial characteristics. The study would disclose those methods yielded highly reproductive results for each soil and allow distinguishing the soils based on the structures of specific geneand PLFA-pools more than CLSU fingerprints. PLFA methods, especially, revealed the same relative similarities of the treated soils based on cluster analysis of the biological characteristics. Pig manure compost-treated soil, however, was only the same relative resemblance among the three methods. These results indicated that PLFA easily assessed the biological soil characterization.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.3-10
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• 2010

Riverside forests make a river bank stable because trees of them hold together the stone and soil by roots and decrease the speed of running fluid by trunks. So they become known to have positive effects on flood prevention. So This study will be a basic study to preserve and restore of riverside forests. The goal of this study is to classify types of Han riverside forests between Yangpyeng and Yeoju gun. and find out sites of planting. Results of this study can be summarized as follows; The evaluation indicators were set up based on literature review and site survey. Two indicator categories were developed: natural environment and human environment. And they were divided into 5 sub-categories for calculating weights. As for the major indicator categories, the weighted index of natural environment is at 0.5. And the weighted index of human environment is at 0.5 followed by access at 0.15, the range of user at 0.15, cultivated land at 0.1 and legislation at 0.1. This study selected 53 sites for riverside forests planting. They were classified with types of bank(11), level-upped riverside(32), island(10). The amount of the length of 11 bank types is 23,050m, the area of 32 level-upped riverside types is $4,490,000m^2$ and the area of 10 island types is $4,590,000m^2$. After the evaluation of 53 riverside forests, this study selected 12 sites of riverside forests. They were two bank types, nine level-upped riverside types, and one island type. Rebuilding riverside forests are to accomplish the green network which links and divides region. It will be one of the best ecological methods to construct friendly environmental region.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.398-404
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• 1999

Factor analysis technique was employed to screen the principal indicators influencing soil and water qualities in the intensively cultivated areas of the Han River Basin. Soil chemical parameters were analyzed for the soil samples collected at intensive farming area in Pyungchang-Gun, and water quality monitoring data were obtained from the agricultural small catchments of Han River Basin during 1996 and 1997. Among the $11{\times}11$ cross correlation matrix, 29 correlations were significant out of 55 soil quality indicator pairs. The overall Kaiser's measure of sampling adequacy(KMS) value was acceptable with 0.60. Most indicators except iron were acceptable. Among soil indicators, the first factors showing high factor loadings were pH, Ca and Mg. The factor loading was the highest for Ca. The second factor could be characterized as phosphate and micronutrient. The third factor was organic matter and EC, and the fourth factor was potassium and Fe. Out of 190 water quality indicators, 86 correlations were significant. Overall KMS value was 0.74, but the KMS values for pH, TSS, Cd, Cu and Fe were lower than 50. The first factor of EC accounts 27.1 percents of the total variance, and showed high factor loadings with Na, Ca, $SO_4$, Mg, K, Cl, $NO_3$, and T-N. The second factor showed high loadings with Zn, Fe, Mn and Cd. The third to seventh factors could be characterized as $PO_4$, TSS, inorganic nitrogen, pH and T-P, and Cu factors, respectively. The factor score for EC was the highest in Kuri, followed by Chunchon, Dunnae and Daegwanryng. The factor score for heavy metals were the highest in the Daegwanryng. The results demonstrated that the factor analysis could be useful to select the most principal factor influencing soil and water qualities in the agricultural watershed.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.64-73
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• 2013

