• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.146-159
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• 2014

In this study, we evaluated the temporal changes of water quality in the 90 reservoirs in Korea and the relationships between water quality and their environmental factors in the reservoirs for effective management of reservoirs. The majority of study reservoirs were categorized as the eutrophic state based on Carlson's trophic index. Among 90 reservoirs, more than 55.0% were nutrient-rich based on $TSI_{TP}$ in each month, where more than 50.0% were nutrient-rich based on $TSI_{Chl-a}$ from June to November. Seasonal Mann-Kendall test was used to analyze temporal variation of water quality in the selected 60 reservoirs using monthly data from 2004 to 2008. The results showed that 27 (45.0%) reservoirs showed the improvement of water quality based on TP and Chl-a concentrations, while 14 (23.3%) and 11 (18.3%) reservoirs displayed the degradation of water quality based on TP and Chl-a concentrations, respectively. Meanwhile, a self-organizing map classified the study reservoirs into five groups based on differences of hydrogeomorphology (altitude, catchment area, bank height, lake age, etc.). Physicochemical factors and land use/cover types showed clear differences among groups. Finally, hydrogeomorphology of reservoirs were related to water quality, indicating that the hydrogeomorphological characters strongly affect water quality of reservoirs.