Ecological Health Assessments of 72 Streams and Rivers in Relation to Water Chemistry and Land-Use Patterns in South Korea

This research was conducted as an ambitious eco-project of “National Ecological Health Assessments in South Korea”to diagnose the ecological health of 72 streams and rivers in Geum river watershed by an Index of Biological Integrity Model($IBI_{KW}$) based on fish assemblages. The objectives of this study were to know the systematic impacts on the health of thebiological systems, identification of impairment and take a snap-shot of the biological community structure. The $IBI_{KW}$ modelconsists of eight fish assemblages attributes, termed as metrics, that are related to environmental quality, ecosyst em integrityand biodiversity of the Geum river watershed streams and rivers: number of native species, number of riffle benthic species,number of sensitive species, proportion of tolerant species, proportion of omnivore species, proportion of native insectivorespecies, total number of native individuals and proportion of anomalies. Physico-chemical water quality parameters and fishspecies compositions were greatly influenced by land-use patterns. According to the $IBI_{KW}$, one stream was classified asecologically good, nine streams as fair, 61 streams as poor, and one as very poor. Analysis of trophic and tolerance guildsrevealed that tolerant species were dominant in polluted regions, whereas sensitive species preferred less polluted areas.Nutrients and organic matter were responsible for the production of algae in the waterbodies, and total phosphorus (TP) wasthe major key factor. Overall, the ecosystem health assessment by $IBI_{KW}$ gives a clear insight into the biological condition ofKorean watersheds and could play a significant role in regular bioassessments, postrestoration assessments, successfulmanagement and conservation.

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