• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.424-433
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to understand the changes on species composition of the epilithic diatoms and the appearance of morphological abnormalities in the upper region of the Nakdong River where heavy metal inflow is observed. The samples were collected once a week for a month of September 2016 from selecting 7 sampling stations. The heavy metals of cadmium (Cd) and arsenic (As) were not detected during the survey period, but zinc (Zn) was detected in st.4 - st.6 with the range of $0.015{\sim}0.188mg\;L^{-1}$. Metal sensitive species such as Achnanthes convergens, Cocconeis placentula, Cocconeis placentula var. euglypta, Cocconeis placentula var. lineata showed high dominance in st.1 - st.3, st.7. However, metal tolerant species such as Nitzschia palea, Achnanthes minutissima showed high dominance in st.4 - st.6. It is concluded that heavy metal inflow directly affects the changes in species composition of epilithic diatoms. As a result of CCA, the characteristics of the sampling sites were divided into 3 groups. Group 1 was represented the non-detected Zn sites with C. placentula, C. placentula var. euglypta, C. placentula var. lineata. Group 2 was showed the detected Zn sites with Navicula minima and Nitzschia palea. Group 3 was included st.3 - st.7 on 4th week that was stabilized the community structure. Total 8 taxa of abnormal frustules observed. This occurrence of abnormal frustules reflected the temporal and quantitative indicators of heavy metal pollution, in particular, it was confirmed that genus Fragilaria, which has a high abnormality according to heavy metal pollution, can be used as an indicator species.