• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.164-172
• /
• 2004

Water temperature, salinity, the phytoplankton community and population of a marine photosynthetic ciliate, Mesodinium rubrum (=Myrionecta rubra), were monitored every 0.5-2 weeks in Gomso Bay and the Geum River Estuary from September 1999 to December 2000. Patterns of temporal variation of the M. rubrum population and phytoplankton community were compared with each other in relation to the differences in temporal fluctuation patterns of the water temperature and salinity in the two study areas. Higher population densities and more frequent blooms of M. rub rum in the Geum River Estuary than those in Gomso Bay could be due to the relatively higher nutrient input by freshwater influx in the Geum River Estuary. In the Geum River Estuary which experience more abrupt and irregular fluctuations of salinity, M. rubrum with its greater tolerance to salinity change exhibited increased dominance while neritic diatoms such as Skeletonema costatum, Asterionellopsis glacialis, A. kariana, Chaetoceros debilis, Eucampia zodiacus, Paralia sulcata, Thalassiosira pacifica, T. nordenskioeldii showed decreased dominance compared with those in Gomso Bay. Thus, it is possible that M. rubrum replaces the dominant diatom species in coastal waters where artificial modification of coast lines as in the case of Saemankeum Reclamation Project should increase the frequency as well as the absolute scale of freshwater discharges.