• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.49-59
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• 2022

Total of 325 estuaries in Korea were surveyed to analyze the effect of presence of sluice gate on the estuary environment and fish community from 2016 to 2018. Fish community in closed and open estuaries showed differences generally, and the relative abundance (RA) of primary freshwater species in the closed and migratory species in the open estuaries were high. The result of classifying species by habitat characteristics in closed and open estuaries showed similar tendencies at the estuaries of south sea and west sea. The relative abundances of primary freshwater species in the closed estuaries at the estuaries of south sea and west sea were the highest, but estuarine and migratory species were high in both closed and open estuaries at the estuaries of east sea. Primary freshwater species showed higher abundances in the closed estuaries with reduced salinity due to blocking of seawater since they are not resistant to salt. However, primary freshwater species in open estuaries at east sea was higher than that of the closed estuaries, which is considered to be the result of reflecting the characteristics (tide, sand bar, etc.) of the east sea. Korea Estuary Fish Assessment Index (KEFAI) was showed to be higher at open estuaries than closed in all sea areas (T-test, P<0.001), the highest KEFAI was observed in closed estuaries at south sea, and open estuaries in east sea. Fish community of closed and open estuaries in each sea areas showed statistically significant differences (PERMANOVA, East, Pseudo-F=3.0198, P=0.002; South, Pseudo-F=22.00, P=0.001; West, Pseudo-F=14.067, P=0.001). Fish assemblage similarity by sea areas showed a significant differences on fish community in closed and open estuaries at east sea, south sea, and west sea (SIMPER, Group dissimilarity, 85.85%, 88.36%, and 88.05%). This study provided information on the characteristics and distribution of fish community according to the types of estuaries. The results of this study can be used as a reference for establishing appropriate management plans according to the sea areas and type in the management and restoration of estuaries for future.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.37 no.4 s.109
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• pp.462-468
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• 2004

Most of the surveys of periphyton carried out for environmental and ecosystem health assessment of streams have considered the impact made on their fixative substrates (stones, rocks, sand, silt, clay and other abiotic matters), but there has been virtually no research that considered moving substrates. This study attempted to make an analysis and assessment of the habitat environments of the microalgae attached to the skin surfaces of fish living in small streams, with a focus on their species composition and community structure. The dominant fish in the this survey were Zacco temmincki and Zacco platypus, which are usually found in the streams, and rivers, and they accounted for 62% and 19%, respectively, in relative abundance. Substrates of fish, a representative organism with the trait of moving a long distance, show a marked contrast with those of organisms fixed at a certain place. Characteristics of both the upstream and the downstream reach well reflected in the microalgae attached to the skin surface of fishes, of which diatoms took the major composition. The result of this observation is considered to be useful to provide basic data in assessment of stream health. Also it may be suggested as a biological tool for the assessment of aquatic environment in the future.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.495-502
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• 2007

Species biotic index (SBI), based on a fish assemblage, was applied to a stream assessment using long-term ecological fish data set (1996 to 2001) in Boryong dam area, which is located in the mainstream of Ungchun Stream of Chungnam province, Korea. According to the methods of Hilsenhoff (1988), the scores of tolerance guild assigned 10 classes to each species by its habitat and feeding guild, but modified current 7 criteria to 5 scoring standards due to unclear borderline among species. Relative abundance in the species number of upper stream guilds was only 7% of the total, whereas the abundance in the species number of middle to downstream upper stream guilds was 64%. Mean SBI, based on dataset in Site 1 during 1995-2001 averaged 5.10, which was judged as a "good" condition by the rank criteria of SBI. Before the dam construction, mean SBI in the Site 1 was 4.61, indicating a "good" condition, but after the dam construction, mean SBI was 5.60, indicating a "fair" condition. Trajectory analysis in the Site 1 showed significantly (One-way ANOVA, $F_{6,21}=3.26$, p=0.02) different among years, reflecting the changes of fish composition and population density by the dam construction, whereas Site 2 showed no significant changes ($F_{6,21}=1.00$, P =0.45) difference among years. Mean SBI prior to the dam construction in the Site 3 was 4.52 but after the construction, the value was 6.30, indicating a distinct difference between the pre- and post-dam construction. Trajectory analysis at the Site 3 supported this fact: Values of SBI showed significantly ($F_{6,21}$=14.37, p<0.01) different. Mean SBI was 4.67 in the Site 4, indicating a "good" condition in the health and the health rank was same as the sampling sites 1, 2, and 4. Trajectory in the Site 4 showed no significant ($F_{6,21}=2.35$, p=0.07) difference among the years. Overall, our trajectory analysis indicated that three of four sampling sites (sites 1, 3, 4) showed significant decreases (n=7, p<0.05) and that the proportions of sensitive species declined evidently in the sites 1 and 2 and the tolerant species increased in the dam sites. Our outcomes may be used as a key data for diagnosis of the long-term ecological impact in the future in the watershed.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.121-126
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• 1998