The application of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology to analyze the environmental impact to different swine waste treatment systems was investigated. The first part of LCA is to organize an inventory of parameters and emissions released due to the system under investigation. In the following step of the Life Cycle Impact Assessment, the inventory data were analyzed and aggregated in order to finally get one index representing the total environmental burden. For the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) the Eco-indicator 95 method has been chosen because this is well documented and regularly applied impact method. Two different swine waste treatment systems such as aerobic and anaerobic digestion systems were chosen as an example for the life cycle impact analysis. For establishing the parameters to be assessed the agricultural environmental effects to above swine waste treatment systems, it has been observed that there was high at T-P emission in anaerobic digestion system and $CO_2$ emission in aerobic digestion system. For Eco-indicator values per environmental effect for swine waste treatment systems related to one tonne of swine waste, it was shown that there was a negative index for global warm potential and soil acidification in aerobic digestion system, but relatively high positive index for eutrophication in anaerobic digestion system.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.287-292
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• 2010

We aimed to investigate the responses of soil organisms to cover plants and to provide information for the selection of proper plant species. We studied the effects of 7 cover plants, including rye, oat, rattail fescue, Chinese milk vetch, red clover, crimson clover, and hairy vetch, on soil organisms in an apple orchard. An increase in the microbial phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) and in the number of nematodes and microarthropods in the soil under the cover plants reflects elevated activities of soil organisms. A decrease in the level of some marker PLFA, which is an indicator of environmental stress, suggests that cover plants provide favorable environments for soil organisms. The population of fungi and animals that feed on fungi increased in the soil surface under red clover. The population density of nematodes and mites increased in the soil surface under rattail fescue, and that of mites and omnivorous nematodes increased in the soil surface under Chinese milk vetch. The level of microbial PLFA in the soil surfaces under the tested cover plants was higher than that under clean culture system. These results suggest that proper selection of the cover plants can facilitate the creation of favorable environments for soil organisms.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.227-235
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• 2022

Background: Abandoned metal mines are classified as vulnerable areas with the highest level of soil contamination among risk regions. People living near abandoned metal mines are at increased risk of exposure to toxic metals. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the correlation between soil contamination levels in areas around abandoned metal mine and the blood lead levels of local residents. Moreover, we assess the possibility of using soil contamination levels as a predictive indicator for human exposure level. Methods: Data from the Survey of Residents around Abandoned Metal Mines (2013~2017, n=4,421) and Investigation of Soil Pollution in Abandoned Metal Mines (2000~2011) were used. A random coefficient model was conducted for estimation of the lower level (micro data) of the local resident unit and the upper level (macro data) of the abandoned metal mine unit. Through a fitted model, the variation of blood lead levels among abandoned metal mines was confirmed and the effect of the operationally defined soil contamination level was estimated. Results: Among the total variation in blood lead levels, the variation between abandoned mines was 18.6%, and the variation determined by the upper-level factors such as soil contamination and water contamination was 8.1%, which was statistically significant respectively. There was also a statistically significant difference in the least square mean of blood lead concentration according to the level of soil contamination (p=0.047, low: 2.32 ㎍/dL, middle: 2.38 ㎍/dL, high: 2.59 ㎍/dL). Conclusions: The blood lead concentration of residents living near abandoned metal mines was significantly correlated with the level of soil contamination. Therefore, in biomonitoring for vulnerable areas, operationally defined soil contamination can be used as a predictor for human exposure level to hazardous substances and discrimination of high-risk abandoned metal mines.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.31-42
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• 2023

A study was conducted to use soil color obtained from digital im ages as an indicator of soil water content. Digital images of Jumoonjin standard sand with five different water contents were captured under nine different lighting conditions. Through digital image processing, the soil color of the sample was obtained based on the CIELAB color system, and the effect of lighting conditions and water content on the soil color was analyzed. The results indicated that L^* showed a high correlation with illuminance, whereas a^* and b^* showed a high correlation with color temperature. As the water content increased, L^*, which represents the brightness of the soil color, decreased, and a^* and b^* increased. Therefore, the soil color changed from green and blue to red and yellow. Based on the regression analysis results of lighting conditions, water content, and soil color, a water content predicting method based on the soil color of silica-based sand photographed under irregular light conditions was proposed. The proposed method can predict the water content with a m axim um error of 0.29%.