Seaweed Community Dynamics for First One Year after Hebei Spirit Oil Spill in Taean, Korea

Macroalgal flora and community structures before and after the Hebei Spirit oil spill that occurred in December 2007 were examined from March 2007 to December 2008 at three study sites on the Taean Peninsula, Korea. Many seaweeds were damaged by oil spill and showed morphological changes. Species richness and biomass increased rapidly for one year after the spill due to ephemeral species such as filamentous and sheet-form algae becoming more abundant at oil polluted Hakampo. Specially, Ulva blooms were greater at the heavily oil polluted sites and in the low intertidal zone of Hakampo than at less oil impacted Bangpo site. These results indicate that increase of number of ephemeral species was a good biological indicator representing the impact of the oil spill on the seaweed community. Also, the results presented here suggest that oil pollution may shift macroalgal community structure away from perennial species to more ephemeral species resulting in increased biomass of ephemeral macroalgae such as Ulva spp.