• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.212-218
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• 2006

Three out of fourteen Microcystis-dominant cyanobacterial blooms in Central India were found to be toxic to mice ($LD_{50}$ ranging from 35-450 mg bloom dry mass/kg body weight). The liver architecture of the treated mice showed characteristic symptoms of hepatotoxicity relative to the untreated controls, with increased enzyme activities of serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (SGOT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (SGPT). RP-HPLC revealed the presence of microcystin-LR, microcystin-RR, and desmethyl microcystin-RR in the given region to maximum amounts of 390, 1,030, and $860{\mu}g/g$ bloom dry weight, respectively, corresponding to a maximum of 2.8 mg/l microcystin-LR in the lake water. Further confirmation of the microcystin variants was conducted using a MALDI-TOF MS analysis.

• ALGAE
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.255-262
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• 2003

Ecological characteristics of phytoplankton communities were investigated biweekly at 6 stations from Feb. 2001 to Feb. 2002 at the lower part of the Han River. During the study, a total of 267 taxa which were composed of 114 green algae, 104 diatoms, 22 blue-green algae, 13 chrysophytes and 2 dinoflagellates were observed. The standing crops of phytoplankton communities were ranged from 1.30 ${\times}10^6$ cells ${\cdot}l^{-1}$ to 37.47 ${\times}10^6$ cells ${\cdot}l^{-1}$. The dominant species were 11 taxa including Pediastrum duplex, Scenedesmus quadricauda in green algae, Osillatoria limosa, Microcystis aeruginosa, Merisomorpedia sp., Phormidium sp. in blue-green algae, and Asterionella gracillima, Aulacoseira granulata, Fragilaria crotonensis, Stephanodiscus hantzschii f. tenuis, Synedra acus in diatoms. Asterionella gracillima and Stephanodiscus hantzschii f. tenuis were abundant at every station from winter to spring. Stephanodiscus hantzschii f. tenuis occupied the highest dominant ratio and standing crop. From summer to autumn, dominant species were Aulacoseira granulata at all stations and blue-green algae such as Osillatoria limosa, Microcystis aeruginosa, Merisomorpedia sp. at some stations. These 4 species were mostly present at the lower stations 4, 5, 6 and very few at the upper stations 1, 2, 3.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.181-187
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• 2004

Cyanobacteria are the dominant phototrophic bacteria in water environments. Here, the diversity of cyanobacteria in seven Korean reservoir waters where different levels of algal blooms were observed during the summer of 2002, was examined by T-RFLP analysis. The number of T-RF bands in the HaIII T-RFLP profiles analyzed from those water samples ranged from 20 to 44. Of these, cyanobacteria accounted for 6.1 to 27.2％ of the total bacteria. The water samples could be clustered into 2 groups according to the Dice coefficient of the T -RF profiles. The eutrophic Dunpo and oligotrophic Chungju reservoirs were selected, and several representative clones from both reservoir waters analyzed for the nucleotide sequences of their 16S rDNA. The major clones were found to belong to the Microcystis and Anabaena species in the waters from the Dunpo and Chungju reservoirs, respectively, which was in agreement with the T-RFLP result. That is, the Microcystis and Anabaena species were dominant in the eutrophic and polluted Dunpo and oligotrophic Chungju reservoir waters, respectively. These results indicated that there is a correlation between prevalence of cyanobacterial species and levels of pollution in reservoir waters.

• KCID journal
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.33-43
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• 2011

Jundae reservoir has basin area of 234ha, average depth of 3.77m and total storage of $619{\times}10^3m^3$, and is located in Dangin-gun, Chungcheongnam-do. The water quality of Jundae reservoir exceeded the IV grade of water quality standard as available for irrigation water in COD, TN, TP, Chl-a. COD and Chl-a were higher in spring season, because the algal bloom by phytoplankton increased. And the algal blooms in October by inflow non-point pollution during summer rainy season. The most dominant zooplankton was rotifers during study period at all stations. Dominant species were Keratella cochlearis, Polyarthra spp., and Trichocerca spp. We successfully established 2 isolated clone cultures as predator. One is Rotifer, Euchlanis sp. and another is cladocerans, Bosmina sp. To test the removal rate of 2 cultures against Microcystis aeruginosa, we inoculated Euchlanis sp. and Bosmina sp. separately when the abundance reached at $1.0{\times}10^6$cells/ml. Euchlanis sp. removed M. aeruginosa around 98.9% and Bosmina sp. removed it around 98.4%. They are useful grazers for controling algae blooms, Euchlanis sp. and Bosmina sp. feeding on M. aeruginosa highly.

