• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.75-86
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• 2005

Acoustic survey for density and biomass estimate of Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, was conducted in the large area between South Shetland Islands and South Orkney Islands, during November 30-December 30, 2002. Considering oceanographic and geographic properties, the study area was divided into six sub-regions. Acoustic system and frequency used in the survey were quantitative echo sounder (Simrad Ek 500) and 38, 120-kHz split beam transducers. In order to discriminate krill aggregations in all acoustic signal, difference of mean volume backscattering strength $({\Delta}MVBS)$ method of the two frequencies was introduced. Averaged krill density for the overall surveyed area was $23.5g/m^2$, and spatially averaged estimates of krill density were $44.9g/m^2$ (north of the South Shetland Islands), $30.3g/m^2$ (Bransfield Strait), $11.3g/m^2$ (near the Elephant Island), $13.6g/m^2$ (north of the Elephant Island), $18.1g/m^2$(between Elephant Island and South Orkney Islands) and $21.7g/m^2$(northwest of the South Orkney Islands) at each sub-area. In the two sub-regions with surveyed area, estimated krill biomass in the north of the Elephant Island was 0.315 million tones with a CV of 18.35% $(6,766mile^2)$, and between Elephant Island and South Orkey Islands was 1.26 million tones with a CV of 9.45% $(20,299mile^2)$. As a whole, the krill density in the early summer season was low level, comparing with that of January-February. This suggested that major krill swarms in the around South Shetland Islands were reached in the mid-summer seasons from western part of the Antarctic Peninsula, and the low krill density also affects the density variation of the krill between Elephant Island and South Orkney Islands.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.77-95
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• 2001

Temperature, salinity, nutrients, chlorophyll-a, and primary production were measured within the upper 200 m water column in the area around the South Shetland Islands in January, 2000. Surface temperature was relatively high in the Drake Passage north of the South Shetland Islands and low in the northeastern area of the Antarctic Peninsula. In contrast, surface salinity was low in the Drake Passage and increased toward the Antarctic Peninsula, reaching the maximum value in the northeastern area of the Antarctic Peninsula. Surface nutrients were low in the Drake Passage and high in the area near the South Shetland Islands. Surface chlorophyll-a was also low in the Drake Passage and near the Antarctic Peninsula and high in the area of the northern King George Island. The study area could be classified as four geographical zones based on the characteristic shape of the T/S diagrams;the Drake Passage, the Bransfield Strait, the mixed zone, and the Weddell Sea. Each geographical zone showed apparently different physical, chemical, and biological characteristics. Phytoplankton biomass was relatively low in the Drake Passage and the Weddell Sea and high in the Bransfield Strait and the mixed zone. The low phytoplankton biomass in the Weddell Sea could be explained by the low water temperature and deep surface mixing down to 200 m. The high grazing pressure and low availability of iron could be responsible for the low phytoplankton biomass in the Drake Passage.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.137-147
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• 1999

Penguins are one of the key constituent organisms in the Antarctic ecosystem. A total of 18 species of penguins occur only in the southern hemisphere from the Galapagos Archipelago to southern area off Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, South America, and the islands scattered in the Southern Ocean to the coast along the Antarctic Continent. In the Antarctic Treaty area, there are only 5 species of penguins such as Emperor (Aptenodytes forsteri), Gentoo (Pygoscelis papua ellsworthi), Adelie (P. adeliae), Chinstrap (p. antarctica), and Macaroni (Eudyptes chrysolophus) penguins. Two additional species, the King (Aptenodytes patagonicus patagonicus) and Rockhopper (Eudyptes chrysocome) penguins, however, are distributed within the Antarctic Convergence. In the vicinity of king Sejong Station located in King George Island, the South Shetland Islands off the Antarctic Peninsula, 5 species are observed, among which 2 Pygoscelis species such as the Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins hatch their eggs and raise their chicks at the rookery 2km south offing Sejong Station in summer. Adelie penguins hatch their chicks in other place in King George Island. One Emperor penguin roamed on the frozen Maxwell Bay which has been frozen every two or three years with the approximate thickness of 60cm. And one Macaroni penguin also visited the rookery in summer. We should carry out researches on the penguins occurring in the vicinity of King Sejong Station to monitor the environmental changes around King Sejong Station and the South Shetland Islands.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.140-143
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• 2017

A winged midge species, Parochlus steinenii is one of the most abundant species in Antarctica, which is distributed over a wide area from the South American continent to the South Shetland Islands in Antarctica. It was dispersed into islands in the South Shetland Islands from the South American continent, and it adapted to a variety of environments and settled. This species, therefore, is a good model organism to explain the evolutionary process of Antarctic terrestrial fauna. Nevertheless, there are few genetic studies on this species, which are necessary for understanding the genetic diversity, population structure, etc. Here, we developed and characterized 14 polymorphic microsatellite markers. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 5. The observed and expected heterozygosities were in the range of 0.024 to 0.561 and 0.024 to 0.535, respectively. Identifying genetic differences between populations, they are suitable markers for researches investigating genetic diversity and population structure of P. steinenii, which provide us with clues to dispersion, evolution and ecology of this species.

