• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.303-316
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• 2009

Benthic macroinvertebrate communities collected from eight different streams in South Korea were analyzed to compare community and biological indices across different levels of water pollution. The Self-Organizing Map (SOM) was utilized to provide overview on association of the proposed indices. The sample sites were accordingly clustered according to the gradient of pollution on the SOM. While the general trends of the indices were commonly observable according to different levels of pollution, the detailed differences among the indices were also illustrated on the SOM. The conventional diversity and evenness indices tended to be high even though the water quality state was poor representing relatively weak gradient at polluted sites, while the index presenting the saprobic degree such as family biotic index showed the stronger gradient at the polluted area and was robust to present the gradient. Our results also confirmed the general characterization of two indices: The Shannon index is more strengthened by the number of species occurring at the sample sites, while the Simpson index is more influenced by the degree of evenness among the species. The patterning based on the SOM was efficient in comparatively characterizing the proposed indices to present ecological states and water quality.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.27 no.8
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• pp.689-699
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• 2018

The changes on community structures of benthic macroinvertebrates, relevance to the environment and interrelationship between benthos were studied over two years in stream with large environmental disturbance, which caused by localized heavy rain during Typhoon Chaba in October 2016. As a result, the number of species and individuals were increased after localized heavy rain, especially numbers of individuals of Ephemeroptera and Plecoptera were greatly increased. On the contrary, those of Semisulcospira libertina and Semisulcospira forticosta of Mesogastropoda were greatly decreased. Dominant species was Baetis fuscatus of Ephemeroptera, numbers of species and individuals of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera(EPT group) were dramatically increased from 26 species, 110 individuals to 32 species, 365 individuals respectively. This suggests that the change of river bed and flow velocity due to heavy rain provided a suitable environment for the EPT group that preferred the rift of a stream. In the functional feeding group, only gathering collectors and filtering collectors were identified in autumn of 2017 because some functional groups preferentially adapted to the changed environment. The interspecific competition and environmental condition were the worst in autumn after heavy rain due to the increase individuals of some species. The ecological score of benthic macroinvertebrate community(ESB) was higher after the heavy rain than before. Results of the Group Pollution Index(GPI), Korean Saprobic Index(KSI) and Benthic Macroinvertebrate Index(BMI) were similar to those before and after heavy rainfall. Therefore, ESB was the most discriminating method for estimating the biological water quality in this study. Some species that are sensitive to water quality changes still appear or increase individuals in the area under investigation after the heavy rain. On the other hand, the individuals of some pollutant species decreased. This is thought to be because the habitat fluctuation caused by heavy rainfall has improved the water environment.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.149-154
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• 2002

This study was conducted to find the structure of phytoplankton community in the Hoeya river(Ulsan) from March 2000 to February 2001. The taxa of phytoplankton identified included 135 species, 5 divisions, 33 families and 82 genera. Among them, chrysophyta(diatoms) were 63 species(46.7%), chlorophyta(green algae) 47 species(34.8%), pyrrophyta(dinoflagellates) 13 species(9.6%), cyanophyta (cyanobacteria) 8 species(5.9%) and euglenophyta(euglenoids) 4 species(3.0%) respectively. Ecological important species is called frequently appearing species, red tide causative species, seawater species and pollution indicator. 22 species including Aulacoseira granulate were recorded frequently appearing species. 19 species including Ceratium furca were recorded as red tide causing species. And the pollution indicators were 33 species including Actinastrum hantzschii var. fluviatile. The highest standing crops were 3,103,441 cells/$\ell$ in August at the RW-1 and the lowest 1,245 cells/ $\ell$ in January at the RW-5. In the community analysis, the dominanance indices ranged from 0.34(October, RW-2) to 0.94(January, RW-1) and the diversity indices from 0.50(May, RW-2) to 2.57(September, RW-2). The saprobic indices were 2.43 in RW-1, 2.41 in RW-2, 2.375 in RW-3, 2.40 in RW-4, 2.43, in RW-5. Therefore, these areas were investigated "$\beta$-mesosaprobic". According to the similarity index among the stations, these areas were defined as residential district areas(RW-2 and RW-3), lower part of the dam (RW-1) and seawater areas(RW-4 and RW-5).

