• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.242-252
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to develop a Multi-metric Water Quality Assessment (MWQA) model and apply it to dataset sampled from Paldang and Daechung reservoir in 2008. The various water dataset used to this study included 5 year data sets (2003${\sim}$2007) in Korean reservoirs which were obtained from the Ministry of Environment, Korea. In this study, suggested MWQA model has 4 metrics that were composed of 4 parameters such as chemical, physical, biological, and hydrological variables. And, each of the variables attributed total phosphorus (TP) concentration in water, secchi depth (SD) measure in water, chlorophyll-${\alpha}$(Chl-${\alpha}$) concentration in water and the ratio of inflow of water into lakes and efflux of water from lakes, input/output (I/O). First, we established the criteria for trophic boundaries. The boundary between oligotrophic and mesotrophic categories was defined by the lower third of the cumulative distribution of the values. The mesotrophic-eutrophic boundary was defined by the upper third of the distribution. Second, each metric was given by a point-oligo=1, meso=3, eu=5. And then, obtained total score from each metric was divided 5 grade-Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor, and Very poor. As the results of applying the proposed MWQA model, the Paldang reservoir obtained "Fair" or "Poor" grade and Daechung reservoir obtained "Excellent" or "Good" grade. The suggested MWQA model through these procedures will enable to manage efficiently the reservoir. And, more studies such as metric numbers and attributes should be done for the accurate application of the new model.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.234-243
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• 2007

Algal growth potential (AGP) test was performed to evaluate the water quality and changes in phytoplankton communities before and after a heavy rain event at six sampling sites in Cheonggye Stream (St. 1 and 2), Jungnang Stream (St. 3 and 4), and Lower part of Han River System (St. 5 and 6) after rehabilitation of Cheonggye Stream, October 2005. To test AGP on each sampling site, cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa was applied as a standard alga. Total nitrogen (TN) showed high values at Jungnang Stream, while St. 4 recorded highest values in this study. However, TN values of Cheonggye Stream and Lower Part of Han River showed similar levels. Total phosphate (TP) also showed high values at Jungnang Stream, while St. 4 recorded highest. However, TP in Cheonggye Stream were extremely low levels. Although chlorophyll-${\alpha}$ (chi-${\alpha}$) contents before the rain event were similar through the sampling sites, chl-${\alpha}$ after the rain increased dramatically at Jungnang Stream and Lower part of Ban River. In particular, after the rain, TP was the highest at St. 4, where Cyclotella sp. dominated the phytoplankton community. When compared with control, AGP values before the rain were comparatively low in all sites, while those after the rain highly increased with the dose-dependently of field water added, due perhaps to the increased nutrients by rainfall. Similar results were observed in Cheonggye Stream. Therefore, for the aesthetic fostering for the citizens, although Cheonggye Stream was Presently being sustained by treated water supply, they have a potential of outbreak of phytoplankton by the increased nutrients supply when a heavy rain comes.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.529-541
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• 1999

In order to elucidate characteristics of water quality, investigation of monthly dynamics of environmental factors and algal populations at major four stations of the mid and lower part in Taechong Reservoir was performed from June 1998 to June 1999. Water temperature, DO and pH were ranged 5.3~27.7$^{\circ}C$, 6.2~13.8 mgO$_2$/1 and 6.4~9.5, respectively. Those were varying as the season changes. Among inorganic nitrogen nutrients, NH$_4$was ranged from 5.5% to 7.2% of NO$_3$and NO$_3$was almost same through the seasons except summer in which it was low. SRP and SRSi were increased in summer when the blue-green algae became dominant. Those were decreased as the cell density of diatom increased when the water temperature dropped. Therefore SRSi was considered to be another important nutrient factor contributing to the increment of biomass of freshwater algae as well as SRP. Average chi-$\alpha$ concentration ranged from s to 12 $\mu$g/1 and in the lower part or the reservoir, the lowest was found. Moreover, there were remarkable increment in summer when TN/TP ratio were decreasing from relationships between TN/TP ratio and chi-$\alpha$ concentration. Annual mean ratio of TN/TP ratio was relatively high as the value was 110, which was relatively high, and it showed that P is the dominant factor in the algal growth. The dynamics of phytoplankton were simply dominated by a few species seasonally. In summer, blue -green algae such as Anabaena, Microcystis and Oscillatoria were dominant and algal bloom of blue -green began from early summer, sustained to late autumn. The average standing crops of A. spiroides v. crassa, M. aeruginosa and O. limosa were ranged 0.3~2.0$\times$10$^4$cells/ml, 6.4$\times$10$^2$~1.0$\times$10$^4$cells/ml and 4.6$\times$10$^3$~1.6$\times$10$^4$cells/ml, respectively. In winter, diatom Stephanodiscus was considered to be an important species whose average standing crops of Stephunodiscus was 4.9$\times$10$^2$cells/ml from November to April of the next year and the highest was 1.3$\times$10$^3$cells/ml in January.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.151-164
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• 2010

