Algae. 1999; 14(1): 55-66.

Community Structure and Ecological Characteristics of Attached Diatoms in the Coastal Waters of Cheju Island, Korea

Joon-Baek Lee, Jong Hun Choa,Hyoung Bum Koh

Department of Oceanography, Cheju National University

The community structure and ecological characteristics of attached diatoms in the coastal waters of Cheju Island have been investigated at 4 stations monthly from September 1997 to August 1998. A total of 143 diatom species were identified including 18 spp. of centric diatoms and 125 spp. of pennate diatoms. Of these, the pennate diatoms comprised 105 spp. of raphidinean diatoms and 20 spp. of centric diatoms and 20 spp. of pennate diatoms. Dominant speies more than 30% of total standing crops were Amphora coffeaeformis Kutzing, Cocconeis scutellum Ehrenberg, Gomphonema exinum Kutzing. Licmophora lyngbyei (Kutzing) Grunow, Nitzschia navicularis (Bre'bisson) Ralfs, Synedra tabulata (Agardh) Kutzing. The attached diatom can be classified by the attaching type of extracellular polymeric subatances (EPS) showing the order of adhering film type - apical pad type - stalk type - tube type in terms of composition rate from 1.0 × 10 super(4) in December to 2.0 × 10 super(6) cells cm super(-2) in Octorber, while the biomass of chlorophyll a from 1 to 2,160mg · chl a · m super(-2). Species diversity index(H') ranged from 0.43 to 3.05. The species succession and biomass dynamics of attached diatoms showed differences with season and with station according on the behavior and distribution of attached diatoms were water temperature and were force by wind action in the study area.

Keywords : attached diatoms, Cheju Island, community structure, extracellular polymeric substances(EPS), species succession