• Title/Summary/Keyword: Antarctic Science

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Global Positioning System Total Electron Content Variation over King Sejong Station in Antarctic under the Solar Minimum Condition Between 2005 and 2009

  • Chung, Jong-Kyun;Jee, Geon-Hwa;Lee, Chi-Na
    • Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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    • v.28 no.4
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    • pp.305-310
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    • 2011
  • The total electron content (TEC) using global positioning system (GPS) is analyzed to see the characteristics of ionosphere over King Sejong station (KSJ, geographic latitude $62^{\circ}13'S$, longitude $58^{\circ}47'W$, corrected geomagnetic latitude $48^{\circ}S$) in Antarctic. The GPS operational ratio during the observational period between 2005 and 2009 is 90.1%. The annual variation of the daily mean TEC decreases from January 2005 to February 2009, but increase from the June 2009. In summer (December-February), the seasonal mean TEC values have the maximum of 26.2 ${\pm}$ 2.4 TEC unit (TECU) in 2005 and the minimum of 16.5 ${\pm}$ 2.8 TECU in 2009, and the annual differences decrease from 3.0 TECU (2005-2006) to 1.4 TECU (2008-2009). However, on November 2010, it significantly increases to 22.3 ${\pm}$ 2.8 TECU which is up to 5.8 TECU compared with 2009 in summer. In winter (June-August), the seasonal mean TEC slightly decreases from 13.7 ${\pm}$ 4.5 TECU in 2005 to 8.9 ${\pm}$ 0.6 TECU in 2008, and the annual difference is constantly about 1.6 TECU, and increases to 10.3 ${\pm}$ 1.8 TECU in 2009. The annual variations of diurnal amplitude show the seasonal features that are scattered in summer and the enhancements near equinoxes are apparent in the whole years. In contrast, the semidiurnal amplitudes show the disturbed annual peaks in winter and its enhancements near equinoxes are unapparent. The diurnal phases are not constant in winter and show near 12 local time (LT). The semidiurnal phases have a seasonal pattern between 00 LT and 06 LT. Consequently, the KSJ GPS TEC variations show the significant semidiurnal variation in summer from December to February under the solar minimum between 2005 and 2009. The feature is considered as the Weddell Sea anomaly of larger nighttime electron density than a daytime electron density that has been observed around the Antarctica peninsula.

Effects of Antarctic Ocean Krill Meal with NaF Oral Administration on Serum and Tissues in Rats (남극해 크릴 분말과 NaF 처리가 흰쥐의 혈청 및 조직에 미치는 영향)

  • Kang, Dong-Soo;Jin, Dong-Hyeok;Oh, Da-Young;Lee, Young-Geun;Kim, Han-Soo
    • Journal of Environmental Science International
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    • v.27 no.11
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    • pp.999-1005
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    • 2018
  • The purpose of this study was to probe the influences of krill (Euphausia superba) meal with NaF oral administration on a dose-effect relationship between fluoride levels of krill meal and serum enzyme activity such as alkaline phosphatase (ALP), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in rats fed experimental diets for 5 weeks. There were no significant decreases in the activities of ALP, AST, ALT, and LDH in sera among krill meal diet groups (KF10, KF20, KF30). However, these groups were significantly (p<0.05) lower enzyme activities than normal diet (ND) plus NaF 10 mg group (NF). The fluoride levels of serum and organ tissues (liver, brain, heart, lung, kidney) in NaF 10 mg groups (NF, KF10, KF20, KF30) were significantly increased by adding krill meal in comparison with normal diet group. The results indicate that a difficult to found toxicity to the tissues from krill meal diet groups.

The Characteristics of Physical Oceanographic Environments and Bottom Currents in the KODOS Study Area of the Northeastern Tropical Pacific (동태평양 KODOS 탐사해역에서의 물리해양환경 및 저층해류 특성)

