The Full Picture

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National Natural Science Foundation of China

(NSFC), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

(JSPS) and the Korea Science and Engineering

Foundation (KOSEF), this ‘A3 Foresight’ programme

supports joint research conducted by researchers in

China, Japan and Korea. The three countries (A3)

work as a consortium in advancing leading-edge

research with the aim of establishing a top-level

research hub in Asia to support the GEOSS framework.

In summary, finding simplicity in complexity is the

challenge that KoFlux researchers are facing as informed

stewards who are striving to reduce complex science

issues of water and carbon cycling to fundamental ques-

tions and lay out detailed plans for the use of newly

evolving theories and technologies to address these

questions. We still know far too little on how ecohy-

drological and biogeochemical processes interact and

their dynamics are manifested at different scales. We

hope that the report presented here encourages more

ground-breaking studies aimed at bridging the gaps in

the cross-scale studies of couplings between climate

change and global biogeochemical cycles. The steward-

ship of KoFlux along with ChinaFlux, JapanFlux and

the recently launched IndoFlux, for example, is a sleep-

ing giant just waiting to be awakened under the

framework of GEOSS. Through the partnership with

other GEOSS networks, it can make serious contribu-

tions to accomplish the vision of GEOSS in the

Asia-Pacific region. We have the potential to help make

the shift to a sustainable global trajectory that will

ensure the survival and quality of life of humans and

other species that share the planet with us.

KoFlux is a domestic network of micrometeorological eddy covari-

ance flux tower sites, which monitors the exchanges of water, energy

and carbon between the atmosphere and key terrestrial ecosystems

in and around the Korean Peninsula.

Along with ChinaFlux and

JapanFlux, KoFlux is a cornerstone of AsiaFlux, the Asian arm of

the global FLUXNET,

which provides strong partnership in obser-

vation, capacity building, management and governance, and

sustainable development options of the Global Earth Observation

System of Systems (GEOSS).

As originally conceived, the KoFlux programme was intended to

last a span of ten years (from 2001 to 2011), with three major

activity phases. The publication of this article marks the begin-

ning of Phase 3. The construction of the infrastructure was the

main theme of Phase 1 (2001-2004), during which KoFlux was

launched by networking individual research sites with the limited

available resources in Korea to support AsiaFlux. The KoFlux team

developed a global network, proving that KoFlux data could be

collected locally and shared anywhere through a framework such

as GEOSS. As a byproduct of this work, the team published well

over 100 technical papers and presentations in various journals

and symposia.

Terrestrial ecosystems, particularly in Asia, are heterogeneous,

and their spatial and temporal variability influences the lower

atmospheric circulation and surface exchange of energy, water and

carbon over a wide range of scales. Accurate assessments of multi-

scale changes in our biosphere depend on the definition of

practical ‘scaling logic’ that incorporates a synergy of field

measurements, numerical modelling and remote sensing. Hence,

built upon an augmented KoFlux infrastructure such as the

‘Gwangneung Supersite,’ Phase 2 (‘HydroKorea’ and ‘CarboKorea’,

2004 to 2007) focused on linking flux footprint, ecohydrological

schemes and satellite images to bridge the gaps between different

scales of exchange processes in heterogeneous and complex land-

scapes.

Phase 3 of the KoFlux programme (HydroKorea II and

CarboEastAsia) will improve the scaling logic methodologies

developed during Phase 2 to accurately apply and monitor the

water and carbon cycles from local to regional scales in monsoon

Asia, thereby proactively providing options needed to minimize

damage and encourage sustainable use of our biosphere. To

continue to raise next generation leaders and stewards such as In-

hyuk Choi, KoFlux successfully hosted the Second AsiaFlux

Training Course on Micrometeorology in July 2007. More than 20

young scientists were invited for free training, from developing

countries such as Bangladeshi, India, Indonesia, Nepal, the

Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam along with those from

China, Japan and Korea. Numerous voluntary lecturers from differ-

ent continents (e.g. AsiaFlux, AmeriFlux) provided fundamental

and comprehensive knowledge on issues from global change

sciences to state-of-the-art flux monitoring theories and tech-

niques. Also, contributions from the private sector, such as

Campbell Scientific Inc., provided the trainees with superb hands-

on experience to develop practical skills in instrumentation and

data processing.

CarboEastAsia is another exemplary programme for capacity

building among ChinaFlux, JapanFlux and KoFlux to cope with

climate change protocols by synthesizing measurement, theory

and modelling in quantifying and understanding of carbon fluxes

and storages in East Asia. Based on an agreement between the

In-hyuk Choi trained as a hydrogeologist through the HydroKorea

project with Yonsei University, and now works as a water and

sanitation coordinator cleaning, rehabilitating and repairing wells

and pumps to provide clean water to more than 50 villages in Kenya

Photo: Mr. In-hyuk Choi

GEOSS C

OMPONENTS

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BSERVING

YSTEMS