• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.275-286
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• 2012

Over the last 20 years there have been more than 3000 peer-reviewed papers relating to climate change and biodiversity published, and still the numbers are increasing. However, most studies focused on the impacts of climate change at population or community levels, and the results invariably reveal that there has been, or will be, a negative effect on the structure and pattern of biodiversity. Moreover, the climate change models and statistical analyses used to test the impacts are only newly developed, and the analyses or predictions can often be misled. In this review, I ask why an individual's life history is considered in the study how climate change affects biodiversity, and what ecological factors are impacted by climate change. Using evidence from a range of species, I demonstrate that diverse life history traits, such as early growth rate, migration/foraging behaviour and lifespan, can be shifted by climate change at individual level. Particularly I discuss that the optimal decision under unknown circumstance (climate change) would be the reduction of the ecological fitness at individual level, and hence, a shift in the balance of the ecosystem could be affected without having a critical impact on any one species. To conclude, I summarize the links between climate changes, ecological decision in life history, the revised consequence at individual level, and discuss how the finely-balanced relationship affects biodiversity and population structure.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.427-437
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• 2019

Background: Climate change is believed to be continuously affecting ticks by influencing their habitat suitability. However, we attempted to model the climate change-induced impacts on future genus Rhipicephalus distribution considering the major environmental factors that would influence the tick. Therefore, 50 tick occuance points were taken to model the potential distribution using maximum entropy (MaxEnt) software and 19 climatic variables, taking into account the ability for future climatic change under representative concentration pathways (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5, were used. Results: MaxEnt model performance was tested and found with the AUC value of 0.99 which indicates excellent goodness-of-fit and predictive accuracy. Current models predict increased temperatures, both in the mid and end terms together with possible changes of other climatic factors like precipitation which may lead to higher tick-borne disease risks associated with expansion of the range of the targeted tick distribution. Distribution maps were constructed for the current, 2050, and 2070 for the two greenhouse gas scenarios and the most dramatic scenario; RCP 8.5 produced the highest increase probable distribution range. Conclusions: The future potential distribution of the genus Rhipicephalus show potential expansion to the new areas due to the future climatic suitability increase. These results indicate that the genus population of the targeted tick could emerge in areas in which they are currently lacking; increased incidence of tick-borne diseases poses further risk which can affect cattle production and productivity, thereby affecting the livelihood of smallholding farmers. Therefore, it is recommended to implement climate change adaptation practices to minimize the impacts.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.1179-1182
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• 2008

• Proceedings of the Korean Quaternary Association Conference
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• 2002.12a
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• pp.66-67
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• 2002

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.22-38
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• 2012

Adaptation of climate change is necessary to avoid unexpected impacts of climate change caused by human activities. Vulnerability refers to the degree to which system cannot cope with impacts of climate change, encompassing physical, social and economic aspects. Therefore the quantification of climate change impacts and its vulnerability is needed to identify vulnerable regions and to setup the proper strategies for adaptation. In this study, climate change vulnerability is defined as a function of climate exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. Also, we identified regions vulnerable to ozone due to climate change in Korea using developed proxy variables of vulnerability of regional level. 18 proxy variables are selected through delphi survey to assess vulnerability over human health sector for ozone concentration change due to climate change. Also, we estimate the weighting score of proxy variables from delphi survey. The results showed that the local regions with higher vulnerability index in the sector of human health are Seoul and Daegu, whereas regions with lower one are Jeollanam-do, Gyeonggi-do, Gwangju, Busan, Daejeon, and Gangwon-do. The regions of high level vulnerability are mainly caused by their high ozone exposure. We also assessed future vulnerability according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) A2, A1FI, A1T, A1B, B2, and B1 scenarios in 2020s, 2050s and 2100s. The results showed that vulnerability increased in all scenarios due to increased ozone concentrations. Especially vulnerability index is increased by approximately 2 times in A1FI scenarios in the 2020s. This study could support regionally adjusted adaptation polices and the quantitative background of policy priority as providing the information on the regional vulnerability of ozone due to climate change in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.22-27
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• 2006

Many aspects of climate have been observed to be increasingly volatile during the past several decades. Episodic climate change is not considered to be uncommon. However, there are substantial environmental, social, and economic impacts associated with climate variability that can be managed if the climate and its impacts are properly understood. Plants and natural communities exhibit several types of adaptive strategy to climate change. There is ample reason to relate increasingly erratic weather with a warming climate. Historic climate extremes, the adaptive mechanisms plants exhibit, and how people have (or have not) responded with strategically sound concepts and policy to facilitate a sustainable environmental ethic are reviewed with a vision of international needs and economic stability.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.61-68
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• 2024

