• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.91-109
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• 2022

The ocean is a significant sink for atmospheric anthropogenic CO₂, absorbing one-third of the total CO₂ emitted by human activities. In return, oceans have experienced significant declines in seawater pH and the aragonite saturation state also called ocean acidification. This study evaluates the distribution of aragonite saturation state, an indicator to assess the potential threat from ocean acidification, by combining newly obtained data from the west coast of South Korea with previous datasets covering the Yellow Sea, East Sea, northern South China Sea, and southeast coast of South Korea. In general, offshore waters absorb atmospheric CO₂; however, most of the collected water samples show aragonite oversaturation. On the southeast coast, the aragonite saturation state was significantly affected by river discharge and associated variables, such as freshwater input with nutrients, seasonal stratification, biological carbon fixation, and bacterial remineralization. In summer, hypoxia and mixing with relatively acidic freshwater made the Jinhae and Gwangyang Bays undersaturated with respect to aragonite, possibly threatening marine organisms with CaCO₃ shells. However, widespread aragonite undersaturation was not observed on the west coast, which receives considerable river water discharge. In addition, occasional upwelling events may have worsened the ocean acidification in the southwestern part of the East Sea. These results highlight the importance of investigating site-specific ocean acidification processes in coastal waters. Along with the above-mentioned seasonal factors, the dissolution of atmospheric CO₂ and the deposition of atmospheric acidic substances will continue to reduce the aragonite saturation state in Korean waters. To protect marine ecosystems and resources, an ocean acidification monitoring program should be established for Korean waters.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.177-184
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• 1991

We have investigated geographical distribution and physico-chemical properties of water masses or water types at mid-bottom depth in the neighbouring sea of Cheju Island in August 1986. In 50m layer the Yellow Sea Bottom Cold Water(YSBCW) below $12^{\circ}C$ was observed in the northwestern area of Cheju Island, while the Tsushima Warm Water(TWW) with relatively high temperature$(>16^{\circ}C)$ and salinity more than 34.0 in its southeastern area extended as far as the coast of about 15km. Also, 50m layer at the outside stations of its southwestern area indicated relatively cold water temperature$(11-30^{\circ}C)$, probably due to southward transport of the Yellow Sea Bottom Cold Water(YSBCW . The Yellow Sea Warm Water(YSWW), the mixed water of the YSBCW and the TWW, ranged $13^{\circ}C$ to $16^{\circ}C$ in water temperature and was appeared mainly in the coastal and intermediate area of Cheju Island. And the relatively cold water in the southwestern area and the Tsushima Warm Water were more extensively distributed in 50m layer than the deeper layer. Horizontal distributions of nitrate and phosphate showed a pattern similar to that of water temperature. As it were, the Yellow Sea Bottom Cold Water had the highest concentration of nutrients, while southwestern outside stations had the lowest nutrient contents. Especially, the concentration of nitrate in the latter was remarkably low compared with the value at the other stations. It may be attributed to intensive vertical mixing by collision of the northward driven Tn with the southward driven YSBCW. Also, it was particular that the Tsushima Warm Water indicated relatively high silicate content corresponding to that of the Yellow Sea Bottom Cold Water. Based on the data of $\Delta Si/\Delta P$ ratio, it seems that the mid-bottom waters in this study area are younger than the surface or intermediate water in the Korean East Sea.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.123-154
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• 1982

