An algal assay procedure using an indigenous phytoplankton assemblage was tested to estimate the propagation of red tide phytoplankton species and determine the optimal time interval at which to measure growth yield in eutrophic marine waters where red tides frequently occur. Various red tide phytoplankton species were propagated on a large scale by adding nitrogen or phosphorous. This procedure was useful for estimating the limiting nutrient, elucidating the mechanisms underlying red tides, and determining the levels of increases in organic matter in eutrophic coastal waters. The algal assay using indigenous C. polykrikoides showed that this species did not always propagate, apparently because of very low concentrations of trigger elements that are necessary for its growth, rather than as a result of other environmental characteristics, e.g., water temperature or stress from sampling. In the winter, when water temperatures are lower than in spring, summer, or autumn, maximum propagation and the limiting nutrient could be estimated by measuring phytoplankton biomass at 2–3-day intervals. However, in the other seasons, when water temperatures are higher, phytoplankton biomass should be measured at 2-day intervals. In particular, daily monitoring will be required to determine precise growth yields in warm seasons.

The clarification of spatial-temporal patterns of phytoplankton from southern coastal waters during the period of March to November in 2004 was carried out. Total cell numbers were shown in 5,286 cells ml−1 on March and reached to encounter a peak of 27,775 cells ml−1 on July. Mean cell number was also shown in maximum of 1,587 cells ml−1 on July, which recorded approximately two times higher than on June. The cell number of phytoplankton from southmiddle waters attained an abundance of ≥35 regardless of months, which was the highest the abundance of phytoplankton in 2004 than any other waters in this study. Southwestern waters were lower the cell number of 2-5 times than those of southmiddle and southeastern waters. In particular, Prorocentrum occurred in southeastern waters on June and the highest cell number of 8,200 cells ml−1 around Tongyeong region on July, which was recorded to occupy the value of 60.9% in southeast waters. The abundance of Skeletonema costatum as a dominant taxa in southwest was shown in ≥60 on March, July, September, and October, whereas was also recorded to achieve the abundance of above 80% in southmiddle waters on March, July, and September. The majority of the taxa in southeastern waters was diatom: Eucampia zoodiacus, and Chaetoceros spp.. They occupied above 45%. On November, most of southern waters were abundant to Chaetoceros spp. On the basis of cluster analysis using SPSS ver 10.0, phytoplankton occurring on March showed somewhat no correlation with all of southern waters. In contrast to on March, the relationship between southwestern and southmiddle waters was shown on August and November, indicating a distinction from southeastern waters. However, the distance between southwestern/middle and southeastern waters appeared to be less than 5. Consequently, the abundance of phytoplankton in southern waters showed much fluctuations in temporal and spatial assays. In particular, southwestern and southmiddle waters during the periods of summer and winter appeared to be a similar to environmental characteristics.

A series of experiments was conducted to identify the potential of five phytoplankton species as standard test species for marine ecotoxicological tests. The candidate phytoplankton species are Skeletonema costatum, Heterosigma akashiwo, Prorocentrum micans, Isochrysis galbana, and Tetraselmis suecica. Salinity tolerance and sensitivity on potassium dichromate as a reference material were identified. Toxicity of eleven ocean-dumped sewage sludges and four red tide expellent extracts were estimated by the inhibition of population growth rates (PGR) of marine diatom S. costatum. While most species revealed relatively weak tolerance on salinity, T. suecica demonstrated the highest salinity tolerance ranged from 5～35 psu and the others 15～35 psu. H. akashiwo revealed the highest sensitivity as 72h IC50=0.76mg/L and T. suecica the lowest as 72h IC50=8.89mg/L on potassium dichromate. Sludge extracts from industrial waste, domestic sewage and livestock farm waste sludge showed high toxicity as 72h IC50<2% and lowest toxicity from filtration bed sludge as 72h IC50=30.50%. NOEC (No Observed Effective Concentration) of sludge extract ranged from <0.4% to 1.6% and this indicated high phytotoxicity of ocean dumped sewage sludge. The test sensitivity of phytoplankton PGR inhibition was much higher than those of marine rotifer Brachionus plicatilis mortality test and bioluminescent inhibition test by marine bacteria Vibrio fischeri, and comparable with the sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus intermedius) fertilization test. As a result the phytotoxicity test using phytoplankton PGR inhibition (IC50) must be a useful tool for marine phyto-toxicological evaluation of ocean dumped materials.

