Periphyton Survey for the Evaluation of Water Quality in a Small Stream before the Construction of an Artificial Lake

소하천 수질평가를 위한 부착생물 조사

The dynamics of physico-chemical factors and biomass of epilithic attached algae was determined by bimonthly sampling in the Kyechon and Yudongchon situated in the upper part of Som River from March 1998 to February 1999. Among environmental factors, average of $NH_4$, $NO_3$, SRP and SRSi concentration ranged $8.9{\sim}86.6{\mu}g$ N/l, $663.9{\sim}2,018.1{\mu}g$ N/l, $0{\sim}15.0{\mu}g$ P/l and 1.6~2.6 mg Si/l, respectively. The contents of chlorophyll-a and organic matter per unit area, which ranged from 21.1 to 231.8 $mg/m^2$ and ranged from 5.2 to 52.6 $g/m^2$, respectively, showed very high in the spatial and temporal variations. Both were high in February and May and low in March seasonally. The fluctuation of epilithic biomass related the concentration of $NH_4$, SRP and current velocity. In relationship between biomass and current velocity, >200 and 100~200 mg chl-a/$m^2$ corresponded to <0.2 and <0.8 m/s, respectively. The evaluation of water quality with chl-a and organic matter of periphyton resulted on over eutrophic condition. Periphytic algae in a small stream were more effective as indicator of water quality than planktonic algae. More researches on periphytic algae in relation to water quality evaluation are needed.