• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.288-301
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• 2023

This study aims to identify benthic macroinvertebrate fauna inhabiting at the mountain valley stream (Mt. Cheonggye) in Korea and the relationship between physical environmental factors and biological indices. Benthic macroinvertebrates were collected at five locations on August 24 and October 14, 2020, and were identified as 4 phyla, 7 classes, 16 orders, 42 families, and 72 species. Dominance ranged from 0.38 to 0.59, diversity 2.81 to 3.75, richness 3.25 to 4.63, evenness 0.65 to 0.84, and %EPT (Ephemeroptera-PlecopteraTrichoptera) richness value 42% to 73%, respectively. All sites were evaluated as a very good status by mostly biological indices based on tolerance of indicator organisms in Korea. As a result of principal component analysis, biological indices are classified into species-level indices and higher cartegory-level indices according to the taxonomic level of the indicator organism considered in each index. As a result of canonical correspondence analysis, it was confirmed that current velocity was a major factor that increased species richness and classified biological indices according to taxonomic category level. Water depth was a major factor related to the community indices, and the deeper the water depth, the lower the diversity and the evenness.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.303-316
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• 2009

Benthic macroinvertebrate communities collected from eight different streams in South Korea were analyzed to compare community and biological indices across different levels of water pollution. The Self-Organizing Map (SOM) was utilized to provide overview on association of the proposed indices. The sample sites were accordingly clustered according to the gradient of pollution on the SOM. While the general trends of the indices were commonly observable according to different levels of pollution, the detailed differences among the indices were also illustrated on the SOM. The conventional diversity and evenness indices tended to be high even though the water quality state was poor representing relatively weak gradient at polluted sites, while the index presenting the saprobic degree such as family biotic index showed the stronger gradient at the polluted area and was robust to present the gradient. Our results also confirmed the general characterization of two indices: The Shannon index is more strengthened by the number of species occurring at the sample sites, while the Simpson index is more influenced by the degree of evenness among the species. The patterning based on the SOM was efficient in comparatively characterizing the proposed indices to present ecological states and water quality.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.606-614
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• 2009

To evaluate the biological water quality, diatom-based biological indices (DAIpo and TDI) were examined in the Sum-River and the Dal-stream. Having BOD concentrations below $2mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$ in most sites, water quality of both rivers was good. The DAIpo and TDI values ranged from 29.8 to 91.4 and from 38.7 to 93.0 respectively. From the biological water quality assessment, DAIpo and TDI for both rivers displayed fair to fairly poor water quality levels. However, the two indices showed more polluted conditions than expected from the BOD vlaues. In addition, DAIpo, having wider range of differences, appears to be more sensitive to the change in water quality when compared to TDI values. Statistical analysis using principal component analysis showed that Nitzschia palea and Diatoma vulgare might not be the appropriate indicators due to their low correlations with other indicators.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.759-770
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• 1998

biotic indices scoring with the benthic macroinvertebrates were assessed as pollution monitoring tools in the north branch of the Han River system, Korea. We investigated the temporal variability of water quality at unpolluted, moderately polluted and heavily polluted sites using several biotic indices and assessed appropriate biological monitoring indices for lotic systems in Korea. The following biotic and chemical indices were employed in order to compare their applicability to the lotic systems : Trent Biotic Index (TBI), Chandler's Biotic Index-Average Score per Taxon (CBI-ASPT), Modified Biological Monitoring Working Party Score System-Average Score per Taxon (BMWP-ASPT), Hilsenhoff's biotic Index (BI) and Family-level Biotic Index (FBI) models for biotic analyses and National Sanitation foundation's Water Quality Index (NSFWQI) and comprehensive Chemical Pollution Index (Pb/n) for chemical analyses of water quality. Index and score values were compared with each other and with 24 water chemistry parameters. All biotic indices were significantly auto-correlated (p<0.001) and BI and FBI/ROK among them were highly correlated (r=0.84). BI and BMWP-ASPT models were also highly correlated with NSFWQI, while TBI values showed high correlation with the Pb/n. The BI and BMWP-ASPT were highly correlated with the most water chemistry parameters. We conclude that the BI model, which includes indicator species and abundance of taxa, is best suited for the bioassessment of lotic systems in Korea. For rapid field-based assessments, FBI/ROK and BMWP-ASPT models are also appropriate.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.610-618
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• 2015