• ALGAE
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.321-327
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• 2004

The literature review on the dynamics of the phytoplankton communities in terms of species composition, standing crops, abundant species and dominant species in the lower part of the Han River from 1940s to 2000s was conducted for the prospective prediction of their succession patterns. Total of 326 taxa were identified and they belonged to 47 blue-green algae, 139 green algae, 12 euglenoids, 126 diatoms, 6 din flagellates and 2 silicoflagellates. Composition of phytoplankton communities were 83.6% diatoms, 10.5% blue-green algae and 5.3% green algae in the middle of 1960s, whereas those were 43.2% diatoms, 40.7% green algae and 13.6% blue-green algae in the 1990s. Before 1990s, Synedra ulna, Melosira varians, Cymbella tumida, Synedra acus, Cymbella ventricosa, Navicula cryptocephala, Nitzschia palea, Aulacoseira granulata, Gomphonema parvulum and Cymbella affinis were most frequent, while those after 1990 were Asterionella formosa, Asterionella gracillima, Aulacoseira granulate, Aulacoseira granulata var. angustissima, Chlorella vulgare, Fragilaria crotonensis and Synedra ulna. Phytoplankton blooms were frequent from winter to the late spring and rare in summer due to heavy rain and discharge. Seasonal variations of the dominant species were fairly obvious; Asterionella gracillima and Aulacoseira granulata in spring, Aulacoseira granulate and Aulacoseira granulate var. angustissima in summer and autumn, Asterionella gracillima and Stephan discus hantzschii in winter. Recently blue-green algae, Microcystis, Aphanocapsa, Dactylococcopsis have been more abundant than those of the previous reports. Based on the current situations, Stephan discus hantzschii f. tennis, Asterionella gracillima, Aulacoseira granulate and blue-green algae will be more abundant and blooms of those species will be more frequent.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2024

Algal blooms occur seasonally in the eutrophicated rivers or reservoirs, and some harmful cyanobacteria species produce toxic substances, which are directly or indirectly harmful to the ecosystem and terrestrial animals. So, the monitoring and control of harmful cyanobacteria occurrence and toxins residual in the aquasystem are important to preserve the water environment and secure public health. In this study, the four harmful cyanobacteria occurrences and toxic substance concentrations of two agricultural reservoirs in the southern part of Gyeonggi Province were investigated from August to October 2022. Among four harmful cyanobacteria (Microcystis sp., Anabaena sp., Oscillatoria sp., Aphanizomenon sp.), three kinds of cyanobacteria except Oscillatoria sp. were observed, and Microcystis sp. was the dominant cyanobacteria except for Anabaena sp. dominant result of a sample collected on October at reservoir B. The cell density of cyanobacteria was influenced by season and weather due to the length of daytime and concentrations of organic carbon and nitrogen. Three kinds of microcystin and anatoxin-a were quantitatively analyzed as total (in the cell body and water) and extracellular (in water) concentrations. The maximum total concentrations of anatoxin-a, microcystin-LR, microcystin-RR, and microcystin-YR were 0.1291 ㎍/L, 0.2776 ㎍/L, 0.3721 ㎍/L, and 0.0306 ㎍/L, respectively, in reservoir A and 0.3274 ㎍/L, 0.1495 ㎍/L, 0.2037 ㎍/L, and 0.0153 ㎍/L, respectively, in reservoir B.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.22-30
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• 2011

This study was purposed to develop an effective LC/MS/MS method for simultaneously determining five pre-treated cyanotoxins (anatoxin-a, microcystins-RR, -YR, -LR and -LA) of cyanobacteria blooms. Cyanobacterial bloom samples were collected from 11 major lakes and three downstream areas of river around Korea during 2005~2009. Cyanotoxins were identified in 38 samples from the lakes. The validity of the method was evaluated and the recovery rates were found ranging from 83~87%. The MDL turned out to be $0.046\;{\mu}g\;L^{-1}$ for anatoxin-a and $0.066\;{\mu}g\;L^{-1}$ for microcystins (RR, YR, LR and LA), which indicates that the method has high sensitivity and accuracy. The most dominant genus of the cyanobacterial blooms was Microcystis, which accounted for 71% of the analysed samples. Microcystis also contained the largest amount of microcystins ($398.5\;{\mu}g\;gDW^{-1}$) among the analyzed cyanobacteria. The analysis of the five cyanotoxins showed that anatoxin-a ranged between $0{\sim}41.833\;{\mu}g\;gDW^{-1}$ and microcystins ranged between $6.311{\sim}2,148.786\;{\mu}g\;gDW^{-1}$. Among the microcystins, micocystin-RR took up 58.3%, the largest portion. Anatoxin-a was found to account for 77.8% of the samples. This study has its significance in that it allowed the establishment of toxin criteria appropriate for the Korean water systems. Further studies may be necessary to conduct for improving water treatment methods.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.247-257
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• 2014