This survey was carried out to assess important species of phytoplankton in the ocean and bay in Korea from 32 references. The number of important species assessed from 50 genera 116 species. Of them, Bacillariophycea (diatoms) 34 genera 89 speceis(76.6%), Dinophyceae(dinoflagellates) 11 genera 22 species(18.9%), Chrysophyceae 2 genera 2 species(1.7%), Cyanophycea(blue-green algae), Raphidophyceae, Euglenophyceae(euglenoids) 1 genera 1 species(0.9%) respectively. By ecological characters, the number of dominant species were 79 species including Actinoptychus seranius, 50 species including Coscinodiscus centralis were recorded as frequently apperaing species and 36 species including Cochlodinium polykrikoides were recorded as red-tide causative organism. Also, 11 species including Prorocentrum micans were surveyed as the indicator including all ecological characters.

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 granulata 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/ℓ in August at the RW-1 and the lowest 1,245 cells/ℓ 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 “β-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).

Investigations were carried out to observe the seasonal succession of phytoplankton, and viable counts of bacteria from the mid to lower reaches of Nakdong River. An intensive monitoring was conducted from May to December 1999 biweekly at 6 sites in a main channel and 3 tributaries. Although there are several sites with high nutrient loading from the basin, all of study sites showed mesotrophic states owing to high discharge(June∼September). Relatively low algal biomass and CFUs(mean of chl. a, 12.3±11.5 ㎍/ℓ, CFUs : 1.8×10 7) were observed during the rainy season. The diatom population was dominant(over 85% of total community) year-long with peaks (Stephanodiscus hantzschii) in the fall and winter. Dominance of blue-green algal groups during the summer was not observed in the summer. Microorganisms peaked in the summer and fall (June∼September), affected mainly by the inputs of phytoplankton and nutrients. Biomass of phytoplankton and CFU counts were higher in the Kumho River than the other tributaries and main channel.

This study was carried out to investigate phytoplankton community structure in the Naktong river from January to December in 1999. In water quality, average value of pH were 8.1, BOD 2.5㎎/l, COD 5.0㎎/l, Chl-a 4l㎍/1, and NH4+-N 0.08㎎/1, respectively. Phytoplankton were identified 42 genera 76 species. Among these, diatoms were 39 species(51.3%), green algae 25 species(32.9%), cyanobacteria 4 species(5.3%), dinoflagellates 4 species(5.3%), euglenoids 2 species(2.6%), and golden brown algae and cryptomonads 1 species(1.3%), respectively. The highest standing crops were 33,023 cells/㎖ in February at the Mulgum and the lowest 79 cells/㎖ in March at the Goryung. Also, Standing crops were increased with proceeding from middle part to lower part. Seasonal succession of phytoplankton represented that Stephanodiscus hantzschii was dominant species in winter, Cyclotella meneghiniana and Synedra acus in spring, C. meneghiniana, S. acus, Aulacoseira granulata var. angustissima in summer, and A. granulata var. angustissima and C. meneghiniana in autumn. Ecological important species were 4 species, that are Stephanodiscus hantzschii, Cyclotella meneghiniana, Synedra acus, and Aulacoseira granulata var. angustissima. In the community analysis, dominance indices ranged from 0.434(August, Namji) to 0.999(January, February, Mulgum) and diversity indices from 0.026(February, Mulgum) to 3.073(September, Namji). According to the similarity index among the stations, it was generally defind as two areas such as middle(Goryung, Namji and Samryangjin) and lower part(Mulgum).

