• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.355-366
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• 1994

The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes of water quality and the patterns of self-purification with season in Gokneung stream. The vegetation in the ecosystem around Gokneung stream was dominated by Quercus species. In the physicochemical analysis based on the contents of DO, BOD, conductivity and total phosphorus, the upstream seemed to have been polluted, but the downstream was self-purified. In biological investigation by bentic macroinvertebrates, the result was similar to that in the physicochemical analysis. The self-purification constant based on BOD of the upstream, 1.013, was the highest. In the self-purification constants with month, that of September was 0.995 and that of January was 0.272. These results indicated that the self purification capacities of spring and autumn were larger than those of winter and summer in Gokneung stream.