울릉도 연안산 해조류 넓미역 Undaria peterseniana의 서식 특성

Abstract

Brown alga Undaria peterseniana has been interested in the commercial scale aquaculture for warm water species development in southern coastal area of Korea. However, this species was classified an endangered species caused by a decrease in habitat and natural population. In this study, inhabit characteristics of U. peterseniana was investigated in their natural habitat of Ulleung Island, Korea. The U. peterseniana population was occurred dense patches at 20~30m depth. Total length of the alga reached 1.0~2.0m and the largest width ranged 10.0~35.0cm during the study. In 2013, habitats of this species increased two sites compared with the previous year and their distribution extended to low depth (10m) of coastal area. In long-term data, seawater temperature revealed a continuous increment by strong going north of East Korea Warm Current or Ulleung Warm Eddy turning around the coast of Ulleung Island. It suggested that habitat extension of U. peterseniana may be caused by suitable settlement condition and increase of warm water around the coastal area. Current studies of this species may be continuously required in the possibility of fisheries resources as aquaculture species and index species of increment of water temperature at the fixed monitoring site in East Sea. This is the first study to research ecological feature U. peterseniana population at the natural habitat of Ulleung Island.