Benthic environmental parameters were analysed at 40 stations during the period from April 1995 to February 1996, such as water temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration in the surface and bottom water layers, grain size, chemical...
Benthic environmental parameters were analysed at 40 stations during the period from April 1995 to February 1996, such as water temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration in the surface and bottom water layers, grain size, chemical oxygen demand (COD), ignition loss, particulate organic carbon(POC) in the sediment of Youngsan River estuary.
The water temperature ranged from 41 to 29 8℃ in the surface and 40 to 27 0℃ in the bottom layers Salinity ranged from 15 1 to 33.6‰ in the surface and 21 5 to 33 2‰ in the bottom layer The salinity in the outer part of the study area was higher than that of inner area from autumn to spring, whereas they remained lower in summer Dissolved oxygen concentration ranged from 5 1 to 11 2 mg/l in the surface, and 0 79 to 10 2 mg/l in the bottom layers Hypoxic condition (≤20 mg/l) was developed in the bottom water layer from Youngsan dike to Mokpo Harhour in summer due to the summer stratification. The sediment type of the surface sediment was silty clay with a mean grain size of 9 12±0 45ø The range of COD was from 6 15 to 15 49 mgO_2/g with a mean of 10 59±12 64 mgO_2/g The COD in the inner stations was relatively higher than that of outer stations, and decreased toward the outer part of the study area Ignition loss(IL) ranged from 3 35 to 15.45% with a mean of 6 96±1 91%
Principal component analysis was carried out from the following five environmental parameters: water temperature, dissolved oxygen in the bottom layer and mean grain size, clay content and COD in the sediment The forty stations in the study area were classified into three stational groups Group I was located in the inner part of the estuary characterized by relatively low surface salinity and bottom water temperature, fine sediment texture, high organic matter and low dissolved oxygen concentration during the summer Meanwhile, Group Ⅲ showing relatively high bottom salinity and water temperature was located in the outer part of the estuary characterizing coarse sediment and low organic content in sediment Group Ⅱ was in the between Group Ⅰ and Ⅲ The division of the areal groups had high correlations to the DO in the bottom layer and clay content in the sediment.