  • Shin, Hong-Ryeol;Hwang, Sang-Chul;Jeon, Dong-Chull;Kim, Ki-Hyune;Kwak, Chong-Heum;So, Seun-Seup
    • Ocean and Polar Research
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    • v.26 no.2
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    • pp.341-349
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    • 2004
  • Hyrdography and deep currents were measured from 1997 to 1999 to investigate deep-sea environments in the KODOS (Korea Deep Ocean Study) area of the northeastern tropical Pacific. KODOS area is located meridionally from the North Equatorial Current to the boundary between the North Equatorial Current and the Equatorial Counter Current. Strong thermocline exists between 10 m and 120 m depths at the study area. Since that strong thermocline does hardly allow vertical mixing between surface and lower layer waters, vertical distributions of temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and nutrients drastically change near the thermocline. Salinity-minimum layer, which indicate the North Pacific Intermediate Water (NPIW) and the Antartic Intermediate Water (AAIW), vertically occupies vertically at the depths from 500 m down to 1400 m. The NPIW and the AAIW horizontally occur to the north and to the south of $7^{\circ}N$, respectively. The near-bottom water shows the physical characteristics of $1.05^{\circ}C$ and 34.70 psu at the depths of 10 m to 110 m above the bottom (approximately 4000-5000 m), which was originated from the Antarctic Circumpolar Water. It flows northeastwards for 2 to 4 months at the study area, and its mean velocity was 3.1-3.7 cm/s. Meanwhile, reverse (southwestward) currents appear for about 15 days with the average of 1.0-6.1 cm/s every 1 to 6 months. Dominant direction of the bottom currents obtained from the data for more than 6 months is northeastward with the average speeds of 1.7-2.1 cm/s. Therefore, it seems that deep waters from the Antarctica flow northwards passing through the KODOS area in the northeastern tropical Pacific.

Air Monitoring of Persistent Organic Pollutants Using Passive Air Samplers (Passive Air Sampler를 이용한 잔류성 유기오염물질의 대기 모니터링)

  • Choi, Sung-Deuk;Chang, Yoon-Seok
    • Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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    • v.21 no.5
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    • pp.481-494
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    • 2005
  • The monitoring of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the atmosphere is a basis for the study of the fate of POPs in multimedia environments. Recently, passive air samplers (PASs) for POPs have been developed. In this paper, we deal with the principle, properties, and applications of the PAS. The principle of PAS, which has no pump, is physical sorption of semi-volatile organic chemicals on various sorbent materials. The PAS is much smaller than a high-volume air sampler and does not need electricity. These properties of the PAS make it possible to conduct various-scaled environmental monitoring all over the world including the Arctic and Antarctic, but the major disadvantage of PAS is its long sampling periods up to 2 years. To date, four kinds of PAS have been developed: polyurethane foam (PUF), polymer-coated glass (POG), semi-permeable membrane devices (SPMDs), and XAD resin-based PAS. Among them, SPMDs have been commercialized and are most widely used now. Meanwhile, the POPs emitted from China have a large potential to influence the levels and fates of POPs in Korea. Since characteristics of PAS are quite useful to monitor long-range transport of POPs, the use of PAS is highly recommended.

Psychrophilic Extremophiles from Antarctica: Biodiversity and Biotechnological Potential

  • Bowman John P.;Abell Gyu C.J.;Nichols Carol A. Mancuso
    • Ocean and Polar Research
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    • v.27 no.2
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    • pp.221-230
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    • 2005
  • Recently there has been a rapid accumulation of knowledge of microbial life in cold and frozen ecosystems. This understanding has revealed the extensive diversity of psychrophilic prokaryotes. Cultivation-based and molecular-based surveys have been performed in Antarctic habitats ranging from glacial ice to continental shelf sediments. Results indicate that psychrophilic taxa permeate throughout the Bacteria while they represent a more mysterious element of diversity in the Archaea owing to a notable lack of cultured strains. In certain cold climate ecosystems the diversity of psychrophilic populations reach levels comparable to the richest temperate equivalents. Within these communities must exist tremendous genetic diversify that is potentially of fundamental and of practical value. So far this genetic pool has been hardly explored. Only recently have genomic data become available for various psychrophilic prokaryotes and more is required. This owes to the fact that psychrophilic microbes possess manifold mechanisms for cold adaptations, which not only Provide enhanced survival and Persistence but Probably also contributes to niche specialisation. These mechanisms, including cold-active and ice-active proteins, polyunsaturated lipids and exopolysaccharides also have a great interest to biotechnologists.

Macroalgal Flora of Maxwell Bay, King George Island, Antarctica: I. Chlorophyta, Chrysophyta and Phaeophyta

  • Kim, Ji-Hee;Chung, Ho-Sung;Oh, Yoon-Sik;Lee, In-Kyu
    • Ocean and Polar Research
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    • v.23 no.3
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    • pp.209-221
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    • 2001
  • Taxonomic composition of marine benthic algal flora was investigated in an Antarctic bay. Specimens of chlorophyte, chrysophyte and phaeophyte were collected and examined over the period from January 1988 to January 1995 from Maxwell Bay, King George Island. A total of 19 genera and 23 species (7 chlorophytes, 1 chrysophyte and 15 phaeophytes) were identified and described. A chlorophyte Lambia antarctica (Skottsberg) Delepine and a phaeophyte Alethocladus corymbosus (Dickie) Sauvageau were recorded in Maxwell Bay for the first time. Taxonomic keys for the chlorophytes and the phaeophytes were also provided.

