• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.882-889
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• 2022

In this study, to understand the factors influencing the flow change the Tsushima Warm Current (TWC), the correlation between the volume transport the TWC, El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) was analyzed. A calculation of the monthly volume transport of TWC for 25 years (1993-2018) revealed that the seasonal fluctuation cycle was the largest in summer and smallest in winter. Power spectrum analysis to determine the periodicity of the TWC volume transport, Oceanic Niño Undex (ONI), and PDO indicated that the TWC volume transport peaked at a one year cycle, but ONI and PDO showed no clear cycle. Further, to understand the correlation between the TWC transport volume and ONI and PDO, the coherence estimation method was used for analysis. The coherence of ONI and PDO had a high mutual contribution in long-period fluctuations of three years or more but had low mutual contribution in short-period fluctuations within one year. However, the coherence value between the two factors of the TWC volume transport and PDO was 0.7 in the 0.8-1.2 year cycle, which had a high mutual contribution. Meanwhile, the TWC volume transport and PDO have an inverse correlation between period I (1993-2002) and period III (2010-2018). When the TWC maximum transport volume (2.2 Sv or more) was high, the PDO index showed a negative value below -1.0, and the PDO index showed a positive value when the TWC maximum transport volume was (below 2.2 Sv). Therefore, using long-term PDO index data, changes in the TWC transport volume and water temperature in the East Sea coastal area could be predicted.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.45-67
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• 2008

Ocean climate variables ($1900{\sim}2005$), time series of catches ($1910{\sim}2005$) and body size data were used to assess the year-to-year and decadal scale fluctuations in abundance of the fish populations (Japanese sardine, anchovy, jack mackerel, chub mackerel, Pacific saury and common squid) that have spawning grounds in the East China Sea and its adjacent regions. A negative correlation between the abundance of pelagic fishes (e.g. jack mackerel) in the Tsushima Warm Current (TWC) region and the Kuroshio-Oyashio Current (KOC) region was attributed to the climatic modulation of larval transport and recruitment, which depends on the winter monsoon-induced drift, current systems, and spawning season and site. The changes in abundance and alternation of dominant fish populations in the two regions in the 1930s, 1970s, and late 1980s mirrored changes in the climate indices (ALPI, AOI and MOI). Oscillations in the decadal climate shifts between the two regions led to zonal differences in larval transport and recruitment, and hence differences in the abundance of the pelagic fish populations. During deep Aleutian Lows, as in the 1980s, larval transport from the East China Sea to the KOC region increases in association with the strong winter Asian monsoon, cool regime and increased volume transport of the Kuroshio Current systems, whereas during a weak Aleutian Low (as in the 1990s), larval transport to the TWC region increased in association with a weak winter Asian monsoon, a warm regime, and increased volume transport of the Tsushima current system. We postulate that the increased chub mackerel abundance in the TWC region and the decreased abundance in the KOC region in the 1990s are partly attributed to changes in recruitment and availability to the fishing fleets under the warm regime in the spawning and nursery grounds in the East China Sea in association with the quasi-steady state of mild winter monsoon in the 1990s. The fluctuations in chub mackerel and jack mackerel abundance are under the environment-dependant growth form, although the tropicalization was identified in the TWC region. The density-dependant growth form was found in Japanese sardine populations, but no tropicalization by fishing was identified in the long ($10{\sim}15$ year) periods of abundance despite their short ($3{\sim}4$ year) generation time, suggesting that the environment-dependant growth form drove the changes in abundance. Year-to-year and decadal scale variations in abundance and population structure of the Pacific saury responded to climate regime shifts (1976/1977, 1988/1989), suggesting that the fish is a key bio-indicators for changes in the ecosystem.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.58-60
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• 2004

Sea level variations and sea surface circulations in the Korean seas were observed by Topex/Poseidon altimeter data from 1993 through 1997. In sea level variations, the West and South Sea showed relatively high variations with comparison to the East Sea. Then, the northern and southern area in the West Sea showed the range of 20∼30cm and 18∼24cm, and the northern west of Jeju island and the southern west of Tsushima island in the South Sea showed the range of 15∼20cm and 10∼15cm, respectively. High variations in the West Sea were results to the inflow in sea surface of Yellow Sea Warm Current (YSWC) and bottom topography. Sea level variations in the South Sea were due to two branch currents (Jeju Warm Current and East Korea Warm Current) originated from Kuroshio Current (KC). In sea surface circulations, there existed remarkably three eddies circulations in the East Sea that are mainly connected with North Korea Cold Current (NKCC), East Korea Warm Current (EKWC) and Tushima Warm Current (TWC). Their eddies are caused basically to the influence of currents in sea surface circulations; Cyclone (0.03 cm/see) in the Wonsan bay off shore with NKCC, and anticyclone (0.06 cm/see) in the southwestern area of Ulleung island with EKWC, and cyclone (0.01 cm/see) in the northeastern area of Tushima island with TWC, respectively.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.879-881
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• 2003

