• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2015

Whilst it is clear that increasing temperatures from global environmental change will impact the positions of alpine treelines, it is likely that a range of regional and local scaled factors will mediate the overall impact of global scale climate drivers. We summarized 12 categories of abiotic and biotic factors as 4 groups determining treeline positions. First, there are global factors related to climate-induced growth limitation and carbon limitation. Second, there are seven regional and local factors related to treeline dynamics including frost stress, topography, water stress, snow, wind, fire and non-fire disturbance. Third, species-specific factors can control treeline dynamics through their influence on reproduction and life history traits. Fourth, there are positive feedbacks in structuring the dynamics of treelines. Globally, the commonly accepted growth limitation hypothesis is that growth at a treeline is limited by temperature. Meanwhile, positive feedbacks between canopy cover and tree establishment are likely to control the spatial pattern and temporal dynamics of many treelines. The presence of non-linear dynamics at treelines has implications for the use of treelines as barometers of climate change because the lagged responses and abrupt shifts inherent in non-equilibrium systems may combine to mask the overall climate trend.

• 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.

• Atmosphere
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.483-492
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• 2007

The objective of this study is to describe scientific progresses in understanding of climate change in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment reports, contributed by Working group I. Since 1988, IPCC's four assessment reports showed significant improvements in understanding of observed climate change, drivers of climate change, detection and attribution of climate change, climate models, and future projection. The results are based on large amounts of observation data, sophisticated analyses of data, improvements of climate models and the simulations. While the First Assessment Report (FAR) in 1990 reported that a detectable anthropogenic influence on climate has little observational evidence, the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) reported that warming of the climate system is unequivocal and is very likely due to human influences. It is also noted that anthropogenic warming and sea level rise would continue for centuries due to the time scales associated with climate processes and feedbacks, even if greenhouse gas were to be stabilized.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.10-15
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• 2000

Goals, research direction, and operational structure of the Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics (GLOBEC), which is co-sponsored by the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) and the Intergovemmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), are described. Following the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) activities on the lower trophic level in ecosystem during 1980s-90s, scientists have considered the responses of the mid and higher trophic levels to the environmental or climate change. The scientific steering committee of the GLOBEC published the implementation plan in 1999, and the IGBP will support the GLOBEC as one of its core projects for 10 years. The GLOBEC programme has four major components: the research foci, framework activities, regional programmes, and integrating activity. The core of GLOBEC research is the four research foci: retrospective analyses, process studies, predictive and modelling capabilities, and feedbacks. Currently, four regional programmes have been undergoing in the world ocean: Southern Ocean GLOBEC (SO-GLOBEC), Small Pelagic Fishes and Climate Changes (SPACC), Cod and Climate Change (CCC), and Climate Change and Carrying Capacity (CCCC). Also, national GLOBEC programmes were already established in 9 nations.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.239-247
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• 2011

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the corresponding national low-carbon policy should be grounded on the scientific understanding of climate sensitivity to the increase in CO2 concentration. This is, however, precluded by the fact that current estimates of the climate sensitivity highly vary. To understand the scientific background, limitations, and prospects of the climate sensitivity study, this paper reviews, as objectively as possible, the most recent results on the sensitivity issue. Theoretically, the climate sensitivity hinges on climate feedbacks from various atmospheric and surface physical processes. Especially cloud and sea-ice processes associated with shortwave radiation are known to have largest uncertainty, resulting in an inaccurate estimation of climate sensitivity. For this reason, recent observational studies using satellite data suggest sensitivity lower than or similar to those estimated by climate models (2-5 K per doubled CO2).

