• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.319-326
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• 2007

Coastal marine ecosystems continue to suffer unrelenting pressures from human population growth, increased development, and climate change. Moreover, these systems' capacity for self-repair is declining with such increases in anthropogenic production of various pollutants. What is the present health status or condition of the coastal ecosystem? If our coastal areas are unhealthy, which conditions are considered serious? To answer such questions, the United States, Canada, and Australia are currently assessing coastal ecosystem health using systematic monitoring programs as well as identifying and implementing management plans to improve the health of degraded coastal ecosystems. To evaluate marine environments, Korea is currently using a limited number of factors to estimate water quality. In fact, we are ill-prepared for assessing coastal ecosystem health because no biologically specific criteria are in place to measure the responses to various pollutants. We should select ecosystem-specific indicators from physicochemical stressors and evaluate the subsequent biological responses within each ecosystem. Furthermore, a set of practical indicators should be generated by considering the characteristics and uses of a local coastal area and the key issues at hand. The values of indicators should be presented as indices that allow understanding by the general public as well as by practitioners, policy makers, environmental managers and other stakeholders.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.95-105
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• 2022

Busan, where the coastal ecosystem health is deteriorating due to high development pressure and intensity of use, needs ecosystem management that considers humans and the natural environment together for sustainable use and ecosystem preservation of the coastal areas. In this study, the InVEST model was applied to assess the habitat status of the coastal land and coastal sea to manage the ecosystem based on habitats. As a result of the assessment of the coastal land, the habitat quality of Gadeok-do, Igidae, and Sinseondae, Gijang-gun are high, and Seo-gu, Jung-gu, Dong-gu, and Suyeong-gu are low. In the case of the coastal sea, the habitat risk of the Nakdong river estuary is low, and some areas of Yeongdo-gu, Saha-gu, Gangseo-gu are high. Therefore, for the sustainable use and preservation of coastal ecosystems, it is necessary to prepare ecosystem-based management measures to improve damaged habitats and reduce threats. In addition, the impact on coastal seas should be fully considered when planning coastal land development. The results of the InVEST habitat quality model in coastal land show similar tendencies to the biotope and environmental conservation value assessment map. The results of the habitat risk assessment in the coastal sea are expected to be utilized to identify habitats in the coastal sea and management of threat factors.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.327-337
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• 2007

Plankton communities have close relationships with environmental changes in water columns. Thus, the use of plankton as a biological tool for assessing the marine ecosystem health may be effective. Major issue regarding coastal pollution has been usually recognized as phytoplankton blooms or red tides caused by the eutrophication, an increase in concentration of inorganic nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. However, in order to understand the effects of the overall pollution on marine ecosystem, the organic pollutants as well as the inorganic nutrients should be also considered. For understanding the effects of the organic pollution, among the planktonic organisms, heterotrophic bacteria, heterotrophic flagellates and ciliates should be investigated. Generally, there are three approaches for assessing the marine ecosystem health using the plankton taxa or plankton communities. The first one is a community-based approach such as diversity index and chlorophyll a concentration which are common in analysis of the plankton communities. The second is an indiviual-based approach which is to monitor the pollution indicative species. This approach needs one's ability to identify the plankton to species level. The last approach is a bioassay of toxicity, which can be applied to the plankton. A pilot study in Masan Bay was conducted to assess the effects of the inorganic and organic pollution. In this article, a new approach using plankton communities was tentatively presented as a biological tool for assessing the ecosystem health of Masan Bay.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.319-322
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• 2003

Integrated coastal management (ICM) requires robust indicators that gauge the 'health' of the coast in relation to environmental, social and economic activities. Biological indicators(bio-indicators) offer a signal of the biological condition in an ecosystem. Using bio-indicators as an early warning of pollution or degradation in an ecosystem can help sustain critical resources. This review examines the rationale and value of selecting species as bio-indicators of human induced changes within estuaries, using examples from both the western and southern coast. It include a range of biological parameters relating to particular species, groups of species and biological processes. The use of these indicators is critically reviewed and the presence or absence of a relevant framework for their use in Korean ICM programs is discussed.