In the context of the Ministry of Environment's 2022 Climate Change Adaptation Plan for Public Institutions, public sewage treatment plants are one of the important targets for climate change response aimed at sustainable water management. In this study, it is applied a modified methodology to four water regeneration centers (public sewage treatment facilities) in charge of sewage treatment in Seoul to analyze the impacts and risks of climate change and discuss priorities for adaptation measures. The results of the study showed that heavy rains, heat waves, and droughts will be the key impacts of climate change, and highlighted the need for measures to mitigate these risks, especially for facility managers.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.57 no.5
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• pp.1-12
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• 2015

The study aimed to project inflows and demmands for the agricultural reservoir watersheds in South Korea considering a variety of regional characteristics and the uncertainty of future climate information. The study bias-corrected and spatially downscaled retrospective daily Global Climate Model (GCM) outputs under Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5 emission scenarios using non-parametric quantile mapping method to force Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. Using the historical simulation, the skills of un-calibrated SWAT model (without calibration process) was evaluated for 5 reservoir watersheds (selected as well-monitored representatives). The study then, evaluated the performance of 9 GCMs in reproducing historical upstream inflow and irrigation demand at the five representative reservoirs. Finally future inflows and demands for 58 watersheds were projected using 9 GCMs projections under the two RCP scenarios. We demonstrated that (1) un-calibrated SWAT model is likely applicable to agricultural watershed, (2) the uncertainty of future climate information from different GCMs is significant, (3) multi-model ensemble (MME) shows comparatively resonable skills in reproducing water balances over the study area. The results of projection under the RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenario generally showed the increase of inflow by 9.4% and 10.8% and demand by 1.4% and 1.7%, respectively. More importantly, the results for different seasons and reservoirs varied considerably in the impacts of climate change.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.63 no.4
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• pp.65-86
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• 2021

This study aims at testing a hypothesis that the resilience of agricultural water systems is characterized by trade-offs and synergies of effects from climate and socioeconomic change. To achieve this, an Agricultural Water System Climate Resilience Assessment (ACRA) framework is established to evaluate comprehensive resilience of an agricultural water system to the combined impacts of the climate and socioeconomic changes with a case study in South Korea. Understanding dynamic behaviors of the agricultural water systems under climate and socioeconomic drivers is not straightforward because the system structure includes complex interactions with multiple feedbacks across components in water and agriculture sectors and climate and socioeconomic factors, which has not been well addressed in the existing decision support models. No consideration of the complex interactions with feedbacks in a decision making process may lead to counterintuitive and untoward evaluation of the coupled impacts of the climate and socioeconomic changes on the system performance. In this regard, the ACRA framework employs a System Dynamics (SD) approach that has been widely used to understand dynamics of the complex systems with the feedback interactions. In the ACRA framework applied to the case study in South Korea, the SD model works along with HOMWRS simulation. The ACRA framework will help to explore resilience-based strategies with infrastructure investment and management options for agricultural water systems.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.311-331
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• 2021

Climate change with extreme hydrological events has become a significant concern for agricultural water systems. Climate change affects not only irrigation availability but also agricultural water requirement. In response, adaptation strategies with soft and hard options have been considered to mitigate the impacts from climate change. However, their implementation has become progressively challenging and complex due to the interconnected impacts of climate change with socio-economic change in agricultural circumstances, and this can generate more uncertainty and complexity in the adaptive management of the agricultural water systems. This study was carried out for the agricultural water supply system in Seongju dam watershed in Seonju-gun, Gyeongbuk in South Korea. The first step is to identify system disturbances. Climate variation and socio-economic components with historical and forecast data were investigated Then, as the second step, problematic trends of the critical performance were identified for the historical and future climate scenarios. As the third step, a system structure was built with a dynamic hypothesis (causal loop diagram) to understand Seongju water system features and interactions with multiple feedbacks across system components in water, agriculture, and socio-economic sectors related to the case study water system. Then, as the fourth step, a mathematical SD (system dynamics) model was developed based on the dynamic hypothesis, including sub-models related to dam reservoir, irrigation channel, irrigation demand, farming income, and labor force, and the fidelity of the SD model to the Seongju water system was checked.