Deriving Ecological Protective Concentration of Cadmium for Korean Soil Environment

Abstract

For effective and efficient environmental management, developed countries, such as the Netherlands, UK, Australia, Canada, and United States apply ecological risk assessment, and they have an autonomous risk assessment methodology to protect native receptors. In this study, soil ecological protective concentration (EPC) of cadmium in Korea was derived using Korean ecological risk assessment methodology. The soil EPC of cadmium was calculated using probabilistic ecological risk assessment based on species sensitivity distribution. The soil EPC was calculated according to land use for residential/agricultural and industrial/commercial purposes. The chronic soil EPCs for residential/agricultural and industrial/commercial lands were derived to be 1.58 and 9.60 mg/kg, respectively. These values were similar to soil EPC of European Commission, the Netherlands, UK, and Canada. However, these values were lower than the established Korean soil standard, because the current soil standard was based on human risk. Therefore, the impact on an ecosystem when establishing environmental standard should be considered.

A shift from individual species to ecosystem services effect: Introducing the Eco‐indicator Sensitivity Distribution (EcoSD) as an ecosystem services approach to redefining the species sensitivity distribution (SSD) for soil ecological risk assessment

“…These values were based on applying an AF of 5 to the HC5 and HC50 for all EC50 of the terrestrial species (i.e., plants and soil invertebrates) dataset. However, the EPC values reported for Cd for the Korean soil by Lee et al (2013) were 1.58 and 9.60 mg/kg for agricultural or residential and commercial or industrial landscapes, respectively; thus, our data presented a more protective EPC for the agricultural or residential and commercial or industrial landscape. Similarly, New Zealand's Eco‐SGV was reported to be 1.5–33 mg Cd/kg, corresponding to HC1–HC35 for ecologically sensitive areas to the commercial or industrial landscapes based on EC30 for terrestrial and soil process dataset (Cavanagh & Munir, 2019).…”

Environmental Engineering Research in December 2013

“…Choi and Lee [4] evaluated that Chlorella vulgaris can be successfully used to remove ammonia-nitrogen from wastewater. Lee et al [5] suggested the soil ecological protective concentration of cadmium in Korea using Korean ecological risk assessment methodology. Shirzad-Siboni et al [6] experimentally showed that the activated red mud obtained from a bauxite mill can be used to treat phenol efficiently with low cost.…”