Sea level variations and sea surface circulations in the Korean seas were observed by Topex/Poseidon altimeter data from 1993 through 1997. In sea level variations, the West and South Sea showed relatively high variations with comparison to the East Sea. Then, the northern and southern area in the West Sea showed the range of 20${\sim}$30cm and 18${\sim}$24cm, and the northern west of Jeju island and the southern west of Tsushima island in the South Sea showed the range of 15${\sim}$20cm and 10${\sim}$15cm, respectively. High variations in the West Sea was results to the inflow in sea surface of Yellow Sea Warm Current (YSWC) and bottom topography. Sea level variations in the South Sea was due to two branch currents(Jeju Warm Current and East Korea Warm Current) originated from Kuroshio Current (KC). In sea surface circulations, there existed remarkably three eddies circulations in the East Sea that are mainly connected with North Korea Cold Current (NKCC), East Korea Warm Current (EKWC) and Tushima Warm Current(TWC). Their eddies are caused basically to the influence of currents in sea surface circulations; Cyclone (0.03 cm/sec) in the Wonsan bay off shore with NKCC, and anticyclone (0.06 cm/sec) in the southwestern area of Ulleung island with EKWC, and cyclone (0.01 cm/sec) in the northeastern area of Tushima island with TWC, respectively.

• Ocean Science Journal
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.67-78
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• 2005

Complex physical, chemical and biological interactions off the Korean coast created several striking patterns in the phytoplankton blooms, which became conspicuous during the measurements of ocean color from space. This study concentrated on analyzing the spatial and temporal aspects of phytoplankton chlorophyll variability in these areas using an integrated dataset from a Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS), Advanced Very High Resolution (AVHRR) sensor, and Conductivity Temperature Depth (CTD) sensor. The results showed that chlorophyll concentrations were elevated in coastal and open ocean regions, with strong summer and fall blooms, which appeared to spread out in most of the enclosed bays and neighboring waters due to certain oceanographic processes. The chlorophyll concentration was observed to range between 3 and $54\;mg\;m^{-3}$ inside Jin-hae Bay and adjacent coastal bays and 0.5 and $8\;mg\;m^{-3}$ in the southeast sea offshore waters, this gradual decrease towards oceanic waters suggested physical transports of phytoplankton blooms from the shallow shelves to slope waters through the influence of the Tsushima Warm Current (TWC) along the Tsushima Strait. Horizontal distribution of potential temperature $(\theta)$ and salinity (S) of water off the southeastern coast exhibited cold and low saline surface water $(\theta and warm and high saline subsurface water $({\theta}>12^{\circ}C; S>34.4)$ at 75dBar, corroborating TWC intrusion along the Tsushima Strait. An eastward branch of this current was called the East Korean Warm Current (EKWC), tracked with the help of CTD data and satellite-derived sea surface temperature, which often influenced the dynamics of mesoscale anticyclonic eddy fields off the Korean east coast during the summer season. The process of such mesoscale anticyclonic eddy features might have produced interior upwelling that could have shoaled and steepened the nutricline, enhancing phytoplankton population by advection or diffusion of nutrients in the vicinity of Ulleungdo in the East Sea.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.355-370
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• 2020

