• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.110-121
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• 2022

Leaf functional traits widely have been used to understand the environmental controls of resource utilization strategy of plants along the environmental gradients. By using key leaf functional traits, we quantified the relationships between leaf traits and local climate throughout the distributional range of Rhododendron caucasicum Pall. in eastern and western Georgian mountains (the South Caucasus). Our results revealed, that all traits showed high levels of intraspecific variability across study locations and confirmed a strong phenotypic differentiation of leaf functional variation along the east-west longitudinal gradient in response to the local climate; out of the explored climatic variables, the moisture factors related to precipitation and number of precipitation and dry days for winter and growth seasons were more strongly related to leaf trait variation than the elevation and air temperature. Among studied leaf traits, the leaf specific area (SLA) showed the highest level of variability indicating the different resource utilization strategies of eastern and western-central Rh. caucasicum individuals. High SLA leaves for western-central Caucasian individuals work in relatively resource-rich environments (more humid in terms of precipitation amount and the number of precipitation days in winter) and could be explained by preferential allocation to photosynthesis and growth, while eastern Caucasian samples work in resource-poor environments (less humid in terms of precipitation amount and the number of precipitation days in winter) and the retention of captured resources is a higher priority appearing in a low SLA leaves. However, more evidence from a broader study of the species throughout its distribution range by including additional environmental factors and molecular markers are needed for firmer conclusions of intraspecific variability of Rh. caucasicum.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.76-84
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• 2022

Background: Climate and livestock grazing are key agents in determining current Mongolian steppe vegetation communities. Together with plant coverage or biomass, palatability of steppe community is regarded as a useful indicator of grassland degradation, in particular, at grazing hotspots in arid and semi-arid grasslands. This study analyzed relationships between livestock grazing pressure and steppe vegetation palatability at three summer pastures with different aridity (dry, xeric, and mesic) and livestock numbers (1,100, 1,800, and 4,100 sheep units, respectively). At each site, it was surveyed coverage, biomass, and species composition of different palatability groups (i.e., palatable [P], impalatable [IP], and trampling-tolerant [TT]) along a 1-km transect from grazing hotspots (i.e., well) in every July from 2015 to 2018. Results: In results, total vegetation coverage increased with wetness, 7 times greater at mesic site than dry one in averages (33.1% vs. 4.5%); biomass was 3 times higher (47.1 g m^-2 vs. 15.7 g m^-2). Though P was the dominant palatability group, the importance of IP in total coverage increased with aridity from mesic (0.6%) to dry (40.2%) sites. Whereas, TT increased with livestock numbers across sites. Locally, IP was observed more frequently near the wells and its spatial range of occurrence becomes farther along the transects with aridity across sites from mesic (< 100 m) to dry (< 700 m from the well). Conclusions: Our results showed that the importance of IP and its spatial distribution are different at both local and regional scales, indicating that the palatability parameters are sensitive to discern balance between selective-grazing demand and climate-driven foraging supply in Mongolian rangelands.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.493-500
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• 2011

Recently, there has been an increase in the number of disaster victims locally due to climate change and a variety of frequently occurring natural disasters. The damage caused by abrupt weather change in local area by typical weather forecasting techniques is very limited and difficult. Recently local area weather monitoring system using wireless sensor network technology has been very actively studied. Thus an IEEE 802.15.4-based weather field server to measure and monitor the local weather changes was designed and developed in this study. The proposed weather field server utilizes a wireless sensor node and weather sensors to collect weather information such as temperature, humidity, illumination, dew point, barometric pressure, and water level. The integrated weather sensor board was designed to respond quickly to weather changes, and provide feedback to the server PC. Each weather information is analyzed in the server PC to establish a program to monitor and analyze the local area or the area of abrupt climate change in order to provide warning signals in case of disaster events in local.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.570-582
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• 2017

