For the last few decades, especially during summer Korean aquaculture industry has been huge economic loss due to massive blooms caused by Cochlodinium polykrikoides. Moreover, high dispersion speed along the coast and high cell densities (above 10,000 cells ml−1) of C. polykrikoides resuling in red tides for a longer duration (at least for 30 days). C. polykrikoides can be used as a prolific source of extracellular sulfated polysaccharides. Sulfated polysaccharides have showed strong antiviral properties against influenza virus. However, little has been investigated about industrial application of sulfated polysaccharides as a high valuable byproduct from C. polykrikoides. Current commercial microalgal biomass production systems are costly and require advanced instrumental and cultural facilities. From economic point of natural blooms of C. polykrikoides, therefore it is likely to be utilized as a cost-effective way of microalgal biomass production for commercial applications.

Gwangyang Bay, a semi-closed water channel, has habited various shellfish species and has been much influenced because of introduction from Sumjin River and sewage discharge from Gwangyang City, as well as enriched nutrients from industrial complex. We have determined the analysis of long-term monitoring data in water qualities including nutrients in Gwangyang Bay during 1987-2010, except for 1991, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2002 and 2003 of which these years do not enough water quality data to analysis in this study. In May, June, July, August, September and October were carried out the analysis of temperature, salinity, DO, transparency, SS, DIN, DIP, COD, Chl-a, and ocean climate. Temperature, salinity, DO, DIN, DIP, COD were analyzed in surface and bottom. These water parameters were showed in yearly fluctuations, in particular, salinity and DIN were a significant difference between surface and bottom based on One-way ANOVA because of intensive precipitation and irradiation in summer. However, the period of summer is the highest number of larvae in shellfish which possibly has increased their mortality because of osmotic pressure from freshwater. Higher SS and lower transparency were associated with decreasing the photosynthesis in phytoplankton, but higher Chl-a in this study was possibly contributed to more introduction of pico or nano-phytoplankton than that of commonsize phytoplankton. Consequently, it is necessary for long-term monitoring in Gwangyang Bay to produce a sustainable shellfish farming and maintain marine eco-system.

Temperature, salinity, COD, DIN (Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen), DIP (Dissolved Inorganic Phosphorus), and Chlorophyll a obtained from the southern coastal waters during the period of 2003 to 2005 were analyzed. Variability in temperature was not found between groups in southern coastal waters, but significantly different depending on sampling sites (p<0.05). The average temperature in 2003 estimated at 18.33℃ that was annually increased by 2005 and significantly different based on statistics (p<0.05). Unlikely to temperature, salinity was significantly different depending on sampling sites, as well as monthly variations (p<0.05). Likewise to temperature, the value of salinity was annually increased. COD estimated at the average of >1.7 mg l-1 for three years, indicating optimal water quality. The fluctuations of nutrients were extremely shown in different sampling sites and monthly variations. Chlorophyll a recorded above 2.0 μg l-1 which was associated with high primary phytoplankton, whereas it showed much fluctuations in temporal and spatial, In particular, Tongyong, Jaranman, Jinjuman, and Samcheonpo located in the southeast were the highest fluctuations in water quality than any other regions. The correlation between salinity/COD and nutrients/chlorophyll a was strongly negative or positive, which was possibly associated with much the introduction of run-off water as well as rainfall in summer.

이 연구는 남해안 중부해역의 여름철 전 후 단계를 나누어서 6월부터 10월까지의 2004-2006년 장기간 해양환경 모니터링 및 식물플랑크톤 군집구조를 파악함과 아울러, Cochlodinium 적조발생에 관한 해석에 이용되고자 하는 것이다. 조사해역은 득량만, 고흥연안, 여자만, 가막만, 광양만, 여수연안, 남해연안으로 총 16개 정점이다. 수온은 19−29℃ 범위로 여름철 여자만에서 두 정점 모두 가장 높은 29℃C, 27℃ 를 나타내었다. 그러나 8월을 제외한 6월, 7월, 9월, 10월에는 조사정점에 관계없이 큰 차이를 보여주지 않았다. 염분도는 7월과 8월에 여자만과 광양만에서 다른 조사해역에 비하여 약 5-6 정도 낮은 25-27를 나타내었다. 클로로필의 경우도 7월과 8월에 각 조사해역별 큰 차이를 보이고 있다. 특히 광양만은 최고 5배 정도 많은 15μgl−1 까지 보였다. 투명도는 수온, 염분도, 클로로필과 다르게 조사기간 동안 해역에 관계없이 거의 비슷한 수준인 2-5m 정도로 보여주고 있다. 용존무기질소도 조사해역 중 광양만의 경우 7월과 8월에 가장 높은 0.53mgl−1 까지 보여 10배 정도까지 차이를 보였으나, 용존무기인 상대적으로 큰 차이를 나타내지 못하고 있다. 용존무기질소와 클로로필의 관계를 보면 7월에는 임의 상관성을 보여 클로로필의 증가에 따른 용존무기질소가 급속히 소모됨을 알 수 있지만, 8월에는 거의 오히려 양의 상관성을 보여주고 있다. 식물플랑크톤의 평균 세포수는 7월과 8월에 500 cells ml−1 까지 나타내었고, 대부분 규조류의 비율이 60% 이상 출현되었으나, 8월에 와편모조류의 점유율이 20-30%까지 보였다. 우점종으로는 Skeletonema costatum이 2004년부터 2006년까지 전 해역에 걸쳐 가장 많이 출현되었다. 각 해역별에 출현하는 식물 플라크톤의 집괴분석에 따르면 상호 혼잡되어 분포 되는 것으로 나타났다. 이상의 결과를 보면 여름철에 가장 큰 해양환경 변화를 보였고, 식물플랑크톤 중 S. costatum은 남해연안의 대표적인 기초생산 종으로 간주된다. 특히 여름철 Cochlodinium 적조는 득량, 가막, 고흥, 여수, 남해해역에서 3년 동안 계속해서 발생된 반면, 여자만과 광양만은 전혀 나타나지 않았다. 뚜렷한 차이점은 용존무기질소 Cochlodinium 적조 형성을 위한 요구량은 수중에 풍부하게 존재하고 있기보다는, 미량이라도 충분히 적조를 유발시키고, 외해역에서도 발생될 수 있다는 뒷받침을 하고 있다.

