• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.71-82
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• 2024

It would be advantageous to grow legume forage crops in order to increase the productivity and sustainability of sloped croplands in Hamkyongbukdo. In particular, the identification of potential cultivation areas for alfalfa in the given region could aid decision-making on policies and management related to forage crop production in the future. This study aimed to analyze the climate suitability of alfalfa in Hamkyongbukdo under current and future climate conditions using the Fuzzy Union model. The climate suitability predicted by the Fuzzy Union model was compared with the actual alfalfa cultivation area in the northern United States. Climate data obtained from 11 global climate models were used as input data for calculation of climate suitability in the study region to examine the uncertainty of projections under future climate conditions. The area where the climate suitability index was greater than a threshold value (22.6) explained about 44% of the variation in actual alfalfa cultivation areas by state in the northern United States. The climatic suitability of alfalfa was projected to decrease in most areas of Hamkyongbukdo under future climate scenarios. The climatic suitability in Onseong and Gyeongwon County was analyzed to be over 88 in the current climate conditions. However, it was projected to decrease by about 66% in the given areas by the 2090s. Our study illustrated that the impact of climate change on suitable cultivation areas was highly variable when different climate data were used as inputs to the Fuzzy Union model. Still, the ensemble of the climate suitability projections for alfalfa was projected to decrease considerably due to summer depression in Hamkyongbukdo. It would be advantageous to predict suitable cultivation areas by adding soil conditions or to predict the climate suitability of other leguminous crops such as hairy vetch, which merits further studies.

• Atmosphere
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.27-35
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• 2010

This study analyzes the climate change in Korea and its impact on the occurrence of forest fire events. The forest fire occurrences in Korea tend to concentrate around large cities. In addition, the spatial distribution of the forest fire occurrence seems to agree with local climate conditions. Though the occurrence of the forest fire shows strong interannual variation, it also exhibits a positive trend. Because the forest fire frequently occurs during early spring, we examined long term climate variability in Korea for the early spring seasons. The climate change in Korea generally has brought warmer, drier, and less precipitable conditions during the early spring. The changes of the atmospheric conditions provide favorable condition for the forest fire. The climate changes in Korea also depict distinct spatial variability according to the atmospheric variables. We compared the regional trend of the fire occurrence with the climate trends. The results show the sharpest growing in the forest fire occurrence over southwest of Korea. This study suggests that the decrease in the precipitation day might affect the sharp increasement of the forest fire occurrence in the southwest of Korea.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.43 no.10
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• pp.851-864
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• 2010

We investigated the sensitivity of Korean streamflows to climate variation. Historical dam inflows and climate data for eight multi-purpose dam sites were collected and examined to determine key factors affecting streamflow change. The results show that annual streamflow primarily responds to change in precipitation rather than temperature. However, the combination of less precipitation and high temperature induces a more serious decrease in streamflow than does similar precipitation and with low temperature. This result indicates that Korean water resources could be more vulnerable to drought due to increasing temperature caused by global warming. To estimate spatial differences in climate sensitivity, we also calculated climate elasticity for 109 mid-size watersheds using streamflow simulated by the Precipitation Runoff Modeling System (PRMS). Climate elasticity ranges over 1.5~1.9, indicating that a +20% increase in annual precipitation leads to a +30~+38% increase in annual streamflow.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.221-235
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• 2011

This study summarizes previous studies on the climate change over Korea. Several studies on climate change in the neighboring countries as well as the entire globe are reviewed. Temperature data obtained from modern observational system show an increasing trend beyond the natural variations. The increasing rate of sea surface temperature (SST) over the ocean basins surrounding Korea is higher than that of the global-mean SST. The large increase in the SST over the oceans surrounding Korea may enhance tropical cyclone activity and heavy rainfall frequency in Korea. In addition, it has been reported that the changes in large scale circulation associated with global climate change influence the spatio-temporal variation of monsoon including Changma in summer and cold surges in winter. Although all researches on the subject were not fully discussed in this study due to short period of preparation, allowed pages, and authors' limited knowledge, we expect that this summarized reviews would be helpful to understand climate changes over Korea and the surrounding regions.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.582-590
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• 2018

