• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.491-498
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• 2011

We investigated the ranges of total cellular microcystins content of cyanobacterial blooms collected in Korean lakes and rivers from 2005 to 2009. The amount and composition of microcystins of Korean cyanobacteria varied depending on the sampling water bodies and dominant cyanobacterial genera. Toxic cyanobacterial cell numbers equivalent to $1{\mu}g$ MCYSTs/L using total cellular microcystin content of Korean cyanobacteria were in the range of 2,348 to 66,980,638 cells/mL. Only four samples among forty nine samples showed less cell numbers than current criterion of Harmful Algae Alert System, 5,000 cells/mL indicating current criterion do not reflect properly the microcystins content of Korean cyanobacteria. Anabaena and Aphanizomenon spp. showed three to six times higher cell numbers equivalent to $1{\mu}g$ MCYSTs/L than Microcystis spp. To propose criteria of Harmful Algae Alert System for Korean toxic cyanobacteria, we calculated about 50% selective geometrical means of cyanobacterial cell numbers equivalent to $1{\mu}g$ MCYSTs/L in order of toxic content. The proposed criteria for Microcystis, Oscillatoria, Anabaena, and Aphanizomenon spp., are 10,000, 20,000, 40,000, and 80,000 cells/mL, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.20-29
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• 2023

This study analyzed the relationship between harmful cyanobacterial abundance and environmental factors in order to figure out the causes of the recent increase of cyanobacteria in Lake Dukdong from 2019 to 2021. Lake Dukdong, which is used as a drinking water source for Gyeongju City, has an algae alert system in place. Lake Dukdong has maintained good water quality, but algae alert level 1 (over 1,000 cells/mL) has been issued in recent years. As a result of Pearson correlation analysis (from May to Oct.), the cell density of Microcystis and Aphanizomenon, which form part of the most harmful cyanobacteria genus, were significantly positively correlated with the water temperature and water storage volume. T-test was performed to compare the data from 2016-2018 and 2019-2021 (from May to Oct.). The average density of harmful cyanobacteria cells increased about six-fold from 54 to 344 cells/mL. There were significant differences in water temperature, pH, total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), TN/TP ratio, water storage volume, and cyanobacterial cell density. Water temperature increased from 19.2 to 22.8 ℃. TP concentration increased from 0.017 to 0.028 mg/L. The main cause of the recent increase of harmful cyanobacteria in Lake Dukdong is thought to be the increase in water temperature, TP concentration, and water storage volume from 2019 and 2021, resulting in more favorable conditions for cyanobacterial growth.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.373-380
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• 2023

Due to abnormal climate phenomena and climate change in Korea, overgrowth of algae in rivers and reservoirs occurs frequently. Algae in rivers are classified into green algae, blue-green algae, diatom, and other types, and some species of blue-green algae cause problems due to odor and the discharge of toxic substances. In Korea, an algae alert system is in place, and it is issued based on the number of harmful blue-green algae cells. Thus, measuring harmful blue-green algal blooms is very important, and currently, the analysis method of algae involves taking field samples and determining the cell count of green algae, blue-green algae, and diatoms through algal microscopy, which takes a lot of time. Recently, the analysis of algae concentration through Phycocyanin, an alternative indicator for the number of harmful algae cells, has been conducted through remote sensing. However, research on the analysis of the number of blue-green algae cells is currently insufficient. In this study, we water samples for algal analyses were collected from river and counted the number of blue-green algae cells using algae microscopy. We also obtained the Phycocyanin concentration using an optical sensor and acquired algae spectra through a hyperspectral sensor. Based on this, we calculated the equation for estimating blue-green algae cell counts and estimated the number of blue-green algae cells.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.337-354
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• 2017

Cyanobacteria Aphanizomenon population is widely distributed in the world, and well known as harmful algae by producing toxins and off-flavor materials, thus belonging to one of the taxa that became more interested in the field of limnoecology. In this study, the frequency, intensity, and duration of Aphanizomenon occurrence were increased with the abnormal drawdown of water level in the winter in Boryeong Reservoir, and the spatial and temporal characteristics of them are compared with each other in the perspective of hydrometeorology (1998 to 2017) and limnology (2010 to 2017). In Korea, Aphanizomenon flourished mainly in high temperature, and the appearance in the low temperature was rare in total five times. The harmful cyanobacteria Aphanizomenon was observed in the low temperature (December to February) in Boryeong Reservoir from 2014, and then reached a maximum value of $2,160cells\;mL^{-1}$ in January 2017. In addition, the period exceeding $1,000cells\;mL^{-1}$ at this time was more than 3 months. This was simultaneously associated with abnormal water level fluctuation in the low temperature ($<10^{\circ}C$). The large drawdown of water level in the winter season has the potential to promote or amplify the germination and development of harmful algae. Also, subsequent water quality and ecological impacts(e.g., algal toxins and off-flavor substances) need to be considered carefully.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.267-273
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• 2023

Algae are an important component of the ecosystem. However, the excessive growth of cyanobacteria has various harmful effects on river environments, and diatoms affect the management of water supply processes. Algal monitoring is essential for sustainable and efficient algae management. In this study, an object detection model was developed that detects and classifies images of four types of harmful cyanobacteria used for the criteria of the algae alert system, and one diatom, Synedra sp.. You Only Look Once(YOLO) v8, the latest version of the YOLO model, was used for the development of the model. The mean average precision (mAP) of the base model was analyzed as 64.4. Five models were created to increase the diversity of the input images used for model training by performing rotation, magnification, and reduction of original images. Changes in model performance were compared according to the composition of the input images. As a result of the analysis, the model that applied rotation, magnification, and reduction showed the best performance with mAP 86.5. The mAP of the model that only used image rotation, combined rotation and magnification, and combined image rotation and reduction were analyzed as 85.3, 82.3, and 83.8, respectively.