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.     

由多震相走时和波形作三维地震成像

本项成果包括：提出天然地震走时反演层析成像技术,采用下列方法使得处理结果得以改善：１）利用３２个地震,４０４条射线的Ｐｇ,Ｓｇ,Ｐｍ,Ｓｍ,Ｐｎ,Ｓｎ等震相增加约束条件：２）用已有精度较高的人工地震测深化结果作速度约束;３）用波形反演来修改模型,把波源,介质吸收,散射等物理特征集中反映在记录中,把诸多物理量开发出来互为约束,以修改后的模型再作反演,使解的稳定性大大提高;４）采用最优化过程,选择遗传     

The evolution of coastal wetland policy in developed countries and Korea

This paper reviews the evolution of the coastal wetland policy in developed countries, leading to finding 3 eras of development of the coastal wetland policy. Before having recognized the wetland functions and services until 1960s, the economic focus had been prevalent, allowing wetland to be exploited mainly for economic uses. But as the wetland ecosystem functions came to be realized, policies to preserve them had been introduced in developed countries, by which the wetland policy had transited ‘step by step’ from an economic to an ecological focus. Through these steps, developed countries came to have the legal and institutional systems for wetland preservation, mitigation and restoration, and management for the wise and sustainable use in conformity to the international standards such as the Ramsar Convention and others since 1990. Thus, they have reached more complete ecological focus in their wetland management with the increase in relevant socio-cultural activities such as the ecosystem education, ecotourism, etc. Roughly speaking, it led to the 3 ‘eras’: the wetland exploitive era, policy transition era, wetland conservation era. In this vein, Korea also experienced a similar exploitive era of economic focus when wetland conversion had been dominated by agriculture, residence and industry before 1990s. From then till 2005, Korea had experienced sufferings from conflicts arising from large reclamation projects such as those in Shihwa and Saemangum, through which she had spent policy transition era and then began to introduce a new policy of ecological focus as in developed countries. Korea can be described as entering a new era of ecological focus with the introduction of relevant advanced systems such as reinforced 10 year of wetland conversion plan with stricter review and permit system, wetland protected area system, special plan to restore existing reclaimed areas to original wetlands, etc.     

Altered atmospheric responses to eastern Pacific and central Pacific El Niños over the North Atlantic region due to stratospheric interference

The two types of El Niño that have been identified, namely the eastern Pacific (EP) and central Pacific (CP) El Niños, are known to exert different climatic impacts on the North Atlantic region during winter. Here, we investigate the characteristics of the teleconnection of the two El Niño types with a focus on the stratosphere-troposphere coupling. During the EP El Niño, polar stratospheric warming and polar vortex weakening frequently occur with a strong tendency for downward propagation near the tropopause. Consequently, the atmospheric pattern within the troposphere over the North Atlantic sector during midwinter closely resembles the negative North Atlantic Oscillation pattern. In contrast, during CP El Niño events stratospheric warming events exhibit a much weaker downward propagation tendency. This difference in the stratospheric circulation response arises from the different seasonal evolution of the tropospheric wave response to the two El Niño types. For the EP El Niño, the Aleutian Low begins growing during December and is sustained throughout the entire winter (December to February), which provides favorable conditions for the continuous downward propagation of the stratospheric warming. We also discuss the origin of the difference in the teleconnections from the two types of El Niño associated with the distinct longitudinal position of the warm SST anomaly that determines troposphere-stratosphere coupling.     

Comparison of Intestine Microbiota Between Wild and Farmed Korean Rockfish,Sebastes schlegelii

Ocean Science Journal - The Korean rockfish, Sebastes schlegeli, is most commonly farmed in sea cages along the coast of Korea; however, detailed information on intestinal microbiota regarding this...     

Exploration of optimal time steps for daily precipitation bias correction: a case study using a single grid of RCM on the River Exe in southwest England

ABSTRACT

Bias correction is a necessary post-processing procedure in order to use regional climate model (RCM)-simulated local climate variables as the input data for hydrological models due to systematic errors of RCMs. Most of the present bias-correction methods adjust statistical properties between observed and simulated data based on a predefined duration (e.g. a month or a season). However, there is a lack of analysis of the optimal period for bias correction. This study attempted to address the question whether there is an optimal number for bias-correction groups (i.e. optimal bias-correction period). To explore this we used a catchment in southwest England with the regional climate model HadRM3 precipitation data. The proposed methodology used only one grid of RCM in the Exe catchment, one emissions scenario (A1B) and one member (Q0) among 11 members of HadRM3. We tried 13 different bias-correction periods from 3-day to 360-day (i.e. the whole of one year) correction using the quantile mapping method. After the bias correction a low pass filter was used to remove the high frequencies (i.e. noise) followed by estimating Akaike’s information criterion. For the case study catchment with the regional climate model HadRM3 precipitation, the results showed that a bias-correction period of about 8 days is the best. We hope this preliminary study on the optimum number bias-correction period for daily RCM precipitation will stimulate more research to improve the methodology with different climatic conditions. Future efforts on several unsolved problems have been suggested, such as how strong the filter should be and the impact of the number of bias correction groups on river flow simulations.

