• 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.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.259-272
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• 2013

One of the factors influencing the climate around Korea is the oceanic-atmospheric variability in the tropical region between the eastern Indian and the western Pacific Oceans. Lack of knowledge about the air-sea interaction in the tropical Indo-Pacific region continues to make it problematic forecasting the ocean climate in the East Asia. The 'Tropical Indo-Pacific water transport and ecosystem monitoring EXperiment (TIPEX)' is a program for monitoring the ocean circulation variability between Pacific and Indian Oceans and for improving the accuracy of future climate forecasting. The main goal of the TIPEX program is to quantify the climate and ocean circulation change between the Indian and the Pacific Oceans. The contents of the program are 1) to observe the mixing process of different water masses and water transport in the eastern Indian and the western Pacific, 2) to understand the large-scale oceanic-climatic variation including El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)/Warm Pool/Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO)/Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), and 3) to monitor the biogeochemical processes, material flux, and biological changes due to the climate change. In order to effectively carry out the monitoring program, close international cooperation and the proper co-work sharing of tasks between China, Japan, Indonesia, and India as well as USA is required.

• 한국석유지질학회:학술대회논문집
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• autumn
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• pp.80-80
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• 2000

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.740-749
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• 2023

The ocean plays a vital role in the international carbon cycle, absorbing human-induced atmospheric carbon and preventing further atmospheric carbon accumulation. However, while the ocean had been considered a victim of climate change, it did not receive much attention as a solution for climate change in the major agenda of UNFCCC. Recently, a growing awareness that the ocean can provide numerous potentials to handle untapped issues to address the climate crisis has arisen, which has prompted discussions to strengthen ocean-based climate action. Since 2020, UNFCCC "Ocean and climate change dialogue" has been a forum to integrate and strengthen the ocean-climate nexus. This calls for integrating ocean action into climate action and the relevant sectors. In this regard, this study examined the background and international trends of ocean-based climate action and presented the author's perspective on the scope of content that such action should pursue and the direction to achieve it. In addition, this study identified tasks of the integrated approach and advancement of co-benefit as ways to strengthen ocean-based climate action, and it suggested domestic countermeasures for the Korean marine policy on climate change based on this.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.507-516
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• 2011

Tropical Atmosphere Ocean/Triangle Trans-Ocean Buoy Network (TAO/TRITON) Array is the series of buoys for the international ocean research project, which is mostly supported by National Ocean and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA) and Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC). We can determine the effect of the equatorial and Pacific Ocean conditions on global climate change from buoy array measurement data. The TAO/TRITON array comprises around 70 measurement buoys from $10^{\circ}$ north to $10^{\circ}$ south in the tropics and between Galpagos and New Guinea. NOAA maintains ATLAS buoys in the central and eastern Pacific between $165^{\circ}E$ and $95^{\circ}W$, and JAMSTEC maintains the 12 buoys in the western Pacific along $137^{\circ}E$, $147^{\circ}E$, and $156^{\circ}E$. The KA-10-03 cruise excursion provided us with a good opportunity to obtain knowledge on oceanic buoy operation and maintenance. Further, we learned advanced techniques and know-how on buoy operation and maintenance. Once we are confident with our buoy management and maintenance techniques, both KORDI and NOAA technicians may be able to help each other when needed and share available resources.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.123-125
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• 2013

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), ocean warming and acidification are accelerating as a result of the continuous increase in atmospheric $CO_2$. This may affect the function and structure of marine ecosystems. Recently, changes in marine environments/ecosystems have been observed (increase in SST, decrease in the pH of seawater, northward expansion of subtropical species, etc.) in Korean waters. However, we still don't understand well how climate change affects these changes and what can be expected in the future. In order to answer these questions with regard to Korean waters, the project named 'Assessment of the impact of climate change on marine ecosystems in the South Sea of Korea' has been supported for 5 years by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and is scheduled to end in 2013. This project should provide valuable information on the current status of marine environments/ecosystems in the South Sea of Korea and help establish the methodology and observation/prediction systems to better understand and predict the impact of climate/marine environment changes on the structure and function of marine ecosystems. This special issue contains 5 research and a review articles that highlight the studies carried out during 2012-2013 through this project.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.401-414
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• 2009

