Getbol are

mudflat Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal fl ...

s, or tidal flats, coastal sedimentary systems. They are important

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s for different types of organisms, including migrating birds and marine fauna such as clams, crabs, octopuses, and snails. In 2021, four getbol sites in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

were listed as a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

due to their outstanding natural properties. Each of these sites represent a different type of getbol (estuarine type, open embayed type, archipelago type, and semi-enclosed type).

Description

The four getbol sites that are listed are the Seocheon Getbol, Gochang Getbol, Shinan Getbol and Boseong-Suncheon Getbol. Three sites are located on Korea's western coast while the Boseong-Suncheon Getbol is located on the southern coast. They were listed under criterion (x), which covers sites that "contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation." Some of the species present in getbols include the mud octopus, Japanese mud crabs,

fiddler crab The fiddler crab or calling crab may be any of more than one hundred species of semiterrestrial marine crabs in the family Ocypodidae, well known for their sexual dimorphism, sexually dimorphic claws; the males' major claw is much larger than th ...

bristle worm Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine annelid worms, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are ...

s, Stimpson's ghost crab, and Yellow Sea sand snail. There are also several species of suspension feeders, such as clams. Getbols support endangered species of migratory birds on their route across the

Yellow Sea The Yellow Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and can be considered the northwestern part of the East China Sea. It is one of four seas named after common colour terms ...

, as stopover sites on the

East Asian–Australasian Flyway The East Asian–Australasian Flyway is one of the world's great flyways. At its northernmost it stretches eastwards from the Taimyr Peninsula in Russia to Alaska. Its southern end encompasses Australia and New Zealand. Between these extremes th ...

. There were 22

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

Red List species recorded as visitors, including the critically endangered

spoon-billed sandpiper The spoon-billed sandpiper (''Calidris pygmaea'') is a small wader which breeds on the coasts of the Bering Sea and winters in Southeast Asia. This species is highly threatened, and it is said that since the 1970s the breeding population has dec ...

. Furthermore, 375 species of benthic diatoms, 118 waterbirds, 857 macrobenthos, 152 marine macroalgae, 47 endemic and 5 endangered marine invertebrate species have been recorded in the protected areas. The tidal flats developed after the

Last glacial maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent. Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eur ...

, in an interplay of rivers depositing the sediments and their dispersal by tidal currents, wave action, and wind-induced currents. They formed especially in the estuaries of large rivers and in the island coasts. As a result of

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

climate, erosion and chemical weathering in the coast is taking place in winter while the deposition of sediment is taking place in summer. Eurynorhynchus pygmeus 2 - Pak Thale

Threats

All four sites are strictly managed as Wetland Protected Area (WPA) under the Wetlands Conservation Act. Still, there are some risks that are posed to the environment by activities such as dredging of port and sea lanes, construction of land-to-island and island-to-island bridges, development of offshore wind-power generation, mining of marine aggregates, introduction of harmful or marine ecosystem disturbing species, and fishing activities of locals. The most detrimental activity is land reclamation, but such actions are strictly banned in the World Heritage Sites. Possible environmental pressures include marine and coastal pollution, climate change, coastal erosion, and oil spills.

References

External links

Official Website
(in Korean)
Getbol, Korean Tidal Flats
UNESCO Collection on Google Arts and Culture {{World Heritage Sites in South Korea World Heritage Sites in South Korea Nature conservation in South Korea Wetlands of South Korea South Chungcheong Province

Description

Threats

References

Further reading

External links