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Benthic Organisms and Environmental Variability in Antarctica: Responses to Seasonal, Decadal and Long-term Change

  • Clarke, Andrew
    • Ocean and Polar Research
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    • v.23 no.4
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    • pp.433-440
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    • 2001
  • Marine organisms in Antarctica live in an environment which exhibits variability in physical processes over a wide range of temporal scales, from seconds to millennia. This time scale tends to be correlated with the spatial scale over which a given process operates, though this relationship is influenced by biology. The way organisms respond to variability in the physical environment depends on the time-scale of that variability in relation to life-span. Short-term variations are perceived largely as noise and probably have little direct impact on ecology. Of much greater importance to organisms in Antarctica are seasonal and decadal variations. Although seasonality has long been recognised as a key feature of polar environments, the realization that decadal scale variability is important is relatively recent. Long-term change has always been a feature of polar environments and may be a key factor in the evolution of the communities we see today.

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Records of Holocene Environmental Changes in Terrestrial Sedimentary Deposits on King George Island, Antarctica; A Critical Review

  • Tatur A.;Valle R. Del;Barczuk A.;Martinez-Macchiavello J.
    • Ocean and Polar Research
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    • v.26 no.3
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    • pp.531-537
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    • 2004
  • In this study we discuss some problems that emerged from paleolimnological and paleontological investigations of terrestrial Holocene ecosystems on King George Island (South Shetland Islands) conducted by an Argentine-Polish research group. Biological and geochemical markers commonly used in standard analytical procedures are considered insufficient in tracing overlapping records of past environmental changes preserved in peat banks, lake sediments and ornithogenic remnants. Records that might be explained by predictable natural events (related to glacio-isostatic uplift of land), roughly predictable events (ecological succession), or unpredictable events (volcanic eruptions or accidental destruction of aquatic moss) may overlap or interfinger one with another providing that signals of regional and/or global climatic changes, are hardly identifiable. A more sophisticated and more selective methods are recommended to do discrimination between records of local and regional/golbal processes in studies on Holocene climatic history of the South Shetland Islands.

Decadal Observation and Studies in the Amundsen Sea, Antarctica: Insights from Radiocarbon Values (10여년간의 서남극 아문젠해 관측과 연구: 방사성탄소동위원소 값을 중심으로)

  • Kim, Minkyoung
    • Ocean and Polar Research
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    • v.44 no.1
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    • pp.83-97
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    • 2022
  • The Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica is one of the most affected regions by climate change, but it is one of the least studied realms due to difficulties in access. Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI) launched a research project in the Amundsen Sea in 2010 using the icebreaker research vessel (IBRV) Araon and has been conducting various research initiatives. In this paper, previous researches derived from the Amundsen Sea Embayment by Korean researchers are introduced. Through previous studies, researchers have been able to interpret the environmental and biogeochemical changes according to the inflow Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) and provide information for climate models. In particular, researches using radiocarbon isotopes (14C) were introduced to understand the physical and biogeochemical mechanisms of the carbon cycle in the Amundsen Sea. Opportunely, with the construction of a second icebreaker research vessel, the direction for systematic and long-term polar data acquisition can be presented.

A Virtual Reality Exploration to the Artic and the Antarctic for Climate Change Lesson (기후변화 교육을 위한 북극과 남극 가상현실 탐험)

  • Liu, Hanqing;Park, Kyoung Shin
    • Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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    • 2020.11a
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    • pp.1115-1117
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    • 2020
  • 환경 문제는 사람들이 직접적으로 보지 못하면 쉽게 이해하기 어렵다. 그리고 오랜 시간 동안 아주 조금씩 환경 파괴가 발생하는 경우가 많기 때문에, 실질적으로 환경 문제를 체감하는 것이 쉽지 않다. 본 연구에서는 몰입형 가상현실 시스템을 이용해서 기후변화의 원인인 지구온난화로 인해 북극과 남극의 바다 빙하가 녹고 있는 문제를 체험할 수 있도록 Melting Sea Ice 를 개발하였다. 사용자들은 몰입형 가상현실 장치를 착용하고 시간의 흐름에 따라 남극 북극 빙하가 녹은 모습과 해빙에 따른 생태 환경의 변화를 직접 돌아다니면서 관찰할 수 있다. 본 연구에서는 Melting Sea Ice 가상현실 콘텐츠를 통하여 기후 변화로 인한 환경 파괴 문제를 직관적으로 인식시키고 환경 문제를 해결하고자 하는 동기부여를 목적으로 두고 있다.