• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.100-106
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• 2006

A hypertonic solution of sorbitol was used to precondition Douglas-fir and Western hemlock plug seedlings to improve desiccation resistance. Seedlings were preconditioned by soaking their root balls in water, -0.75 or -1.50 MPa sorbitol solution for 22 hr, and then exposed to desiccation conditions for 8 days. During the desiccation period, a transpirational water loss was significantly reduced by the sorbitol preconditioning, with its effect positively depending on concentration. This preconditioning-induced reduction in water loss was mainly caused by the decline in needle stomatal conductance. Sorbitol-induced stomatal control was more closely associated with reduction in plant water potential, rather than increase in abscisic acid concentrations. After rehydration of stressed-plants, most of the preconditioned seedlings with sorbitol were survived, while only 35% of Douglas-fir and 28% of Western hemlock seedlings treated with water were alive. The post-growth was significantly greater in the preconditioned seedlings than only water-treated seedlings. These results suggested that the earlier stomatal control with sorbitol-facilitated preconditioning could play a role in improving desiccation resistance of evergreen woody plants at transplanting in the field where water supply is limited or dry conditions are prevailing.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.38-45
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• 2007

Flakeboards made from ring- and drum-cut flakes of Douglas-fir, hemlock, red lauan and kapur using two kinds of resin levels were evaluated for the selected properties according to flake thickness. The pH and buffering capacity of four species were determined. Those of kapur were extremely different from the other three species. These pH and buffering capacity values result in the poor internal bond strength of kapur flakeboard. The internal bond strength was affected significantly by flake thickness, resin content and species. MOR and MOE in bending strength were maximized at medium drum-cut flake thickness. Screw holding strength was not consistent for flake thickness, but it was influenced by species. Thickness swelling and water absorption of Douglas-fir and hemlock flakeboard were minimized at medium drum-cut flake thickness.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.19-29
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• 2013

Cicuta virosa is an endangered species in Korea, which is a southern marginal area. To conserve and restore habitats of this plant, we investigated water and soil environmental characteristics and vegetation at four habitats during the growing season. The C. virosa habitats differed in community structure, water and substrate properties, and water regime. Although the total distribution ranges of the water and soil environments for C. virosa were wide and overlapped with the optimal environmental range of distribution of accompanying species, the optimal water level range for C. virosa was defined as $7{\pm}3.5$ cm. Water level was adjusted by substrate structure such as a mound of P. japonica and a floating mat comprised of accompanying species. A floating mat was an aid to maintain an optimal and stable water level in deep or fluctuating water and to prevent strong competition with prolific macrophytes. The GS sampling site, which had floating mats, could be a good model for C. virosa conservation in a warm temperate region, whereas the PC sampling sites, which experienced a water shortage in spring, provided a clue about the decline in C. virosa population size.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2009

Although the exterior wood such as column may frequently contact with liquid water, little work has been found to measure liquid water absorption in wood. To investigate the moisture diffusivity of wood in the longitudinal direction including bound water and free water movement, liquid water absorption test was conducted at the room temperature. The order of magnitude for absorption coefficient and diffusivity was Japanese elm, horn beam, hemlock, spruce, radiata pine, and painted maple. The Boltzmann transformation method was used to determine the diffusivity from measured moisture content distributions in the absorption test. The shape of the curve representing the dependence of diffusivity with moisture content was similar in test samples. The diffusivity decreased with increasing moisture content until around the fiber saturation point and then increased at the nonhygroscopic region, which ranged from $10^{-10}$ to $10^{-7}m^2/s$.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.339-348
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• 2007

A laboratory experiment was conducted to study the characteristics of leaching of Cr, Cu, and As from chromated topper arsenate (CCA)-treated wood. The wood species tested was hemlock spruce ($10\;cm\;{\times}\;10\;cm\;{\times}\;10\;cm\;tube$). The leaching experiment was conducted over 60 days using I L of leachants whose pHs were adjusted to 2.0, 3.7, and 1.6, respectively with nitric acid, and also using lake water, according to the OECD guideline. Each leachate was analyzed for Cr and Cu using flame-AAS, and for As using vapor generation-AAS. Three metals were loathed at the highest levels at pH 2.0 but almost at similar levels at the other conditions. Cumulative quantifies over 60 days of a leaching period were in order of As>Cu>Cr. As was predicted to leach with an increase in flux over a 10 year period, while Cr and Cu fluxes were predicted to decrease with time. This result suggest that arsenic can pose a health risk to humans over a long period of time, when CCA-treated wood is used for building facilities (e.g., playgrounds, residential purposes, etc.) with which humans frequently contact.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.205-210
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• 2013

Cicuta virosa L. (Apiaceae) is a perennial emergent plant designated as an endangered species in South Korea. According to the former records, only four natural habitats remain in South Korea. A former study suggested that three of four populations (Pyeongchang: PC, Hoengseong: HS, Gunsan: GS) would be classified as different ecotypes based on their different morphological characteristics and life cycle under different environmental conditions. To evaluate this suggestion, we estimated genetic diversity in each population and distance among three populations by random amplification of polymorphic DNA. Seven random primers generated a total of 61 different banding positions, 36 (59%) of them were polymorphic. Nei's gene diversity and the Shannon diversity index increased in the order of PC < HS < GS, which is the same order of population size. In the two-dimensional (2D) plot of first two principal components in principal component analysis with the presence of 61 loci, individuals could be grouped as three populations easily (proportion of variance = 0.6125). Nei's genetic distance for the three populations showed the same tendency with the geographical distance within three populations. And it is also similar to the result of discriminant analysis with the morphological or life-cycle factors from the previous study. From the results, we concluded that three different populations of C. virosa should be classified as ecotypes based on not only morphology and phenology but genetic differences in terms of diversity and distance as well.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.37-42
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• 1994

