The closure of university campuses and the suspension of international student mobility programs have been common as a result of COVID-19, though not all programs have closed their doors. In the Republic of Korea, the relatively successful management of the pandemic allowed borders to remain open, nor have any national lockdowns been incurred to date, making student mobility possible throughout the pandemic. In Spring 2020, however, the Korean government started requiring quarantine-upon-arrival for all travelers from abroad. The sudden announcement, in addition to subsequent constantly changing policy provisions, created confusion; information from Korean government agencies and embassies both locally and abroad were conflicting. The fast approaching Fall 2020 semester would see students arrive en masse with no knowledge of how the quarantine process would work or in what ways (e.g., financially, psychologically, emotionally) the mandatory isolation period might affect them.

Agrivoltaic systems, also called solar sharing, stated from an idea that utilizes sunlight above the light saturation point of crops for power generation using solar panels. The agrivoltaic systems are expected to reduce the incident solar radiation, the consequent surface cooling effect, and evapotranspiration, and bring additional income to farms through solar power generation by combining crops with solar photovoltaics. In this study, to evaluate if agrivoltaic systems are suitable for viticulture, we investigated the microclimatic change, the growth of vines and the characteristics of grape grown under solar panels set by planting lines compared with ones in open vineyards. There was high reduction of wind speed during over-wintering season, and low soil temperature under solar panel compared to those in the open field. There was not significant difference in total carbohydrates and bud burst in bearing mother branches between plots. Despite high content of chlorophyll in vines grown under panels, there is no significant difference in shoot growth of vines, berry weight, cluster weight, total soluble solid content and acidity of berries, and anthocyanin content of berry skins in harvested grapes in vineyards under panels and open vineyards. It was observed that harvesting season was delayed by 7-10 days due to late skin coloration in grapes grown in vineyards under panels compared to ones grown in open vineyards. The results from this study would be used as data required in development of viticulture system under panel in the future and further study for evaluating the influence of agrivoltaic system on production of crops including grapes.

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Background and objective: For a successful application of agrivoltaic (AV) system, decrease in crop productivity must be minimized while achieving power generation. In this study, changes in microenvironments, crop growth and quality under the AV panels were investigated for kimchi cabbage.Methods: On September 1, 2021, kimchi cabbage (<i>Brassica rapa</i> ssp. <i>pekinensis</i>) 'Bulam No. 3' was planted in the soil under the AV panels and in an open field for the control, and grown using a conventional method. Growth characteristics and internal components after 16 weeks were analyzed.Results: There was no difference in air temperature and relative humidity, however daily light integral (DLI) and soil temperature under the AV panels were lower than the control. Under the AV panels, plant width was lesser and plant height and head height were greater than the control. Head shape index and leaf number of the AV panel plot were greater than in the control. Trimming loss rate was lower but chlorophyll content was higher in the AV panel plot. Head hardness was lower in the AV panel plot, while head fresh weight was greater but head dry weight was smaller in the AV panel plot: therefore, moisture content was greater than the control. Marketable crop yield and heading rate was higher in the AV panel plot.Conclusion: The environmental changes caused by AV panels including the DLI and soil temperature induced a larger fresh weight, higher heading and trimming loss rates because a relatively good environment was created in the early crop stage which was the period of high temperature and DLI. However, the lower DLI of the latter period had a rather negative effect, resulting in an elongated shape, smaller dry weight, and shorter shelf life.

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