Ecological Impact of the Dyke Construction on the Marine Benthos Community of the Oligohaline Youngam Lake

To assess the macrobenthic community of oligohaline Youngam Lake, which is located at the Youngsan Watershed on the southwest part of Korea, macrobenthic fauna were collected at 45 stations during May, 2002. A total of 16 species of macrofauna were recorded with a mean density of 240 individuals per $m^2$ and a mean biomass of 7.07 g wet weight per $m^2$. Major dominant faunal groups were crustacean arthropods in terms of the number of species and abundance, and polychaete annelids in terms of biomass. The mean grain size was $5.7\;{\phi}$ which was dominated by silt fraction. The hydrological environment of the lake was characterised as an oligohaline environment with a mean surface water temperature of $17.8^{\circ}C$ and a mean salinity of 2.08 psu. The major dominant species were amphipods, Corophium sp. ($31\%$) and Jesogammarus sp. ($25\%$). Lowe. values of species diversity (H') with a mean of 0.81 (less than 1.0 from most stations) reflected the overall poor faunal diversity in this area. Multivariate analysis suggested that this benthic faunal community could be divided into four sub-regions such as the area from lake proper to water channel to the south, the stations located at the entrance and northern water channel, the stations near the dike, and the lake proper area. Freshwater and brackish water species which occurred in each station group were corresponded to the oligohaline salinity regime. Bottom hypoxia appeared in the entrance part of the lake between dyke and lake proper on May, which was resulted from stratification from spring season. These facts imply that marine macrobenthos were severely impacted by low salinity and a consequent hypoxia after embankment of the lake due to the restriction of water circulation.

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