The adsorption of water vapor and equilibrium moisture content(EMC) of the specimens for four softwood species dried by conventional- and high temperature method and equilibrated to 15% of the target EMC condition at 25$^{\circ}C$ were determined by oven drying method and with moisture meters. The amount of adsorption for high temperature dried red pine was significantly higher than that of conventional kiln dried wood, while those of eastern white pine, eastern hemlock and Norway spruce were not significantly different between drying methods. EMCs of these four species determined by oven drying method and with capacitive admittance moisture meter were not significantly different between drying methods. EMC of high temperature dried red pine determined with resistance moisture meter was significantly higher than that of conventional kiln dried wood. But EMCs of other species did not show significant difference between drying methods. EMCs of conventional and high-temperature dried wood determined with electronic moisture meters, especially in the case of the capacitive-admittance moisture meter measurement, were lower than that determined by oven drying method.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.9-15
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• 2001

Specific energy curves for water removal in vacuum-press drying of different thick softwoods of red pine (Pinus densiflora), white pine (Pinus koraiensis), larch (L. leptolepis) and Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) were split into three sections: increased slowly, fairly constant, and increased rapidly. Calculated specific energy for 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11cm thick lumber was a value of 0.483, 0.649, 0.814, 0.977 and 1.138kWh/kg of water, respectively. Specific energy almost linearly increased as lumber thickness increased, and specific energy for severe schedule was less than that for mild schedule. Average specific energy was 0.712kWh/kg and vacuum-press drying consumed less energy as compared with any other drying methods.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.73-80
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• 2007

This study was carried out to separate the heavy toxic metals in eco-building materials by low-temperature pyrolysis, especially arsenic (As) compounds in CCA wood preservative as a solid in char. The pyrolysis was carried out to heat the CCA-treated Hemlock at $280^{\circ}C$, $300^{\circ}C$, $320^{\circ}C$, and $340^{\circ}C$ for 60 mins. Laboratory scale pyrolyzer composed of [preheater$\rightarrow$pyrolyzer$\rightarrow$1st water scrubber$\rightarrow$2nd bubbling flask with 1% $HNO_3$ solution$\rightarrow$vent], and was operated to absorb the volatile metal compound particulates at the primary water scrubber and the secondary nitric acid bubbling flask with cooling condenser of $4^{\circ}C$ under nitrogen stream of 20 mL/min flow rate. And the contents of copper, chromium and arsenic compounds in its pyrolysis such as carbonized CCA treated wood, 1st washing and 2nd washing liquors as well as its raw materials, were determined using ICP-AES. The results are as follows : 1. The yield of char in low-temperature pyrolysis reached about 50 percentage similar to the result of common pyrolytic process. 2. The higher the pyrolytic temperature was, the more the volatiles of CCA, and in particular, the arsenic compounds were to be further more volatile above $320^{\circ}C$, even though the more repetitive and sequential monitorings were necessary. 3. More than 85 percentage of CCA in CCA-treated wood was left in char in such low-temperature pyrolytic condition at $300^{\circ}C$. 4. Washing system for absorption of volatile CCA in this experiment required much more contacting time between volatile gases and water to prevent the loss of CCA compounds, especially the loss of arsenic compound. 5. Therefore, more complete recovery of CCA components in CCA-treated wood required the lower temperature than $320^{\circ}C$, and the longer contacting time of volatile gases and water needed the special washing and recovery system to separate the toxic and volatile arsenic compounds in vent gases.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.32 no.8
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• pp.595-600
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• 2022

Water dropworts, Oenanthe javanica and O. javanica var. japonica are called "minari" in Korea and are eaten as a vegetable. Cicuta virosa is common European water hemlock and has toxic properties, such as cicutoxin. Molecular variations of water dropwort species in Korea were investigated using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). The six populations were studied with 10 primers (Operon, OPB) for RAPD analysis. The 72 DNA fragments (bands) were found among six populations. Among these 72 bands, 61 (84.7%) bands were polymorphic. The typical populations of Cicuta virosa in Korea were small, isolated, and patchily distributed for natural populations and they maintained a high level of genetic diversity. However, when cultivated populations of O. javanica var. japonica were large and widely grown in rice paddies as vegetables, they maintained a lower genetic diversity than those of C. virosa and wild populations of O. javanica. Although the diversity indices of wild populations were shown to be higher than those of cultivated populations, no significant difference for measures of genetic variability was shown. Total genetic diversity value (H_T) was 0.342. The interlocus variation in the within-population genetic diversity (H_S) was 0.201. The proportion of total genetic variation due to differences among populations (G_ST) range was 0.414, indicating that 41.4% of the total variation was among populations. In conclusion, the RAPD technique was a useful method for discrimination between C. virosa and O. javanica. In addition, RAPD-OPB markers could further distinguish the strains from different food sources.