• Journal of Aquaculture
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.111-122
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• 2008

This study was conducted to assess the usefulness of the temperature characteristics of the tidal flat sediments during low tide as a environmental factor, and burrowing behaviour, fatness, total hemocyte counts(THCs) and differential hemocyte counts(DHCs) of hard clam Meretrix lusoria as biological activity indices for the management of hard clam farms located in Taean(Chungnam province) and Gimje(Jeonbuk province) tidal flat in Korea. Temperature ranges of the sediment at 1cm depth during spring(March to May) and summer(June to August) in Taean(where the exposure time was about $5.5{\sim}6$ hours during low tide) were $8.7{\sim}26.8^{\circ}C\;and\;27.6{\sim}32.8^{\circ}C$, respectively. Even though there was no significant difference(P>0.05), temperatures of the surface sediment where submerged with remained seawater were generally higher than that of uncovered with seawater. Burrowing depths of normally digged hard clams were 0.9{\sim}3.6cm from March to October, 2002. In the field experiment performed at Taean farming ground covered with seawater, burrowing times of the clams under natural water temperatures were $41.6{\pm}10minutes$ in February and $5.4{\pm}1.3minutes$ in August, respectively, and these were influenced by water temperatures. Fatness of hard clams began to decrease from May(at Taean tidal flat) and June(at Gimje tidal flat), showed the lowest level in August and increased again from September. Total hemocytes counts in the hemolymph of the hard clams were decreased to the lowest level in July($24.7{\times}10^4cells/mL$, at Taean tidal flat) and August($28.2{\times}10^4cells/mL$, at Gimje tidal flat), and significantly increased again from September(at Taean tidal flat, P<0.01) and October(at Gimje tidal flat, P<0.001), respectively. We observed three types of hemocytes from the hemolymph of hard clams according to whether hemocytes retain the granules or not and the size of the granules. As a results, we could found that periodical monitoring of the sediment temperatures, clam burrowing behaviour and hemocyte parameters were very helpful for the management of hard clam farming.