• ALGAE
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.39-55
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• 2023

Exploring mixotrophy of dinoflagellate species is critical to understanding red-tide dynamics and dinoflagellate evolution. Some species in the dinoflagellate genus Karenia have caused harmful algal blooms. Among 10 Karenia species, the mixotrophic ability of only two species, Karenia mikimotoi and Karenia brevis, has been investigated. These species have been revealed to be mixotrophic; however, the mixotrophy of the other species should be explored. Moreover, although K. mikimotoi was previously known to be mixotrophic, only a few potential prey species have been tested. We explored the mixotrophic ability of Karenia bicuneiformis, Karenia papilionacea, and Karenia selliformis and the prey spectrum of K. mikimotoi by incubating them with 16 potential prey species, including a cyanobacterium, diatom, prymnesiophyte, prasinophyte, raphidophyte, cryptophytes, and dinoflagellates. Cells of K. bicuneiformis, K. papilionacea, and K. selliformis did not feed on any tested potential prey species, indicating a lack of mixotrophy. The present study newly discovered that K. mikimotoi was able to feed on the common cryptophyte Teleaulax amphioxeia. The phylogenetic tree based on the large subunit ribosomal DNA showed that the mixotrophic species K. mikimotoi and K. brevis belonged to the same clade, but K. bicuneiformis, K. papilionacea, and K. selliformis were divided into different clades. Therefore, the presence or lack of a mixotrophic ability in this genus may be partially related to genetic characterizations. The results of this study suggest that Karenia species are not all mixotrophic, varying from the results of previous studies.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.303-313
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• 2011

Field observations and culture experiments have been carried out during the rainy season (on the 6th, 8th and 27th July 2009) to examine changes in the primary productivity and associated plant pigments in the estuary of the Seom-jin River. Primary productivity was determined at four sampling stations along the salinity gradient. On 6th July (before heavy rain) primary productivity ranged from 689~1,169 mgC $m^{-2}$ $d^{-1}$. On the 8th, just after more than 216.5 mm of precipitation, euphotic layers at all stations were reduced to very shallow water because of the high concentration of suspended solids in the water. This resulted in dramatically decreased primary productivity down to as low as 12~32 mg C $m^{-2}$ $d^{-1}$. However, after the rain, primary productivity on the 27th ranged from 266~999 mgC $m^{-2}$ $d^{-1}$, demonstrating a fast recovery in the upper stream water to similar productivity levels to those before the rainy season. Concentration of fucoxanthin in the water was highest on the 6th July. Before the rain, concentration of the zeaxanthin, increased as the salinity decreased. Immediately after the heavy rain, the Chl b (Chlorophytes) concentration was higher at all sites than before the rainy season. The concentration of fucoxanthin decreased after the heavy rain. At the downstream site, peridinin (Dinoflagellates) were found. During the rainy season, the diatoms contributed to the primary productivity at all sites. However, after the rainy season, Chl b (Chlorophytes) and Peridinin (Dinoflagellates) increased, demonstrating the enhanced contribution of those species in addition to diatoms.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.523-530
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• 2020

Based on the results of harmful algal blooms (HABs) monitoring by the National Institute of Fisheries Science and local governments, the effects of changes in the marine environment on HABs are described. Since the beginning of HABs monitoring in 1972, they continued to increase from the 1980s to the 1990s. After the largest number of HAB incidents (109) in 1998; the trend declined until the 2010s. Most HABs in the 1970s were caused by diatoms. In the 1980s, coastal dinoflagellates caused HABs; Cochlodinium polykrikoides blooms have been occurring continuously since 1993. There are three HAB species that cause damage to fisheries in Korea. The high-density bloom of Karenia mikimotoi caused mass mortality in shellfish in Jinhae Bay in 1981. Karenia sp. blooms occurring around Tongyeong in 1992 killed aquaculture fish. Since the occurrence of the largest fisheries damage of KRW 76.6 billion in 1995 caused by C. polykrikoides blooms, they have been occurring continuously. The concentration of nutrients in coastal waters was the highest in the 1980s and has declined since the mid-1990s. This reduction in nutrient concentration is a good explanation for the decreasing number of HABs. Since 2016, a summer high water temperature of 30℃ or more has appeared, and the range and scale of C. polykrikoides blooms have been greatly reduced. In 2016, K. mikimotoi blooms occurred around Wando, Jangheung and Goheung and small scale blooms of C. polykrikoides occurred around Yeosu. There were no C. polykrikoides blooms in 2017; however, Alexandrium affine blooms occurred from Yeosu to Tongyeong. There was a small-scale blooms of C. polykrikoides in 2018 compared to those in the previous years. Our results show that reduction in nutrients and the high water temperature owing to climate change are a good explanation for variation in HABs in Korean coastal waters.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.177-184
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• 2005

