• Hydrogeochemistry and Microbial Community Structure of Groundwater in an Agricultural Area

  • Dong-Hun Kim1*·Yong Hwa Oh2·Bong-Joo Lee1·Jung-Yun Lee1

  • 1Groundwater Environment Research Center, Climate Change Response Division, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, Daejeon 34132, Republic of Korea
    2Department of Convergence Study on the Ocean Science and Technology, Korea Maritime and Ocean University, Busan 49112, Republic of Korea

  • 농업지역 지하수의 수리지화학 및 미생물 군집 구조 분석

  • 김동훈1*·오용화2·이봉주1·이정윤1

  • 1한국지질자원연구원 기후변화대응연구본부 지하수환경연구센터
    2한국해양대학교 해양과학기술전문대학원 해양과학기술융합학과

  • This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This study evaluated the potential threat of agricultural and human activities to groundwater in the Noseong stream watershed, a typical agricultural area, through hydrogeochemical characteristics and microbial community analyses. The groundwater in the study area was Ca-SO4 and Ca-HCO3 types alluvial aquifer mainly used for agricultural and living purposes, and contained high levels of NO3- and Cl- ions generated from anthropogenic sources such as fertilizer, livestock wastewater, and domestic sewage. Proteobacteria was most abundant in all samples with an average of 46.1% while Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Cyanobacteria were dominant on an occasional basis. The prevalence of aerobic bacteria such as the genus Mycobacterium, Flavobacterium, and Sphingomonas suggests that groundwater was well connected with the surface layer. The potential pathogen Mycobacterium was detected in most samples, and other pathogenic bacteria were also widely distributed, indicating the vulnerability to contamination. Therefore, an integrated management system is required to secure the sustainable use of groundwater in agricultural areas with high groundwater dependence.


Keywords: Groundwater, Hydrogeochemistry, Microbial community, Pathogenic bacteria, Agricultural area

This Article

  • 2022; 27(2): 61-75

    Published on Apr 30, 2022

  • 10.7857/JSGE.2022.27.2.061
  • Received on Feb 17, 2022
  • Revised on Mar 7, 2022
  • Accepted on Mar 22, 2022

Correspondence to

  • Dong-Hun Kim

  • Groundwater Environment Research Center, Climate Change Response Division, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, Daejeon 34132, Republic of Korea

  • E-mail: donghun@kigam.re.kr