Study on the Characteristics of Surface Ozone Distributions and the Ozone Critical Levels to Vegetation in the South Korea

Concentration of tropospheric ozone (03) was investigated for the South Korea. And then the critical ozone levels, expressed as AOT40 (Accumulated exposure over a threshold of 40 ppb) to vegetation have been used in this region within the UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) Convention on Long-Range Trans-boundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP). Hourly ozone concentration data from 1996 to 2001 at 26 air monitoring stations was used to estimate the exceedance of the critical levels. It was calculated for daylight hours for each station, and mapped using surface interpolation over the South Korea. The critical levels of ozone have shown the highly exceeded value in the Gyeonggi region, southern coastal region and central inland of the South Korea. It was some different from the typical ozone distribution which represented highly in the western inland and coastal regions. The area exceeding the critical level for crops was founded to be more than 40% of the whole South Korean territory. While that for trees was to be about 17% of the South Korea. The critical ozone critical level was based upon data from experiments on specific species, and thus may not be fully representative for all types of vegetation. Nevertheless, the critical level and its exceedance of the ozone concentration would be one of the useful tools for international agreements on abatement strategies to prevent ecosystem damage.