Oil spill caused severe effects on the marine fauna and flora due to direct contact of organisms with the oil and even in regions not directly affected by the spill. This study was conducted to understand the effects of the oil spill accidents and the use of dispersant on the red tide of Cochlodinium polykrikoides. Crude oil produced in Kuwait, bunker-C, kerosene and diesel oil, and a chemical dispersant produced in Korea, were added with a series of 10 ppb to 100 ppm in the f/2-Si medium at 20℃ under a photon flux from cool white fluorescent tubes of 100 mol m-2 s-1 in a 14: 10 h L:D cycle for the culture of C. polykrikoides. In low concentrations of ≤1 ppm of examined oils no impact on the growth of C. polykrikoides was recorded, while in high concentration of ≥10 ppm, cell density was significantly decreased with the range of 10 to 80% in comparison with the control. The growth of C. polykrikoides after the addition of the dispersant and the mixtures combined with oils and a dispersant of ≥10 ppm appeared to decrease, whereas the growth of C. polykrikoides exposed to ≤100 ppb showed little serious impact. However, almost all the C. polykrikoides cells were died regardless of a dispersant and combined mixtures within a few days after the addition of high concentrations.

In this study, the PHYTO-PAM-fluorometric method was used to evaluate the ETRmax in terms of sensitivity to DIN/DIP against 14 microalgae: Prorocentrum micans, Heterocapsa triquetra, Gymnodinium impudicum, Gymnodinium catenatum, Amphidinium caterae, Chlorella vulgaris, Chroococcus minutus, Microcystis aeruginosa, Chlorella ellipsoidea, Nannochloris oculata, Oocystis lacustris, Chroomonas salina, Gloeocystis gigas, and Prymnessium parvum. We found that P. micans, H. triquetra, and A. caterae exposed to the maximum level of DIN/DIP were significantly smaller in the ETRmax than that of the minimum and moderate mixture. Unlikely the ETRmax, the initial slope alpha was not significantly different at the level of 60 DIN/DIP. In G. catenatum, the moderate levels of 15 and 20 in DIN/DIP were found to be significantly different from the ETRmax at Ch1-Ch4. Gymnodinium impudicum had a higher value than that of the ETRmax than that of dinoflagellates used in this study, ranging from 306.1 (Ch4, DIN/DIP: 10) to 520.1 (Ch4, DIN/DIP: 30). The ETRmax value obtained from other microalgae was similar to G. impudicum at any of the ratios of DIN/DIP and channels. Consequently, the influence of offshore water current assures us of the suppression of photosynthesis and electron transport rate in dinoflagellates. Gymnodinium impudicum has not been researched in the area of red tides in Korea, but it will be enough to creat the massive algal blooms in the future because of higher potential photochemical availability.

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.

In 2005, harmful dinoflagellate Cochlodinium polykrikoides was first occurred on July 18 and disappeared on September 12 in the Yeosu waters of the South Sea of Korea. During C. polykrikoides blooms, the species of Protoperidinium was isolated from Jabong Island in Yeosu in the middle of August, 2005. The surface water temperature at the sampling site was 25℃, and salinity was 33.1 psu. The specimen was somewhat large in size and was longer than its width. The shape was close to being ovoid, with an apical horn. This study discovered cells with colorless and transparent ingested chain-forming C. polykrikoides. However, this species was not abundant, implying low grazing impact on C. polykkoides.