한국의 남해 거문도해역에 자생하는 홍합 (Mytilus coruscus)의 수심별 성장, 비만도와 저서생물의 분포

We investigated the distribution characteristics of mussels (Mytilus coruscus) growing in the Geomundo sea area by water depth. The research was also conducted to identify the surrounding benthic organisms. Mussels showed high density and low obesity in low water depths. The lower the density, the higher the obesity level appeared in deeper water. The morphological characteristics also appeared to increase as the water depth deepened. In addition, the shell length and total weight were more strongly correlated at a depth of 12 m than at 2 m. The total weight by the growth of the shell length and shell height was affected by the water depth. The analysis showed that the density and biomass of the algae inhabiting the surroundings decreased somewhat as the water depth increased. In benthic animals, the number of mussels tended to decrease slightly at the point where oysters dominated, at a depth of 2 m. Conversely, the number of oysters tended to decrease in deeper water dominated by mussels. Thus, the spatial competition between oysters and mussels was affected by the water depth. Also, mussels did not appear in areas where large algae flourished, suggesting that the survival of mussels was affected by the presence or absence of large algae.