The Korea-South Pacific Ocean Research Center and its Effect on the Local Community

• Main Authors: LEE Charity M., NOH Jae Hoon, KWON Moon Sang, PARK Heung Sik
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: 鹿児島大学
• Subjects: Chuuk; climate change; economic effect; monitoring; regional cooperation; 452; Pacific; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10232/10345; https://ir.kagoshima-u.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=650; https://ir.kagoshima-u.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=650&item_no=1&attribute_id=16&file_no=1

The Korea-South Pacific Ocean Research Center (KSORC) was established on 30 May 2000 on a small island located within the Chuuk Lagoon of the Federated States of Micronesia according to a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Chuuk State government and the Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute (KORDI). Establishing a research station in an unfamiliar research territory of a tropical region, in which KORDI had to begin under very difficult economic and institutional circumstances, was a great challenge. However, with full support from the Chuuk State government and the local community, and with great enthusiasm and sacrifices from several KORDI researchers, KSORC currently has 20 local employees involved in various research and maintenance activities. Locally, both the government and the general public expect to gain economic assistance, as well as scientific knowledge, from KSORC activities. KSORC is responding to such expectations by conducting ocean research projects that may help the local economy, such as the development of full life-cycle black pearl production and other bio-resources development projects. Also, to respond to immediate concerns of island nations, oceanographic studies and a monitoring system have been initiated as KSORC's first and foremost objective since its establishment to understand the process of tropical ecosystems and provide essential scientific knowledge and baseline data needed to understand regional effects of climate change. Such continuous monitoring of ecosystems, as well as biodiversity surveys and coral monitoring, will eventually help to better understand the changes observed in Korean waters. Although the monitoring and periodic oceanographic process studies are still conducted on a small and infrequent scale due to funding issues, we are optimistic regarding the development of more active future global change studies on topics such as ocean acidification, sea level rise, coral monitoring, nitrogen cycling and primary production, mangrove and seagrass ...