• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.291-297
• /
• 1983

This paper describes the variations of the distribution of dissolved oxygen in the Japan Sea in summer during 1974-1977. In the Tsushima Current region of the Japan Sea the salinity maxima appears frequently in summer and the dissolved oxygen at the salinity maximum is less than that in the Japan Sea Proper Water. The Japan Sea is divided into three parts with respect to the type of vertical profiles of dissolved oxygen: The southern region of about $35^{\circ}N$ which has low dissolved oxygen similar to those in the Kuroshio region, the Japan Sea Proper Water region, and the area between about $36^{\circ}N$ and $40^{\circ}N$ which has high dissolved oxygen. The ranges of the dissolved oxygen and thermosteric anomaly(${\delta}_T$) at the salinity maximum are roughly between 4.9 and 6.5 m/l and between 210 and 240 cl/t respectively. The most frequent ranges of those values are between 5.5 and 5.7 ml/l and between 230 and 240 cl/t. The northern boundary of the Tsushima Current can be known by the characteristics of the distribuion of dissolved oxygen.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.239-252
• /
• 1981

The East China Sea is an important region as nursery and spawning grounds for pelagic fishes such as jack mackerel, common mackerel etc. , and thus constitutes a major fishing area for purse-seine fishery. The environment surrounding in this region is under the influence of the Yellow Sea Cold Water, China Coastal Water and Kuroshio Current. The purpose of this study was to clarify the effects of oceanographic conditions and thermal fronts on the formation of the fishing grounds for the mackerels in the East China Sea. Through the analyses of fisheries statistics during 1968-1976 and temperature data, the following facts are found: 1) Approximately $70\%$ of the total mackerel(common) catches appeared to be come from the Tsushima Current region which includes Sakai coast of the Japan Sea, eastern Tsushima and Shirase Island, and Jeju Island of Korea. This area covers only about $8\%$ of the East China Sea. 2) Main fishing grounds for the jack mackerel are also centered around the area of southwestern Goto, Shirase and eastern Tsushima Island where the catches accounted for about $54\%$ of the total jack mackerel catches. 3) Fluctuations in annual catches are relatively small in the Tsushima Current region, compared to other regions such as Yellow Sea, southwestern coast of Kyushu and mid-western part of the East China Sea, where the fisheries yields varied considerably due to unstable fishing conditions. 4) It appears that the fishing grounds for the jack mackerel are mainly distributed along the warmer region ($15-20^{\circ}C$) of the thermal front, and those for the common mackerel are in somewhat colder region ($13-16^{\circ}C$) in the Tsushima Current.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.305-319
• /
• 2000

A total of 50 diatom species and 1 subspecies belonging to 31 genera except Chaetoceros resting spores were identified in the 45 sediments subsampled from a gravity core GH98-1223 collected from the western Hokkaido Island located in the northeastern East Sea (Sea of Japan). The most dominant species is Thalassionema nitzschioides (Grunow) Hustedt, ranging 29 to 59% of the total assemblages, and most species including Denticulopsis seminae (Simonsen and Kanaya) Simonsen and Pseudoeunotia doliolus (Wallich) Grunow were less than 5% in average. Frequencies of cold-water species are generally higher than those of warm-water species and the vertical distribution of cold-water species was largely opposite to that of warm-water species in spite of ecological habitat difference. Frequency of cold-water species, D. seminae is reverse to that of P. doliolus, an indicator of the Tsushima Warm Current, which is consistent with diatom temperature value (T$_{d}$ value). The variation of T$_{d}$ values shows that the upper part of core with greater-than-average T$_{d}$ values represents postglacial warming trend. These T$_{d}$ values clearly demonstrate that the study area located in the northern part of the East Sea is gradually influenced by Tsushima Warm Current. In addition, the zig-zag variation in the lower part reflects the unstable seawater for diatom habitat. Chaetoceros resting spores indicating productivity and upwelling was 5.3 to 40%, with maximum peak at 80 cm. Chaetoceros resting spores/Chaetoceros vegetative cells, an indicator of relative amounts of biogenic material in the sediments was high at the upper 80 cm level, corresponding to the change of T$_{d}$ values. On the basis of diatom assemblages, the northeastern part of East Sea has experienced the effects of Tsushima Warm Current during the postglacial period of Holocene, which is similar to the modem climatic environment. However, the variation of P. doliolus reflects that the intensity of Tsushima Warm Current has been oscillated in the East Sea.

