To investigate the reason for the spatial difference in PM2.5 (Particulate Matter, < 2.5 ㎛) concentration despite a similar synoptic pattern, a synoptic analysis was performed. The data used for this study were the daily average PM2.5 concentration and meteorological data observed from 2016 to 2020 in Busan and Seoul metropolitan areas. Synoptic pressure patterns associated with high PM2.5 concentration episodes (greater than 35 ㎍/㎥) were analyzed using K-means cluster analysis, based on the 900 hPa geopotential height of NCEP (National Centers for Environmental Prediction) FNL (Final analysis) data. The analysis identified three sub-groups related to high concentrations occurring only in Busan and Seoul metropolitan areas. Although the synoptic patterns of high PM2.5 concentration episodes that occur independently in Busan and Seoul metropolitan areas were similar, there was a difference in the intensity of pressure gradient and its direction, which tends to be an important factor determining the movement time of pollutants. The spatial difference in PM2.5 concentration in the Korean Peninsula is due to the difference and direction of the atmospheric pressure gradient that develops from southwest to northeast direction.
This study was carried out to analyze water cycle characteristics and evaluate water retention function in Jeju Gotjawal forest from 2013 to 2017. The average ratio of throughfall, stemflow, interception loss in Seonhul Gotjawal (SH) and Cheongsu Gotjawal (CS) was 43.1%, 15.8%, and 41.1%, respectively. Rainfall-throughfall, rainfall-stemflow, and rainfall-interception loss were expressed as linear regression equation (p<0.001). The comparison results showed that SH was higher than CS (p<0.05), indicating that the canopy area had an important effect on the difference in stand structure. The average water resources retention rate of the Gotjawal region was 41.9%, which is similar to the total water resources retention rate (40.6%) of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province (JSSGP). Currently, the development of Gotjawal is in progress in JSSGP. The development of Gotjawal will lead to a decrease in the water resources retention rate due to changes in the surface environment such as an increase in impervious areas, which will affect the total groundwater content of JSSGP. Therefore, the conservation of the Gotjawal area is judged to be very important from the point of view of water conservation.
The intertidal zone has both land and marine characteristics and shows complex weather environments. These characteristics are suited for studying climate change, energy balance and ecosystems, and may play an important role in coastal and marine weather prediction and analysis. This study was conducted at Odo Island, approximately 300m from the mainland in Yeosu. We built a weather observation system capable of real-time monitoring on the mud flat in the intertidal zone and measured actual weather and marine data. Weather observation was conducted from April to June 2022. The results showed changes in air temperature and water temperature with changes in the tide level during spring. Correlation analysis revealed characteristic changes in air temperature and water temperature during the day and night, and with inundation and exposure.
Forests are valuable natural resources for people living around the mountains. In particular, the comfortable feeling or healing is one of the most important benefits obtained from forests. This healing can be possible by many aspects of forests, including the landscape, natural sounds, anions, and pleasant aromas. We focused on the volatile organics from forest causing pleasant aromas, phytoncides. Twenty phytoncides were monitored from February to September in a national tree garden (BaekDoDaeGan SooMokWon). Five sites were monitored two times per month and 20 phytoncides were detected. Borneol showed the highest annual average concentration and the order of concentration was borneol > mycene > sabinene > limonene > α-pinene. The average phytoncide concentration was relatively high in spring and summer season when the trees were physiologically active. Daily monitoring showed that the afternoon hours had higher concentrations of phytoncides than the morning hours, which may be due to the stabilized atmospheric conditions at the sites. Among the five sites, coniferous forests gave higher phytoncide emissions than broadleaf tree forests. The current study showed that forests produce several phytoncides that cause a healing effect and a forest bath may be beneficial to the health of visitors to forests.
This study investigated microbial communities and their diversity in a full-scale mesophilic anaerobic digester treating sewage sludge. Influent sewage sludge and anaerobic digester samples collected from a wastewater treatment plant in Busan were analyzed using high-throughput sequencing. It was found that the microbial community structure and diversity in the anaerobic digester could be affected by inoculation effect with influent sewage sludge. Nevertheless, distinct microbial communities were identified as the dominant microbial communities in the anaerobic digester. Twelve genera were identified as abundant bacterial communities, which included several groups of syntrophic bacteria communities, such as Candidatus Cloacimonas, Cloacimonadaceae W5, Smithella, which are (potential) syntrophic-propionate-oxidizing bacteria and Mesotoga and Thermovigra, which are (potential) syntrophic-acetate-oxidizing bacteria. Lentimicrobium, the most abundant genus in the anaerobic digester, may contribute to the decomposition of carbohydrates and the production of volatile fatty acids during the anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge. Of the methanogens identified, Methanollinea, Candidatus Methanofastidiosum, Methanospirillum, and Methanoculleus were the dominant hydrogenotrophic methanogens, and Methanosaeta was the dominant aceticlastic methanogens. The findings may be used as a reference for developing microbial indicators to evaluate the process stability and process efficiency of the anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge.
