Estuary is important in terms of biodiversity because it has the characteristics of transition waters, created by the mixing of fresh- and seawater. The estuarine water circulation provides a variety of habitats with different environments by inducing gradients in the chemical and physical environment, such as water quality and river bed structure, which are ultimately the main factors influencing biological community composition. If the water circulation is interrupted, the loss of brackish areas and the interception of migration of biological communities will lead to changes in the spatial distribution of biodiversity. In this study, among the sites covered by the Estuary Aquatic Ecosystem Health Assessment, we selected study sites where changes in biodiversity can be assessed by spatial gradient from the upper reaches of the river to the lower estuarine area. The α-, γ- and β-diversity of diatom, benthic macroinvertebrates, and fish communities were calculated, and they were divided into open and closed estuary data and compared to determine the trends in biodiversity variation due to estuarine circulation. As results, all communities showed higher γ-diversity at open estuary sites. The benthic macroinvertebrate community showed a clear difference between open and closed estuaries in β-diversity, consequently the estuarine transects were considered as a factor that decreases spatial heterogeneity of their diversity among sites. The biodiversity trends analyzed in this study will be used to identify estuaries with low γ- and β-diversity by community, providing a useful resource for further mornitoring and management to maintain estuarine health.

Fish assemblage of total 325 of Korean peninsula estuaries were surveyed to analyze the characteristics of community structure and diversity by sea areas for three years from 2016 to 2018. The scale (stream width) of Korean estuaries were various (14~3,356 m), and 68.9% of all estuaries showed salinity of less than 2 psu. Total 149 species classified into 52 families of fish were identified, and the dominant and sub-dominant species were Tribolodon hakonensis (relative abundance, RA, 12.5%) and Mugil cephalus (RA, 9.5%), respectively. The estuary of the Korean Peninsula had different physical and chemical habitat environments depending on the sea area, and accordingly, fish community structure also showed statistically significant differences (PERMANOVA, Pseudo-F=26.69, P=0.001). In addition, the NMDS (nonmetric multidimensional scaling) results showed the patterns that indicating fish community difference by sea areas, even though low community similarity within sea area (SIMPER, 21.79~26.39%). The estuaries of east sea areas were distinguished from the others in the aspects of which, the higher importance of migratory fishes and endangered species, and that of brackish species were characterized at south sea estuaries. However, the estuaries of west sea showed higher importance of species that have a relation with freshwater (primary freshwater species, exotic species), which is the result that associating with the lower salinity of west sea estuaries because of the high ratio of closed estuaries (78.2%). The SIMPER analysis, scoring the contribution rates of species to community similarity, also showed results corresponding to the tendency of different fish community structures according to each sea area. So far, In Korea, most studies on fish communities in estuaries have been conducted in a single estuary unit, which made it difficult to understand the characteristics of estuaries at the national level, which are prerequisite for policy establishment. In present study, we are providing fish community structure characteristics of Korean estuaries in a national scale, including diversity index, habitat salinity ranges of major species, distribution of migratory species. We are expecting that our results could be utilized as baseline information for establishing management policies or further study of Korean estuaries.

This study was identified the distribution of vegetation in domestic estuaries and analysed the relationship with environmental fcators based on the health assessment data of the estuary ecosystem surveyed between 2016 and 2018. Of the 325 estuaries surveyed, 187 vegetation communites were investigated in 300 estuaries and 53 halophyte communites accounted for 28.3%. No vegetation distribution was found in the other 25 estuaries. Considering the circulation of estuary, 41 halophyte communites were investigated in open estuaries and 26 halophyte communites in closed estuaries. As a result of canonical correlation analysis (CCA) between the entire distributed vegetation community and environmental factors, salinity (conductivity), T-N, and T-P concentrations were strongly correlated. Among the riverbed material materials of the estuary, the composition ratio of silt, sand, and pebble was the most correlated. Therefor, it is estimated that the distribution location of the halophyte communites were differentiated by being influenced by the sea ares, estuary circulation type, resistance to salinity and riverbed material ratio.

