ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Conservation and Sustainability
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1542823
Responses of fish population structure to barrage re-opening in an estuarine ecosystem Article type: Original article
Provisionally accepted
Jeong-Soo Gim1Donghyun Hong2Gea-Jae Joo2Dong-Kyun Kim3Kwang-Seuk Jeong1Ji-Young Lee4Seok-Nam Kwak5Erik Jeppesen6
Hyunbin Jo2*- 1Busan Health University, Busan, Republic of Korea
- 2Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea
- 3Nakdong-River Estuary Water Ecosystem Restoration Council, Busan, Republic of Korea
- 4Korea Water Resource Corporation, Ulsan, Republic of Korea
- 5Ecological Engineering Institute Co. Ltd, Busan, Republic of Korea
- 6Aarhus University, Aarhus, Central Denmark Region, Denmark
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Re-openings of estuary barrages for the restoration of estuarine ecosystems are rare globally. To assess the effects of re-opening of the estuary barrage in the Nakdong River estuary (NRE), South Korea, we conducted monthly fish population surveys both upstream and downstream of the estuary barrage from 2021 to 2023 and categorised the results into closing period (CP) and opening period (OP). During the OP, we observed shifts in fish distribution, including decreased proportions of nonindigenous species and altered habitat distributions. Additionally, during the OP, we observed an increase in the population of brackish water species and their movement upstream. Our results revealed differences in the monthly frequency of fish appearances, with brackish and non-indigenous species exhibiting high frequencies mainly during OP (from July to October), and freshwater (demersal) species showing low frequencies during the same period. Our study highlights the significant impact of temporary estuarine ecosystem restoration on fish distribution and emphasises the need for careful consideration of both the frequency and duration of estuary barrage re-openings.
Keywords: Re-openings of estuary barrages, Nakdong River Estuary, non-indigenous species, Brackish water species, estuarine ecosystem restoration
Received: 10 Dec 2024; Accepted: 23 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gim, Hong, Joo, Kim, Jeong, Lee, Kwak, Jeppesen and Jo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hyunbin Jo, Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.