The purpose of this study was to develop a recycling system for ozone off-gas. Although the ozone transmission rate of the injector method differs slightly depending on the ozone injection rate, it reaches approximately 99%, which is very high. During the increase in water inflow to the ozone recycling system from 2 L/min to 10 L/min, the average ozone recycling rate was 99.4% at a 1 ppm ozone injection rate, 98.6% at a 2 ppm ozone injection rate, 98.1% at a 3 ppm ozone injection rate. Ozone treatment facility operating costs can be divided into the costs of pure oxygen production, ozone production, and maintenance. The annual operating costs of ozone treatment facilities in Korea are estimated to be approximately 38.9 billion won. The annual savings are estimated to be approximately 5.8 billion won when the ozone transfer rate of the diffuser method, which is mostly employed in domestic water treatment plants, is 85% and 15% of the ozone is recycled.
This study investigated the weather conditions, fine particle concentration, and ion components in PM2.5 when two cold fronts passed through Busan in succession on February 1 and 2, 2021. A analysis of the surface weather chart, AWS, and backward trajectory revealed that the first cold front passed through the Busan at 0900 LST on February 1, 2021, with the second cold front arriving at 0100 LST on February 2, 2021. According to the PM10 concentration of the KMA, the timing of the cold front passage had a close relationship with the occurrence of the highest concentration of fine particles. The transport time of the cold front from Baengnyeongdo to Mt. Gudeok was approximately 11 hours . The PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations in Busan started to increase after the first cold front had passed, and the maximum concentration occurred two hours after the second cold front passed. The SO4 2-, NO3 -, and NH4 + concentration in PM2.5 started to increase from 1100 to 1200 LST on February 1, after the first cold front passed, and peaked at 0100 LST to 0300 LST on February 2. However, the highest Ca2+ concentration was recorded 2-3 hours after the second cold front had passed.
This study investigated the effect of volcanic materials that erupted from the Nishinoshima volcano, Japan, 1,300 km southeast of the Busan area at the end of July 2020, on the fine particle concentration in the Busan area. Backward trajectory analysis from the HYSPLIT model showed that the air parcel from the Nishinoshima volcano turned clockwise along the edge of the North Pacific high pressure and reached the Busan area. From August 4 to August 5, 2020, the concentration of PM10 and PM2.5 in Busan started to increase rapidly from 1000 LST on August 4, and showed a high concentration for approximately 13 hours until 2400 LST. The PM2.5/PM10 ratio showed a relatively high value of 0.7 or more, and the SO2 concentration also showed a high value at the time when the PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations were relatively high. The SO4 2- concentration in PM2.5 in Busan showed a similar trend to the change in PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations. It rose sharply from 1300 LST on August 4, at the time where it was expected to have been affected by the Nishinoshima Volcano. This study has shown that the occurrence of high concentration fine particle in Busan in summer has the potential to affect Korea not only due to anthropogenic factors but also from natural causes such as volcanic eruptions in Japan.
Recently, urbanization has become a serious issue, as there is imbalance between regions and various environmental problems occur intensively in cities. Therefore, cities all over the world are promoting the Green New Deal and trying to realize carbon neutrality. Accordingly, the European Union is leading the creation of carbon-neutral cities by promoting policies aimed at rapidly realizing carbon neutrality. In Korea, projects such as U-City and Smart City have also been promoted continuously for many years, and recently, the projects Smart Green City and Carbon Neutral Green City have been introduced. Therefore, this study aimed to derive directions and implications for future projects based on policies to address climate change by analyzing the guidelines for the Smart Green City project and the project plans of Gimhae-si and Gangjin-gun, which are the leading projects in the Smart Green City business model and are equipped with an extensive budget.
The adsorption characteristics of four pesticides (phosphamidon, fenitrothion, triadimefon, and diniconazole) on natural clinoptilolite (CLIN) and three synthetic zeolites were investigated. The synthetic zeolites included faujasite (FAUF) synthesized from coal fly ash; the mixture of FAU and Na-P1 (FAU + Na-P1)SF synthesized using Jeju scoria and coal fly ash at the ratio of 1.5 by weight; and waste fluid catalytic cracking catalyst (FCCW). The distribution coefficient, KD and the Freundlich constant, KF decreased in the following sequence: FCCW > FAUF > (FAU + Na-P1)SF > CLIN among the zeolites and diniconazole>fenitrothion> triadimefon> phosphamidon among the pesticides. The pesticide adsorptivity increased with increasing temperature for FAUF, (FAU+Na-P1)SF and FCCW, however, it decreased for CLIN, regardless of the type of pesticide. The adsorptivity of pesticides was independent of pH for phosphamidon, fenitrothion and triadimefon, whereas it decreased with increasing pH for diniconazole, regardless of zeolite type.
