Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - 11:00 AM
151

Comparative analysis of multi-taxa communities in streams across different levels of pollution

Tae-Soo Chon1, Hyun Ju Hwang1, Xiaodong Qu1, Mi young Song2, Jung Hye Choi3, Seung Cheol Koh3, Hak Young Lee4, and Young Ryun Chung5. (1) Lab. of Ecology and Behavior System, Div. of Biological Sciences, Pusan National University, Pusan, 609-735, South Korea, (2) West Sea Fisheries Research institute, Incheon, 400-420, South Korea, (3) Division of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Korea Maritime University, Busan (Pusan), South Korea, (4) Department of Biology, National University, Gwangju, South Korea, (5) Division of Applied Life Sciences, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, South Korea

Three benthic communities, algae, macroinvertebrates and microorganisms, were collected at the same sites across different levels of pollution in urbanized streams in Korea. Eivironmental factors such as pH, conductivity, TOC, TN, TP and heavy metals (Cu, Fe, Cr, Pb, etc.) were measured along with community sampling. The impact of pollution was accordingly reflected on species abundance patterns in the sampled communities. Macroinvertebrates showed the gradient in water quality in a relatively stable fashion compared with algae and microorganisms. Community parameters in macroinvertebtares  such as species richness and diversity indices accordingly decreased as the degree of pollution increased, while communities of algae and microorganisms tended to show higher values in the intermediately polluted sites. The scopes of algae and microorganisms, however, were wider in showing water quality: the tolerant species of algae and microorganisms were selectively present at the severely polluted sites due to industrialization, while macroinvertebrates were not present at these sites. Community parameters were further analyzed in comparatively indicating community structure and water quality among different taxa.


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