This study is to examine the energy budget of Hexagrammos agrammus in the natural habitat, based on the von Bertalanffy's growth model using food consumption and growth data of the fish. The fish were collected at the coasts of Tongbaek Island in Pusan and Shinsu Island in Samchonpo, Korea. The standard energy budget model was adopted for this study and the model has the components of toed consumption (C), production (G), assimilation (A), absorption ($A_b$), catabolism (R), excreta (U) and feces (F). These components were expressed as mass unit, not as calorie unit as usual. Both the mass and the proportion of each component varied with age of the fish, The mass of annual excreta declined as the fish became older, while those of the other components increased with the age. The relationship between mean weight (W) and annual absorption ($A_b$) was a non-linear one with the equation of $A_b=4.592W^{0.666}$, while that between mean weight (W) and annual catabolism (R) was linear as R=0.007+0.567W. On the other hand, the annual food consumption (C) showed linear relations both with annual assimilation (A) and annual catabolism (R) as A= -7.026+0.061C and R=-20.749+0.048C, respectively.

• Journal of Marine Life Science
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.106-116
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• 2021

To secure basic data by monitoring the growth of salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) released to the Taehwa River. After discharge, the characteristics of the young salmon distribution and migration rate habitat were investigated for two years. A total of 4 points [Sunbawi bridge (St.1), Guyeong bridge (St.2), Samho bridge (St.3), and Myeongchon bridge (St.4)] were investigated. The survey of 2017 indicating an increase of 10 mm in average length and 0.8 g in average weight, and the survey of 2018 indicating an increase of 10 mm in average length and 0.5 g in average weight. Among 39 species, 10 insectivorous and 12 omnivorous, are believed to compete with young salmon for food. 6, 5, 6 and 8 predatory fish species has emerged at each site, respectively. According to this study, it is believed that St.1 and St.2 points are more proper as discharge location of young salmon because these two points have less varied in depth, flow rate, salt concentration etc. In addition, it is thought that the night or dawn time in early January is the best discharge time of young salmon fish because predatory fish such as Korean piscivorous chub and bass etc. does not eat food actively at that time.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.368-375
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• 2022

Gut contents analysis is essential to predict the impact of organisms on food source changes due to variations of the habitat environment. Previous studies of gut content analysis have been conducted using traditional methods, such as visual observation. However, these studies are limited in analyzing food sources because of the digestive process in gut organ. DNA metabarcoding analysis is a useful method to analyze food sources by supplementing these limitations. We sampled marine fish of Pennahia argentata, Larimichthys polyactis, Crangon affinis, Loligo beka and Sepia officinalis from Gwangyang Bay and Yeosu fisheries market for analyzing gut contents by applying DNA metabarcoding analysis. 18S rRNA v9 primer was used for analyzing food source by DNA metabarcoding. Network and two-way clustering analyses characterized the relationship between organisms and food sources. As a result of comparing metabarcoding of gut contents for P. argentata between sampled from Gwangyang Bay and the fisheries market, fish and Copepoda were analyzed as common food sources. In addition, Decapoda and Copepoda were analyzed as common food sources for L. polyactis and C. affinis, respectively. Copepoda was analyzed as the primary food source for L. beka and S. officinalis. These study results demonstrated that gut contents analysis using DNA metabarcoding reflects diverse and detailed information of biological food sources in the aquatic environment. In addition, it will be possible to provide biological information in the gut to identify key food sources by applying it to the research on the food web in the ecosystem.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.326-332
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• 1990