Although there are many studies of the effect of climate change on the breeding phenology and community diversity of amphibians, the studies of variations in reproductive population size of individual species according to climate change are still lacking. We examined the effect of climate change on the reproductive population size of Rana huanrenensis and Hynobius leechii, which bred in mountain valleys, by surveying the reproductive population of the two species between 2005 and 2012 and analyzing the correlation between the variation of the outdoor population and the surrounding climate change factors, obtained from a meteorological observatory located at 5.6 km from the study site. The size of the reproductive population of the two species commonly fluctuated with aan pproximately 3.5-year cycle. That of H. leechii, in particular, decreased significantly over eight years. The air temperature tended to more closely relate with the reproductive population size of R. huanrenensis as was the case of the precipitation with that of H. leechii. The yearly mean highest temperature and spring mean temperature variation consistently decreased over the eight years, and the latter was related with the significantly decreased size of H. leechii reproductive population. These results showed that recent climate change directly could affect the reproductive population size of amphibians, particularly H. leechii, which breeds in mountain valleys.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.135-145
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• 2005

This study was conducted to investigate the characteristics of meteorological environment variation before and after construction of Nak-dong river estuary barrage. We used meteorological data(air temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, visibility, wind) at Gimhae airport meteorological station. The construction of river estuary barrage can change climate at the neighboring districts and influence human's health and vegetable. The construction of Nakdong river estuary barrage brought rise of temperature, decrease of relative humidity and increase of poor visibility frequency.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.3 no.3_4
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• pp.173-179
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• 2000

Recent changes in the coastal sea surface temperatures (SST) in Korea are studied by time series analysis of daily SST data during the last 60 years (1936-1995) at 18 coastal observation stations of the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute. The climate of coastal SST in Korea are rapidly changing in recent years. General trends of coast SST changes in Korea are as follows. The annual averages of SST are increasing. The annual ranges of SST variation are decreasing. The winter SST are increasing while the summer SST have a decreasing tendency. Climatic changes in coastal SST in recent 30 years (1965-1995) are more pronounced than those in the last 60 years (1936-1995). The observed trend of coast SST implies that the climate in Korea shows a tendency to shift from temperate zone to subtropical zone.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2001

Sea surface temperature derived from infrared images of NOAA satellites showed a warm eddy in the East Korean Bight(EKB) or Donghan Man during the winter 1997${\sim}$2000. To describe the warm eddy in the EKB, hydrographic data collected in 1934 and 1936 were also analyzed. The center of the warm eddy was located at about $39^{\circ}N$ and $129^{\circ}E$. The temperature and salinity of the eddy was about $4.0^{\circ}C$ and 34.0 psu, respectively, at 100m depth. The eddy rotated anticyclonically with a geostrophic current speed of about 20 cm/s. The mean state calculated from the data of 1922${\sim}$1960 showed the existence of a warm eddy over the EKB in winter. The eddy persists until late spring, and disappears from the previous location in summertime, only to be seen again in autumn.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2013.05a
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• pp.326-328
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• 2013

This study compares the periods of cold weather concrete determined by the codes regulated by KCI (Korean Concrete Institute) and AIJ (Architectural Institute of Japan). For the calculation of the periods of cold weather concrete, the climate data for last 5 years obtained from Korean weather forecast station is used. Calculated data indicated that the period of cold weather concrete by AIJ code is longer than that by KCI code. Although global warming causes the decrease of the period of winter season, the temperature differences are large in Korea. Therefore, it is required that the current KCI code should be accordingly upgraded to reflect the weather variation in Korea over time.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.295-310
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• 2016

In this study, changes in daily temperature range were investigated using daily maximum and minimum temperatures of Busan and Daegu for last 81 years (1934-2014), and also characteristics of daily temperature range and seasonal fluctuations by urbanization were examined. First, elapsing changes showed a lower decreasing trend in Busan ($0.32^{\circ}C$) than Daegu ($1.28^{\circ}C$) for last 81 years. Daily temperature range showed the highest rise in winter in both Busan and Daegu. Second, daily temperature range due to urbanization showed that Busan had a pronounced decreasing trend before urbanization meanwhile Daegu showed the same trend after urbanization. On seasonal changes, the results of Busan showed a decreasing trend in summer before urbanization, and in autumn after urbanization. For Daegu, the results showed a decreasing trend in spring before urbanization, and in winter after urbanization. Seasonal fluctuations of Busan showed little difference in the pre and post-urbanization, except in winter and summer. There was large difference in daily temperature range in winter after urbanization, and in summer before the urbanization. The results in Daegu showed that there was decreasing trend of daily temperature range in all seasons after urbanization.