The Relationship between Rainfall Pattern and Epilithic Diatoms in Four Streams of Central-Western Korea for Three Years (2013–2015)

Eun-A Hwang, In-Hwan Cho, Ha-Kyung Kim, Chen Yi and Baik-Ho Kim ()
Additional contact information
Eun-A Hwang: Department of Environmental Science, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Republic of Korea
In-Hwan Cho: Department of Environmental Science, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Republic of Korea
Ha-Kyung Kim: Department of Environmental Science, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Republic of Korea
Chen Yi: Department of Environmental Science, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Republic of Korea
Baik-Ho Kim: Department of Environmental Science, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Republic of Korea

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 5, 1-20

Abstract: To study the effect of rainfall patterns on diatom communities in four major central western streams on the Korean Peninsula during the monsoon seasons of 2013 through 2015, we measured precipitation, environmental factors, and epilithic diatoms at 42 sites before (May) and after (August and September) each monsoon. The Mangyeonggang river and Sapgyocheon stream (SS) had a high percentage of low-permeability soil, and the stream had the highest proportion (49.1%) of surrounding land in urban areas. Precipitation and precipitation frequency was closely correlated with electrical conductivity and nutrients, and this was particularly evident in SS. Epilithic diatom abundance for the most abundant species as, Navicula minima , decreased in the stream in 2013 and 2014 and increased in 2015 when precipitation and precipitation frequency were low. This was not clearly distinguishable in the ecological characteristics of each watercourse’s indicator species, except in SS. The dynamic community index was highest in 2015 (ca. 5.50), and the annual changes in the index were clearly shown in SS. The precipitation pattern and the dynamic community index were negatively correlated (r = −0.026~−0.385), and the precipitation within 2 weeks (r = −0.480 for SS) before the second sampling and the frequency of 10 mm of precipitation were closely correlated in the stream (r = −0.450 for SS). The distribution of epilithic diatoms in the four watercourses is therefore affected by monsoon precipitation and precipitation frequency, and the dynamic community index is determined by soil characteristics and land use.

Keywords: diatoms; rainfall pattern; land use; soil characteristics; community dynamic index (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/5/4099/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/5/4099/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:5:p:4099-:d:1079883

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().