A Review on the Copepods in the South Sea of Korea

Ecological and taxonomical studies on the copepods were reviewed in order to dake data bases on the species composition, abundance, distributional pattern, and seasonal variations of copepods in the South Sea of Korea. Total 179 species have been reported in this area. The dominant species in the coastal waters and embayments, such as Acartia clausi, Paracalanus parvus, Oithona similis, and Oithona nana, were different from those reported in the offshore waters around Cheju Island. Indicator species of the South Sea were also discussed in this paper. Copepod abundances were higher in the coastal waters, up to more than 390,000 individuals/(collected with a mesh net), than in the offshore waters. There were two types of temporal variations in copepod abundances in the coastal waters, i.e., bimodal abundance peaks in spring and fall, md unimodal peak during summer to early fall.