• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.156-165
• /
• 2011

It is selected seven sites for marine algal flora and community structure and investigated seasonally from December 2008 to November 2009 in Gogunsan Islands, the west coast of Korea. A total of 58 species including 10 green, 16 brown and 32 red algae were collected and identified. Among these species, 11 species were found throughout the year. Annual mean biomass in dry weight were 213.8 g $m^{-2}$ at Sinsido 1, 143.1 g $m^{-2}$ at Sinsido 2, 133.3 g $m^{-2}$ at Sinsido 3, 164.0 g $m^{-2}$ at Munyeodo, 116.9 g $m^{-2}$ at Seonyudo, and 145.1 g $m^{-2}$ at Jangjado. Maximum biomass was recorded in Sinsido 1, and minimum mean biomass was Sinsido 4. The dominant species based on biomass were Sargassum thunbergii, Ulva pertusa, Sargassum fusiforme and Corallina pilulifera. S. thunbergii was the representative alga occurred at all seasons. The flora investigated could be classified into six functional groups such as coarsely branched form (46.6%), filamentous form (27.6%), sheet form (17.2%), thick leathery form (3.4%), jointed calcareous form (3.4%) and crustose form (1.7%). The R/P, C/P and (R+C)/P value reflecting flora characteristics were 0.33~0.75, 1.11~2.50, 1.47~3.25, respectively. Diversity index (H') and dominance index (DI) indicated that stability of seaweed community of Gogunsan Islands was unstable and environmental conditions were bad. According to multidimensional scaling (MDS) and cluster analysis, Gogunsan Islands were divided into three distinct groups. The first group was Sinsido 2, Sinsido 3, Seonyudo and Muyeodo and the second group comprised Sinsido 1 and Jangjado and the other was Sinsido 4 due to meaningful difference in similarity.