Twenty-nine wetlands (20 river type and 9 lake type wetlands) in Gyeongsangnam-do were investigated to understand the characteristics of fish assemblages by the wetland type and to suggest management strategies. As a result, 10.3±4.8 species were collected from river type wetlands on average (±SD) and 9.1±4.1 species from lake type wetlands. Thus, there was no significant difference in the number of species between them (Mann-Whitney U test, P>0.05). However, the species that constitute the fish assemblage showed statistically significant differences between the two wetland types (PERMANOVA, Pseudo-F=2.9555, P=0.007). Furthermore, the species that contribute the most to each type of fish assemblage were Zacco koreanus (river type, 28.51%) and Lepomis macrochirus (lake type, 23.21%), respectively (SIMPER). The results of the NMDS analysis using the fish assemblage by place classified the species into three groups (river type, lake type, and others). The current wetland management is only focused on endangered species, but this study shows a difference in fish assemblage by wetland type. Therefore, a management system based information on endemic species, exotic species and major contribution species should be provided. Furthermore, the classification of some types of wetlands based on the present topography was found to be ambiguous, and wetland classification using living creatures can be used as a complementary method. This study has limitations because only two types of wetlands were analyzed. Therefore, a detailed management method that can represent every type of wetland should be prepared through the research of all types of wetlands in the future.

Wetlands are damaged or destroyed by natural processes or artificial interferences. In order to restore their function, it is desirable to establish conservation, restoration and management measures on the basis of comprehensively collected and analyzed data of natural ecosystem characteristics and damage conditions. The purpose is to provide an evaluation index that can reflect the biological and physical characteristics such as the inhabited wildlife, degree of terrestrialization, land use change, etc. Due to the evaluation index should be simplicity of measurement, applicability, and cost efficiency as well as useful for improving the new information is obtained, so we consider the physical and biological characteristics. In order to reflect the ecological integrity and qualitative aspects such as disturbance levels, suitability as biological habitats, etc., biodiversity (landscape units, wildlife inhabit), naturalness (biotope, basin ecosystem), rarity (major plant species emergence, major animal species inhabit), and potential for damage (distribution of pollutant by distance, degree of internal damage) was selected as an evaluation index. The conservation value of Hwapo (23 points) and Samrangjin wetland (21 points), which had low number of species and populations, was low due to high potential for damage like green house, bare land etc. On the other hand, Daepyeong (34 points) and Bacsil wetland (32 points), which have worthy biodiversity, showed high conservation value, while their own area was narrow, but the endangered wildlife (Cygnus cygnus, Anser fabalis, and Euryale ferox) was appeared. Habitat disturbances, such as reduced area or internal damage, can drastic changes at population, ecosystem, and community levels. Hwapo and Samrangjin wetland, which have high damaged potential, are included. The recoverability of wetland ecosystem functions depend on the resistance and regenerative power of the system itself, so maintaining integrity of biodiversity-rich wetlands will have priority over restoration.