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.251-263
• /
• 2005

In order to study changes in the marine ecosystem of the East China Sea derived by the global warming and construction of the Three Gorges Dam in the middle of the Changjiang, temperature, salinity, nutrients, and chlorophyll-a were studied intensively in the northern part of the East China Sea during the summer of 2003 and spring of 2004. According to the previous studies, the upwelling of the Kuroshio Current and the Changjiang resulted in a major inputs of nutrients in the East China Sea, but these two inputs may not contribute gently to a build up of nutrients in the northern East China Sea. In spring, relatively high concentrations of nitrates and phosphates were observed in the western part of the study area, which resulted from the supply of high concentrations of nutrients showing up in the surface waters as a result of vertical mixing from the ocean bottom. The concentrations of nitrates and phosphates observed in summer were lower than those in spring, since the surface waters were well stratified by the larger discharge of fresh water from the Changjiang in summer. The surface nitrate/phosphate ratios ranged from 1.3 to 16 in spring and from 1.1 to 15 in summer and were lower than the Redfield ratio of 16, indicating that the growth of phytoplankton is limited by nitrogen. This results are contrary to the previous results, in which the growth of phytoplankton was limited by phosphate in the East China Sea. The reason for this contrary result is that most nutrients in the surface waters are supplied by vertical mixing from the bottom waters with low nitrate/phosphate ratios, not directly influenced by the Changjiang with high nitrate/phosphate ratios. The depth-integrated chlorophyll observed in summer was similar to the previous results, but those measured in spring were almost twice as high as those found in previous results. The depth-integrated chlorophyll in spring was higher than that of summer, which results from high concentrations of nitrates and phosphates in the surface waters in spring due to active vertical mixing.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.83-90
• /
• 1984

The secular fluctuations of catches and fishing grounds of mackerals and the oceanographic conditions for the fishing grounds are examined by using the data of catches of mackerals by middle and large class purse-seiner during 1951 to 1981 and those of oceanographic observation carried out by Japan Meteorological Agency. The results are as follows; The fishing grounds of mackerals are respectively distributed at northeastern and southwestern areas from the central part of the East China Sea through every season of the studied years: 1968, 1974 and 1980. The narrow belt type of fishing grounds were formed inside of the Kuroshio in spring and winter of the three years. In summer mackeral species move northward and the fishing grounds are formed in the southern sea of Korea. In winter, however, mackeral species move southward and the fishing grounds are appeared in the Tsushima Current region. The dispersion of fishing grounds is generally larger in summer and smaller in spring, and especially it is the largest in summer in 1980. It seems that the concentration and dispersion of fishing grounds are related to the depth of thermocline and the position of horizontal temperature gradient in this area.

• ALGAE
• /
• v.31 no.3
• /
• pp.231-241
• /
• 2016

We examined the genetic diversity and abundance of picocyanobacteria using barcoded amplicon sequencing approaches and flow cytometry in the East Sea and the East China Sea to determine the distribution patterns of diversity during spring in seas adjacent to the Korean Peninsula. Synechococcus clades I and IV, which have been known as cold-adapted ecotypes, dominated at most stations. However, the relative abundances of the two dominant clades differed in their spatial patterns. Clade I was exclusively dominant in the shelf area of the East China Sea and the north East Sea. However, the dominant genotypes belonging to clade I had different spatial distributions in the two areas and responded oppositely to seawater temperature. The dominance of distinct genotypes under the different ecological conditions suggests the presence of ecologically different ecotypes within the clade. Abundances of clade IV were greater than those of clade I at most stations in the southwest East Sea, showing an apparently different pattern from that of the other areas. A warm-water adapted clade II was observed at significant levels only at stations located in the eastern East China Sea affected by a branch of the warm Kuroshio Current. These results suggest that the physicochemical properties of influencing water masses play an important role in determining the distribution of Synechococcus genotypes.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.173-192
• /
• 1998

This study was made as a part of the benethic fauna of Geojedo Island. The material was obtained from 17 localities (Fig. 1) along the coastal sea of Geojedo Island and it's adjacent waters during the years 1995-1998. This paper includes 38 species from a limited area of the southern part of Korea and includes 13 previously known species by Rho(1975-1991). Of these Didemnum (D.) pardum, Symplegma oceania, and Styela coriacea, are new to the Korean fauna, and 22 species are newly added to the fauna of Geojedo Island. We provided taxonomic notes and brief notes on the ascidian fauna, and the biogeographical distribution of Geojedo island. Its ascidian fauna are characterized by a high percentage of 18(47.4%) warm-water species and the extreme scarcity of eight(21.1%) boreal-water forms. This result may be attributable to the fact that Geojedo island and its adajacent waters are located under the influence of the warm Kuroshio Current.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.206-213
• /
• 2013

Glass eels (Anguilla japonica) are caught in the west coast of Korea on their migratory route from the breeding grounds in the Mariana Trench along the North Equatorial Current and the Kuroshio Current. To identify the food source of natural glass eels, we analyzed the stable C and N isotopes of glass eels caught in April 2012 and investigated possible food sources in the survey area. In particular, with respect to the stable C and N isotopes of particulate organic matter, we extended the surveying area to the northern parts of East China Sea as well as the west coast of Korea. The stable C and N isotope ratios of the glass eels caught in the west coast were found to be $-20.7{\pm}0.1$‰ and $5.0{\pm}0.2$‰, respectively. The stable C and N isotope ratios of the particulate organic matter in the west coast of Korea, in which the glass eels are assumed to eat the particulate organic matter as food source, were estimated to be $-24.0{\pm}0.3$‰ and $2.8{\pm}0.4$‰, respectively. Similar data were obtained from the northern part of the East China Sea, $-24.5{\pm}0.5$‰ and $0.8{\pm}0.3$‰. The stable isotope ratios showed values differing from the stepwise increasing rates up the food web in natural aquatic ecosystem, showing that particulate organic matter in the west coast of Korea and East China Sea was not served as the glass eels food source. This result suggested that the glass eels caught in the west coast might not assimilate nutrition from the marine environment during long migration.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.29 no.6
• /
• pp.454-465
• /
• 2008

