The occurrence of Acartia species and their environmental characteristics at three ports in Korea

This study investigated the occurrence of Acartia copepods and their environmental characteristics to identify the existence and survival of foreign species at domestic ports in Korea. Copepods samples were collected seasonally, and temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen (DO), total suspended solids (TSS), and chlorophyll-a (chl-a) were measured at the seaports Incheon, Gwangyang, and Ulsan from 2007 to 2009. No foreign species was found and all of the Acartia copepods observed had been recorded in Korean waters previously. Acartia omorii, A. hongi, and A. pacifica were found at all three seaports, whereas portspecific species were found at Incheon (A. sinjiensis) and Ulsan (A. steueri, A. negligens, and A. danae). When chl-a and DO were not limited, eurythermal and euryhaline A. hongi, A. omorii, and A. hudsonica occurred at TSS concentrations between 38 and 183 mg·L -1, while warm-water copepods (A. pacifica, A. ohtsukai, A. sinjiensis, and A. erythraea) occurred at TSS concentrations <80 mg·L -1. The seasonal distributions of A. omorii, A. hongi, and A. pacifica at the three seaports were most significantly explained by temperature, salinity, DO, and TSS, and not chl-a. The variation in A. hudsonica and A. sinjiensis at Incheon was explained mainly by temperature, DO, and TSS, whereas A. erythraea at Ulsan was influenced only by chl-a. The occurrence of Acartia copepods showed spatiotemporal variation as a result of species-specific preferences or tolerances in each port environment. Multiple regression analysis indicated that temperature, salinity, DO, and TSS were better predictors of the variation in Acartia species at the seaports during the study than chl-a when food was not limiting. These results indicated that the occurrence of Acartia copepods and related environmental characteristics are crucial information for differentiating foreign species from the native community and predicting the potential for foreign copepods to become established after their introduction to a seaport. © 2011 Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute (KORDI) and the Korean Society of Oceanography (KSO) and Springer Netherlands.