Seaweed Community of the Subtidal Rocky Habitats along the Coast of Geumo Archipelago in the Central South Sea of Korea

한국 남해중부 금오열도 연안 암반 조하대 해조군집의 구조

Seaweed community of the sub tidal rocky habitats along the coast of Geumo Archipelago in the central South Sea of Korea is described. This area is characterized by archipelago in which islets are separated by shallow bottom sediments (primary, muddy sand), and turbidity is generally high due to the resuspension of bottom sediments. The hard substrata available for algal attachment are limited to less than 10 m in depth. Thirty sites were randomly chosen along the coast from August 2003 to September 2003 and a 50 m long transect was established at each site. The transect began at a depth of 1 m and ended at the depth of 9 m. The percent cover of all species other than crustose coralline algae was estimated at 2 m depth intervals along the transect using a 0.25 m$^2$ PVC quadrat with 25 squares. Thirty-six species were identified including 6 Chlorophyta, 10 Phaeophyta and 20 Rhodophyta. Species with more than 5% mean bottom cover were Gelidium amansii, Corallina pilulifera, Amphiroa dilatata and Carpopeltis cornea, which formed dense turf-forming algal assemblages at 1-5 m depth. At all sites except S11-S15 located in the western coast of Sorido, bottom covers of seaweed species at the depth deeper than 7 m were less than 6%. The lower limit of algal assemblages was 9 m in depth. We speculate that the limited water clarity and vertical extent of hard substrata available for the settlement of seaweed species are the direct cause of reducing the diversity, abundance and distributional extent of algal assemblages in the area.