Benthic foraminiferal assemblage and AMS radiocarbon dating of core sediments from the northern shelf of the East China Sea were analyzed in order to understand the paleoenvironment and sedimentary environmental changes around the Korean marginal seas since the last glacial maximum (LGM). The core sediments, containing continuous records of the last 16,000 years, reveal a series of well-defined vertical changes in number of species (S), P/T ratio and species diversity (H) as well as foraminiferal assemblage. Such down-core variations display a sharp change at a core depth of approximately 240 cm, which corresponds to ca. 10,000 year B.P. The sediments of the lower part of the core (240${\sim}$560 cm, Zone I), including the well-developed tide-influenced sedimentary structures, are characterized by high abundances of Ammonia beccarii and Elphidium clavatum (s.l.) and low values in number of species, P/T ratio and diversity. These tide-influenced signatures and foraminiferal assemblage characters suggest that the sediments of Zone I were deposited in a coastal environment (water depths of 20${\sim}$30 m) such as tidal estuary with an influence of the paleo-rivers (e.g., old-Huanghe and Yangtze rivers) during the early phase of the sea-level rise (ca. 16,000 to 10,000 years) since the LGM. In contrast, the upper core sediments (0${\sim}$240 cm, Zone II) are characterized by abundant Eilohedra nipponica and Bolivina robusta with a minor contribution of A. ketienziensis angulata and B. marginata. and high values in number of species, P/T ratio and diversity. Based on relative abundance of these assemblage, Zone II can be divided into two subzones (IIa and IIb). Zone IIa is interpreted to be deposited under the inner-to-middle shelf environment during the marine transgression in the early Holocene (after ca. 9,000 yr B.P.) when sea level rapidly increased. The sediments of zone IIb most likely deposited after 6,000 yr B.P. under the outer shelf environment (80${\sim}$100 m water depth), which is similar to modem depositional environments. The muddy sediments of zone IIb were probably transported from the old-Huanghe and Yangtze Rivers during the late Holocene. We suggest that the present-day oceanographic conditions over the Yellow and the East China Seas have been established after ca. 7,000${\sim}$6,000 yr B.P. when the Kuroshio Current began to influence this area.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
• /
• v.43 no.2
• /
• pp.60-81
• /
• 2010

Jeju Island, in Korea, shows many characteristics that are differentiated from the rest of Korea. Its culture is rooted in mythology which advocates a egalitarian, rather than hierarchical, social structure, the place of women in the home is relatively high, and the formation of buildings, the separation of cooking and heating facilities, and the living format of residential homes is dissimilar. These disparities in culture indicate that Jeju Island's heritage was not formed only from influences from the North, but also from other places as well. To fill in the blanks, residential homes in Jeju Island were compared with those scattered throughout the East China Sea, which connect the southern coastline of the Korean peninsula and Jeju Island. The regions encompassed by the East China Sea, sharing the Kuroshio current and a seasonal wind, can be considered as one cultural region integrating cultural aspects from the continental North and the oceanbound South. The unique characteristics of southern culture as seen in southern residences was examined through an investigation of the sacred places in which gods were considered to dwell. First, the myths of these areas usually concerned with the ocean, and a sterile environment made sustenance impossible without a dual livelihood, usually taking on the forms of half-farming and half-fishing, or half-farming, half-gardening. Although family compositions were strongly matricentric or collateral thanks to southern influence, a patriarchical system like those found in the North were present in the upper classes and in the cities. Therefore, residential spaces were not divided based on age or gender, as in hierarchical societies, but according to family and function. Second, these areas had local belief systems based on animism and ancestor worship, and household deities were closely related to women, agriculture and fire. The deities of the kitchen, the granary and the toilet were mostly female, and the role of priest was often filled by a woman. After Buddhism and Confucianism were introduced from mainland Korea, China and Japan, the sacred areas of the household took on a dual form, integrating the female-focused local rites with male-centered Buddhist and Confucian rites. Third, in accordance with worship of a kitchen deity, a granary deity, and a toilet deity led to these areas of the home being separated into disparate buildings. Eventually, these areas became absorbed into the home as architectural technology was further developed and lifestyles were changed. There was also integration of northern and southern cultures, with rites concerning granary and toilet deities coming from China, and the personality of the kitchen deity being related to the southern sea. In addition, the use of stone in separate kitchens, granaries, and toilets is a distinguishing characteristic of the East China Sea. This research is a part of the results gained from a project funded by the Korea Research Foundation in 2006.