Field observations on the seasonal variations of environmental factors and phytoplankton community were carried out four times at 30 stations in the narrow strait between Yeosu and Dolsan Island of the Korean South Sea from September 2005 to May 2006. The ranges of water temperature, salinity and extinction coefficient in the surface waters were 5.6~26.3, 25.36~33.92 psu and 0.13~2.13, respectively. The water temperature measured higher at Gamak Bay in summer and spring. It measured higher at Yeosuhae Bay in autumn and winter. Salinity showed uniformity of distributions in almost all areas, except for an area near a sewage disposal outlet. Extinction coefficient indicated that the turbidity of Gamak Bay and the area near the sewage disposal outlet were higher than that of the Yeosuhae Bay. In the phytoplankton community were identified a total of 99 species belonging to 51 genera. The species composition showed itself to be various in summer and autumn, but poor in winter and spring with a high ratio of centric diatoms all the year round. Seasonal succession of dominant species were Skeletonema costatum and Chaetoceros curvisetus in summer, Eucampia zodiacus in autumn and winter, and Chaetoceros affinis and Thalassionema nitzschioides inspring. Standing crops of phytoplankton and Chlorophyll $\alpha$ concentration were greatly higher at Gamak Bay in summer with ranges of $0.2{\times}10^4\;cells\;L^{-1}$ to $296{\times}10^4\;L^{-1}$, and $1.94\;L^{-1}$ to $22.12\;L^{-1}$, respectively. From the results of principal component analysis (PCA), the northern part of Dolsan Island was divided into two or three regions from the characteristics of marine environment and phytoplankton community.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.136-141
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• 2010

In situ experiments of Nutrient Enrichment Bioassays (NEBs) were conducted in the field along with in the laboratory to determine which nutrient limited phytoplankton growth as a indicator of primary productivity. For the NEBs, the water was sampled using a polyethylene-lined container and dispensed into 6 L water tank in the laboratory. The control (C, no nutrient spike) and six treatments of phosphorus (P), 2-fold phosphorus (2P), 4-fold phosphorus (4P), nitrate nitrogen ($NO_3$-N), 2-fold nitrate nitrogen ($2NO_3$-N), and phosphorus and nitrate nitrogen (P+$NO_3$-N) were set up in the lacustrine zone near the dam site, Daechung Reservoir in September, 2009 and analyzed the diel changes of total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and chlorophyll-$\alpha$ (Chl-$\alpha$) in the cubitainers. The short-term NEBs showed that algal response in the treatments spiked phosphorus (P, 2P, and 4P) were significantly (p < 0.05) greater than the response in the control (C), and nitrogen-spike. Also, the response in 4P-treatment was greater than those in the P- and 2P-treatments. In contrast, there was no significant differences (p > 0.20) between the $NO_3$-N and $2NO_3$-N treatment. The outcomes of the NEBs suggest that phosphorus limited the phytoplankton growth and nitrogen was not limited in this system. Furthermore, in the N + P treatments, the response was minimum, compared to all other treatments and the control, indicating that even if the system is evidently P-limited system, when added the nitrogen, the response showed the inhibition. Also, > 95% of observed long-term TN:TP ratios in the ambient water showed > 17, which is the criteria of P-limitation, supporting the P-limitation in the system. Overall, these results suggest that phytoplankton biomass near the dam is a direct linear function of P-loading near the watershed, if the phosphorus pool is mainly dissolved fraction.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2010

In order to understand the biological environmental characteristics with temporal variations of the physico-chemical factors in 2012 Yeosu Expo site of Korea, we investigated at one station, once per week, from April 2006 to December 2007. The surface water temperature ranged from 6.8 to $27.8^{\circ}C$ and the bottom water temperature ranged from 6.3 to 25.9 $25.9^{\circ}C$. The salinity varied from 12.8 to 33.0 psu in the surface water and from 25.2 to 33.6 psu in the bottom water. A strong halocline was observed between the surface and bottom layers in the summer when a rapid decrease of salinity coincided with heavy rainfall. The DIN concentration ranged from 1.36 to $82.7{\mu}M$ in the surface water and from 0.82 to $25.2{\mu}M$ in the bottom water. Phosphate concentration varied from 0.06 to $2.13{\mu}M$ in the surface water and from 0.07 to $1.38{\mu}M$ in the bottom water. Silicate was $1.68-52.0{\mu}M$ in the surface water and $1.37-30.7{\mu}M$ in the bottom water. The nutrient concentrations were generally high during heavy rainfalls and low water temperature periods, and considerably decreased in spring and autumn. The N/P ratio ranged from 4.43 to 325 in the surface water and from 3.8 to 321 in the bottom water. It increased rapidly during the heavy rainfall season and remained at a value of approximately 16 in other periods. The chlorophyll a concentration ranged from 0.46 to $65.0{\mu}g$ $L^{-1}$ in the surface water and from 0.71 to $15.0{\mu}g$ $L^{-1}$ in the bottom water. $Chl-{\alpha}$ concentration remained low in periods of low water temperature, however rapidly increased in periods of high water temperature. From the results of principal component analysis (PCA) and multiple regression analysis (MRA), we conclude that temporal variations of physico-chemical and biological factors were greatly affected by the influx of fresh water, and that nutrients were well controlled by their uptake and assimilation by phytoplankton. Also, during the low water temperature periods, environmental structure in this study site was affected by recycled nutrients through nutrient cycling and mineralization.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.31-39
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• 2007