This study analyzed the effect of Corporate Social Responsibility and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) score on information asymmetry from the perspective of investors, who are important stakeholders of the company. For KOSPI-listed companies from 2017 to 2020, the effect of ESG overall score and each item score (E, S, G) on the bid-ask spread, which is a proxy for information asymmetry, was confirmed. The results are as follows. First, the increase in corporate CSR activities resulted in lowering information asymmetry of investors. It was found that the higher the ESG score, an indicator of CSR activity, the lower the bid-ask spread, which is a proxy variable for information asymmetry. Second, as a result of analysis using ESG scores for each section, information asymmetry decreased as companies with higher scores in the environmental (E) and social (S) aspects, while the governance (G) score did not have a statistically significant effect. The analysis confirmed that corporate CSR activities can contribute to improving market efficiency by resolving information asymmetry of investors and convergence of the stock market into a state of equilibrium. This means that the company's CSR activities are reflected in the investment decision-making, which suggests that the company should consider the investor as a stakeholder in decision-making related to CSR activities.
Herein , the effect of changes in the organic loading rate in anaerobic digestion was evaluated. The experiment was carried out by a laboratory -scale semi-continuous stirred tank reactor, and feedstock was food-waste leached. The organic loading rate was increased by 0.5 kgVS/m3 in each phase from 1.0 kgVS/m3 to 4.0 kgVS/m3. At the end of the operation, to check the failure of the reactor, the organic loading rate was increased by 1.0 kgVS/m3 in each phase and reached 6.0 kgVS/m3. This shows that the biogas yield decreased as organic loading rate increased. Biogas production seemed to be unstable at 3.5–6.0 kgVS/m3. Moreover, biogas production dramatically fell to approximately 0 mL at 6.0 kgVS/m3, which was decided as the operation failure on the 16th day of the las tphase. The result of the reactor analysis shows that the cumulation of volatile fatty acid increased as the organic loading rate increased. This seems to occur due to the decreasein pH in the reactor and led to extinction of anaerobic bacteria, which were the biogas products. Although the buffer compound (alkalinity) could prevent the decline in pH, the concentration of alkalinity was found to be lacking at a high organic loading rate
This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of sipjeondaebo-tang by-product powder on the growth performance of broilers. A total of 120 broiler chicks (Arbor acres) at 0 days old were assigned to one of two treatments with three replications: control and 1% sipjeondaebo-tang by-product powder. Weight gain at 3 weeks and feed intake at 5 weeks were significantly (p<0.05) influenced by the sipjeondaebo-tang by-product powder treatments. However, there were no significant differences in the feed conversion ratio between treatments as a function of treatment time (p>0.05). Overall, weight gain and the feed conversion ratio were slightly greater for the sipjeondaebo-tang by-product powder treatment than the control treatment. It was concluded that sipjeondaebo-tang by-product powder may be an appropriate source of feed additive, without any negative effects on the growth performance of the broilers.
The present study aimed to examine the effect of dietary Ptecticu tenebrifer powder mixtures as pet dogfeed ingredients on crude fat and ash digestibility. Three groups of feeds Feed A, Feed B, and Feed C supplied from three farms were fed to a total of 45 dogs. The dietary Ptecticu tenebrifer powder mixture were prepared by mixing 25 g of Ptecticu tenebrifer powder with 100 g of canned food. Feed A, Feed B, and Feed C containing dietary Ptecticu tenebrifer powder mixtures were fed to 15 dogs of each breed of bichon, poodle, and chihuahua that were divided into three groups following a completely randomized design. For measuring the crude fat and crude ash digestibility, manure of each dog breed from each group were collected. Crude fat digestibility was not statistically significant among the dog breeds fed with feed C (p>0.05), but overall there was a statistical difference between the feed and the group by dog breed (p<0.05). In terms of crude ash digestibility, the three types of feed showed differences with respect to dog breeds (p<0.05). However, the group with no significant difference was observed in Feed B by dog breed (p>0.05). In conclusion, feeding Ptecticu tenebrifer powder mixture to dog breeds had no positive effect on the crude fat and ash digestibility and can be used as pet dogfeed ingredients.