Petrochemical, K-Ar dating, Sand Rb/Sr isotopes, metallogenic zoning, paleomagnetic and geotectonic studies of the Gyongsang basin were carried out to examine applicability of plate tectonics to the post-late Cretaceous igneous activity and metallogeny in the southeastern part of Korean Peninsula. The results obtained are as follows: 1. Bulgugsa granitic rocks range from granite to adamellite, whose Q-Ab-Or triangular diagram indicates that the depth and pressure at which the magma consolidated increase from coast to inland varying from 6 km, 0.5-3.3 kb in the coastal area to 17 km, 0.5-10 kb in the inland area. 2. The volcanic rocks in Gyongsang basin range from andesitic to basaltic rocks, and the basaltic rocks are generally tholeiitic in the coastal area and alkali basalt in the inland area. 3. The volcanic rocks of the area have the initial ratio of Sr^{87}/Sr^{86} varying from 0.706 to 0.707 which suggests a continental origin; the ratio of Rb/Sr changing from 0.079-0.157 in the coastal area to 0.021-0.034 in the inland area suggests that the volcanism is getting younger toward coastal side, which may indicate a retreat in stage of differentiation if they were derived from a same magma. The K_2O/SiO_2 (60%) increases from about 1.0 in the coastal area to about 3.0 in the inland area, which may suggest an increase indepth of the Benioff zone, if existed, toward inland side. 4. The K-Ar ages of volcanic rocks were measured to be 79.4 m.y. near Daegu, and 61.7 m.y. near Busan indicating a southeastward decrease in age. The ages of plutonic rocks also decrease toward the same direction with 73 m.y. near Daegu, and 58 m.y. near Busan, so that the volcanism predated the plutonism by 6 m.y. in the continental interior and 4 m.y. along the coast. Such igneous activities provide a positive evidence for an applicability of plate tectonics to this area. 5. Sulfur isotope analyses of sulfide minerals from 8 mines revealed that these deposits were genetically connected with the spacially associated ingeous rocks showing relatively narrow range of ${\delta}^{34}S$ values (-0.9‰ to +7.5‰ except for +13.3 from Mulgum Mine). A sequence of metallogenic zones from the coast to the inland is delineated to be in the order of Fe-Cu zone, Cu-Pb-Zn zone, and W-Mo zone. A few porphyry type copper deposits are found in the Fe-Cu zone. These two facts enable the sequence to be comparable with that of Andean type in South America. 6. The VGP's of Cretaceous and post Cretaceous rocks from Korea are located near the ones($71^{\circ}N$, $180^{\circ}E$ and $90^{\circ}N$, $110^{\circ}E$) obtained from continents of northern hemisphere. This suggests that the Korean peninsula has been stable tectonically since Cretaceous, belonging to the Eurasian continent. 7. Different polar wandering path between Korean peninsula and Japanese islands delineates that there has been some relative movement between them. 8. The variational feature of declination of NRM toward northwestern inland side from southeastern extremity of Korean peninsula suggests that the age of rocks becomes older toward inland side. 9. The geological structure(mainly faults) and trends of lineaments interpreted from the Landsat imagery reveal that NNE-, NWW- and NEE-trends are predominant in the decreasing order of intensity. 10. The NNE-trending structures were originated by tensional and/or compressional forces, the directions of which were parallel and perpendicular respectively to the subduction boundary of the Kula plate during about 90 m.y. B.P. The NWW-trending structures were originated as shear fractures by the same compressional forces. The NEE-trending structures are considered to be priginated as tension fractures parallel to the subduction boundary of the Kula plate during about 70 m.y. B.P. when Japanese islands had drifted toward southeast leaving the Sea of Japan behind. It was clearly demonstrated by many authors that the drifting of Japanese islands was accompanied with a rotational movement of a clock-wise direction, so that it is inferred that subduction boundary had changed from NNE- to NEE-direction. A number of facts and features mentioned above provide a suite of positive evidences enabling application of plate tectonics to the late Cretaceous-early Tertiary igneous activity and metallogeny in the area. Synthesizing these facts, an arc-trench system of continental margin-type is adopted by reconstructing paleogeographic models for the evolution of Korean peninsula and Japan islands. The models involve an extention mechanism behind the are(proto-Japan), by which proto-Japan as of northeastern continuation of Gyongsang zone has been drifted rotationally toward southeast. The zone of igneous activity has also been migrated from the inland in late-Cretaceous to the peninsula margin and southwestern Japan in Tertiary.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.535-547
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• 2021

Aggregate is an essential construction material, and the demand is increasing every year. Aggregate has different properties in each region, and it is difficult to supply it over long distances due to its quantity and weight. For the stabilization of aggregate supply and demand, regional aggregate resource surveys have been conducted since 1993 in Korea. In this study, an aggregate resource survey was conducted in Goyang City to understand the characteristics of aggregate distribution as part of the annual regional aggregate resource survey in 2020. Goyang City has a high mountainous area to the east, and the southwestern part shows a topography where a wide flatland develops. It has 18 small streams originated from the eastern mountainuos area and 1 large stream Han River. The drilling data shows that thickness of the Quaternary deposits tend to deepen toward the south. The aggregate reserves are relatively abundant, the depth of the aggregates are relatively deep. Changes in the depth of the Quaternary deposits and the amount of aggregate in Goyang are seems to be closely related to the activities of the Han River rather than the sedimentation characteristics from the upstream to the downstream of the small streams. This characteristics show a similar tendency to the distribution of aggregates in adjacent regions to the west coast in Korea. Therefore, the regions that close to west coast have a high probability of aggregate reserves around relatively large-scale streams flowing into the west coast.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.105-118
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• 2000