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.580-587
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• 2019

Benthic macroinvertebrates were analyzed in March, June, September, and December 2018 to evaluate water quality in the Songji River in Sacheon-ci, Korea. The identified benthic macroinvertebrates included 447 individuals belonging to 20 species, 18 families, 12 orders, 5 classes, and 3 phyla. Various ecological parameters were estimated for evaluation of the river status. The total ecological score of benthic macroinvertebrate community (TESB) varied from 17 (Station D) to 41 (Station A). The saprobic index and ecological score of benthic macroinvertebrate community (ESB) for the evaluation of river status revealed a water quality evaluation at Station A of II (oligosaprobic), indicating some satisfactory water protection. The benthic macroinvertebrate index (BMI) varied from 25.207 (Site C) to 39.348 (Station A). The evaluation of the river status at Stations C and D was polysaprobic, and sensitive taxa were absent. The mean Shannon-Weaver index (H') of diversity varied from 1.288 (Station D) to 2.250 (Station A). The classification of saprobity based on H' was ${\beta}$-mesosaprobic at Station A and ${\alpha}$-mesosaprobic at the other stations. The value of geometric density was varied from 1.229 (Station A) to 2.071 (Station D), with a mean of 1.582. An artificial load is being added to this river. One of load is the rectal river construction which flows straight through the river physics. Thus, the environment of living organisms deteriorates due to insufficient water. In order to secure the quality of the Songji River and a good environmental habitat, several low-height stepped-beam structures are required.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.327-343
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• 2013

The aim of this study is to perform community analysis and biological assessment of water quality using benthic macroinvertebrate from Wangpi-cheon watershed which is defined as conservation areas of ecosystem and landscape by ministry of environment in Korea. Field survey of the study area was carried out 2 times from June to September in 2012. As a result of the field survey, total 155 species of benthic macroinvertebrates in 74 families, 15 orders, 7 classes and 5 phyla were collected. The findings of community analysis using the classified species and individuals showed relatively low DI(Dominant Index) value of 0.22 and very high value of average H'(Diversity index) as 4.24. And the analyzed results of SI(Similarity Index) according to habitat types using functional feeding groups showed higher values of 94.51% and 93.19% respectively to tributary and main stream after the designation of conservation areas of ecosystem and landscape. These results infer that various species and lots of individual are widely distributed at Wangpi-cheon watershed and stream ecosystem of the study area is healthy and well maintained after the designation of conservation areas. And also, the calculated EPT value was 62.9% as high enough to explain the cleanness of Wangpi-cheon watershed. We evaluated environmental condition and biological water quality by using ESB(Ecological Score of Benthic macroinvertebrate community) and KSI(Korean Saprobic Index). The average evaluated ESB shows very high value of 208.2, therefore Wangpi-cheon watershed is designated as 'First priority protection waters' area and the value of KSI is 0.32 which meets the saprobic water quality standard as 'First class'.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.442-448
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• 2007

This study was carried out to assess the improved aspects of ecological conditions in a small stream, where eco-technological restorations such as gabion-crib mattress arrangement and soil-arresting wicker fence work had already been made up to stabilize the physically and ecologically damaged streambank. Six metrics by diatoms including species richness, Shannon diversity, saprobic index by DAIpo, percent sensitive diatoms, percent of Achnanthes minutissima, dominant index were analysed to assess the ecological integrity of small stream. By generalizing the changed values of six metrics on the stream flow from upper point(ST.1) to lower point(ST.3), it was found that the effect value of ecological condition improvement went up to as much as 33.9% on the average. The results suggested that eco-technological restoration treatment applied to this study is considerably effective for preserving the ecological integrity of small stream.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.233-239
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• 2008

In order to access the water quality using epilithic diatom assemblage index to organic water pollution (DAIpo) in the lower part of the Han River, the diatom samples were collected biweekly at 2 stations by means of artificial substrates of ceramic tiles from February, 2004 to February, 2005. A total of 60 taxa, representing 18 genera 51 species, 7 varieties and 2 forms, of diatoms were identified in the present study. Dominant percentages of Aulacoseria granulata and Melosira varians (Indifferent taxa) were 22.76$\sim$30.30% and 17.44$\sim$34.78%, respectively, and Nitzschia palea (Saprophilous taxa) were 15.00$\sim$31.76% at St. 1. In St. 2, the percentages of dominant species, N. palea, were 19.86$\sim$58.20%. Average DAIpo index was 40.6 in St. 1 and 32.1 in St. 2, and the saprobic level was shown $\beta$-mesosaprobic in the lower part of the Han River. It is suggested that epilithic diatoms as bioindicators and a DAIpo index indicate useful for analy-zing assessment of the water quality.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.37 no.1 s.106
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• pp.70-77
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• 2004

