The seasonal variations of picoplankton including Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus and Picoeukayotes around Ulneung Island were investigated by flow cytometry in spring, summer and autumn in 2006. All groups of picoplankton showed clear seasonal patterns in population abundance. Among the group, Synechococcus showed the most prominent seasonal variation during the study period. The maximal abundance of Synechococcus occurred in summer and the lowest in autumn. The seasonal distribution of Prochlorococcus displayed the reverse tendency with that of Synechococcus. The abundance of Prochlorococcus ranged from 2.9×103 cells/ml in summer to 311×103 cells/ml in autumn. However, the seasonal distribution of Picoeukaryotes was shown to be relatively constant, and the maximal abundance was 81.5×103 cells/ml in summer. The highest abundance of Picoeukaryotes occurred in summer and the lowest in autumn and the seasonal distribution in abundance of Picoeukaryotes showed a similar trend with that of Synechococcus. The estimated total carbon biomass of picoplankton were ranged from 74.7 mgC/m2 to 1,055.9 mgC/m2. The highest total carbon biomass occurred in summer, but lowest occurred in autumn. The pattern of the contribution of three picoplankton to total autotrophic picoplankton carbon is different. The contribution of Synechococcus to total autotrophic picoplankton carbon is increased to 75%, but the contribution of Prochlorococcus dropped to 12% in summer. The contribution of Picoeukaryotes is ranged from 24% in summer to 72.5% in spring.

Daily time series of longshore sea surface temperature (SST) data at 3 stations, sea surface SST data at 58 stations in the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsular from 2001 to 2005 were used in order to study the temporal and spatial variations of the upwelling coastal cold water occurred in summer season. When the cold water occurred, SST has been decreased more than -5℃ in a day. The cold water occurred frequently in the eastern coastal areas of Korea such as Ulgi, Kampo, Jukbyun. Daily variations of cold water temperature were quantified using remote control buoy system at Kijang in the southeastern coastal water from July to August in 2004. Hourly variations of SST occurred around ±3℃ when cold water disappeared at Kijang. There were close relationship between the strength of East Korean Warm Current, North Korean Cold Water and the scale of spatio-temporal cold water variations in summer season.

The magnitudes of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies at 13 coastal stations along the Korean peninsula in the summer and winter for the past 29years (1969-1997) are more larger than those in the spring and autumn. The periods of positive SST anomalies (negative SST anomalies) longer than 1℃ were 75(74.5) months in the eastern coast of Korea, 47.8(51.6) months in the southern coast of Korea and 69.5(69.8) months in the western coast of Korea during the past 348 months (1969-1997). The predominant periods of the low-pass filtered monthly SST anomalies are 3 years or 13 months, even another predominant period is 24 months. The spatial variation of SST anomalies were confined by regional seas of the Korean peninsula, such as the East Sea, the South Sea and the West Sea itself.