It is very important to interprete and simulate the variation of phytoplankton maximum region for the prediction and control of red tide. This study was composed of two parts, first, the hydrodynamic simulation such as residual current and salinity diffusion, and second, the ecological simulation such as phytoplankton distribution according to freshwater discharge and pollutant loads. Without the Nakdong river discharge, residual current was stagnated in inner side of this estuary, and surface distribution of salinity was over 25psu. On the contrary, with summer mean discharge, freshwater stretched very far outward and some waters flowed into Chinhae Bay through the Kadok channel, and low salinity extended over coastal sea and salinity front occurred. From the result of contributed physical process to phytoplankton biomass, the accumulation was occurred at the west part of this estuary and the Kadok channel with the Nakdong river discharge. When more increased input discharge, the accumulation band was transported to outer side of this estuary. The frequently outbreak of red tide in this area is caused by accumulation of physical processes. The phytoplankton maximum region located inner side of this estuary without the Nakdong river discharge and with mean discharge of winter, but it was moved to outer side when mean discharge of the Nakdong river was increased. The variation of input concentration from the land loads was not largely influenced on phytoplankton biomass and location of maximum region. When discharge was increased, phytoplankton maximum region was transferred to inner side of the Kadok channel. On the other hand, when discharge was decreased, phytoplankton maximum region was transferred to inner side of this estuary and chlorophyll a contents increased to over 20㎍/L. Therefore, if any other conditions are favorable for growth of phytoplankton, decrease of discharge causes to increase of possibility of red tide outbreak.

The estuary of Nakdong river is very influenced by the freshwater contained nutrients and organic materials. The response results of these influences are eutrophication and red tide outbreak in this region. Concentration of chlorophyll a was 0.78∼62.55㎍/L in February, 1.20∼21.29㎍/L in April, 1.88∼188.35㎍/L in June, and 0.78∼11.21㎍/L in August, respectively. The decrease of chlorophyll a is considered that residence time is shorten by increase of freshwater discharge, and unfavorable growth condition of phytoplankton is created by diffusion of low salinity and increase of turbidity. The phytoplankton maximum region located inner side of this estuary during winter season, whereas it was moved to outer side when mean discharge of the Nakdong river was increased. Therefore, the variation of phytoplankton maximum region was affected by input discharge from the Nakdong river basin.

The studies on physico-chemical factors and phytoplankton at the 3 rivers in the Taejon city were conducted from November 1997 to May 1998. The Results were as follows; In the water quality, the down streams were generally worse than the upper streams. Water temperature was varied from 2.4℃ to 23.0℃; DO from 1.80㎎/ℓ to 17.6㎎/ℓ ; pH from 4.7 to 10.4 ; BOD from 0.78㎎/ℓ to 8.80㎎/ℓ; COD from 0.32㎎/ℓ to 8.26㎎/ℓ ; SS from 2.0㎎/ℓ to 43.0㎎/ℓ ; total phosphate was from 0.001㎎/ℓ to 0.709㎎/ℓ ; total nitrogen 0.01㎎/ℓto 11.69㎎/ℓ . In phytoplankton species, they were identified as total 191 taxa composed of 8 classes, 18 orders, 35 families, 74 genera, 152 species, 35 varieties and 4 forms. The dominant species were Synedra ulna in Taejon-chon, Diatoma vulgare in Yudong-chon, Oscillatoria princeps, Scenedesmus gadricauda, Synedra ulna, and Diatom vulgare in Gap-chon. Standing crops of phytoplankton were from 2,076 cells/㎖ to 97,356 cells/㎖.

In order to understand the impact for decomposition of blue-green algae Microcystis on water quality, the algae were cultivated with collection of natural population during approximately one month, when water-bloom of Microcystis dominated at August 31, 1999 in the lower part of the Okchon Stream. The enrichment of inorganic N·P nutrients didn't in algal assay and the effect of Microcystis on water quality was assessed from the variation of nutrients by algal senescence. Microcystis population seemed to play a temporary role of sink for nutrients in the water body. Initial algal density of Microcystis was 2.3×106 cells/ml. When Microcystis population died out under light condition, algal N·P nutrients between 9∼12 days affected to increase of biomass after reuse by other algal growth as soon as release to the ambient water. However, cellular nutrients under dark condition were almost moved into the water during algal cultivation. NH4, NO3 and SRP concentration were highly increased with 160, 17 and 79 folds, respectively relatve to the early. As a result, the senescence of Microcystis population seemed to be an important biological factor in which cause more eutrophy and increase of explosive algal development by a lot of nutrients transfer to water body. There are significantly observed an effort of reduce for production of inner organic matters such a phytoplankton as well as load pollutants from watershed in side of the water quality management of reservoir.