This study analyzed the relationship between the community structure of benthic macroinvertebrates and habitat changes in open estuaries among the sites included in the national estuary monitoring program. The estuary survey was conducted under the “Guidelines for Investigation and Evaluation of Biometric Networks” and classified by sea area, 80 places in the East Sea, 102 places in the South Sea, and 19 places in the West Sea were investigated. In a total of 201 open estuaries, benthic macroinvertebrates were identified with 4 phyla, 9 classes, 41 orders, 139 families, 269 species and 196 species in the East Sea, 182 species in the South Sea, and 90 species in the West Sea. The highest population densities were Insecta in the East Sea, the Malacostraca in the South Sea, and the Annelida in the West Sea. Through SIMPER analysis, species contributing to the similarity of benthic macroinvertebrates communities in each sea area were identified. Some species greatly influenced the similarity of clusters. The benthic community in the East Sea was affected by the salinity, so the contribution rate of freshwater species was high. On the other hand, the benthic communities of the South and West Seas showed species compositions are influenced by the substrate composition. As results, the benthic macroinvertebrate community in Korean estuaries was impacted by salinity and substrate simultaneously, and the close relationship with geographical distance was not observed. The result of this study is expected to be used to respond to environmental changes by identifying and predicting changes in the diversity and distribution of benthic macroinvertebrates in Korea estuaries.

본 연구에서는 우리나라의 주요하천인 한강, 금강, 영산강, 섬진강 그리고 낙동강의 하구에서 해수중 화학적산소요구량(COD)의 농도를 결정하는 주요 요인과 수질인자에 대해 고찰하였다. 주성분분석으로 얻어진 해수중 COD 농도를 결정하는 주요요인은 염분과 클로로필-a를 중심으로 한 외래성 기원과 자생공급으로 나타났으며, 그 외 해저 퇴적층의 유기물도 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 하구해역의 COD 농도를 결정하는 수질인자들의 기여도는 회귀식 기울기를 통해 평가하였다. 조사시기별로는 전체적으로 염분의 영향을 많이 받는 것으로 나타났으며, 4월과 8월에는 클로로필-a의 영향도 함께 받는 것으로 나타났다. 하구별로는 낙동강에서는 클로로필-a, 한강과 영산강에서는 염분, 금강에서는 염분과 함께 클로로필-a의 기여도가 각각 큰 것으로 나타났으며, 섬진강에서는 염분과 클로로필-a 모두 낮은 기여를 나타내었다.

LOICZ(Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone) 모델을 이용하여, 목포항 주변의 하구역(영산호 하구역, 영암호-금호호 하구역)에서 일어나는 생지화학적인 순환 과정을 이해하고자 계절별 영양염 수지를 산정하였다. 비성층화 시기인 2008년 5월, 9월, 11월에는 simple three-box model을 적용하였고, 성층이 발생했던 7월에는 two-layer box model을 적용하였다. 물질 수지를 산정한 결과, 5월과 7월에 외해역으로부터 영양염이 역유입되었고, 외해수와의 혼합에 의한 교환(VX-3, 또는 Vdeep)을 통해 하구역으로 유입되는 영양염(DIP) 부하량이 인공 호수의 대규모 방류 영향을 받은 육상기인 유입량보다 더 많았다. 그리고 9월 물질 수지 결과에서는 하구역과 외해역의 영향을 동시에 받는 하구역 입구(sub-region Ⅲ)에서 영양염의 과잉 적체가 발생되었다. 저수온기(11월)에 인공 호수(영산호)의 방류 영향이 없는 하구역에서는 영양염이 제거되었고, 담수 방류(영암호-금호호)의 영향을 받은 하구역에서는 수주 내 영양염이 축적되는 것으로 나타났다. 이와 같은 결과들은 목포항 주변 하구역으로 유입되는 영양염들이 육상에서 기인할 뿐만 아니라, 외해역 그리고 하구역 내에서도 추가 공급되고 있다는 점을 시사하고 있다. 따라서 목포항 주변 하구역의 수질 관리를 위해서는 담수를 통한 육상기인 영양염 부하량을 저감하는 방안과 함께, 주변 해안으로의 영양염 유입도 저감하기 위한 통합 환경관리 대책이 수립되어야 할 것으로 판단된다.