Anchored measurements (12.5 hr) of suspended sediment concentration and other hydrodynamic parameters were carried out at two stations located at the entrance to Hampyung Bay in summer (August 1999). Tidal variations in water temperature and salinity were in the range of 26.0-27.9$^{\circ}C$ and 30.9-31.5, respectively, indicating exchange offshore and offshore water mass. Active tidal mixing processes at the entrance appear to destroy the otherwise vertical stratification in temperature and salinity in spite of strong solar heating in summer. On the contrary, suspended sediment concentrations show a marked stratification with increasing concentrations toward bottom layer. Clastic particles in suspended sediments consist mostly of very fine to fine silt (4-16 ${\mu}$m) with a poorly-sorted value of 14.7-25.9 ${\mu}$m. However, at slack time with less turbulent energy, flocs larger than 40 ${\mu}$m are formed by cohesion and inter-collision of particles, resulting in a higher settling velocity. Strong ebb-dominated and weak flood dominated tidal currents, in the southwestern and the northeastern part, respectively, result in a seaward residual flow of -10${\sim}$-20 cm $s^{-1}$ at station H1 and a bayward residual flow less than 5.0 cm $s^{-1}$ at station H2. However, mean concentration of suspended sediments at station H1 is higher at flood (95.0-144.1 mg $1^{-1}$) than in ebb (75.8-120.9 mg $1^{-1}$). On the contrary, at the station H2, the trend is reversed with higher concentration at the ebb (84.7-158.4 mg $1^{-1}$) than that at the flood (53.0-107.9 mg $1^{-1}$). As a result, seaward net suspended sediment fluxes ($f_{s}$) are calculated to be -1.7 ${\sim}$-$15.610^{3}$ kg $m^{-2}$ $s^{-1}$ through the whole water column. However, the stations H1 and H2 show definitely different values of the flux with higher ones in the former than in the latter. Alternatively, depth-integrated net suspended sediment loads ($\c{Q}_{s}$) for one tidal cycle are also toward the offshore with ranges of 0.37${\times}$$10^{3}$ kg $m^{-1}$ and 0.21${\times}$$10^{3}$ kg $m^{-1}$, at station H1 and H2, respectively. This seaward transport of suspended sediment in summer suggests that summer-time erosion in the Hampyung muddy tidal flats is a rather exceptional phenomenon compared to the general deposition reported for many other tidal flats on the west coast of Korea.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.77-93
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• 2000

Field survey on the spatio-temporal distribution of water quality and chlorophyll a concentration, and the environmental factors on the variation of phytoplankton biomass were carried out at the 23 stations for four seasons in the Shiahae, southwestern coast of Korean Peninsula from February to October in 1995. I made an analysis on biological factor as chlorophyll a concentration as well as environmental factors such as water temperature, salinity and nutrients; ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, dissolved inorganic nitrogen, phosphate, N/P ratio, silicate and Si/P ratio. The waters in the Shiahae were not stratified due to the tidal mixing and high velocity of tidal current. And the high productivity in photic layer were supported by high nutrients concentration from freshwater on lands and bottom waters The low depth of transparency in the Shiahae had a bad influence upon primary production and marine biology. In Shiahae had a sufficient nutrients for primary production during a year. Especially dissolved inorganic nitrogen and silicate were high, the other side, phosphate was low. The source of nutrients in summer and silicate supply depend on input of freshwater from lands, the other side, dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphate were depend on rather supplied from bottom layer by the mixing and input of seawater from outside than input of freshwater from lands. Phosphate seemed to become a limiting nutrient for the primary production at all area of Shiahae in winter and at the northern parts in other seasons. However, dissolved inorganic nitrogen seemed to do it at the southern parts in other seasons except winter. Silicate didn't become a limiting nutrient for diatoms in Shiahae. Phytoplankton biomass as measured by chlorophyll a concentration was very high all the year round, it was controlled by the combination of the several environmental factors, especially of nitrogen, phosphorus and the physical factors such as light intensity. [Spatio-temporal distribution, Seasonal fluctuation, Nnutrients, Chlorophyll a, Environmental factors, Nutrient source, Limiting Nutrient, Light, Shiahae] .

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.78-86
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• 2013

Qualitative and quantitative algal survey was conducted from March 2010 to December 2010 on a man-made artificial beach in the Hwawon Resort Complex in order to understand seasonal changes of algal flora. The seasonal change of algal vegetation was compared with intact natural habitat near from the experimental sites. Total 15 algal species were found at the artificial beach; 8 Chlorophyta, 3 Phaeophyta and 4 Rhodophyta. And 38 algal species were found at the natural habitat; 7 Chlorophyta, 9 Phaeophyta and 22 Rhodophyta. Dominant algal species at the artificial beach were Ulva compressa, U. intestinalis, U. prolifera, U. pertusa in winter and Urospora penicilliformis, U. intestinalis, U. compress in summer. In natural habitat, dominant algal species were U. pertusa, U. compressa in winter and Sargassum thunbergii, Ishige okamurae in summer. (R+C)/P explaining spatial distribution of seaweeds was 3.7~4.0 (warm-temperature) in the artificial beach and 2.6~3.4 (polar-temperate) in the natural habitat, respectively. The flora of artificial beach could be classified into the filamentous form (64.4%), the sheet form (21.9%), and the coarsely branched form (13.7%). There was significant difference from the two habitats representing dominant species, distributions and ratio of functional-form groups.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.87-96
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• 2012

