• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.139-144
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• 2005

To investigate the long-term variation of water qualities, we have daily monitored physio-chemical characteristics of surface water in the Geum River estuary from June 1996 to April 2004. We found that the water qualities were determined by three dominant factors : 1. fluvial input from Geum River ($28.3\%$), 2. chemical processes such as nitrification and phosphate addition originated from sediment resuspension and domestic sew- age input ($18.6\%$), 3. biological processes such as nutrient consumption by primary producers ($13.5\%$). The factor 1 (fluvial input) effectively affected the water quality of the estuary particularly during the normal or low river discharge. The factor 2 (chemical processes) and the factor 3 (biological processes) showed distinct seasonal differences due to their relative strengths of biological activities. The factor 3 was a governing parameter during the period of spring algal bloom in 2004. For the spring period, an empirical equation derived from the multi-regression analyses showed that the in-situ chlorophyll-a distributions in the estuarine water were successfully simulated by the phosphate concentrations and N/P ratios. Therefore we suggest that phosphate functions as a limiting factor for the primary productivity in the Geum River estuary for the dry season, especially during spring.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.184-194
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• 2021

Since the construction of a dike in 1983, the water quality in the Bunam Lake has continued to deteriorate due to algal bloom caused by agricultural nutrient loading. Therefore, we evaluated the change in water quality and phytoplankton ecological characteristics in Bunam Lake and Cheonsu Bay, Korea. Water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chemical oxygen demand (COD), chlorophyll, and phytoplankton community were surveyed in April during the dry season and in July during the rainy reason. As a result, during the dry period, phytoplankton proliferated greatly and stagnated in the Bunam Lake while a very high population of cyanobacteria Oscillatoria spp. (8.61×10⁷ cells L^-1) was recorded. Most of the nutrients, except, nitrate and nitrite, were consumed due to the large growth of phytoplankton. However, during the rainy period, concentrations of ammonia, phosphate, silicate, nitrate, and nitrite, were very high towards the upper station due to the inflow of fresh water. Cyanobacteria Oscillatoria and Microcystis spp. were dominant in the Bunam Lake during the rainy period. Even in the Cheonsu Bay, cyanobacteria dominated due to the effect of discharge and diatoms, such as, Chaetoceros spp. and Eucampia zodiacus, which also proliferated significantly due to increased levels of nutrients. Since the eutrophication index was above 1 in Bunam Lake, it was classified as eutrophic water and the Cheonsu Bay was classified as eutrophic water only during the rainy season. In addition, a stagnant seawater-derived hypoxia water mass was observed at a depth of8m in the Bunam Lake adjacent to the tide embankment and the COD concentration reached 206 mg L^-1 in the bottom layer at B3. Based on this result, it is considered that the water quality will continue to deteriorate if organic matters settle due to continuous inflow of nutrients and growth of organisms while the bottom water mass is stagnant.