The dynamics of water quality and phytoplankton population had examined by monthly sampling from the upper to the lower part of watergate in an artificial Shihwa Reservoir in which situated near newly cities and industrial complex on the west coast of Korea from January 1997 to December 1998. Among environmental factors, yearly average concentration of chl-a, TN and TP seemed to eutrophic or hypertrophic conditions that ranged 146.4∼245.8㎍/ℓ , 1.6∼2.7㎎ N/ℓ, 258∼448㎍ P/ℓ , 26.9∼80.7 ㎍/ℓ, 1.0∼2.4 ㎎ N/ℓ and 74∼239㎍ P/ℓ respectively. Water quality was extremely deteriorated to consistently accumulation into inner reservoir by load of pollutants from autochthonous and allochthonous until early July 1997 after embankment. Water pollution of Shihwa Reservoir was remarkble on the biological condition with largely persistent bloom of phytoplankton and increase rate of standing crops was 2.4/yr. The development trend of phytoplankton in water ecosystem were closely related to increse and decrease of physico-chemical factors and those scale seemed to control by nutrient contents. Inflow of seawater into reservoir to object of repair of water quality began on July 1997. This action was caused to variable of algal flora as well as improvement of water quality. As to see dominant species, composition of those composed to mostly freshwater algae before inflow of seawater such as Selenastrum capricornutum of green algae, Cyclotella atomus, C meneghiniana of diatom and Microcystis spp. of blue-green algae and the other hand brackish algae were dominated after inflow of seawater such as Chaetoceros dicipiens, Skeletonema costatum of diatom, Dinophysis acuminata, Gymnodinium mikimotoi, G. sanguineum, Gyrodinium spirale, Prorocentrum minimum of dinoflagellate and Eutreptiella gymnastics of euglenoid. Moreover, small flagellates including Chroomonas spp. of cryptomonad were abundant throughout the year. The cause of water deterioration during fill of the freshwater were complexly supported with extra and intra parameters. The variation pattern of phytoplankton were related to water temperature and salinity by inflow of seawater based to plentiful nutrients. The dynamics of phytoplankton were assessed to ecosystem that clearly condition of dominant by unique or a few algal species seasonally.

A study on the variational characteristics of water quality and phytoplankton biomass by principal component analysis(PCA) was carried out in Kogum-sudo from February to October in 1993. We analyzed PCA on biological factors such as chlorophyll α and phytoplankton cell numbers for centric and pennate diatoms, phytoflagellates, and total phytoplankton as well as physico-chemical factors as water temperature, salinity, transparency, dissolved oxygen(DO), saturation of DO, apparent oxygen utilization(AOU), chemical oxygen demand(COD), nutrient (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate and silicate), N/P ratio and suspended solid(SS). The source of nutrients supply depended on the mineralization of organic matters and inputs of seawater from outside rather than runoff of freshwater. The phytoplankton biomass was changed within short interval period by nutrients change. And it was controlled by the combination of several environmental factors, especially of light intensity, ammonia and phosphate. The marine environmental characteristics were determined by the mineralization of organic matters in winter, by runoff of freshwater including high nutrients concentration in spring, by ammonia uptake and high phytoplankton productivity in summer, and phosphate supplied input seawater from outside of Kogum -sudo in autumn. And Kogum-sudo was separated with 2 regions by score distributions of PCA. That is to say, one region was middle parts of straits which was characterized by the mixing seawater and the accumulated organic matters, other one region was Pungnam Bay and the water around Kogum Island which was done by high phytoplankyon biomass and productivity year-round.

The relationship between primary productivity and changes in water quality was investigated at Mulgum station, a site downstream of the Nakdong River, Korea. Phytoplankton production was characterized by blooms of Microcystis aeruginosa during the summer and Stephanodiscus hantzschii during the winter. Primary production and secondary production by bacterioplankton ranged from 1.5∼53.5㎎·C/ℓ'day and 0.1∼0.3 ㎎·C/ℓ'day, respectively. Distribution of total organic carbon appeared to be highly correlated with phytoplankton biomass, especially during blooms of M. aeruginosa, when particulate organic carbon was 81% of total organic carbon and the main source of organic materials supplied into the water. The correlation coefficient between chlorophyll-a and BOD was 0.86. Thus it was concluded that autochthonous phytoplankton mostly affected the BOD level. Total bacterial numbers were also highly correlated with chlorophyll-a (r2=0.84) and the bacterial community appears to be regulated by phytoplankton biomass in this area.