Yellow Sea Buoy (YSB) was moored in the center of the Yellow Sea at 35$^{\circ}$51'36"N, 124$^{\circ}$34'42"E, on 12 September 2007. YSB is a large buoy of 10 m diameter, and as such is more durable against collision by ships and less likely to be lost or removed by fishing nets compared to small ordinary buoys of 2.3 m diameter. YSB is equipped with 12 kinds of oceanic and meteorologic instruments, and transfers its realtime observation data to KORDI through ORBCOMM system every 1 hour. Data on ocean winds, air temperature, air pressure, and sea temperature appear to be accurate, while water property sensors (AAQ1183), which are sensitive to fouling, are producing errors. YSB (2007), Ieodo ocean research station (2003), and Gageocho ocean research station, which was completed in October 2009, will establish the 2 degrees interval by latitude in the Yellow Sea, and they will contribute though the 'Operational Oceanography System' as the important realtime observation network.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.431-444
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• 2012

We simulated and compared present and future ocean circulation in the East China Sea using an East Asia Regional Ocean model. Mean climate states for 1990~1999 and 2030~2039 were used as surface conditions for simulations of present and future ocean circulation, which were derived from the simulations of three different global climate models, ECHAM5-MPI, GFDL-CM2.0 and MIROC3.2_hires, for the 20th century and those of 21st century as projected by the IPCC SRES A1B. East Asia Regional Ocean model simulated the detailed patterns of temperature, salinity and current fields under present and future climate conditions and their changes instead of the simple structures of global climate models. To some extent, there are consistent ocean circulation changes derived from the three pairs corresponding to the global climate model in so much as the temperature increases not only in winter but summer at both the surface and bottom and that temperature and salinity changes are prominent near the Chinese coast and in the Changjiang bank. However, the simulated circulations are different among each other depending on the prescribed atmospheric conditions not only under present climate but also with regard to future climate conditions. There is not a coincident tendency in ocean circulation changes between present and future simulations derived from the three pairs. This suggests that more simulations with different pairs are needed.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.275-286
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• 2012

Over the last 20 years there have been more than 3000 peer-reviewed papers relating to climate change and biodiversity published, and still the numbers are increasing. However, most studies focused on the impacts of climate change at population or community levels, and the results invariably reveal that there has been, or will be, a negative effect on the structure and pattern of biodiversity. Moreover, the climate change models and statistical analyses used to test the impacts are only newly developed, and the analyses or predictions can often be misled. In this review, I ask why an individual's life history is considered in the study how climate change affects biodiversity, and what ecological factors are impacted by climate change. Using evidence from a range of species, I demonstrate that diverse life history traits, such as early growth rate, migration/foraging behaviour and lifespan, can be shifted by climate change at individual level. Particularly I discuss that the optimal decision under unknown circumstance (climate change) would be the reduction of the ecological fitness at individual level, and hence, a shift in the balance of the ecosystem could be affected without having a critical impact on any one species. To conclude, I summarize the links between climate changes, ecological decision in life history, the revised consequence at individual level, and discuss how the finely-balanced relationship affects biodiversity and population structure.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.239-251
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• 2012

The food web dynamics in a coastal ecosystem of Korea were predicted with Ecosim, a trophic flow model, under various scenarios of primary productivity due to ocean warming and ocean acidification. Changes in primary productivity were obtained from an earth system model 2.1 under A1B scenario of IPCC $CO_2$ emission and replaced for forcing functions on the phytoplankton group during the period between 2020 and 2100. Impacts of ocean acidification on species were represented in the model for gastropoda, bivalvia, echinodermata, crustacean and cephalopoda groups with effect sizes of conservative, medium and large. The model results show that the total biomass of invertebrate and fish groups decreases 5%, 11~28% and 14~27%, respectively, depending on primary productivity, ocean acidification and combined effects. In particular, the blenny group shows zero biomass at 2080. The zooplankton group shows a sudden increase at the same time, and finally reaches twice the baseline at 2100. On the other hand, the ecosystem attributes of the mean trophic level of the ecosystem, Shannon's H and Kempton's Q indexes show a similar reduction pattern to biomass change, indicating that total biomass, biodiversity and evenness shrink dynamically by impacts of climate change. It is expected from the model results that, after obtaining more information on climate change impacts on the species level, this study will be helpful for further investigation of the food web dynamics in the open seas around Korea.