–475– Spatio-Temporal Variations of Harmful Algal Blooms in the

Abstract: Harmful algal blooms (HAB) caused by the dominant species Cochlodinium polykrikoides (C. polykrikoides) appear in the South Sea of Korea and are particularly present in summer and fall seasons. Environmental factors such as water temperature, weather conditions (air temperature, cloud cover, sunshine, precipitation and wind) influence on the initiation and subsequent development of HAB. The purpose of this research was to study spatial and temporal variations of HAB in the Yeosu area using environmental (oceanic and meteorological) and satellite data. Chlorophyll-a concentrations were calculated using Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) images by an Ocean Chlorophyll 4 (OC4) algorithm, and HAB were estimated using the Red tide index Chlorophyll Algorithm (RCA). We also used the surface velocity of sequential satellite images applying the Maximum Cross Correlation method to detect chlorophyll-a movement. The results showed that the water temperature during HAB occurrences in August 2002-2008 was 19.4-30.2˚C. In terms of the frequency of the mean of cell density of C. polykrikoides, the cell density of the HAB found at low (<300 cells/ml), medium (300-1000 cells/ml), and high (>1000 cells/ml) levels were 27.01%, 37.44%, and 35.55%, respectively. Meteorological data for 2002-2008 showed that the mean air temperature, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and sunshine duration were 22.39˚C, 6.54 mm/day, 3.98 m/s (southwesterly), and 1-11.7 h, respectively. Our results suggest tha