대한민국의 생물다양성

Abstract

Korea is a peninsular in the west Pacific. It has rich marine fauna and flora thanks to diverse habitats and the warm and cold currents. The East Sea is deep down to 4,000m in depth and provides rocky or sandy shores. The south sea has thousands of islands and well-developed wetlands on the shores. The west sea is featured by a few kilometer-wide tidal flats. The warm and cold currents bring subarctic, temperate, and subtropical marine organisms to the Korean waters. In these waters, approximately 9,900 marine species are reported to date. Diatoms (1,835 species), dinoflagellates (328), and ciliates (80) comprise the main groups of phytoplankton. Marine algae include phaeophytes (176), chlorophytes (128), and rhodophytes (566). Marine invertebrates are represented by 5,443 species of which the main groups are mollusks (1,882), crustaceans (1,387), annelids (513), cnidarians (324), poriferans (267), and echinoderms (186). Fish species reaches up to 1,121 in number consisting of 219 families and 613 genera with high diversities in Perciformes (46.5% of Actinopterygii), Scorpaeniformes (13.7%), Tetraodontiformes (6.5%), and Pleuronectiformes (6.3%). It is expected that twenty thousands more species would be found in Korean waters. Information on Korea marine organisms can be found at either KOMBIS, Korea marine biodiversity information system or KOBIS, Korea ocean biogeographic information system.