• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.445-460
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• 2012

In order to evaluate and predict the environmental impact of the low-trophic-level ecosystem to environmental changes in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, an ecological modelling study was undertaken. Simulation results of average distribution patterns and concentrations of water quality factors during the summer by the model were acceptable. Phytoplankton and remineralization rate of organic matter were very important parameters by a sensitivity analysis. Water quality factors showed high values in the estuary of the Yangtze River and in the West and South Sea of Korea and low values in the central area of the Yellow Sea. There is a plume of high values, especially nutrients, off the mouth of the Yangtze that expands or contracts with changes in the discharge strength. Characteristics of responses of water quality factors vary for different scenarios of environmental change, such as land-based pollution sources and atmospheric forcing. It is suggested that changes of light intensity, discharges of input sources, and wind play an important role in the marine ecosystem.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.631-648
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• 2012

The integrative ecological approaches of chemical assessments, physical habitat modelling, and multi-metric biological health modelling were applied to Gwanpyeong Stream within Gap-Stream watersheds to evaluate environmental impacts on the constructions of residential and commercial complex. For the analysis, the surveys conducted from 45 sites of reference streams within the Gap-Stream watershed and 3 regular sites during 2009 - 2010. Physical habitat health, based on the habitat model of Qualitative Habitat Evaluation Index(QHEI) declined from the headwaters(good - fair condition) to the downstream(poor condition). Chemical water quality, based turbidity and electric conductivity(EC), was degraded toward to the downstream, and especially showed abrupt increases, compared to the values of control streams(CS). Also, concentrations of chlorophyll-a in the downstreams were greater compared to the control stream(CS), indicating an eutrophication. Biological health conditions, based on the Index of Biological Integrity(IBI) using fish assemblages, averaged 19.3 which is judged as a fair condition by the biological criteria of the Ministry of Environment, Korea. The comparisons of model metric values in sensitive species and riffle-benthic species on the Maximum Species Richness Line(MSRL) of 45 reference streams indicated a massive disturbances in all sampling locations. Also, tolerance guild and trophic guild analyses suggest that dominances of tolerant species and omnivores were evident, indicating a biological degradation by habitat disturbances and organic matter pollutions. There was no distinct longitudinal variations of IBI model values from the headwater to the downstream in spite of slight chemical and habitat health gradients among the sampling sites. Overall, integrative ecological health(IEH) scores, based on the chemical, physical, and biological parameters, were low compared to the 45 reference streams due to physical and chemical disturbances of massive constructions of the residential and commercial complex. This stream, thus showed a tendency of typical urban streams which are disturbed in the chemical water quality, habitat structures, and biological integrity. Effective stream management plans and restoration strategies are required in this urban stream for improving integrative stream health.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.432-438
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to predict Trophic Diatom Index (TDI) in tributaries of the Han River watershed using the random forest algorithm. The one year (2017) and supplied aquatic ecology health data were used. The data includes water quality(BOD, T-N, $NH_3-N$, T-P, $PO_4-P$, water temperature, DO, pH, conductivity, turbidity), hydraulic factors(water width, average water depth, average velocity of water), and TDI score. Seven factors including water temperature, BOD, T-N, $NH_3-N$, T-P, $PO_4-P$, and average water depth are selected by the Correlation Feature Selection. A TDI prediction model was generated by random forest using the seven factors. To evaluate this model, 2017 data set was used first. As a result of the evaluation, $R^2$, % Difference, NSE(Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency), RMSE(Root Mean Square Error) and accuracy rate show that this model is compatible with predicting TDI. To be more concrete, $R^2$ is 0.93, % Difference is -0.37, NSE is 0.89, RMSE is 8.22 and accuracy rate is 70.4%. Also, additional evaluation using data set more than 17 times the measured point was performed. The results were similar when the 2017 data set were used. The Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test shows there was no statistically significant difference between actual and predicted data for the 2017 data set. These results can specify the elements which probably affect aquatic ecology health. Also, these will provide direction relative to water quality management for a watershed that must be continuously preserved.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.6943-6951
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• 2014

