This study was conducted to select target fish species as baseline research for accumulation analysis of major hazardous chemicals entering the aquatic ecosystem in Korea and to analyze the impact on fish community. The test bed was selected from a sewage treatment plant, which could directly confirm the impact of the inflow of harmful chemicals, and the Geum River estuary where harmful chemicals introduced into the water system were concentrated. A multivariable metric model was developed to select target candidate fish species for hazardous chemical analysis. Details consisted of seven metrics: (1) commercially useful metric, (2) top-carnivorous species metric, (3) pollution fish indicator metric, (4) tolerance fish metric, (5) common abundant metric, (6) sampling availability (collectability) metric, and (7) widely distributed fish metric. Based on seven metric models for candidate fish species, eight species were selected as target candidates. The co-occurring dominant fish with target candidates was tolerant (50%), indicating that the highest abundance of tolerant species could be used as a water pollution indicator. A multi-metric fish-based model analysis for aquatic ecosystem health evaluation showed that the ecosystem health was diagnosed as “bad conditions”. Physicochemical water quality variables also influenced fish feeding and tolerance guild in the testbed. Eight water quality parameters appeared high at the T1 site, indicating a large impact of discharging water from the sewage treatment plant. T2 site showed massive algal bloom, with chlorophyll concentration about 15 times higher compared to the reference site.

The objectives of this study were to analyze the influence of chemical water quality on fish guilds, pollution tolerance and the multi-metric ecological health, based on the Fish Assessment Index (FAI) in the main stream of Mangyeong River between 2009−2016. The quality of water with specific conductivity, TP, and NH4-N got worse dramatically in the down region. During the study, a total of 50 species were collected and the most dominant species was Zacco platypus. Also known as tolerant species, accounted 22.9% of the total abundances, thus indicating a trophic degradation. The downstream region (S5) had the highest number of fish external abnormalities, indicating a degradation of ecological health, based on the fish assemblages. Pearson correlation analysis indicated that relative abundance of tolerant fish species and omnivore fish species had a significant positive correlation (r>0.30, p<0.05) with values of BOD, conductivity and NH4-N. Whereas, the relative abundance of the sensitive species and insectivore species had a significant negative relations (r<−0.30, p<0.001) with the parameters. The mean obtained from the multi-metric fish model, based on the FAI of all sites was 47 (n=40). This indicated a “fair condition” in the ecological health, and the downstream regions (S3−S5) were judged as “bad condition”, indicating an influence of the chemical degradation on the ecological health.

A comprehensive quality survey for PCDDs/PCDFs and coplanar PCBs as well as heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb) in sediments has been investigated in August 2006, Korea. Monitoring was undertaken at five streams representing different surrounding environment