This study was to determine the fluctuation in phytoplankton assemblages with regarding to environmental conditions and nutrients, which were surveyed around Mokpo waters in the southwestern waters, Korea. Sampling was carried out on the Mokpo, Sinan, and Wando coasts from March to November 2003. The maximum sea surface temperature was recorded in August, and it ranged around $25^{\circ}C$ regardless of sampling sites. However, salinity in Mokpo waters showed a great variation, which ranged from 5-30 psu and recoded the minimum of 5 psu in July and the maximum of 30 psu in November. Moreover, in Mokpo waters, the chlorophyll a and SS concentration of the surface layer were also the highest values of $20\;{\mu}g\;l^{-1}\;and\;40\;{\mu}g\;l^{-1}$, respectively than those of Sinan and Wando waters. The concentrations of $NH_4-N,\;NO_2-N,\;NO_3-N,\;and\;PO_4-P$ were also he highest values of $0.018\;{\mu}mol\;^l{-1},\;0.062\;{\mu}mol\;l^{-1},\;1.2\;{\mu}mol\;l^{-1}\;and\;0.078\;{\mu}mol\;l^{-1}$, respectively in Morpo waters than those of Sinan and Wando waters. During the period of this study, the majority of the taxa were diatoms; Thalassiosira rotula, Rhizosolenia setigera, Prorocentrum minimum, Chaetoceros curvisetus, Leptocylindrus danicus, Pseudonitzschia pungens, and Chaetoceros spp. were detected in the dominant species of phytoplankton. The dinoflagellates were relatively abundant during the summer season in Wando waters, which attained an abundance of $10-20\%$. In Mokpo waters, DIN/DIP was the highest value of 700 in March, whereas the lowest was shown in Wando waters. However, DIN/DIP value in summer at Wando waters was extremely reversed, which appeared to be associated with the development of dinoflagellates. On the bais of factor analysis using SYSAT 6.0, nutrient showed somewhat correlation with chlorophyll a. Consequently, the process of discharge of fresh water in Mokpo waters plays an important role in extremely fluctuation in nutrients and conditions. Although Wando waters maintains a lack of nutrients, it should be influenced by different water current and may be associated with a concentration of nutrients.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.129-139
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• 2002

We investigated the outbreak of red tides dominated by harmful dinoflagellates from August to November 1999 in the coastal waters off the southern Saemankeum areas where a huge red tide dominated by Cochlodinium polykrikoides had been first observed in 1998. We took water samples from 2~5 depths of 4 stations (with 3-4 additional stations during red tides) in this study period and then measured the abundance of phytoplankton, water temperature, salinity, and the concentrations of nutrients. In the study period harmful dinoflagellates Alexandrium tamarense, C. polykrikoides, Gymnodnium catenatum, Gyrodinium aureolum, Gymnodnium impudicum were present, and of these G. aureolum and C. polykrikoides formed red tide patches on September 16 and October 18, respectively. The date of the outbreak of red tide dominated by C. polykrikoides in the study area was approximately 50 days later than that off the Kohung areas in 1997 and the surface water temperature when the red tides outbroke in the former area was 6$^{\circ}C$ lower than that fur the latter area. The maximum abundance of C. polykrikoides on September 16, October 7 and 18 were 5, 14, and 463 cells $m\ell$$^{-1}$ , respectively. The growth rate of C. polykrikoides, isolated from the study area, was 0.3~0.4 d$^{-1}$ at 20~$25^{\circ}C$, which enable this species to reach the maximum concentration without being transported from the adjacent waters containing already made red tide patches. The outbreaks of red tides dominated by C. polykrikoides in the study area and off Kohung have occurred when and/or where the concentrations of diatoms were low. This evidence suggests that the outbreak of red tides dominated by C. polykrikoides is adversely affected by the high diatom concentrations or the conditions favorable for the growth of diatoms.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.59-69
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• 2000

