National Nakdong River Biological Resources Institute launches first groundwater ecosystem survey team

The National Nakdong River Biological Resources Institute held an inaugural ceremony Saturday for its first Groundwater Ecosystem Biological Survey Team at its facilities in Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province.

At the ceremony, Institute Director Yong Seok-won presented citizen scientist appointment certificates to 22 team members, who then began surveying organisms in groundwater ecosystems.

The team will operate from this month through 2028, with members working alongside researchers to survey and document organisms and their habitats in groundwater ecosystems, including freshwater hyporheic zones and caves.

The team's first joint field survey is scheduled for October in the Sangju and Mungyeong areas of North Gyeongsang Province.

Biological and habitat data gathered through the team's activities will undergo classification and verification by researchers before being used as foundational material for securing national biological resources and building a K-groundwater biodiversity map.

"The Groundwater Ecosystem Biological Survey Team is a citizen science initiative in which members of the public directly participate in surveying and documenting organisms," said Ryu Si-hyeon, head of the institute's Diversity Conservation Research Division. "We will operate the team in a way that links citizen scientists' field observations with researchers' expertise to deepen understanding of groundwater biodiversity and contribute to securing national biological resources."