Monitoring data of 48 agricultural irrigation reservoirs from 1999 to 2004 was analyzed for water quality characteristics including biochemical oxygen demand $(BOD_5)$, chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and chl-${\alpha}$. Land uses of the watersheds associated with these reservoirs were determined for residential, forest, upland, paddy and miscellaneous, and regressed against water quality characteristics. Correlation analysis showed that forest land use was negatively correlated with all the water quality characteristics implying it's beneficial effects in water quality perspectives. Other land uses including residential, upland, and paddy generally illustrated positive correlation with water quality characteristics, which indicates most human activities of the watershed could degrade water quality of the receiving water bodies. Paddy land use partially contributed to the water quality degradation in contrast to the previous studies. It might be attributed to the relatively clean water quality of the study area, where even slight pollutant loading could degrade sensitively water quality. Further investigation is recommended for the effect of proximity as well as land use portions on the water quality of receiving water body.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.356-368
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• 2010

In this study, we applied approach of integrative star-plot area (SPA), chemical water quality and habitat conditions (QHEI) to diagnoze ecological conditions at the eight sampling sites of Sapkyo Stream. These outcomes were compared with biological health based on the Index of Biological Integrity (IBI) using fish assemblage. And then, we evaluated the integrative ecological health condition using the star-plot method. This approach based on the sum of all the star-plot areas over these water and habitat characteristics. It was developed to reflect an integrative assessment of the ecological health in the stream. The biological health, based on the model values of IBI indicating "fair-poor" condition according to the criteria. Physical habitat health, based on the QHEI, averaged 123 indicating a "good-fair" condition. Also, chemical health, based on simply BOD values indicating "poor grade" according to the criteria of the Ministry of Environment Korea (MEK). The SPA indicating that 50% of the all was impaired condition and the most sampling sites were downstream sites influenced by the point and non-point sources. Overall our results suggest that the ecological health impact was a combined effect of eutrophication and habitat degradations in the stream. The approach of SPA can be used as a tool to evaluate the integrative health of stream environment and to identify possible causes of observed effects.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.459-466
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• 2007

To analyze the water characteristics in the dry and wet seasons, the data for temperature, salinity, nutrients and $chl-{\alpha}$ were used, which were observed in the south coastal area of Korea during April to October 2000. At Yeosu in the south coast of Korea, the higher values of 35.0 psu in salinity were shown in March and April, the lower values of 23.0 psu in salinity were shown in August and September. The annual range of salinity was 12.0 psu. The total amount of precipitation in the wet season (July to October) was occupied 68% (about 846 mm) during 2000. The precipitation of the dry season (November to June) was occupied 32% (about 394 mm) in the year In the coastal area, the salinity variation is distinct in the period of July to October. Based on this result, we divided the season into two parts: the dry season during April to June and the wet season during July to October. Factor analysis was shown that temperature has strong negative relation and nutrients show positive relations in the dry season by the factor 1, which explains the total valiance of 50.6% at the surface water. In the wet season, salinity has negative relation and nutrients show positive relation by the factor 2, which explains the total variance of 33.5%. The bottom layer also showed similar to those of surface water in the results of factor analysis. These mean that nutrients become rich due to the freshwater inflow in the wet season. The low saline water is shown not only in the south coast but also in the overall region in the South Sea of Korea. It is suggested that the South Sea of Korea may call a ROFI (Region of Freshwater Influence) system in summer.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2010

We used stable isotope analysis to investigate the hypothesis that zooplankton were not able to utilize Microcystis as a food source. We also studied seasonal variation of the zooplankton community in a eutrophic Wangsong reservoir. The dominant copepod species changed from Cyclops vicinus to Thermocyclops taihokuensis. Density of zooplankton was suppressed by high density of Microcystis in June and the density of phytoplankton and chlorophyll a concentration was lowest in July. The difference in $\delta^{13}C$ and $\delta^{15}N$ between cladocerans (Daphnia galeata and Bosmina longirostris) and copepods showed the maximum difference of $12^{\circ}/_{\circ\circ}$ and $4^{\circ}/_{\circ\circ}$, respectively, indicating different energy sources and trophic positions between two taxonomic groups. The difference in $\delta^{13}C$ between Microcystis and zooplankton ranged from $3{\sim}7^{\circ}/_{\circ\circ}$, supporting the hypothesis that Microcystis could not be used as food source of zooplankton.