The trophic state assessment of the Hwoiya reservoir was estimated using the Trophic state indices (TSIs) of Carlson and Aizaki using the transparency and concentrations of chlorophyll-a and total phosphorus obtained from two sites of the reservoir. The TSIs assessments showed that eutrophic phenomena occur frequently in the Hwoiya reservoir. In addition, strategies to reduce the phosphorus especially would be prepared because the Hwoiya reservoir exceeded phosphorus-limiting state of 17 < TN/TP (total nitrogen/total phosphorus). Three scenarios for a simulation of the dredging effect of sediments on the water quality using the WASP7 model were made at two sites, which were 10% (scenario 1), 40% (scenario 2) and 60% elution of the pollutants from sediments (scenario 3). In the most elution case (60%), scenario 3, it was considered that 6.4% TN and 9.3% TP at site 1, and 3.9% TN and 5.6% TP at site 2 could be reduced.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.461-468
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• 2012

In general, long-term changes of ecological factors take a pulse form in which they interact with other factors and go through a repeated increasing and decreasing cycle. The coupling of the two approaches the grid model and the box model in ecological modeling can lead to an in-depth understanding of the environment. The study analyzes temporal variations of major storages with an energy system model that formulizes effectively the relationships among nutrients, phytoplankton, and zooplankton in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea. An increase of light intensity and standing stock of nutrient increase the magnitude and frequency of pulsing. Also, an immense reduction of nutrient concentration can cause extinction of the pulsing and bring about a steady state. It is concluded that the nutrient loads in freshwater discharge from the Yangtze affect the cycles of major ecological components as well as water quality variables and play an important role in the marine ecosystem.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.242-252
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to develop a Multi-metric Water Quality Assessment (MWQA) model and apply it to dataset sampled from Paldang and Daechung reservoir in 2008. The various water dataset used to this study included 5 year data sets (2003${\sim}$2007) in Korean reservoirs which were obtained from the Ministry of Environment, Korea. In this study, suggested MWQA model has 4 metrics that were composed of 4 parameters such as chemical, physical, biological, and hydrological variables. And, each of the variables attributed total phosphorus (TP) concentration in water, secchi depth (SD) measure in water, chlorophyll-${\alpha}$(Chl-${\alpha}$) concentration in water and the ratio of inflow of water into lakes and efflux of water from lakes, input/output (I/O). First, we established the criteria for trophic boundaries. The boundary between oligotrophic and mesotrophic categories was defined by the lower third of the cumulative distribution of the values. The mesotrophic-eutrophic boundary was defined by the upper third of the distribution. Second, each metric was given by a point-oligo=1, meso=3, eu=5. And then, obtained total score from each metric was divided 5 grade-Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor, and Very poor. As the results of applying the proposed MWQA model, the Paldang reservoir obtained "Fair" or "Poor" grade and Daechung reservoir obtained "Excellent" or "Good" grade. The suggested MWQA model through these procedures will enable to manage efficiently the reservoir. And, more studies such as metric numbers and attributes should be done for the accurate application of the new model.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.750-763
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• 2018

This study conducted 10 sampling sites survey 4 times to determine the trophic structure and energy flow of marine ecosystems for Uljin marine ranching area, Korean East Sea from March to October 2013. Based on the ecological characteristics of biological species, one used the non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling method based on the similarity of species. A total of 19 classified species groups formed categories including, top predators, seabirds, large pelagic fishes, small pelagic fishes, rockfishes, pleuronectiformes, benthic fishes, semi-benthic fishes, cephalopods, benthic feeders, epifauna, bivalves, abalone, Cnidaria, zooplankton, benthic algae, microalgae, phytoplankton and detritus. The biomass, production/biomass, consumption/biomass, diet composition data of each species groups to input data used in Ecopath mode estimated the trophic structure and energy flow of marine ecosystems in the Uljin marine ranching area. One estimated each species groups on the trophic level from 1 to 5.687. The sum of all consumption was estimated at $229.7t/km^2/yr$ and the sum of all exports was as estimated $3,432.4t/km^2/yr$. Total system throughput was at $6,796.2t/km^2/yr$, and the sum of all production was estimated at $3,613.1t/km^2/yr$. Net system production according to these results was estimated at $3,490.3t/km^2/yr$ and total biomass (excluding detritus) was estimated at $167.3t/km^2/yr$ in the Uljin marine ranching area.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.223-233
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• 2007

