The genus Desmodesmus (Chodat) S.S. An, T. Friedl & E. Hegewald is ubiquitous in freshwater ecosystems, such as rivers, ponds, and wetlands. The actual species diversity and distribution of the genus is unknown because of morphological plasticity affected by habitats. Currently, 38 Desmodesmus species have been reported in Korea most of which transferred from the genus Scenedesmus recently, however, no phylogenetic relationships have been studied yet. Despite the challenges in analyzing relationships among Desmodesmus species through the morphology, ecology, and original description, this study focused on examining species-level relationships using the FBCC culture strains isolated from Korea. A total of 299 sequences (66 of 18S rRNA, 47 of atpB, 67 of petA, 52 of rbcL, and 67 of tufA) were newly determined and used for phylogenetic analysis. Four plastid genes tend to have higher variation than 18S rRNA in the variable sites and P-distance. From the combined phylogeny, the Desmodesmus included six clades such as Clade-1: D. pseudoserratus and D. serratus, Clade-2: D. communis, D. dispar, D. maximus, D. pannonicus, unidentified Desmodesmus sp., Clade-3: D. bicaudatus and D. intermedius, Clade-4: D. microspina, D. multivariablis, D. pleiomorphus, D. subspicatus, Clade-5: D. abundans, D. kissii, and D. spinosus, and Clade-6: D. armatus, D. armatus var. longispina, D. opoliensis, unidentified Desmodesmus spp. The new sequence data from FBCC strains will be used to identify species and study the molecular ecology of scenedesmacean green algae in freshwater ecosystems. The phylogenetic information from this study will expand our understanding of Desmodesmus species diversity in Korea.

In 2017, the freshwater algae were collected from reservoirs, small ponds, soil, and rocks in Korea. Eight taxa of Chlorophyta (Chlorophyceae and Trebouxiophyceae) have been newly reported in Korea. The unrecorded indigenous species were Chlorolobion braunii, Coelastrum pseudomicroporum, Coelastrum reticulatum var. cubanum, Monoraphidium nanum, Tetrachlorella incerta, Ecdysichlamys obliqua, Gloeotila scopulina, and Stichococcus jenerensis.

Phytoplanktons were collected from various environments including small marshes, small ponds, reservoirs and brackish water from March 2017 to November 2017. In this study, five species of family Scenedesmaceae were newly recorded in Korea. The genus Desmodesmus was newly reported in Korea. The newly recorded species are Scenedesmus nanus, S. praetervisus, Desmodesmus costato-granulatus, D. lunatus and D. spinulatus. S. nanus and S. praetervisus are known to occur in freshwater, but they were found in the brackish water in this study.

Freshwater algae (green algae, blue-green algae and flagellated algae) were collected at 103 freshwater sites (including lakes, ponds, swamps, streams, and rivers) throughout South Korea March 2015-October 2016, and were identified using light microscopy. A total of 345 taxa in 2015 and 329 taxa in 2016 were identified and among them, 6 taxa in 2015 and 8 taxa in 2016 were new recorded species in Korea; The new recorded species were Characiopsis malleolus in Xanthophyceae, Phacus mammillatus in Euglenophyceae, Epipyxis utriculus and Lagynion ampullaceum in Chrysophyceae, Bicosoeca planctonica in Bicosoecophyceae and Salpingoeca frequentissima in Choanoflagellatea in 2015, and were Ankistrodesmus bernardii and Quadrigula korsikovii in Chlorophyceae, Didymocystis planctonica in Treubouxiophyceae, Spirulina nodosa, Raphidiopsis curvata and Geitlerinema claricentrosum in Cyanophyceae and Lagynion macrotrachelum in Chrysophyceae, Bicosoeca oculata in Bicosoecophyceae and Salpingeoca rosetta in Choanoflagellatea in 2016.

The freshwater algae were collected at reservoirs and small ponds in Gyeonggi-do and Jeju-do on June 2016. Four species of Korean previously unrecorded algae were collected in domestic fresh waters: Coelastrum rugosum, Cosmarium baccatum, Cosmarium norimbergense and Staurastrum connatum var. pseudoamericanum. The morphological characteristics of the four taxa identified in this study were showed mostly similar to the characteristics of the previously reported characteristics. However, Cosmarium baccatum was larger than the previously recorded species and Staurastrum connatum var. pseudoamericanum was wider than the previously recorded species.