Metagenomic characterization of viral communities in Goseong Bay,Korea

In this study, seawater samples were collected from Goseong Bay, Korea in March 2014 and viral populations were examined by metagenomics assembly. Enrichment of marine viral particles using FeCl₃ followed by next-generation sequencing produced numerous sequences. De novo assembly and BLAST search showed that most of the obtained contigs were unknown sequences and only 0.74% of sequences were associated with known viruses. As a result, 138 viruses, including bacteriophages (87%), viruses infecting algae and others (13%) were identified. The identified 138 viruses were divided into 11 orders, 14 families, 34 genera, and 133 species. The dominant viruses were Pelagibacter phage HTVC010P and Roseobacter phage SIO1. The viruses infecting algae, including the Ostreococcus species, accounted for 9.4% of total identified viruses. In addition, we identified pathogenic herpes viruses infecting fishes and giant viruses infecting parasitic acanthamoeba species. This is a comprehensive study to reveal the viral populations in the Goseong Bay using metagenomics. The information associated with the marine viral community in Goseong Bay, Korea will be useful for comparative analysis in other marine viral communities.     

Application of MK-PRISM for interpolation of wind speed and comparison with co-kriging in South Korea

The spatial distribution of wind speed is important information required to understand climate-related regional phenomena. This paper presents the Modified Korean Parameter-elevation Regression on Independent Slopes Model (MK-PRISM) as a method for spatial interpolation of monthly wind speeds. A database of gridded monthly mean wind speeds with a spatial resolution of 1 km for the period of March 2011–February 2014 is constructed by MK-PRISM. Wind speed observation data collected from the 529 to 641 meteorological stations in South Korea were utilized as the input data for interpolation. The wind speed distribution estimated by co-kriging is used for comparison with the MK-PRISM results. Research demonstrates that the efficiency difference between the two models, MK-PRISM and co-kriging, is insignificant. The Kling and Gupta efficiencies of both models were 0.68-0.78 and the root mean square errors (RMSEs) were 0.44-0.68 m/s. The spatial distribution of wind speeds, however, differs between MK-PRISM and co-kriging, which can be considered a reflection of the influence of topographic features such as terrain convexity, aspect, and coastal proximity. MK-PRISM can perform more appropriately to represent the phenomena where similar wind speeds appear continuously along ridges and coastlines. This suggests that a knowledge-based approach that considers topographic features can be successfully applied to the interpolation of monthly or seasonal wind speeds, similar to temperature and precipitation. The wind speed distribution generated by MK-PRISM can be utilized as important data for different geographical studies.     

High-resolution seismic study of modern fine-grained deposits: Inner shelf off the southeastern coast of Korea

The geometry and internal structures of modern sediments on the inner shelf off the southeastern coast of Korea were investigated by means of analysing high-frequency (3.5 kHz) seismic records. The records reveal a wedge-shaped sediment body, tapering off toward the sea. On the basis of reflection patterns, the sediments can be classified into two units; foreset (prodelta) unit and bottomset unit, consisting of sandy muds and clays, respectively. The lateral transition from foreset to bottomset deposits suggests a prograding delta system of the Nakdong River since the late Holocene.