김민석 Min-seok Kim , 박혜경 Hae-kyung Park

DOI:10.15681/KSWE.2023.39.3.215 Vol.39(No.3) 215-222, 2023

Zooplankton are primary consumers in the food web connecting primary producers and predators such as small fish, playing an important role in energy transfer in aquatic ecosystems. Therefore, it is essential to understand the zooplankton community structure in material cycle and energy flow in aquatic ecosystems. Zooplankton in large rivers with a low flow rate would distribute vertically as in lakes. In this study, we collected zooplankton by surface water filtration and vertical haul method with 64 μm-mesh plankton net at three stations (ND-1, ND-2, ND-3) in Nakdong River fortnightly from June 2018 to December 2019. Species composition and individual densities were analyzed. All three stations showed differences in relative abundance of zooplankton groups between surface water and vertical integrated water, with the largest difference shown in the deepest station, ND-2. In vertically integrated water at ND-2, the relative abundance of rotifera was low by a maximum of 25% and that of cladocera was high by a maximum of 22% compared to surface water samples. These results indicate that surface water filtration method is not enough to represent the community structure of zooplankton compared to the vertical haul method in large rivers.

Cladocera, Copepoda, Nakdong River, Vertical haul method, Zooplankton

오세현 Oh Sehyuna , 장형준 Jang Hyeongjunb , 조윤철 Cho Yunchulc

DOI:10.15681/KSWE.2023.39.3.223 Vol.39(No.3) 223-230, 2023

Harmful algae blooms have become a serious environmental problem in major river basins in Korea. They are known to produce various algal organic matters (AOMs) including intracellular organic matters (IOMs) and extracellular organic matters (EOMs). Generally AOMs cannot be easily removed by coagulation/flocculation process in conventional drinking water plants. AOMs produced by blue-green algae also include various toxins such as Microcystins, Anatoxin-a, and Saxitoxin known to have harmful effects on living organisms in aquatic environment. In this study, toxic effects of EOMs produced by three different algae species (Microcystis sp., Anabaena sp., and Oscillatoria sp.) on zebrafish were investigated using electroencephalography (EEG) recording method, a technology for recording brain activity. Electroencephalographic changes in zebrafish revealed that a low EOM had a negative effect on zebrafish compared to both Anabaena sp. and Oscillatoria sp. at 30 ppm EOM exposures. This result might be due to Microcystins present in EOMs produced by Microcystis sp. As a result of power spectrum density anallysis, exposure to EOMs produced by Microcystis sp. caused a state of vigilance in zebrafish. This EEG based toxicity test can be used to examine effects of harmful materials at low levels on living organisms in an aquatic system.

Algal organic matter, AOM, Electroencephalography, Toxicity, Water treatment process

박윤경 Park Yoonkyung , 윤상린 Yun Sang-lean , 윤영한 Yoon Younghan , 김이호 Kim Reeho , Nishimura Fumitake , Sturat L. Simpson , 김일호 Kim Ilho

DOI:10.15681/KSWE.2023.39.3.231 Vol.39(No.3) 231-239, 2023

Public sewage treatment facilities are a necessary infrastructure for public health that treat sewage generated in cities and basin living areas and discharge it into rivers or seas. Recently, the role of public sewage treatment is receiving attention as a place of use of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), which analyzes human specific metabolic emissions or biomarkers present in sewage to investigate the environment to which the population is exposed in the water drain. WBE is mainly applied to investigate legal and water-law drug use or to predict and analyze the lifestyle of local residents. WBE has also been applied to predict and analyze the degree of infectious diseases that are prevalent worldwide, such as COVID-19. Since sewage flowing into public sewage treatment facilities includes living information of the population living in the drainage area, it is easy to collect basic data to predict the confirmation and spread of infectious diseases. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a new role of public sewage treatment facilities as an infrastructure necessary for WBE that can obtain information on the confirmation and spread of infectious diseases other than the traditional role of public sewage treatment. In South Korea, the sewerage supply rate is about 95.5% and the number of public sewage treatment facility is 4,209. This means that the infrastructure of sewerage is fully established. However, to successfully drive for WBE, research on monitoring and big-data analysis is needed.

Infectious pathogens, Sewage, Sewage Treatment Facility, Wastewater-based Epidemiology