부산 북항의 겨울과 여름철의 저서성 유공충 군집 분포

Abstract

The benthic foraminifera are very sensitive to anthropogenic pollution such as organic matters and heavy metals in the coastal area. Through changes of species diversity and assemblage characteristics, they are useful as bio-indicators. Especially, the assemblage structure of the benthic foraminifera not only provides the information regarding the general characteristics of the region where they live, but also sensitively react to certain pollutants, making it possible for researchers to find out their influence on the ecosystem. This research was planned to find out the influences of the benthic foraminifera to the pollutants level at Busan North Port. Busan Port is the biggest international seaport in Korea, located on the south-eastern side of Korea. Since Busan is metropolitan city, the urban sewage discharges to the port through six streams. Also, all the pollutants from the vessel activities and surrounding industrial complex continuously flow into the region. Because of shallow water depth (less than 15m) and breakwaters at the entrance, water circulation is limited and the pollutant tends to accumulate in sediments. In order to identify the characteristics of sediments and the group distributions of the benthic foraminifera at Busan North Port, the surface sediments from nine points were collected in February and August, 2009, using the grab sampler. The benthic foraminifera were divided into live and dead ones. Using a sieve of 200 μm mesh size, foraminifera were divided into size groups. The sediment were mostly consists of fine mud with mean grain size of 7-8 phi. A total 71 species of the benthic foraminifera including 12 live ones were identified. The dominant species were Elphidium advenum and Trochammina pacifica. According to a cluster analysis, four bio-facies were identified. These identified bio-facies were made two groups of Busan North Port and the open sea. The group of Busan North Port divided into inner and outer ports. The group of open sea