In recent years, national and local government's air quality management and climate change adaptation policy has been significantly strengthened. The measures in the two policies may be in a relationship of trade-off or synergy to each other. Greenhouse gases and air pollutants are mostly emitted from the same sources of using considerable amounts of fossil fuels. Co-benefits, in which either measure has a positive effect on the other, may be maximized by reducing the social costs and by consolidating the objectives of the various policies. In this study, the co-benefits were examined by empirically analyzing the effects of air pollutants and greenhouse gas emission reduction, social cost, and cost effectiveness between the two policies. Of the total 80 projects, the next 12 projects generated co-benefits. They are 1) extend restriction area of solid fuel use, 2) expand subsidy of low-$NO_x$ burner, 3) supply hybrid-vehicles, 4) supply electric-vehicles, 5) supply hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, 6) engine retrofit, 7) scrappage of old car, 8) low emission zone, 9) transportation demand management, 10) supply land-based electric of ship, 11) switching anthracite to clean fuel in private sector, 12) expand regional combined-energy supply. The benefits of air pollutants and greenhouse gas-related measures were an annual average of KRW 2,705.4 billion. The social benefits of the transportation demand management were the highest at an annual average of KRW 890.7 billion, and followed by scrappage of old cars and expand regional combined-energy supply. When the social benefits and the annual investment budgets are compared, the cost effectiveness ratio is estimated to be about 3.8. Overall, the reduction of air pollutants caused by the air quality management policy of Gyeonggi-do resulted in an annual average of KRW 4,790.2 billion. In the point sources management sector, the added value of $CO_2$ reduction increased by 4.8% to KRW 1,062.8 billion, while the mobile sources management sector increased by 3.6% to KRW 3,414.1 billion. If social benefits from $CO_2$ reduction are added, the annual average will increase by 7.2% to KRW 5,135.4 billion. The urban and energy management sectors have shown that social benefits increase more than twice as much as the benefits of $CO_2$ reduction. This result implies that more intensive promotion of these measures are needed. This study has significance in that it presents the results of the empirical analysis of the co-benefits generated between the similar policies in the air quality management and the climate change policy which are currently being promoted in Gyeonggi-do. This study suggested that the method of analyzing the policy effect among the main policies in the climate atmospheric policy is established and the effectiveness and priority of the major policies can be evaluated through the policy correlation analysis based on the co-benefits. It is expected that it could be a basis for evaluation the efficiency of the climate change adaptation and air quality management policies implemented by the national and local governments in the future.

• Atmosphere
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.389-400
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• 2013

Chugugi and Wootaeck rainfall data of Gyeonggi Province from 1830 to 1893 were restored from the "Gaksadeungnok" that is the government records between the central government and the local during the Joseon Dynasty. The restored data periods were 27, 10, 9 and 14 years for Kwangju, Suwon, Ganghwa and Gaeseong, and the total number of restored data was 655 for the Chugugi and 427 for the Wootaek, respectively. The variation pattern of monthly rainfall by Chugugi was investigated and it showed that the monthly rainfall more than 300 mm was recorded 25 times with 18 times in July, 5 times in August and 3 times in June. The cases of more than 500 mm were also recorded 8 times with the maximum 787 mm at the Kwangju in July 1862, showing the similar pattern to Seoul. The monthly mean rainfall for the Gyeonggi Province were 259 mm in July, 204 mm in August and 121 mm in June, which were about one third of that of Seoul. The correlation analysis between the Chugugi and Wootaek data was carried out to derive the quantitative values of Wootaek observations. It revealed that 1 'Ri' of Wootaek observation was equal to approximately 1 'Chon (Chugugi unit)' or 20 mm, while 1 'Seo' was very variable between 2 and 6 'Boon (Chugugi unit)' with the median value approximately 3 'Boon' or 6 mm. Recalculated Wootaek data showed that the monthly rainfall in July, August, and June were 289 mm, 154 mm, and 124 mm, respectively. Through this study, some features of the rainfall variation pattern during 1830~1893 were figured out, and quantitative interpretation of Wootaek data became possible based on the restored rainfall data from the "Gaksadeungnok". Though many pages of the book have been lost during the last hundreds years, "Gaksadeungnok" is still very meaningful and of practical use, for it contains plenty of the local data throughout the whole country during the latter part of Joseon Dynasty. Therefore, further studies are strongly recommended on the restoration of climate related data and on the climatic tendency of 19th century of Korean peninsular.

• Atmosphere
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.377-390
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• 2020

Not only emissions, but also atmospheric circulation is a key factor that affects local particulate matters (PM) concentrations in Korea through ventilation effects and transboundary transports. As part of the atmospheric circulation, air stagnation especially adversely affects local air quality due to weak ventilation. This study investigates the large-scale circulation related to air stagnation over Korea during winter and projects the climate change impacts on atmospheric patterns, using observed PM data, reanalysis and regional climate projections from HadGEM3-RA with Modified Korea Particulate matter Index. Results show that the stagnation affects the PM concentration, accompanied by pressure ridge at upper troposphere and weaken zonal pressure gradient at lower troposphere. Downscaling using HadGEM3-RA is found to yield Added-Value in the simulated low tropospheric winds. For projection of future stagnation, SSP5-8.5 and SSP1-2.6 (high and low emission) scenarios are used here. It has been found that the stagnation condition occurs more frequently by 11% under SSP5-8.5 and by 5% under SSP1-2.6 than in present-day climate and is most affected by changes in surface wind speed. The increase in the stagnation conditions is related to anticyclonic circulation anomaly at upper troposphere and weaken meridional pressure gradient at lower troposphere. Considering that the present East Asian winter monsoon is mainly affected by change in zonal pressure gradient, it is worth paying attention to this change in the meridional gradient. Our results suggest that future warming condition increase the frequency of air stagnation over Korea during winter with response of atmospheric circulation and its nonlinearity.

