Журнал географии и стихийных бедствий
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Large variations of salinity and dissolved oxygen and their effects on macro benthic communities in Lake Sihwa, the west coast of Koreay

Bon Joo Koo

Since the dyke construction the lake Sihwa has undergone unstable environments such as large fluctuation of salinity and oxygen due to irregular exchanges of water between the outer saline zone and the inner brackish one, inflow of a good deal of pollutants from non-point and point sources and water stagnancy. It indicates that the lake ecosystem has a variability of species composition and species density. Especially, benthic organisms lack the ability to cope up with changes in the environment because most of them are sedentary and have limited mobility, thus the variation gives rise to change in the community structure. The Sihwa macrobenthos have responded to the severe environment, which was reported in some previous studies. However, these studies referred to the succession of macro fauna for only three years of the initial stage after the dyke construction. In the present paper, I report on the long-term responses of the macrobenthos to the large variation in salinity and dissolved oxygen for fifteen years after the birth of the lake.