For this study, we analyzed spatial and temporal patterns of trophic state and water quality over the period of $2002{\sim}2005$, using the water chemistry dataset obtained from the Korea Rural community & Agriculture corporation. Most reservoirs, based on TN, showed eutrophic (about 88% of the total). About 20% of agricultural reservoirs, based on TP, showed eutrophic after the criteria of OECD (1982), while 71% and 3% were Hesotrophic and oligotrophic, respectively. Seasonal variations were evident due to the intense monsoon rain during July${\sim}$August; conductivity, COD, SS, nutrients, and chlorophyll-${\alpha}$ (CBL) increased in the postmonsoon compared to the premonsoon. TP values had positive functional relations with conductivity, COD, and CHL values. COD and SS peaked during the intense monsoon. Mean values of TP and CHL values were two times greater in the intense monsoon than the weak monsoon. The increased TP was probably due to inorganic suspended solids from point and non-point sources during the monsoon. Ratios of TN : TP had strong in- verse relations ($R^2$=0.843, p<0.001, n=34) with TP, but not with TN (p>0.05, n=34). Log10-transformed CHL increased with TP in most P-limited reservoirs $(Log_{10}TP=0.5{\times}Log_{10}CHL+0.086)$. Similarity analysis, based TN, TP, and CHL showed that three groups were separated at 90% similarity level; One group was reservoirs with high salinity nearby the seawater, and the other two groups were reservoirs with a low salinity of the inland, and intermediate salinity, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.41 no.spc
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• pp.11-20
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• 2008

In this study, we applied a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm to predict the changes of chlorophyll-${\alpha}$ related to environmental factors in agricultural reservoirs in Korean national scale. Data were obtained from water quality monitoring networks of reservoirs operated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Environment of Korea. From the database of the monitoring networks, 290 reservoirs were chosen with variables such as chlorophyll-${\alpha}$ and 13 environmental factors (COD, TN, TP, Altitude, Bank height, etc.) measured in 2002. Based on Carlson's trophic status index, reservoirs were divided into five groups, and most agricultural reservoirs $(TSI_{CHL}\;64.1%,\;TSI_{TP}\;75.5%)$ were in the eutrophic states. The groups were discriminated with environmental variables, showing that COD, DO, and TP were important factors to determine the trophic states. MLP-PSO (Multilayer perceptron (MLP) with PSO for the optimization) was applied for the prediction of chlorophyll-${\alpha}$ with environment factors, and showed high predictability (r=0.83, p<0.001). Additionally, the sensitivity analysis of the MLP-PSO model showed that COD had the strongest positive effects on the concentration of chlorophyll-${\alpha}$, and followed by TP, TN, DO, whereas altitude and bank height had negative effects on the concentration of chlorophyll-${\alpha}$.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.31-42
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• 2016

The object of this study was to determine long-term temporal and spatial patterns of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), suspended solids, and chlorophyll (Chl) in Chungju Reservoir, based on the dataset of 1992 - 2013, and then to develop the empirical models of nutrient-Chl for predicting the eutrophication of the reservoir. Concentrations of total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) were largely affected by an intensity of Asian monsoon and the longitudinal structure of riverine (Rz), transition (Tz), and lacustrine zone (Lz). This system was nitrogen-rich system and phosphorus contents in the water were relatively low, implying a P-limiting system. Regression analysis for empirical model, however, showed that Chl had a weak linear relation with TP or TN, and this was mainly associated with turbid, and nutrient-rich inflows in the system. The weak relation was associated with non-algal light attenuation coefficients (Kna), which is inversely related water residence time. Thus, values of Chl had negative functional relation (R² = 0.25, p < 0.001) with nonalgal light attenuation. Thus, the low chlorophyll at a given TP indicated a light-limiting for phytoplankton growth and total suspended solids (TSS) was highly correlated (R² = 0.94, p < 0.001) with non-algal light attenuation. The relations of Trophic State Index (TSI) indicated that phosphorus limitation was weak [TSI (Chl) - TSI (TP) < 0; TSI (SD) - TSI (Chl) > 0] and the effects of zooplankton grazing were also minor [TSI (Chl) - TSI (TP) > 0; TSI (SD) - TSI (Chl) > 0].