Characteristics of Algal Succession Following Rock Scraping at Imwon Area in the East Coast of Korea

Abstract This study was conducted to clarify the characteristics high-pressure water sprayer in the period from June 2010 to April 2011 of algal succession following rock scraping using hoe or We divided the research area off the eastern coast of Korean near Imwon into 3 categories depending upon the severity of the barren ground, i.e., the urchin barren-affected, urchin bar- ren-ongoing and urchin barren-free areas. In April 2011, in the urchin barren-affected area with 25 seaweed species, the cover per- centage and importance value （IV） of erustose coralline algae were higher than those of other species. In the urchin barren-ongoing area with 33 seaweed species, crustose coralline algae （mean IV=62%） as well as Sargassum sp. （mean IV=28%）, and Gelidium amansii （mean IV= 19%） were observed following rock scraping. In the urchin barren-free area where seaweed communities were relatively abundant with 42 species, a variety of algal species including G. amansii （mean IV = 32%） underwent algal succession. Overall, it was observed that, as an aspect of algal succession, the weaker the barren ground severity was, the more frequent and di- verse the seaweeds were, and the more complex the succession pattern was in the study. As an aspect of recovering algal community, rock scraping using hoe was shown to be superior to the method using high-pressure water spraying. Therefore, we conclude that rock scraping using hoe is a very effective strategy for recovering the algal community in urchin barren-ongoing area.