KOREA
National Contact	Sung Yang
Email	sryanggwangju.ac.kr
Website	None
Full Reports (pdf)	Nov 02

Current status of SOLAS planning

The seas adjacent to Korean Peninsula are the Yellow Sea, the northern part of the East China Sea, and the East Sea (Sea of Japan), are all greatly influenced by the changing status of the lower atmosphere. The Yellow Sea and the East China Sea are less than a few hundred meters deep and the East Sea is over a few thousand meters. These marginal seas of the northwest Pacific Ocean lie in the downwind side of the Eurasian continent. The chemistry of the lower atmosphere in the Northeast Asia is characterized by the winter-spring Yellow Dust and high concentration of nitrate and ammonia arising from the arid region of the northwestern China and Mongolia and emissions of exhaust gas and contaminants from large industry and large population in the region. Yellow Dust events supply significant amount of dust particles to the sea floor in the Yellow Sea and East Sea. They constitute approximately 10-20% of the total bulk sediment in the regional seas. Currently, a group of scientists are studying the effect of the Yellow Dust on the productivity of the ocean as a piggyback project on KORDI (Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute) vessels. They are trying to develop a scientific program on the effect of the yellow sand on marine environment on a long-term scale and a proposal has been submitted to Korean MOMAF (Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries). Their sampling platforms are ships of opportunity and two coastal stations operating since 1997. The contents of the projects include (i) the effect of iron in the aerosol on the primary productivity of the sea during the low and high dust periods (ii) the coupling of high dust event accompanying cold front movement in the atmosphere with the primary productivity in the sea, (iii) the effect of atmospheric nitrate and ammonia on the primary productivity in the sea, (iii) the effect of aerosol inputs of trace metals on the chemical composition of seawater, (iii) the effect of the aeolian land-derived fungi on the macro-algal community in the sea, (iv) the ballast effect of the mineral particles on the sinking particle flux in the deep sea.

Future plans for national SOLAS activities

There is inter-governmental concern among China, Korea and Japan about the effect of the yellow sand. However, most of the inter-governmental concerns are how to reduce the amount of yellow sand occurring in the remote areas of inland China, and not much effort has been put into the effect on the marine environment. The effect of the Yellow Dust on the primary productivity of the ocean may cancel out the negative effect on the terrestrial environment. National SOLAS activities will be focused on the coupling of the Yellow Dust phenomena, the oceanic response (as mentioned above), and draw down of atmospheric CO2 by the Fe-fertilization and/or artificial upwelling of nutrient rich deep water in the East Sea. The latter project will be supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Opportunities for national participation in international SOLAS activities

We would like to participate in the international SOLAS activities in the Fe-fertilization, aerosol nitrate impact on the marine ecosystem. Further we welcome the participation of other interesting parties in our study sites and cruises. If the above proposal gets funded, it would be feasible to participate on international SOLAS activities. If not, we will have to look for other funding sources.

KORDI SOLAS (formerly, Atmospheric Inputs to the northeastern Asian Marginal Seas (AIMS) group) committee members:

Co-Chairs: S. R. Yang (phytoplankton physiology, Kwangju University)
G. H. Hong (carbon cycle, KORDI)

Members: Y.H. Ahn (ocean color, KORDI)
K.T. Chung (upper mixed layer, KORDI)
D. B. Yang (organic contaminants, KORDI)
S.H. Kim (paleoceanography, KORDI)
C.S. Chung (Rn gas dynamics, KORDI)
Y.I. Kim (Radioisotope tracers, KORDI)