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.267-272
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• 2007

Environmental and anthropogenic changes affect the health and stability of marine ecosystem. In this study we aimed to identify molecular biomarkers for ecotoxicological pollutants risk assessment in the rockfish (Sebastes schlegeli). We designed primers based on conserved sequences by multiple alignments of target genes from related species, and cloned the partial cDNAs of cytochrome P450 (CYP1A1), glutathione S-transferase (GST), metallothionein (MT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), ubiquitin (UB), vitellogenin (VTG) and $\beta$-actin by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) from S. schlegeli. Northern blot results indicated that these six genes expressions were significantly induced by benzo[a]pyrene (BaP, 1 ${\mu}M$) and that the level of each of their transcripts increased in BaP-exposed rockfish in a time-dependent manner. This study suggests that transcriptional changes in these six genes may be used for monitoring environmental exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.109-117
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• 2008

Application of biomarkers for assessing marine environmental health risk is a relatively new field. According to the National Research Council and the World Health Organization, biomarkers can be divided into three classes: biomarkers of exposure, biomarkers of effect, and biomarkers of susceptibility. In order to assess exposure to or effect of the environmental pollutants on marine ecosystem, the following set of biomarkers can be examined: detoxification, oxidative stress, biotransformation products, stress responses, apoptosis, physiological metabolisms, neuromuscular responses, reproductions, steroid hormones, antioxidants, genetic modifications. Since early 1990s, several biomarker research groups have developed health indices of marine organisms to be used for assessing the state of the marine environment. Biomarker indices can be used to interpret data obtained from monitoring biological effects. In this review, we will summarize Health assessment Index, Biomarker Index, Bioeffect Assessment Index and Generalized Linear Model. Measurements of biomarker responses and development of biomarker index in marine organisms from contaminated sites offer great a lot of information, which can be used in environmental monitoring programs, designed for various aspects of ecosystem risk assessment.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.406-425
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• 2019

To observe the seasonal fluctuation of the meiobenthic fauna community around the coastal area of Jeju island, 20 stations were selected and seasonal surveys were conducted. Three-replicate meiobenthic samples were collected from each station in April, July, and November 2017; February, May, August, and November 2018; and February in 2019, in a total of eight months from 2017 to 2019. The total density of meiobenthos at each station ranged from 733 to 2,505 ind. 10 cm^-2. The month in which the highest habitat density appeared in most stations was April 2017 and the month in which the lowest habitat density was seen was February 2019. Nematodes were the most dominant faunal group among the representative 13 meiofaunal groups at all stations. The subdominant groups were benthic harpacticoid copepods and nauplius. The nematode/copepod (N/C) ratio, reflecting the health indices within the ecosystem, varied from 0.02 to 87.40 over the entire season and the average station values ranged from 2.00 to 16.80. The lowest N/C ratio value was found in April 2017 (0.02) and the highest N/C ratio was found at Station 11 in February 2019, which was 87.40, indicating the highest level of pollution. Seasonal and regional meiobenthos community structure similarity was divided into three groups through group analysis and multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) analysis, which showed that the meiobenthos community structure was affected by seasonal variations, rather than by regional differences.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.45-52
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• 2011