Editor M.C. Acreman Associate editor S. Kanae     

Influence of Pressure Change During Hydraulic Tests on Fracture Aperture

In a series of field experiments, we evaluate the influence of a small water pressure change on fracture aperture during a hydraulic test. An experimental borehole is instrumented at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) Underground Research Tunnel (KURT). The target fracture for testing was found from the analyses of borehole logging and hydraulic tests. A double packer system was developed and installed in the test borehole to directly observe the aperture change due to water pressure change. Using this packer system, both aperture and flow rate are directly observed under various water pressures. Results indicate a slight change in fracture hydraulic head leads to an observable change in aperture. This suggests that aperture change should be considered when analyzing hydraulic test data from a sparsely fractured rock aquifer.     

Evaluating the severity of building fires with the analytical hierarchy process,big data analysis,and remote sensing

Natural Hazards - This study assessed the severity of building fires in 17 villages that comprise Taishan District, New Taipei City, Taiwan. A literature review was performed to discuss the impact...     

The relative impacts of climate change and urbanization on the hydrological response of a Korean urban watershed

We assessed the relative hydrological impacts of climate change and urbanization using an integrated approach that links the statistical downscaling model (SDSM), the Hydrological Simulation Program—Fortran (HSPF) and the impervious cover model (ICM). A case study of the Anyangcheon watershed, a representative urban region in Korea, illustrates how the proposed framework can be used to analyse the impacts of climate change and urbanization on water quantity and quality. The evaluation criteria were measurements of low flow (99, 95, and 90 percentile flow), high flow (10, 5, and 1 percentile value), pollutant concentration (30, 10, and 1 percentile value), and the numbers of days required to satisfy the target water quantity and quality for a sensitive comparison of subtle impacts of variations in these measures. Nine scenarios, including three climate scenarios (present conditions, A1B, and A2) and three land use change scenarios, were analysed using the HSPF model. The impacts of climate change on low flow (34·1–59·8% increase) and high flow (29·1–37·1% increase) were found to be much greater than those on the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) (3·8–10·0% decrease). On the other hand, the impacts of urbanization on water quality (19·0–44·6% increase) are more significant than those on high (1·0–4·4% increase) and low flow (11·4–25·6% decrease). Furthermore, low flows are more sensitive to urbanization than high flows. The number of days required to satisfy the target water quantity and quality can be a sensitive criterion to compare the subtle impacts of climate and urbanization on human society, especially as they are much more sensitive than low flow and pollutant concentration. Finally, urbanization has a potent impact on BOD while climate change has a high impact on flow rate. Therefore, the impacts of both climate change and urbanization must be included in watershed management and water resources planning for sustainable development. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evolution of pantellerite-trachyte-phonolite volcanoes by fractional crystallization of basanite magma in a continental rift setting,Marie Byrd Land,Antarctica

The Marie Byrd Land province includes 18 large (up to 1,800 km³) central volcanoes distributed across an active volcano-tectonic dome. The typical volcano structure consists of a basal 1,000–5,000 m of basanite surmounted by trachyte and subordinate intermediate rocks, plus phonolite, or pantellerite, or comendite. The volumes of felsic sections are large (~30–700 km³), but these rocks probably make up <10% of volcanic rock in the province. This paper describes pantellerite volcanoes in the Ames and Flood Ranges, which include a large and varied suite of these iron-rich, silica-poor rhyolites. Isotopic and trace element data, maintenance of isotopic equilibrium throughout the basalt-felsic range, and the results of modeling, all exclude significant crustal contamination and point to fractional crystallization as the process that controls magmatic evolution. The most unusual feature of these volcanoes is the apparent need to derive pantellerites from basanite, the long interval of fractionation at the base of the lithosphere and crust, involving kaersutite as the key phase in developing pantellerite, and a plumbing system that permitted coeval eruption of pantellerite and phonolite from the same edifice. Peralkalinity most likely developed in upper crustal reservoirs during the final 4–5% of magmatic history, by fractionating a high proportion of plagioclase under low pH₂O. Mantle plume activity appears to drive doming and volcanism. This, a stationary plate, and continental lithospheric structure seem to provide an optimal environment for the evolution of a diverse, large volume suite of felsic rocks by fractional crystallization.