The construction of eight large weirs in the Nakdong River, Korea, caused a decrease in the water flow velocity and several physical changes to the water environment. Here, changes in phyto- and zooplankton communities and water quality in the areas near the eight weirs were investigated from 2011 to 2013, and relationships between phytoplankton abundances and environmental factors were analyzed. Special emphasis was given to the succession patterns in algal abundance based on temperature fluctuations. At the eight weirs, 24 dominant species were found. The most abundant phytoplankton species was Stephanodiscus sp. (39.4% of dominant frequency). Cyanobacteria of the genus Microcystis dominated during the summer, with an dominant frequency of 8.5% and cell abundance ratio of 36.6%. Significant correlations were observed between temperature and abundance of eight of the main dominant species; seven species showed positive correlations with temperature. Stephanodiscus sp., however, showed a negative correlation with temperature (r=-0.26, p<0.01). In addition, this species showed a significant negative correlation with the dominant algal species-Aulacoseira granulata and Aphanizomenon flos-aquae, with the zooplankton Copepoda and with Cladocera. On the contrary, seven other dominant species of algae showed significant positive correlations with zooplankton. Thus, we showed that the seasonal succession of plankton communities in the Nakdong River was related to the water temperature changes.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.54-65
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• 2008

The seasonal dynamics of phytoplankton and water quality were evaluated bimonthly at 7 park ponds in the capital region from October 2004 to August 2005. With out the change of water temperature $(0.4\sim26.0^{\circ}C)$, cyanobacteria dominated in park ponds such as Gyungbokgung Gyunghyaeru and Seokchon reservoir. The standing crops of phytoplankton was significant related with cell densities of cyanobacteria (r=0.993), while they did not significant correlation with environmental factors. Almost of all park ponds in the capital region were classified as eutrophic state with high TP concentrations and TN/TP ratios less than 10. Major dominant cyanobacteria were as followed; Anabaena sp., Aphanocapsa elachista, Lyngbya contorta, Merismopedia elegans, Microcystis aeruginosa, M. wesenbergii, Microcystis sp., Oscillatoria sp., Phormidium tenue, and Plectonema sp. To date, although the concentration of chlorophyll-${\alpha}$ and cyanobacterial densities in the capital region was below the 'danger' level of WHO guidelines value, the monitoring of cyanobacterial densities and its toxin (microcystin) in recreational/bath water should be continued.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.491-498
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• 2011

We investigated the ranges of total cellular microcystins content of cyanobacterial blooms collected in Korean lakes and rivers from 2005 to 2009. The amount and composition of microcystins of Korean cyanobacteria varied depending on the sampling water bodies and dominant cyanobacterial genera. Toxic cyanobacterial cell numbers equivalent to $1{\mu}g$ MCYSTs/L using total cellular microcystin content of Korean cyanobacteria were in the range of 2,348 to 66,980,638 cells/mL. Only four samples among forty nine samples showed less cell numbers than current criterion of Harmful Algae Alert System, 5,000 cells/mL indicating current criterion do not reflect properly the microcystins content of Korean cyanobacteria. Anabaena and Aphanizomenon spp. showed three to six times higher cell numbers equivalent to $1{\mu}g$ MCYSTs/L than Microcystis spp. To propose criteria of Harmful Algae Alert System for Korean toxic cyanobacteria, we calculated about 50% selective geometrical means of cyanobacterial cell numbers equivalent to $1{\mu}g$ MCYSTs/L in order of toxic content. The proposed criteria for Microcystis, Oscillatoria, Anabaena, and Aphanizomenon spp., are 10,000, 20,000, 40,000, and 80,000 cells/mL, respectively.