Assessment of tributyltin contamination in a shipyard area using a mussel transplantation approach

Mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) were transplanted to seven stations around a large shipyard for 126 days to evaluate tributyltin (TBT) contamination. Although the application of TBT-based paints to ships is totally banned in Korea, butyltin compounds were found to accumulate in mussels following transplantation. Concentrations of TBT and total butyltins in transplanted mussels near the shipyard were in the range of 40-350 ng Sn/g and 74-530 ng Sn/g on a dry weight basis, respectively. Obviously, low TBT concentrations (6.0-53 ng Sn/gdw) were determined in mussels at four stations outside the shipyard. A negative gradient of TBT concentrations and TBT portion to total butyltin concentrations were found in both the surface water and transplanted mussels according to distance from the shipyard. In addition, TBT concentrations in surface water and transplanted mussels showed significant correlation (r(2) = 0.71; p < 0.001). These results indicate that the shipyard still releases fresh TBT into surrounding waters even after TBT regulation in Korea, and mussel transplantation is useful in evaluating TBT contamination in shipyard area.     

Impacts of marine debris on wild animals in the coastal area of Korea

Over the last decade, marine debris has become a major factor affecting the coastal ecosystem of Korea. This study compiled information regarding how marine debris impacts wildlife in Korea. Cases of marine debris impacting wildlife were collected from experts of various fields and from local participants through an open access website from February 2010 to March 2012. A total of 21 species were affected by marine debris: 18 species of birds, 2 species of mammals, and 1 species of crustacean. Five threatened or protected species were identified: black-faced spoonbill, finless porpoise, water deer, whooper swan, and greater painted snipe. Recreational fishing gears were the types of debris that most frequently impacted wildlife, especially birds. Black tailed gulls were the most vulnerable species to recreational fishing hooks and lines. Although it was preliminary, this study revealed that recreational fishing activities should be prioritized when managing marine debris in Korea.     

Sources of plastic marine debris on beaches of Korea: More from the ocean than the land

Reduction of marine debris requires knowledge of its sources. Sources of plastic marine debris found on six beaches of Korea were estimated. Samples larger than 25 mm were collected from 10 quadrats of 5 × 5 m for each beach in spring 2013. The total 752 items (12,255 g) of debris comprised fiber and fabric (415 items, 6,909 g), hard plastic (120 items, 4,316 g), styrofoam (93 items, 306 g), film (83 items, 464 g), foamed plastic other than styrofoam (21 items, 56 g), and other polymer (20 items, 204 g). With the probable sources allocated to each of 55 debris types, the source of 56% of all the collected debris appeared to be oceanbased and 44% was land-based. Priorities of policy measures to reduce marine debris should be different from regions to regions as the main sources of debris may differ.     

The spatial distribution of surface <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> in the Southwestern East Sea/Japan sea during summer 2005

Fugacity of CO₂ (fCO₂), temperature, salinity, nutrients, and chlorophyll-a were measured in the surface waters of southwestern East Sea/Japan Sea in July 2005. Surface waters were divided into three waters based on hydrographic characteristics: the water with moderate sea surface temperature (SST) and high sea surface salinity (SSS) located east of the front (East water); the water with high SST and moderate SSS located west of the front (West water); and the water with low SST and SSS located in the middle part of the study area (Middle water). High fCO₂ larger than 420 μatm were found in the West water. In the Middle water, CO₂ was undersaturated with respect to the atmosphere, with values between 246 and 380 μatm. Moderate fCO₂ values ranging from 370 to 420 μatm were observed in the East water. For the East and West waters, estimates of temperature dependency of fCO₂ (12.6 and 15.1 μatm °C⁻¹, respectively) were rather similar to a theoretical value, indicating that SST is likely to be a major factor controlling the surface fCO₂ distribution in these two regions. In the Middle water, however, the estimated temperature dependence was somewhat lower than the theoretical value, and relatively high concentrations of surface chlorophyll-a coincided with the low surface fCO₂, implying that biological uptake may considerably affect the fCO₂ distribution. The net sea-to-air CO₂ flux of the study area was estimated to be 0.30±4.81 mmol m⁻² day⁻¹ in summer, 2005.     

