Pohang University of Science and Technology · Earth and Planetary Sciences
Professor Kitack Lee's research lab specializes in marine biogeochemistry, with a focus on the global carbon cycle, oceanic uptake of anthropogenic CO₂, and the impacts of atmospheric deposition on marine nutrient cycles. The lab employs high-precision field measurements and advanced inverse modeling techniques to quantify dissolved inorganic carbon, alkalinity, and nutrient dynamics across ocean basins. Key research directions include developing algorithms for estimating surface alkalinity from salinity and temperature, assessing net community production using salinity-normalized carbon inventories, and evaluating the role of atmospheric nitrogen deposition in enhancing marine productivity in sensitive regions such as the South China Sea.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
A simple function of sea surface salinity (SSS) and temperature (SST) in the form A T = a + b (SSS − 35) + c (SSS − 35) 2 + d (SST − 20) + e (SST − 20) 2 fits surface total alkalinity (A T ) data for each of five oceanographic regimes within an area‐weighted uncertainty of ±8.1 μ mol kg −1 (1 σ ). Globally coherent surface A T data (n = 5,692) used to derive regional correlations of A T with SSS and SST were collected during the global carbon survey in the 1990s. Such region‐specific A T algorit
The relative abundance of nitrate (N) over phosphorus (P) has increased over the period since 1980 in the marginal seas bordering the northwestern Pacific Ocean, located downstream of the populated and industrialized Asian continent. The increase in N availability within the study area was mainly driven by increasing N concentrations and was most likely due to deposition of pollutant nitrogen from atmospheric sources. Atmospheric nitrogen deposition had a high temporal correlation with N availab
Global net community production is determined, for the first time, from the decrease in salinity (S)ߚnormalized total dissolved inorganic carbon (NC T = C T × 35/S) inventory in the surface mixed layer corrected for changes due to net airߚsea CO 2 exchange and diffusive carbon flux from the upper thermocline. Changes in the mixed layer NC T inventory are estimated using a derived annual cycle of NC T and global records of the mixed layer depth. The annual NC T cycle is deduced from regional algo
This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the basin‐wide inventory of anthropogenic CO 2 in the Atlantic Ocean based on high‐quality inorganic carbon, alkalinity, chlorofluorocarbon, and nutrient data collected during the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) Hydrographic Program, the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS), and the Ocean‐Atmosphere Carbon Exchange Study (OACES) surveys of the Atlantic Ocean between 1990 and 1998. Anthropogenic CO 2 was separated from the large pool of d
The impacts of anthropogenic nitrogen (N) deposition on the marine N cycle are only now being revealed, but the magnitudes of those impacts are largely unknown in time and space. The South China Sea (SCS) is particularly subject to high anthropogenic N deposition, because the adjacent countries are highly populated and have rapidly growing economies. Analysis of data sets for atmospheric N deposition, satellite chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), and air mass back trajectories reveals that the transport of N
A coherent representation of carbonate dissociation constants and measured inorganic carbon species is essential for a wide range of environmentally important issues such as oceanic uptake of anthropogenic CO 2 and carbon cycle depictions in ocean circulation models. Previous studies have shown varying degrees of discordance between calculated and measured CO 2 ‐system parameters. It is unclear if this is due to errors in thermodynamic models or in measurements. In this work, we address this iss
High quality total inorganic carbon ( C T ) measurements made in the major ocean basins as part of the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Ocean Atmosphere Carbon Exchange Study (NOAA/OACES), and the Department of Energy/World Ocean Circulation Experiment (DOE/WOCE) programs are related to sea surface temperature (SST) and nitrate (NO 3 − ). A simple two‐parameter function with SST and NO 3 − of the form NC T = a + b SST + c SST 2 + d NO 3 −
We review data on the absorption of anthropogenic CO2 by Northern Hemisphere marginal seas (Arctic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Sea of Okhotsk, and East/Japan Sea) and its transport to adjacent major basins, and consider the susceptibility to recent climatic change of key factors that influence CO2 uptake by these marginal seas. Dynamic overturning circulation is a common feature of these seas, and this effectively absorbs anthropogenic CO2 and transports it from the surface to the interior of the
Abstract Addition of the increased anthropogenic nitrogen (NO x and NH y ) emitted from northeast Asian countries to the Yellow and East China seas and coastal waters around Korea has resulted in an unparalleled increase in the nitrate (N) concentration relative to the phosphate (P) and silicate (Si) concentrations in the upper ocean. We found that for the Yellow Sea the increase in N over P was largely explained by increased atmospheric nitrogen deposition, whereas for the northern East China S
Nitrate availability is generally considered to be the limiting factor for oceanic new production and this concept is central in our observational and modeling efforts. However, recent time‐series observations off Bermuda and Hawaii indicate a significant removal of total dissolved inorganic carbon (C T ) in the absence of measurable nitrate. Here we estimate net carbon production in nitrate‐depleted tropical and subtropical waters with temperatures higher than 20°C from the decrease in the sali
Laboratory measurements of the components of the carbonate system (pH, fCO2, TCO2 and TA) were made on Gulf Stream seawater and Certified Reference Material (CRM) as a function of salinity (33–37), temperature (0–40°C) and the ratio TA/TCO2 (1.02 to 1.25). The pH (±0.002) was determined by spectrophotometry; the fCO2 (±2 μatm) with an infrared detector; the TCO2 (±2μol kg−1) by coulometry; and theTA (±2μmol kg−1) by potentiometric titrations. The results were used to examine the internal consist
During the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Ocean Atmosphere Carbon Exchange Study expedition in the eastern North Atlantic in summer 1993, measurements of four CO 2 parameters, along with hydrographic properties, were made: fugacity Of CO 2 , ƒCO 2 (measured at 20°C and in situ); p H (measured at 20°C); total inorganic carbon, TCO 2 ; and total alkalinity, TA. The major objective of this cruise was to establish a benchmark against which future measurements of the transient inva
Abstract We recorded and analyzed the atmospheric dimethyl sulfide (DMS) mixing ratios at a remote Arctic location (Svalbard; 78.5°N, 11.8°E) during phytoplankton bloom periods in the years 2010, 2014, and 2015 and found varying regional relationships between the atmospheric DMS and the extent of exposure of the air mass to the phytoplankton biomass in the ocean surrounding the observation site. The DMS production capacity of the Greenland Sea was estimated to be a factor of 3 greater than that
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