Phytoplankton Community, Pollution Sources and Water Quality of Drinking Water Lakes in Ulsan

Abstract

This study presented the phytoplankton communities of the three lakes (Sayeon, Daeam, Hoeya ) using for drinking water in the Ulsan reservoir. The water storage of the Lake Sayeon, Daeam and Hoeya were 25 , 13, 21 million ton respectively and most of which were being utilized for industrial and residential purposes. The total precipitation of the Ulsan region in 2010 was 1,162 ㎜, decreasing 10 % from 1,275 ㎜ of the annual. As for pollutant loads, BOD and TN discharge loads of Daeam was the highest with 3,277 ㎏/day, 1,931 ㎏/day and 90 % of them were came from non-point pollutant sources. TP discharge loads showed the highest in the lake Hoeya with 643 ㎏/day and 97 % of them were came from point sources as household, industry and livestock. We assessed water quality of the lake Sayeon, Daeam and Hoeya using 17 variables. The water quality assessment found that the lake Daeam met the fourth to fifth grade because of high concentration of COD, SS and chlorophyll-a. Eutrophication assessment was conducted by revised Carlson's Index (TSIm, Aizaki) and found that Lake Daeam was more eutrophicated than the other two lakes all the year through as for chlorophyll-a, transparency and the total phosphorus (TP). A total of 95~111 phytoplankton species were identified from the three lake samples. Among them, the largest number of species were Chlorophyceae with 35~51, followed by Bacillariophyceae with 36~45, Cyanophyceae with 9~11, and Cryptophyceae with 6~9 species. The total cell number of phytoplankton was the highest in February (15,254 cells/ mL) with Bacillariophyceae in the lake Daeam and the seasonal succession shows that Bacillariophyceae (Stephanodiscus spp.) in the spring, Cyanophyceae (Anabaena spp.) in the summer and the autumn, Bacillariophyceae (Stephanodiscus spp.) in the winter.