This study was conducted to find out the influence of sample size (accumulated survey areas) on the seven biological indices of benthic macroinvertebrates. BMI, the index similar to Zeilika-Marvan’s saprobic index, tended to be independent on the variations of sample size. The other indices (Shannon-Weaver’s diversity, Margalef’s richness, Menhinick’s richness, Pielou’s evenness, and Lenat’s EPT index) showed the considerable variations along with the increase of sample size and environmental conditions. To get the appropriate index values, it should be sampled at least 6 replicates more based on 30×30cm Surber sampler. In addition, the habitat heterogeneity index of benthic macroinvertebrates suggested in this study, it will be able to be used for evaluating the heterogeneity of habitats.

• 월간산업보건
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• s.326
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• pp.64-65
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• 2015

• 월간산업보건
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• s.326
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• pp.66-67
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• 2015

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.790-798
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• 2013

Benthic macroinvertebrates are widely used as biological indicators for assessing the integrity of aquatic ecosystem. However, sampling has usually been done with fixed sample size due to time consuming and costly process. This study was conducted to find out the influence of sample size on the biological indices (H' DI, R1, J, EPT, ESB and BMI) of benthic macroinvertebrates. The 15 replicate samples were quantitatively collected from each 3 different site of two mountain streams in May, 2011. With the replicate data, we combined the abundance of each species with all the possible combinations of the sample size. Along with the increase of sample size, the number of species increased continuously and did not converge. BMI showed little difference whereas other biological indices increased or decreased.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.784-795
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to assess biological river water quality by using epilithic diatoms at 40 selected sites in Geum, Youngsan, and Seomjin River systems. The sampling and analyses were performed during three seasons including January, April and June in 2005. Various water quality parameters also were analyzed. We attempted to classify the water quality condition by epilithic diatom indices (DAIpo and TDI) with the results of corresponding analyses of various chemical water quality parameters. A five class system was delivered to describe the water quality condition ranged from "very good" to "very poor." We also proposed a way of classifying water quality condition by combining two diatom indices of DAIpo and TDI. Our results showed that biomass of epilithic diatoms varied not only seasonally but spatially; it was not likely that winter diatoms represent average water quality condition, due to high concentration of nutrients. Water quality status assessed by diatom indices was generally worse than that assessed by BOD, indicating that BOD standard likely underestimates the biological condition of the water body. Importantly, nutrient-based diatom index (TDI) generally overestimated organic matter-based index (DAIpo) at most study sites, indicating that diatoms in studied rivers were likely more affected by nutrients than organic matter. Thus, management strategy to improve river water quality in Korea is suggested to emphasize more on the nutrients than organic matters.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.183-190
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• 2018

Backgrounds: The main purpose of this research was to assess changes in vegetation structure, wetland index, and diversity index for a 15-year-old created wetland in Jincheon, South Korea. The created wetland consists of four sub-wetlands: a kidney-shaped wetland, a ditch, an ecological pond, and a square wetland. Vegetation and water depth data were collected at each site in 1999 and 2013, and Shannon diversity and wetland indices were calculated. Results: The total number of plant species increased from 18 in 1999 to 50 in 2013, and the ecological pond in 1999 and the ditch in 2013 presented the highest diversity indices (2.5 and 3.2, respectively). Plant species were less diverse in 1999 than in 2013, presumably because these initial wetlands were managed periodically for water purification and installation of test beds. The proportion of wetland plants, including obligate wetland and facultative wetland species, decreased from 83 to 56%, whereas upland plants, including obligate upland and facultative upland species, increased from 17 to 44%. After ceasing water supply, water depth in all four sub-wetlands declined in 2013. Thus, upland plants established more readily at these sites, resulting in higher diversity and lower wetland indices than in 1999. Conclusions: The major floristic differences between 1999 and 2013 were an increase in the number of upland plants and a decrease in wetland species. Although wetland indices were lower in 2013, the created wetland performed important ecosystem functions by providing habitats for wetland and upland plants, and the overall species diversity was high.