Effects of CO2-induced ocean acidification on the growth of the larval olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus

It widely thought that ocean acidification processes that caused by atmospheric CO₂ increase and accordingly lower seawater pH conditions might cause serious harm to marine food webs in certain ecosystems in the near future. Little is known about how marine fishes respond to reduced pH conditions. We investigated the effects of CO₂ conditions on the growth of olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) larvae. Newly hatched larvae were reared at three different levels of pCO₂ (574, 988 and 1297 µatm) in temperature-controlled (21 ± 0.5°C) water tanks for four weeks until metamorphosis. The experiment was repeated three times in May, June, and July 2011, and body lengths and weights were measured at the completion of each experiment. The results indicated that the body length and weight of flounder larvae significantly increased with increasing CO₂ concentrations (P < 0.05). A higher daily growth rate during the early larval stage (hatching to 14 days) was found among the larvae reared in low pCO₂ conditions, while a significantly lower growth rate was found among larvae in higher pCO₂ water conditions. On the other hand, in the late larval stage (18 days after hatching to metamorphosis), the daily growth rate of larvae was much higher in high CO₂ water. Bone density of larvae, however, decreased with increasing CO₂ concentration in the water

     

Observation and Numerical Simulation of Cold Clouds and Snow Particles in the Yeongdong Region

The Yeongdong region of the Korean Peninsula is vulnerable to high-impact weather events, because of its complicated geographical characteristics and East Sea effect, such that heavy snowfall episodes have frequently occurred in winter. Snow crystal play an important role in cloud and precipitation physics because it is an essential element for improvement of numerical model, and remote sensing retrieval such as radar and satellite. In this study, the high-temporal resolution (3-hourly) dataset of radiosonde soundings and snow particle photographs during the intensive observation period for 2013–2016 has been used to understand characteristics of snow particles for the different meteorological conditions in the Yeongdong region. We also attempt to simulate two episodes that occurred on 23–24 February and 13–14 December 2016; one has a single-layered cloud and the other has two-layered cloud structure. This study demonstrates that the rimed particles in the first period tend to shift to aggregates of dendrites with the decrease of 850-hPa temperature. In general, the low-level clouds in the Yeongdong region are observed along with the distinctive wind shear and strong inversion in equivalent potential temperature around 2 ~ 3 km above the sea level. The simulation successfully represents the variations of the characteristics of snow particles as well as different cloud structure for both episodes. The observation and model simulations clearly suggest that snow particles primarily depend on the 850-hPa temperature.     

A Simple Method to Find a Neighboring Grid Point on the Cubed-sphere

Recently, there has been increasing interest in the use of cubed-sphere geometry in the geoscientific modeling community. For diverse numerical operations such as remapping and parallel communications, the search of neighbor elements or points is required. Here, we propose a novel and simple method to find a neighboring element or point on the cubed-sphere. This new method can be universally used for any types of cubed-sphere, for example, equi-angular, conformal, uniform-jacobian cubed-sphere etc. Key points to simplify the search algorithm are the definition of rotation counts of panels neighboring the centered panel, and the use of operations to obtain integer quotient and remainder given an index interval from the source point. Along with the introduction of the methodology, some examples using this method is described in this article.     

Distribution of persistent organic pollutants in bivalves from the northeast coast of China

To assess the levels of organochlorine compounds (OCs) in the Chinese coastal environment, monitoring study using bivalves was conducted in 2005. A total of 21 bivalve samples covering the northeastern coast of China were collected and analyzed. Organochlorine compounds were widely distributed in the Chinese coastal environment, with dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) contamination being particularly prevalent. The overall concentrations of PCBs, DDTs, HCHs, chlordane compounds (CHLs), dieldrin, and endosulfans in bivalves were in the ranges of 3.27-25.4, 54.8-2680, 1.42-25.5, n.d. (not detected)-2.28, n.d.-4.02, and n.d.-9.55 ng g(-1) on a dry weight basis, respectively. The concentrations of DDT and HCH compounds are relatively higher than those from the coastal areas of other Asian countries. DDT metabolites were predominant, suggesting that the degradation of DDT is in progress in the Chinese coastal environment. Still, however, DDTs of high concentration exceeding 1000 ng g(-1) were observed at 19% of the stations surveyed. Among HCH compounds, beta-HCH, which is an isomer with strong persistency, was observed predominantly. Compositions of DDT and HCH compounds imply that fresh input of the two compounds into the Chinese coasts is possibly low.