This study was carried out to Investigate flora of phytoplankton in Milyang River from July 1996 to April 1997. Phytoplankton were identified 206 kinds and composed of 2 var.-for., 5 forms, 35 varieties, 164 species, 70 genera, 31 families, 14 orders, 6 classes and 5 phyla. According to the seasonal variation, 131 species were founded in summer, 109 species in spring, 108 species in autumn, and 100 species in winter, respectively. Seasonal and stationary variation of standing crops were between 10 and 5,600 cells/㎖. At station 7, Cyclotella meneghiniana was bloomed 5,000 cells/㎖(89.7%) in winter, and Stephanodiscus hantzschii was bloomed 3.400 cells/㎖(74.3%) in spring. The number of species and standing crops were increased with proceeding from upper stream to lower stream. Important species of phytoplankton were 24 species, that are 4 species of Cyanophyta (Aphanocapsa elachista, Merismopedium glaucum, Lyngbya limnetica, Oscillatoria tenuis), 12 species of Crysophyta (Melosira varlans, Stephanodiscus hantzschii, Cyclotalla meneghiniana, Fragilaria construens var. venter, Navicula cryptocephala, Cymbella ventricosa, Gomphonema olivaceum), and 8 species of Chlorophyta (Chlamydomonas reinhardi, Eudorina elegans, Pandorina morum, Oocystis borgel, Scenedesmus quadricauda, Microspora crassior). According to the similarity index among the stations, it was generally defied as two water areas such as upper stream(station 1∼3) and lower stream(station 4∼7).

The water quality and phytoplankton communities of the coastal waters of Inchon were investigated 4 times from May, 1995 to January, 1996. The characteristic of the study was shallow muddy bottom environment with high SS concentration. The water qualities were belong to the category of I-grade in DO, Ⅱ to Ⅲ grade in COD and Ⅲ-grade in inorganic nutrients such as T-N and T-P. Total 136 species of phytoplankton were observed in this study and species richness was on the decrease compared with the results of previous studies. The mean of phytoplankton species diversities was 1.93, decreased in recent years and the value in autumn was slightly higher than that in other seasons.

The community of phytoplankton and water quality were investigated 5 times from October, 1994 to October, 1995 in the east area of Chinhae Bay. Seasonal changes of environmental parameters were shown general pattern and related to the red tide mechanism of phytoplankton community. Seasonal variations of dissolved oxygen concentrations were affected by the photosynthetic activity of phytoplankton community and the increase of COD at the bottom water was occurred after the red tide. The standing stocks of phytoplankton in this study area ranged 202 - 1616 Cells·ml^-1 and the bloom(red tide) was formed from April to July. The diatom species, Skeletonema costatum was a dominant species all the year round and the dinoflagellate species, Alexandrium tamarense and Prorocentrum triestinum were red tide species increased standing stocks in phytoplankton bloom.

A study was carried out on the distribution of chlorophyll a and water quality in the dry season in Yosuhae bay and adjoining sea, Southern Korea, in July of 1994. Concentration of salinity and phosphate were lower in the outer bay than in the inner bay. While nitrate and silicate were higher in the former than in the latter. We were identified with coastal water of origin from China with the lower salinity in outer bay. The China coastal water was characteristic of high nutrients and phytoplankton biomass, such as chlorophyll a. The principal component analysis (PCA) on the analytical data proved that high density of phytoplankton biomass occurred under the condition of low salinity and high concentration of dissolved inorganic nutrients. It is thought that the thermoharine structure and biological produtions of Yosuhae bay were controlled by the China coastal water in the outer bay.

The seasonal changes and composition of phytoplankton of the Choonsan reservior were studied from November 1990 to October 1991. 195 taxa which belong to 65 genera, 150 species, 40 varieties and 1 forms were identified. Species number during summer monthes was higher than that of other seasons. Standing crops of phytoplankton were varied from 7.8 × 10 exp (5) cells/ℓto 2.2 × 10 exp (6) cells/ℓ The dominant species were Cryptomonas erosa and Trachelomonas uolvocina. Chlorophyll a contents of phytoplankton was varied from 1.36 ㎍/ℓto 127.46 ㎍/ℓ. The biotic indices of phytoplankton were very similar among three sites. Saprobien-system by index of species diversity suggests that the Choonsan reservior belongs to the oligosaprophic.