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) announced that an earthquake of 9.0 magnitude had occurred near the east coast of Japan on March 11, 2011, resulting in a displacement of the crust of about 2.4 meters. The Korean peninsula is located on the Eurasian tectonic plate that stretches out to Japan; therefore, there is a high possibility of being affected by an earthquake. The Korean GPS CORS network operated by the National Geographic Information Institute (NGII) was processed for ten days before and after the earthquake. Both static and kinematic baseline processing were tested for the determination of crustal deformation. The static baseline processing was performed in two scenarios: 1) fixing three IGS stations in China, Mongolia and Russia; 2) fixing SUWN, one of the CORS networks in Korea, in order to effectively verify crustal deformation. All data processing was carried out using Bernese V5.0. The test results show that most of the parts of the Korean peninsula have moved to the east, ranging 1.2 to 5.6 cm, compared to the final solution of the day before the earthquake. The stations, such as DOKD and ULLE that are established on the islands closer to the epicenter, have clearly moved the largest amounts. Furthermore, the station CHJU, located on the southwestern part of Korea, presents relatively small changes. The relative positioning between CORS confirms the fact that there were internal distortions of the Korean peninsula to some extent. In addition, the 30-second interval kinematic processing of CORS data gives an indication of earthquake signals with some delays depending on the distance from the epicenter.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.351-357
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• 2011

Occurrence of Rice stripe virus (RSV) was investigated in Jeonnam province from 2008 to 2011. Incidence of RSV was surveyed in paddy fields during growth stage. In western and southern coast parts of 5 districts, Jindo, Wando, Shinan, Haenam and Muan, rice was severely damaged by RSV from 2008 to 2009. But, RSV didn't almost occur in 2010. Viruliferous ratio (VIR) of RSV from overwintered small brown plant hopper (SBPH, Laodelphax striatellus) showed 4.7%, 11.3%, 8.7%, and 2.8% from 2008 to 2011. It was highly recorded in Jindo, Wando, and Shinan of southwestern area. SBPH was collected by sucking machine at 1 $m^2$ with 3 replications per paddy field in March. The density of SBPH was high on March, but low on April in non-cultivated barley field from winter to spring. Farmer's plowing this season assumed to be a cause of SBPH density decrease. The number of SBPH was 7.7, 5.4, and 4.0 per $m^2$ during three years, respectively.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.829-837
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• 2011

A study on the grain size change, sedimentary facies and age indicator of volcanic tephra was analysis through four cores (P1 ~ P4) at the Ulleung Basin in the East Sea of Korea. The two cores (P1 and P2) were collected in the northeastern side of the Ulleung Basin (about 2,000 m in water depth), while the other two cores (P3 and P4) with the water depth of about 1,500 m and 1,700 m, respectively, were collected from the continental slope of the southwestern and western side of the Ulleung Basin. Four sedimentary facies and eight sedimentary subfacies were identified. The four facies were massive sand, bioturbated mud, homogeneous mud, and laminated mud. The eight subfacies were further divided as pumiceous ash massive sand, scorieaous massive sand, plain bioturbated mud, pyrite filamented bioturbated mud, distinctly laminated mud, indistinctly laminated mud, thinly laminated mud and homogeneous mud. The homogeneous mud was not found in the core of P3 which is located in the western side of Ulleung Basin (close to the Korean coast). In the case of laminated mud facies, the thinly laminated mud facies was dominated in the lower part of core sequences of the Ulleung Basin (P1 and P2), while the indistinctly laminated mud were overally distributed in the core sequences from the continental slope of Ulleung Basin. The Tephra layers from the core sequences of central Ulleung Basin were more dominated and distinctive than those from the core sequences of continental slope. This is related to the distance from the volcanic source and the amount of sediment supply. The core locations of Ulleung-Oki Tephra layers in the central Ulleung Basin were in the upper part of core sequences, while those in the continental slope were in the lower part of core sequences. This is indicated that the amounts of sediment supply in the continental slope after the Ulleung-Oki eruption were very high and different sedimentary environment between upper and lower of Tephra layer.