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.401-410
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• 2001

Global climate change will alter many such properties of the Southern Ocean as temperature, circulation, stratification, and sea-ice extent. Such changes are likely to influence the species composition and activity of Antarctic marine microorganisms (protists and bacteria) which playa major role in deter-mining the concentration of atmospheric $CO_2$ and producing precursors of cloud condensation nuclei. Direct impacts of climate change on Antarctic marine microorganisms have been determined for very few species. Increasing water temperature would be expected to result in a southward spread of pelagic cyanobacteria, coccolithophorids and others. Growth rates of many species would be expected to increase slightly but nutrient limitation, especially micronutrients, is likely to result in a negligible increase in biomass. The extent of habitats would be reduced for those organisms presently living close to the upper limit of their thermal tolerance. Increased UVB irradiance is likely to favour the growth of those organisms tolerant of UVB and may change the trophic structure of marine communities. Indirect effects, especially those as a consequence of a diminution of the amount of sea-ice and increased upper ocean stratification, are predicted to lead to a change in species composition and impacts on both trophodynamics and vertical carbon flux.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.149-157
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• 2019

In this study, we investigate the associations between the solar variability and teleconnection indices, which influence atmospheric circulation and subsequently, the spatial distribution of the global pressure system. A study of the link between the Sun and a large-scale mode of climate variability, which may indirectly affect the Earth's climate and weather, is crucial because the feedbacks of solar variability to an autogenic or internal process should be considered with due care. We have calculated the normalized cross-correlations of the total sunspot area, the total sunspot number, and the solar North-South asymmetry with teleconnection indices. We have found that the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) index is anti-correlated with both solar activity and the solar North-South asymmetry, with a ~3-year lag. This finding not only agrees with the fact that El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ episodes are likely to occur around the solar maximum, but also explains why tropical cyclones occurring in the solar maximum periods and in El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ periods appear similar. Conversely, other teleconnection indices, such as the Arctic Oscillation (AO) index, the Antarctic Oscillation (AAO) index, and the Pacific-North American (PNA) index, are weakly or only slightly correlated with solar activity, which emphasizes that response of terrestrial climate and weather to solar variability are local in space. It is also found that correlations between teleconnection indices and solar activity are as good as correlations resulting from the teleconnection indices themselves.

• The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.42-53
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• 2009

In response to the abrupt climate change in recent years, atmosphere, ocean and cryosphere are reported to be altered. In addition to these changes, the land surface is also gradually changing and its impact on the global climate may not be negligible. The land surface change impacts the global climate via two ways, the biogeochemical and biophysical feedbacks. The biogeochemcial change in the land surface modifies the atmospheric trace-gas concentrations through a change in photo synthesis, while biophycal changes of the land surface alters the surface albedo, which influences the amount of the short wave radiative heat fluxes. There are many examples in the past that the change in land surface greatly influences the global climate change. The recent IPCC report has suggested that the climate change will occur rather abrubtly in the near future. In order to predict the future climate accurately, the impact of the land surface change is fully considered.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.38 no.7
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• pp.469-480
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• 2017

Controversy has surrounded the potential impacts of phytoplankton on the tropical climate, since climate models produce diverse behaviors in terms of the equatorial mean state and El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) amplitude. We explored biophysical impacts on the tropical ocean temperature using an ocean general circulation model coupled to a biogeochemistry model in which chlorophyll can modify solar attenuation and in turn feed back to ocean physics. Compared with a control model run excluding biophysical processes, our model with biogeochemistry showed that subsurface chlorophyll concentrations led to an increase in sea surface temperature (particularly in the western Pacific) via horizontal accumulation of heat contents. In the central Pacific, however, a mild cold anomaly appeared, accompanying the strengthened westward currents. The magnitude and skewness of ENSO were also modulated by biophysical feedbacks resulting from the chlorophyll affecting El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ and La $Ni{\tilde{n}}a$ in an asymmetric way. That is, El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ conditions were intensified by the higher contribution of the second baroclinic mode to sea surface temperature anomalies, whereas La $Ni{\tilde{n}}a$ conditions were slightly weakened by the absorption of shortwave radiation by phytoplankton. In our model experiments, the intensification of El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ was more dominant than the dampening of La $Ni{\tilde{n}}a$, resulting in the amplification of ENSO and higher skewness.