Seawater circulations between a bay and the open sea play an important role to make the ecosystem healthy, providing nutrient and oxygen to the benthic environments and cleaning up pollutions. The health of the benthic environment in a bay is closely related to the flushing characteristics of seawater. In this study, to estimate the seawater distribution and circulation characteristics of benthic environment in the Geunso bay, we calculated the hydraulic turn-over time by a hydro-hypsographic analysis. Digital elevation model (DEM) which was generated using waterline method based upon remotely sensed data and water depth of the subtidal zone estimated by echo-sounding survey was applied to the hydro-hypsograhic analysis through a geographic information system (GIS) spatial analysis. The results showed that 95% of the total area of the bay was tidal flat and the hydraulic turn-over time was 1.03 tidal cycle, which indicated that the flushing characteristics of the Geunso bay was very good. Geunso bay was revealed to occupy relatively wide area of benthic environment and to have relatively big tidal range over other domestic and foreign coastal environment, therefore it could have a better seawater circulation characteristics. This result can be effectively applied as fundamental information to establish the system for a quantitative estimate of health of coastal environment in the west coast of Korea and manage the ecosystem in benthic environments.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.145-155
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• 2014

Since greenhouse gas emissions increase continuously, the authorities have needed climate change countermeasure for adapting the acceleration of climate change damages. According to "Framework Act on Low Carbon, Green Growth", Korean local governments should have established the implementation plan of climate change adaptation. These guidelines which is the implementation plan of climate change adaptation should be established countermeasure in 7 fields such as Health, Digester/Catastrophe, Agriculture, Forest, Ecosystem, Water Management and Marine/Fisheries. Basically the Korean local governments expose vulnerable financial condition, therefore the authorities might be assessed the vulnerability by local regions and fields, in order to establish an efficient implementation plan of climate change adaptation. Based on this concepts, this research used 3 methods which are LCCGIS, questionnaire survey analysis and analysis of existing data for the multiphasic vulnerable assessment. This study was verified the correlation among 7 elements of climate change vulnerability by 3 analysis methods, in order to respond climate change vulnerability in rural areas, Seocheon-gun. If the regions were evaluated as a vulnerable area by two or more evaluation methods in the results of 3 methods' comparison and evaluation, those areas were selected by vulnerable area. As a result, the vulnerable area of heavy rain and flood was Janghang-eup and Maseo-myeon, the vulnerable area of typhoon was Janghang-eup, Masan-myeon and Seo-myeon. 3 regions (i.e. Janghang-eup, Biin-myeon, Seo-myeon) were vulnerable to coastal flooding, moreover Masan-myeon, Pangyo-myeon and Biin-myeon exposed to vulnerability of landslide. In addition, Pangyo-myeon, Biin-myeon and Masan-myeon was evaluated vulnerable to forest fire, as well as the 3 sites; Masan-myeon, Masan-myeon and Pangyo-myeon was identified vulnerable to ecosystem. Lastly, 3 regions (i.e. Janghang-eup, Masan-myeon and Masan-myeon) showed vulnerable to flood control, additionally Janghang-eup and Seo-myeon was vulnerable to water supply. However, all region was evaluated vulnerable to water quality separately. In a nutshell this paper aims at deriving regions which expose climate change vulnerabilities by multiphasic vulnerable assessment of climate change, and comparing-evaluating the assessments.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.71-87
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• 2023

Climate change causes ocean warming, ocean acidification, sea-level rise, dynamic coastal risk, change of ecosystem structure and function, and degradation of ecosystem services. Not only that, but it has negatively impacted the well-being of people, society, and culture, including food security, water resources, water quality, livelihood, health, welfare, infrastructure, transport, tourism, recreation, and so on, especially by particularly degrading indigenous communities and generating an inequitable distribution of benefits and costs. As pointed out here, these adverse impacts of climate change on the ocean have been emphasized at the international and national levels. In contrast, the ocean field has been neglected in the climate change conversation for too long. However, since the UNFCCC COP 25, the ocean has been drawn into the discussion as a solution to address climate change. Moreover, the U.S. Congress recently unveiled a bill called the 'Ocean-Based Climate Solution Act, OBCSA' that reflects the new paradigm of the international regime. The comprehensive legislative bill includes elements related to climate inequity, a blue economy, and a community-led bottom-up policy mechanism, which will have a significant bearing on the ocean-climate legal system. Therefore, this study reviews the OBCSA and deduces implications with regard to the ocean-climate legal system in Korea.