In order to the epilithic diatom community and an assessment of water quality with diatom assemblage index of organic water pollution (DAlpo) in the middle reaches of the Nakdong River, the samples were collected from nine sampling stations on May, July, September, November, 2002 and on January 2003. A total 162 taxa was identified from this study, which were classified into 139 species and 23 varieties belonging to 33 genera. Achnanthes minutissima, Navicula subminuscula, Navicula viridula var. rostellata, Nitzschia inconspicua and Nitzschia palea indentified in every stations and examination for the whole periods. A total of 12 taxa was dominant species at any station at least one more times. In this study, average DAlpo was 30.90 ${\sim}$ 44.61 and the saprobic level was estimated ${\beta}$-mesosaprobic in the middle reaches of the Nakdong River.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.81-91
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• 2016

This study was performed to investigate and monitor changes in aquatic ecological communities, particularly benthic macroinvertebrates from the upper reaches to the down reaches of Songchu valley before the project of Songchu valley translocation initiates. We aimed to verify the translocation effects of the valley on the aquatic macroinvertebrate communities. A field investigation was conducted over three rounds from November 2012 to August 2013. A total of four sites were selected: one to represent the control site (St. 1), two for the translocation sites (St. 2, 3), and one for the downstream sites (St. 4). Our quantitative sampling revealed that the total number of benthic macroinvertebrates were 3,805, which belong to 62 species, 32 families, 9 orders, 5 classes and 4 phyla. As a result of the community analysis at the control site, dominant index was 0.52(${\pm}0.16$), diversity index was 1.95(${\pm}0.44$), evenness index was 0.81(${\pm}0.04$), and richness index was 2.25(${\pm}0.85$). Thus, the community structure was found to be relatively stable. For the EPT ratio of species and individuals that appeared, the control site showed the highest values at 67.60(${\pm}5.66$)% and 66.30(${\pm}2.06$)% respectively, but its value became lower towards the downstream sites. Upon the statistical analysis of the functional feeding groups, it was found that gathering-collectors and filtering-collectors increased toward the downstream sites while shredders decreased. From the point of habitat-oriented group evaluation, sprawlers decreased and burrows increased toward the downstream sites. According to the analysis using Korea Saprobic Index (KSI), the control site is categorized as grade A with average value at 0.75(${\pm}0.10$). However, the grade gradually falls from A to B toward the lower reaches, as the KSI value increases at the translocation and downstream sites.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.72-81
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• 2012

We investigated the effects of acid mine drainage (AMD) from abandoned coal mines on benthic macroinvertebrate communities in the upper reaches of the Nakdong River from May to October in 2009. Qualitative and quantitative sampling (Surber sampler: $50{\times}50$ cm; mesh size, 0.2 mm) was conducted at 7 study sites and 3 control sites in the study area. We thus sampled 117 species belonging to 53 families, 15 orders, 6 classes, and 5 phyla; the Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera group (EPT-group) represented the majority of the benthic macroinvertebrate community (71 species; 64.5%). In the quantitative sampling, a total of 11,575 individuals belonging to 58 species of benthic maroinvertebrates were sampled from the study sites (Sites 1-7), whereas 2,844 individuals belonging to 79 species were sampled from the control sites (Sites A-C). Tolerant species such as oligochaetes, $Epeorus$ $pellucidus$, $Baetis$ $fuscatus$, Hydropsychidae species, and Chironomidae species were predominant in the study sites. The community indices for the study sites, such as MacNaughton's dominance index (DI) (mean${\pm}$SD, $0.52{\pm}0.21$; range, 0.33-0.85) and the Shannon diversity index ($H^{\prime}$) ($2.06{\pm}0.60$; 1.06-2.57), were different from those for the control sites (DI: $0.29{\pm}0.07$, 0.22-0.35; $H^{\prime}$: $3.13{\pm}0.14$; 3.03-3.30). In the study sites, shredders and scrapers were scarce, whereas gathering-collectors (mainly Chironomidae species) were relatively abundant, as were clingers and burrowers. The detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) and similarity analyses showed that benthic macroinvertebrate communities in the study sites were clearly separated from those of the control sites, with the greatest dissimilarity being noted at the uppermost study site (Site 1), which is located close to an abandoned coal mine. The Korean saprobic index (KSI) and the ecological score using benthic macroinvertebrates (ESB) showed that the uppermost study site (Site 1) was ${\alpha}$-mesosaprobic or heavily polluted, whereas other study sites were in a fair or relatively good condition.