Environmental factors and phytoplankton community have been bimonthly investigated in order to clarify the bioecological characteristics of coral habitats around Moonsom at the southern Cheju Island from September 1995 to July 1996. Annual mean temperature and annual mean salinity were $17.4^{\circ}C$ and 34.06 psu, respectively, showing lower temperature-higher salinity in winter and higher temperature-lower salinity in summer, which means such conditions are inadequate for coral reef formation. Nutrient concentrations represent that total nitrogen ranged from $0.07{\sim}10.08\;{\mu}M$, phosphate from $0.05{\sim}1.70\;{\mu}M$, and silicate from $3.08{\sim}21.86\;{\mu}M$. The N/P ratio showed the range of 9.59-10.60 with decreasing offshore-ward, which means the phytoplankton community could be limited by nitrogen sources. Annual mean euphotic depth was 32.0m (18.9m-48.6m) with difference according to season and reveals the close relationship with the depth of coral distribution. Chlorophyll a concentrations of phytoplankton ranged from $0.12{\sim}1.51\;{\mu}g\;L^{-1}$ and standing crops from $1.5{\times}10^3{\sim}7.0{\times}10^5\;cells\;L^{-1}$, showing higher at inshore than at offshore with a blooming in May. A total of 128 species of phytoplankton occurred in all stations, representing 99 spp. of diatoms, 26 spp. of dinoflagellates, 2 spp. of silicoflagellates and 1 sp. of blue-green algae. Diatoms are main taxa in all seasons except for occupying by dinoflagellates in summer. Among dominant species, fParalia sulcata (Ehrenberg) Cleve and Cylindrotheca closterium (Ehrenberg) Lewin & Reimann were predominant and are likely to be main food sources for coral community. Annual mean species diversity index (H') was 1.84, showing lower than around the coast line of Cheju Island.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.78-93
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• 2003

To investigate seasonal variation and structure of the microbial community in Kyeonggi Bay, abundance and carbon biomass of nano-and micrzooplankton were evaluated in relation to size fractionated chlorophyll-a concentration, through the monthly interval sampling from December 1997 to November 1998. Communities of nano-and microzooplankton were classified into 4 groups such as heterotrophic nanoflagellate(HNF), ciliates, heterotrophic dinoflagellates(HDF) and zooplankton nauplii. Abundance and carbon biomass of HNF ranged from 380 to 4,370 cells ml-1(average 1,340$\pm$130 cells ml-1) and from 0.63 to 12.4 $\mu\textrm{g}$C 1-1(average 4.35$\pm$0.58 $\mu\textrm{g}$C 1-1), respectively. Abundance and carbon biomass of ciliates ranged from 331 to 44,571 cells ml-1(average 3,526$\pm$544 cells ml-1) and from 1.3 to 119.7 $\mu\textrm{g}$C 1-1(average 13.7$\pm$3.0 $\mu\textrm{g}$C 1-1), respectively. Abundance and carbon biomass of HDF ranged from 88 to 48,461 cells 1-1(average 9,034$\pm$2,347 cells 1-1) and from 0.05 to 54.05 $\mu\textrm{g}$C 1-1(average 6.9$\pm$2.4 $\mu\textrm{g}$C 1-1), respectively. Abundance and carbon biomass of zooplankton nauplii ranged from 5 to 546 indiv. 1-1(average 83$\pm$15 indiv. 1-1) and from 0.17 to 43.2 $\mu\textrm{g}$C 1-1(average 6.3$\pm$1.2 $\mu\textrm{g}$C 1-1), respectively. Eash component of microbial biomass was not different from tidal cycle except tintinnids group. Depth integrated nano-and microzooplankton biomass ranged from 124 to 1,635 mgC m-2(average 585$\pm$110 mgC m-2) and was highest in March and May. The relative contribution of each component to the nano-and microzooplankton showed difference according to seasons. Community structure of nano-and microzooplankton was dominated by planktonic ciliate group. During the study period, carbon biomass of nano-and microzooplankton was strongly positively correlated with size fractionated chlorophylla-a. It implied that prey-predator relationship between microzooplankton and phytoplankton was important in the pelagic ecosystem of Kyeonggi Bay.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.108-128
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• 2002