• Atmosphere
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.171-183
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• 2007

Trends of daily maximum and minimum temperatures in major cities of South Korea (Seoul, Busan, Incheon, Daegu, and Ulsan) during the past 40 years (1961-2000) were investigated. Temperature records for the Chupungryeong station were compared with those of the large cities because of the rural environment of the station. There were distinct warming trends at all stations, although the warming rates depend on each station's local climate and environment. The warming rates in Korea are much greater than the global warming trends, by a factor of 3 to 4. The most increasing rate in daily maximum temperature was at Busan with $0.43^{\circ}C$ per decade, the most increasing rate in daily minimum temperature was at Daegu with $0.44^{\circ}C$ per decade. In general, the warming trends of the cities were most pronounced in winter season with an increasing rate of $0.5^{\circ}C$/decade at least. Diurnal temperature range shows positive or negative trends according to the regional climate and environmental change. The frequency distribution of the daily temperatures for the past 40 years at Seoul and Chupungryeong shows that there have been reductions in cold day frequencies at both stations. The results imply that the impacts on human health might be positive in winter and adverse in summer if the regional warming scenario by the current regional climate model reflects future climate change in Korea.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.395-404
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• 2008

We explore the linkage between the long term variability of the Sun and earth's climate change by analysing periodicities of time series of solar proxies and global temperature anomalies. We apply the power spectral estimation method named as the periodgram to solar proxies and global temperature anomalies. We also decompose global temperature anomalies and reconstructed total solar irradiance into each local variability components by applying the EMD (Empirical Mode Decomposition) and MODWT MRA (Maximal Overlap Discrete Wavelet Multi Resolution Analysis). Powers for solar proxies at low frequencies are lower than those of high frequencies. On the other hand, powers for temperature anomalies show the other way. We fail to decompose components which having lager than 40 year variabilities from EMD, but both residuals are well decomposed respectively. We determine solar induced components from the time series of temperature anomalies and obtain 39% solar contribution on the recent global warming. We discuss the climate system can be approximated with the second order differential equation since the climate sensitivity can only determine the output amplitude of the signal.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.17-27
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• 2012

Climate is generally accepted as one of the major determinants of plants distribution. Plants are sensitive to bioclimates, and local variations of climate determine habitats of plants. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors affecting the distribution of narrow-range plants in South Korea using National Survey of Natural Environment data. We developed species distribution models for 6 plant species using climate, topographic and soil factors. All 6 plants were most sensitive to climatic factors but less other factors at national scale. Meliosma myriantha, Stewartia koreana and Eurya japonica, distributed at southern and coast region in Korea, were most sensitive to precipitation and temperature. Meliosma myriantha was mostly effected by annual precipitation and precipitation of driest quarter, Stewartia koreana was effected by annual precipitation and elevation, and Eurya japonica was affected by temperature seasonality and precipitation of driest quarter. On the other hand, Spiraea salicifolia, Rhododendron micranthum and Acer tegmentosum, distributed at central and northern inland in Korea, were most sensitive to temperature and elevation. Spiraea salicifolia was affected by mean temperature of coldest quarter and annual mean temperature, Rhododendron micranthum and Acer tegmentosum were affected by mean temperature of warmest quarter and elevation. We can apply this result to future plant habitat distribution under climate change.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.1023-1032
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• 2004

Rapid progress in urbanization has resulted in a change of the micro climate, especially in the urban area. In order to investigate the phenomenon of the heat island in the residential micro climate, a field survey was carried out by 4 sets of the residential type in Jeonju under typical winter synoptic condition. As analytic methode, it is used the comparison on the relation of the Land-to-Coverage Rate to Heat Island and Oxygen Concentration. And as a key question it is asked how stable characteristics of the micro climate will result from the survey of the Heat Island and the Oxygen Concentration, used as indicator. To ensure the trustworthy result of research, it is calculated the critical influence of the wind velocity and the Land-to-Covearage Rate. As a result of comparative analysis, it could be confirmed that the local temperatures in all sets of the residential type were higher than the average temperature in Jeonju. But the housing type A 'exclusive use for housing zone' has relativly the most stable and best living condition. On the contrary the residential type B and D has the worst toward the oxygen concentration in the time zone 9-12 a.m., which didn't reach the minimum of the oxygen concentration $20.5{\%}.$ It means that the higer the development and population density is, the worse is the situation of the Quality of Life in the residential types in accordance with the heat island and oxygon con­centration.