• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.13-22
• /
• 2022

In this study, we investigated the water quality and fish community of the Gudam Wetland, a riverine wetland in the middle-upper reaches of the Nakdong River, during March-October 2020. The main results were as follows: average annual flow rate: 45.0±23.7 m³/s, flow velocity: 0.4±0.3 m/s, water depth: 1.4±0.4 m, water temperature: 17.5±0.8℃, pH: 7.8±0.2, electrical conductivity: 121.6±19.0 ㎲/cm, dissolved oxygen concentration: 11.4±0.9 mg/L, suspended solids concentration: 3.8±2.0 mg/L, and the water quality was classified as Ia (very good). A total of 754 individual fish belonging to 4 orders, 7 families, and 19 species were investigated. Cyprinidae was the dominant group, with 13 species. The dominant species was Zacco platypus (39.3%), followed by Pseudogobio esocinus (17.5%). There were 8 (42.1%) endemic Korean species and 1 exotic species, Micropterus salmoides. Four species were carnivores, six were insectivores, and nine were omnivores. Regarding tolerance to environmental changes, 6 species were tolerant, 11 had intermediate tolerance, and 2 were sensitive. Fish community analysis revealed dominance of 0.57, diversity of 2.04, evenness of 0.69, and richness of 2.72, indicating a diverse and stable fish community. The fish assessment index showed that the assessment class was B (average 62.5), which was higher than that of major streams of the Nakdong River (class C). For sustainable conservation of the Gudam Wetland, management strategies such as minimizing aggregate collection and preventing inflow of non-point pollutants are required.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.133-143
• /
• 2021

This study aims to classify the plant communities of the Gudam wetland, a riparian wetland in Nakdong River basin, and to identify the characteristics of the communities according to the veritical structure to prepare management plan. In the Gudam wetland, a total of 19 plant communities were found through physiognomical vegetation, and were analyzed by dividing into tree dominant community, shrub dominant community, and herbaceous dominant community according to the vertical structure. When examining the results of the community characteristics analysis, the species diversity index was the highest in the tree dominant communities but there was concern about a decrease in species diversity due to the influx of exotic plants such as Sicyos angulatus. The shrub dominant community tended to have a biased species diversity index on shrub plants. The herbaceous dominant communities ware divided into wetland herbaceous communities and dryland herbaceous communities according to the species diversity index, and measures were needed to reduce the species diversity index due to artificial disturbances. The importance value was the highest in the arboreal Salix genus in the tree dominant communities, and the exotic plants such as Amorpha fruticosa were the highest in the shrub dominant communities. In the herbaceous dominant communities, wetland herbaceous plants such as Phragmites japonicus were high. As a result of the analysis according to ordination the tree dominant communities and shrub dominant communities were differentiated by exotic plant factors, and the herbaceous dominant communities were differentiated by hierarchy number and slope.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
• /
• v.43 no.5
• /
• pp.455-469
• /
• 2010

Changes of geomorphology in alluvial river and vegetation recruitment on its floodplain downstream from dams are investigated both qualitatively and quantitatively focusing on the downstream of Andong dam and Imha dam on the Nakdong River. Results of the analyses of river morphology and bed material in the study site show a general trend of riverbed degradation with a max scour of 3 m and bed material coarsening from pre-dam value of 1.5 mm in D50 to post-dam value of 2.5 mm. Decrease in bed shear stress due to the decrease in flood discharge have caused vegetation recruitment on the once-naked sandbars. As result, the ratio of area of vegetated bars over total area of bars has drastically changed from only 7% in 1971 before the Andong dam (constructed in 1976) to 25% after it, and increased to 43% only three year after the Imha dam (constructed in 1992) and eventually to 74% by 2005. Analysis of the vegetation succession at Wicjeol subreach, one of the three subreaches selected in this study for detailed investigation, has clearly shown a succession of vegetation on once-naked sand bars to a pioneering stage, reed and grass stage, willow shrub and eventually to willow tree stages. At the second subreach selected, two large point bars in front of Hahoe Village seem to have maintained their sand surfaces without a signifiant vegetation recruitment until 2005. The sand bars, however, seem to have been invaded by vegetation recently, which warns river managers to have a countermeasure to protect the sand bars from vegetation invasion in order to conserve them for the historical village of Hahoe. On the other hand, recruitment and establishment of vegetation on the sand bars by artificial disturbance of the river, such as damming, can create an unique habitat of backmarsh in the sandy river, as shown in the case of Gudam Wetland, and may increase the biodiversity as compared with relatively monotonous sand bars. Last, the premise in this study that decrease in flood discharge due to upstream dams and decrease in bed shear stress can induce vegetation recruitment on the naked sand bars in the river has been verified with the analyses of the distribution of dimensionless bed shear stress along the selected cross section in each subreach.