• 한국해양학회지
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.74-83
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• 1990

The similarity in Mesozoic geology between the Antarctic Peninsula and South America indicates the possibility that they had situated along the same tectonics line before the separation of southwestern Gondwanaland. The igneous activity around the Antarctic Peninsula, including the South Shetland islands, can be correlated with the South American Cordillera Orogeny due to the subduction of Farallon/Phoenix plate until late Mesozoic. However igneous activity in Tertiary correlates with the tectonics movement accompanying the formations of Drake passage and Scotian sea. The south Shetland islands form a Jurassic-Quaternary miasmatic island arc on the sialic basement of schist and deformed sedimentary rocks. Forming of the South Shetland Islands arc began during the latest Jurassic or earliest Cretaceous from the southwestern part of the archipelago. The igneous activity migrated northeasterly and continued in most areas until late Tertiary. The entire arc-forming period, between late Jurassic and late tertiary times, was characterized by emplacement and eruption of magmas of intermediate between island-arc tholeiite and calc-alkaline types. However, Quaternary volcanic rocks show strong alkaline affinities which corresponds to the switch from compressional to intra: plate tensional tectonics. The rocks of late Cretaceous to Tertiary, mainly found in King George Island, consist of lava of basalt to andesite and intercalated pyroclastic rocks. Some of the volcanic rocks, which ofter called quartz-pyrite lodes'are severely altered and include much content of calcite,silica and pyrite.The stratographic succession of King George Island can be divided into two formation:Fields formation and Hennequin formation.The Fildes formation crops out at the west side of Admiralty Bay n King George Island,while the Hennequin formation at the east side of the bay.These two formtions are thought to be formed contempiranceously.The Fildes formation consists of altered olivine-basalt and basaltic andestie, whereas the Hennequin formation consists of fine-grained hypersthene-augite-andesite.Both formations interclate pyroclastic rocks.

• 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.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2004

Sedimentary facies and high-resolution echo facies were analyzed to elucidate sedimentation pattern of the late Quaternary glacial-marine deposits in the northern continental margin of the South Shetland Islands. Six sedimentary facies are classified, based on grain texture and sedimentary structures in gravity cores. The high-resolution (3.5 ㎑) echo characters are classified into 6 echo facies on the basis of clarity, continuity, and shape of bottom and subbottom echoes together with seafloor topography. Distribution of the echo and sedimentary facies suggest that there was a significant change in sedimentation pattern between the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and subsequent glacier-retreating period. When the grounded glaciers extended to the present shelfbreak during LGM, coarse-grained subglacial tills were widespread in the shelf area, and deep troughs in the shelf were carved beneath the fast-flowing ice steam. As the glacial margin retreated landward after LGM, dense meltwater plumes released from the retreating ice-front were funneled along the glacier-carved troughs, and accumulated channel- or cannyon-fill deposits in the shelf and the upper to mid slope. At that time, slope sediments seem to have been reworked by slope failures and unsteady contour currents, and further transported by fine-grained turbidity currents along the South Shetland Trench. After the glacial retreat, sediments in the shelf and slope areas have been mainly introduced by persistent (hemi) pelagic settling, and fine-grained turbidity currents frequently occur along the axis of the South Shetland Trench.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.22-32
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• 2002

Mineral composition and chemistry of the clay minerals in the three cores from the continental shelves of South Shetland Islands (NCS09) and Anberse Island (GC98-2), and from the fjord of King George Island (A10-01) were determined by X-ray diffraction and electron microprobe analysis in search of the distributions and origin of the clay minerals in the Antarctic marine sediments. Smectite content is relatively high in NCS09 regardless of core depths (av. 8.3%), but low in GC98-2 (1.1%). In Al0-01, smectite content is higher in the upper section than in the lower section. Kaolinite was not detected from all the cores in this study Yellow to yellowish green clay granules were commonly scattered in the sediments of NCS09 cores. The clays contain 16.97% and 2.53% $Fe_2$$O_3$와 $K_2$O. Average structural formula of the clay indicates ferrian beidellite . The (Fe, K)-rich smectite of NSC09 must have been derived from relatively young basaltic volcanics altered by reaction with seawater near Shetland Islands by glacial erosion or eolian process related to volcanic eruption. GC98-2 nearer to Antarctic continent is very low in smectite content. In A10-01, the lower diamicton was deposited from the glacial erosion of smectite-free ancient volcanics in the interior of King George Island, while the upper section was derived from the smectite-bearing terrestrial debris and eolian materials after retreat of glaciers in Marian Cove and ice cover in Barton Peninsula. Thehigh K contents of smectites suggest the interstratification of illite and smectite layers, which might be observed by future TEM lattice fringe imaging.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.379-388
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• 2001

Ch1 a abundance, Ch1 a-specific productivity and phytoplankton growth rate in each size fraction (pico, $<2{\mu}m$; nano, $2-10{\mu}m$; micro, > $10{\mu}m$) in the waters around the South Shetland Islands (Ant-arctic Peninsula Area) were analysed. Although Ch1 a-specific productivity and growth rate were highest in micro-size fractions, ChI a abundance was highest in pico-size fractions. Selective removal of nano- and micro-size phytoplankton especially by krill and salp grazing, but not limitation of phytoplankton growth, seemed to be the major reason to explain this miss match between productivity and abundance of the phytoplankton community.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.157-162
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• 2007

Geophysical survey has been conducted on the continental margin off the South Shetland Islands aboard R/V Onnuri of KORDI in 1992/1993. About 800-line km of 96-channel reflection data have been acquired. On the seismic section, BSR with strong reflectivity and negative polarity has been found at 700 ms below the sea bottom. BSR is considered as the base of gas hydrates and AVO analysis was performed to study physical properties along BSR. True amplitude recovery and surface consistence amplitude were applied to seismic data and angle gathers were obtained. AVO gradient and AVO intercept are calculated on every CDP gather. Section of AVO intercept show strong reflectivity and negative polarity on BSRs and stronger continuity of BSR than stacked section. Cross plot of intercept-gradient indicates that the lower layer below BSR is filled with free gas.