하천이나 호수에 퇴적된 퇴적물은 유역에서 배수된 토양, 유기물질 및 광물질이 침전된 것으로 환경뿐만 아니라 인간의 건강에 악영향을 끼치는 다양한 오염물질을 포함하고 있다. 퇴적물은 분자확산 및 생물기작 등을 통하여 오염물질을 공급 할 뿐만 아니라 침전된 유기물이 분해되어 무산소 환경이 되면 영양염류가 다시 무기이온 상태로 수중에 용출된다. 용출된 영양염류는 수층의 혼합에 의해 표층으로 재공급 및 새로운 유기물을 형성하는 순환을 거치게 되는 등 수질 및 수생태계에 영향을 미친다. 따라서 본 연구는 다양한 토지이용에서 발생하는 퇴적물의 화학적 성상과 수질의 오염성상을 비교 분석하여 퇴적물이 수질에 미치는 영향과 퇴적물 관리 대책 수립의 기초자료를 제공하고자 수행하였다. 본 연구를 위한 기초자료를 확보하기 위하여 포장지역, 축산지역 및 하천지역을 모니터링 지점으로 선정하였다. 퇴적물의 시료채취 경우 지름 5cm, 길이 50cm인 아크릴 코어를 이용하여 채취하였으며, 포장지역의 경우 총 4회, 축산지역은 17회, 하천지역은 28회 수행하였다. 채취한 퇴적물은 토양오염공정시험법에 준하여 유기물 및 영양염류 등의 화학적 특성을 분석하였다. 또한 물환경정보시스템에서 인근하천인 금강, 동진강 및 만경강의 10년간의 수질 측정 자료를 이용하여 수질과 퇴적물의 농도를 상호 비교하였다. 토지이용별 퇴적물의 화학적 분석 결과, 평균 COD의 값은 난분해성 물질로 인하여 포장지역에서 43.88 ± 26.4 5 g/kg으로 가장 높게 나타났으며, 영양염류의 경우 축산지역에서 TN이 7.79 ± 8.32 g/kg, TP가 1.47 ± 0.81 5 g/kg로 높은 농도를 보였다. 하천별 수질 농도 분석 결과 TN과 TP의 농도는 각각 4~6 mg/L, 0.2~0.4 mg/L의 범위를 보이고 있으며 2009년 후반부터 감소하는 경향을 보이고 있다. 또한, TN과 TP중에서 NH4-N와 PO4-P의 비율이 2009년 후반부터 증가하는데, 이는 조류성장의 원인이 될 수 있는 물질의 증가를 의미하기에 유역에서의 NH4-N와 PO4-P의 관리가 필요한 것으로 판단된다. 퇴적물 및 하천수질의 오염물질별 비를 산정한 결과, 모든 토지이용에서 하천 수질에 비해 퇴적물에서 인의 함량이 높은 것으로 나타나 퇴적물 내 인의 관리가 필요한 것으로 분석되었다.

Scanning electron microscopy / energy dispersive X-ray analyzer(SEM/EDX) has played an important role for evaluation the source of atmospheric particle because it is a powerful tool for characterizing individual particles. The SEM/EDX system provides various physical parameters like optical diameter, as well as chemical information for a particle-by-particle basis. The purpose of the study was to classify individual particle emitted from the point sources based on clustering analysis and physico-chemical analysis by SEM/EDX. The total of 490 individual particle were analyzed at 8 point sources including coal-fired power plant, incinerator, B-C oil boiler, and metal manufacturing industry. The main components were Si and Al in the coal-fired power plant, Cl and Na in the domestic waste Incinerator, S in the B-C oil boiler and S and Fe in the metal manufactory industry, respectively.

Samples of water, soil, and sediment were taken from 10 streams of Andong city in Gyeongbuk province in October 2004. To assess the degree of environmental pollution for each stream site, the chemical analyses of pollutants such as T-N, T-P, COD, heavy metal, organophosphorous and organochlorine pesticides, and dioxin-like PCB congeners were implemented using the standard process tests or the U. S. EPA methods. In addition, biological assessment using insect immune biomarkers was conducted on the same environmental samples to complement the chemical assessment. Except Waya stream (T-N; 2.91 mg/L, T-P; 0.16 mg/L, COD; 14.0 mg/L) with above the environmental quality standards, the T-P and COD concentrations of 9 sites are relatively low. The contents of Pb and Cd in samples taken from each stream were much lower than environmental quality standards. However, in comparison with soil samples of other streams, several times higher concentrations of Pb and Cd were found in locations at Mi, Gilan, Yeonha, and Waya stream sites. Dementon-S-methyl, diazinon, parathion, and phenthoate compounds among organophosphorous pesticides were detected as concentrations of ppb levels, respectively, from soil samples collected in the vicinity of Gilan, Mi, Norim, and Waya stream. On the other hand, 16 organochlorine pesticides and 12 dioxin-like PCB congeners selected in this study were not found in all samples. In particular, considering significant disrupting effects of Waya stream's samples on insect immune capacity, this stream seems to be contaminated with investigated and/or uninvestigated pollutants in this study.

The COD values and chloride ion concentrations of the Taewha river flowing through Ulsan area were determined along the main stream and the relationships between CODs and chloride ion concentrations were described. The results showed that the middle-upper stream and downstream of the Taewha river were polluted deeply with municipal sewage and self-purification occured in the middle-downstream of the river. When domestic sewage is a main source of pollutants, and is especially the only source of chloride in the stream water, the ratio of COD/[Cl^-] will be utilizable as a measure of self-purification of the stream.