We conducted a field survey to analyze the ecological structure and spatial distribution of microplankton (phytoplankton and ciliates) in relation to water masses at 21 stations on the surface and chlorophyll-a maximum layers (CML) in the Northern East China Sea (nECS; 32°-33°N; 124°00'-127°30'E) from August 3 to August 6, 2019. The results showed that the water masses were divided into Chinese Coastal Waters (CCW) and the Tsushima Warm Current (TWC). The CCW showed the environmental characteristics of high temperature and low salinity, and the TWC showed high temperature and high salinity. The characteristics of the phytoplankton community in the CCW showed various community structures related to the nutrients supplied from the large rivers of the Chinese continent. However, the TWC had simple community structures because it originated near the equator and moved northward. The standing crops of phytoplankton and ciliates were very high in the CCW but showed low at the TWC. In particular, from the higher standing crops of protozoa than plant plankton at the TWC, the energy flow at the lower tropic levels caused by the microbial loop that fed on heterotrophic bacteria played an important role in the production of resource organisms. In other words, the marine ecological structure of the nECS in summer could be estimated as a bottom-up system at the CCW and a top-down system at the TWC.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.23-38
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• 2007

Based on a time series of ocean climate indices and catch records for seven pelagic fish species in the Tsushima Warm Current (TWC) and Kuroshio-Oyashio Current (KOC) regions from 1910 to 2004, we detected regional synchrony in the long-term fluctuations of the fish populations and identified alternation patterns of dominant species related to climate shifts. The annual catches of Pacific herring, Japanese sardines, Japanese anchovies, jack mackerel, chub mackerel, Pacific saury and common squid in the TWC region fluctuated in phase with those in the KOC region, which suggests that they were controlled by the same basin-wide climate forcing. After the collapse of the herring fishery, the alternation sequence was: sardines (1930s), Pacific saury, jack mackerel, common squid and anchovies ($1950s{\sim}1960s$), herring ($late\;1960s{\sim}early\;1970s$), chub mackerel (1970s) and then sardines (1980s). As sardine biomass decreased in the late stages of the cool regime, catch of the other four species increased immediately during the warm period of the 1990s. Regional differences in the amplitude of long-term catch fluctuations for the seven pelagic fishes could be explained by regional differences in availability, fishing techniques and activity.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.165-171
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• 2009

In order to illustrate the effects of water temperature inversion on the stratification variation in the South Sea of Korea, water temperature, salinity, and density measured in October and December 1999 by National Fisheries Research and Development Institute were reviewed. In October and December of 1999, temperature inversion occurred mainly between 25m and 75m, and in particular in depth of water, in December temperature inversion layer also was formed in the surface layer. In case of October and December, the Tsushima Warm Current (TWC), warm and saline water, was one of motors, and in December, influence of surface cold water was added Although northerly wind prevails in October and December, in October, expanding of the South Korean Coastal Waters (SKCW) towards offshore is not clear, but in December when wind speed is relatively greater than that in October and strength of the TWC become weak, the SKCW spreads towards offshore through the upper layer. Stratification variation was higher along the area where temperature inversion occurred.

• Journal of the korean society of oceanography
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.122-134
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• 2003

Low-pass filtered time series of wind, coastal temperature, sea level and current were analyzed to understand the coastal upwelling processes in the southeast coast of Korea. Southerly winds favorable for coastal upwelling were dominant in summer of 1997. Total period of four major wind events amounts to 58 days during one hundred days from June to early September. Coastal temperature is most sensitive to variations of wind. The time lag between the onset of southerly (northerly) winds and decrease (increase) of temperature is 3-18 hours. In the frequency domain the coherent bands have periods of 2.4 and 4.0-5.4 days with respective phase lags of 17 and 27-37 hours. Despite the sensitive response, the magnitude of temperature change is not quantitatively proportional to the intensity or duration of the wind, because it depends on the degree of baroclinic tilting of isotherms built dynamically by the strong Tsushima Warm Current (TWC). Current is particularly strong near the coast and has a large vertical shear during the upwelling periods, which is associated with the baroclinic tilting. Both of current and sea level are poorly coherent with wind or temperature except for the period of 4 days.

• Journal of the korean society of oceanography
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.143-155
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• 2003

Current and sea level were observed in spring 1999 by a bottom mounted ADCP and tide gauge in the central part of the South Sea of Korea. With respect to the front, the distribution of isotherms is prograde in the offshore region whereas that of isohalines is retrograde, especially in the coastal area. The combined effect results in shoaling of isopycnals at the front. This distribution corresponds to a westward coastal flow on the northern side of the front and the eastward Tsushima Warm Current (TWC) to the south, determined by vessel-mounted ADCP observations. The low-frequency current shows either alternating clockwise-counterclockwise rotation or else persistent eastward motion depending on the frontal motion. Fluctuations of wind, sea level and current are coherent at period of 3-4 days and show some characteristics of Ekman-like dynamics.