In order to investigate the ecological characteristics of phytoplankton communities around a nuclear power plant in Gori coastal waters of the South East Sea, Wolseong and Uljin coastal waters of the East Sea and Younggwang coastal waters of the Yellow Sea, the standing crops and chlorophyll-$\alpha$ concentrations of phytoplankton were studied during 1992~1996 and the relationships between standing crops and environmental variables were analyzed. The concentrations of nitrogenous nutrients were on average 0.101, 0.094, 0.072 and 0.108mg/$\ell$ and those of phosphorus were on average 0.007, 0.008, 0.006 and 0.009mg/$\ell$ in Gori, Wolseong, Uljin and Younggwang, respectively. The N:P ratios were highly variable, ranging from 3.2 to 57.3, from 3.1 to 109.0, from 2.6 to 102.0 and from 1.0 to 165.0 in Gori, Wolseong, Uljin and Younggwang, respectively. The concentrations of suspended solids were on average 18.7, 16.7, 11.6 and 52.7mg/$\ell$ and transparencies were on average 3.8, 5.4, 7.9 and 0.7 m in Gori, Wolseong, Uljin and Younggwang, respectively. Total standing crops of phytoplankton averaged 710,659, 687,508, 656,245 and 1,278,173cells/$\ell$ in Gori, Wolseong, Uljin and Yaunggwang, respectively. The standing crops of microplankton(>20${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$) averaged 357,546, 333,638, 276,407 and 592,975cells/$\ell$ those of nanoplankton(<20${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$) averaged 353,113, 353,870, 379,838 and 574,563cells/$\ell$ in Gori, Wolseong, Uljin and Younggwang, respectively. While standing crops of diatoms were averaged 282,009, 284,710, 238,758 and 574,563 cells/$\ell$, those of dinoflagellates were averaged 46,079, 35,401, 32,906 and 16,749 cells/$\ell$ in Gori, Wolseong, Uljin and Younggwang, respectively. The seasonal standing crops of diatoms in Gori, Wolseong and Uljin were higher in Spring than other seasons, but were lower in Summer than other seasons in Younggwang. The seasonal standing crops of dinoflagellates in Gori and Younggwang were higher in Summer than other seasons, but were higher in Autumn than other seasons in U]jin. Average of chlorophyll-$\alpha$ concentrations ranged from 2.16 to 4.28$\mu\textrm{g}$/$\ell$ in 4 study areas with the highest concentration occurred in Younggwang. Indices of species diversity ranged from 2.11 to 2.24 in 4 study areas. While community structures of phytoplankton were unstable during winter and stable during summer in Gori, Wolseong and Uljln coastal waters, those of phytoplankton were stable during winter and summer than during spring and autumn in Yaunggwang. The analysis results of Pearson product moment correlation coefficient between standing crops and environmental variables showed that distributions of standing crops were affected by transparencies, suspended solids, and some nutrient(N $O_3$$^{[-10]}$ -N, P $O_4$$^{3-}$-P), even though the degree of influences were a little different according to the season and the surveyed zone.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.212-224
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• 2011

The Yeongsan River estuary, located in the south west coast, was a typical estuary before a dike was constructed in December 1981. After the construction, the water quality and plankton communities are expected to change. We investigated the change of phytoplankton community and environmental properties in the Yeongsan River estuary by comparing the data collected recently with the results reported before and/or shortly after the construction. Concentrations of $NH_4$-N were significantly increased in the freshwater zone. Concentrations of DO at the surface, $NO_2+NO_3$ and $NH_4$-N were increased while the concentrations of $PO_4$ at the surface were decreased in the seawater zone. The number of green algae species was decreased in the freshwater zone. The number of diatom species was decreased while the numbers of green algae and dinoflagellates were increased in the seawater zone. This study can provide information for better management of the Yeongsan River estuary since no comparison study has been documented between the phytoplankton community before and after the construction of the dike in the estuary.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.37-46
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• 2016

This study describes the spatio-temporal distributions in phytoplankton community such as species composition, standing crops and dominant species from April to November 2008 in the Uljin Marine Ranching Area (UMRA). A total of 123 species of phytoplankton belonging to 67 genera was identified. In particular, diatoms and dinoflagellates were occupied more than 60.5% and 34.6% of total species, respectively. The annual dominant species were Thalassiosira sp., Pseudo-nitzschia pungens in spring, Leptocylindrus danicus, Guinardia striata in early summer, Cheatoceros cirvisetus, Ch. decipiens in early autumn and Skeletonema costatum -ls (like species), Pn. pungens in autumn. Phytoplankton cell density fluctuated with an annual mean of $48cells{\cdot}mL^{-1}$ between the lowest value of $1.8cells{\cdot}mL^{-1}$ in early autumn and the highest value of $240cells{\cdot}mL^{-1}$ in spring. According to the cluster analysis, the phytoplankton community of the UMRA was characterized by the nutrient supply from land side and water movement as current.