The chemical attractants for sea eels, Astroconger myriaster, were identified by using fish traps in their natural habitat around namhae island, southern part of Korea. The ethyl alcohol extracts of anchovy, Engraulis japonica, which was a very good baits for sea eels showed higher attraction activities than residuals of it. Because sea eels showed high attraction activities to the free amino acid or nucleotides of synthetic anchovy extract, the succeeding experiment was conducted to identify the major chemical attractants among 9 free amino acid and 2 nucleotides by omission test. L-Glutamic acid, L-glycine, taurine, L-methionine or IMP showed highest attraction activities among 11 chemical compounds. But sea eels showed significantly weaker attraction activities to the synthethic extracts and single component than to the natural extract.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.185-195
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• 2020

Background: The flathead grey mullet Mugil cephalus has the widest distribution among mugilid species. Recent studies based on mitochondrial DNA sequences showed that the species comprises at least 14 different groups, three of which occur in the northwest Pacific. We analyzed the otolith microchemistry of M. cephalus at several locations in Korea to improve understanding of migration pattern and population origin. Results: We collected 123 sagittal otoliths from seven locations and determined their concentrations of eight elements (⁷Li, ²⁴Mg, ⁵⁵Mn, ⁵⁷Fe, ⁶⁰Ni, ⁶³Cu, ⁸⁸Sr, and ¹³⁸Ba) using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Mean otolith elemental ratios differed significantly among the locations. The Sr:Ca, Fe:Ca, and Ba:Ca ratios were significantly higher than others, and useful chemical signatures for investigating the habitat use of M. cephalus populations. We identified five diverse and complicated migration patterns using the otolith data that we collected: estuarine resident (type I), freshwater migrant (type II), estuarine migrant (type III), seawater resident (type IV), and seawater migrant (type V). A canonical discriminant analysis plot revealed separation of two groups (type II in the Yellow Sea vs. other types in remaining locations). Two locations on Jeju Island, despite their close proximity, had fish with quite different migration patterns, corroborating previous molecular studies that distinguished two groups of fishes. Conclusion: We successfully showed that the migration patterns of the Korean mullet varied by location. Only fish from the western sector of Jeju had a unique migration pattern, which is likely confined population in this area. Among the eight otolith elements measured, the Sr:Ca ratio was found to be the best indicator of migration pattern and population origin.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.621-630
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• 2015

This study investigated the concentration of total mercury in 17 species of commonly consumed fishes and assessed the risk to human health from provisional tolerable weekly intakes PTWI% as affected by migratory characterization, such as migration and vagility. The measured mean concentrations of total mercury in these 17 species of commonly consumed fishes suggest that mean concentrations of total mercury in 10 species of migratory fishes (largehead hairtail, chub mackerel, Pacific saury, skipjack tuna, Pacific cod, anchovy, Alaska pollack, brown croaker, Japanese Spanish mackerel, yellow croaker and Pacific herring) were low compared to those in 7 species of demersal fishes (red stingray, brown sole, bastard halibut, conger eel, blackmouth angler, rockfish and filefish). Based on the mean concentrations, the PTWI% of total mercury among commonly consumed migratory fishes was 3.393%, which was higher than that of commonly consumed demersal fishes (2.710%).

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.796-804
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• 2006

The objective of this research was to develop ecological multi-metric models using natural fish assemblages for a diagnosis of current stream health condition, and apply the model to nationwide lotic ecosystems of the Geum River, the Youngsan River, and the Sumjin River. The ecological stream health model was based on the index of biological integrity (IBI), which was originally developed in North American streams by Karr (1981), and the Rapid Bioassessment Protocol (RBP), which was scientifically established by the US EPA (1999). The metric numbers and metric attributes were partially changed for the regional applications, so the scoring criteria was modified for the assessment. Overall, metric values, based on the IBI calculations, reflected conventional water quality characteristics, based on nutrient regime, and agreed with results of staticeco-toxicity tests. Some stations impaired in terms of stream health were identified by the IBI approach, and also major key stressors affecting the stream health were identified by additional evaluations of physical habitats. Our preliminary results suggested that biological integrity in stream ecosystems was largely disturbed by habitat degradation as well as chemical pollutions. This new approach would be used as a key tool for ecological restorations and species conservations in the degraded aquatic ecosystems in Korea and applied for elucidating major causes of ecological disturbances. Ultimately, this approach provides us an effective management strategy of stream ecosystems through establishments of ecological networks in various watersheds.