Pre-monsoon dynamics of zooplankton community were investigated in the downstream of the Gagok stream flowing into the East Sea of Korea. Monthly sampling was carried out to collect zooplankters at five sites in the stream during the period between April and July 2014. Dissolved oxygen contents exceeded 7.0 mg L-1 all the time. Water temperature was in a range of 15.7 to 24.9˚C and pH 7.4 to 8.8, respectively. A total of 75 taxa consisted of 36 species of rotifers, 16 species of cladocerans, 16 species of copepods, four kinds of aquatic insects, two kinds of decapods and one nematod was occurred. One species of marine copepod and one cladoceran, and one species of brackish rotifer and one copepod distributed at the station located in the stream mouth. Zooplankton abundance showed to vary from 42 to 4202 individuals m-3 due to the explosion of aquatic insects and Alona sp. at site 2 located in the downstream in April. Heavy rainfall during the monsoon period seems to decrease the zooplankton abundance caused by diffusion and drifting to the sea. Species diversity indices were generally high between 1.2~2.3 and were recorded to be high at the downstream throughout the study period. With the zooplankton dynamics, the influence of the input of sea waters into the stream seemed to be confined to some hundred meters of the stream mouth facing the East Sea.

• Saywa Kim(Department of Life Science, Yong In University) Corresponding author