Abstract
The field observations on a seasonal characteristic of organic matter and its origin in the surface sediment were carried out at 35 stations in Deukryang bay, southern coast of Korean Peninsula from May 1995 to February 1996. The analytical parameters were mud temperature, ignition loss(IL), chemical oxygen demand(COD), pheopigment, sulfide and water content. The origin and seasonal dynamics of organic matter in Deukryang Bay were analyzed by COD/IL, COD/sulfide ratio and principal component analysis(PCA). As a results of the mud temperature fluctuated between 2.1$^{\circ}C$ with the lowest mean 4.6$^{\circ}C$ in winter and 27.6$^{\circ}C$ with the highest mean 25.5$^{\circ}C$ in summer. The range of ignition loss(IL) was from 3.1% in autumn to 21.5% in winter. Chemical oxygen demand(COD) showed the highest mean value of 8.45 mg/g dry in spring within the range of 2.90∼18.21 mg/g dry, while it showed the lowest value of 4.33 mg/g dry in autumn within the range of 0.67∼10.37 mg/g dry. Pheopigments showed the highest mean value of 9.04 $\mu\textrm{g}$/g dry in autumn within the range of 1.36∼20.44 $\mu\textrm{g}$/g dry, while it did the lowest mean value of 2.20 $\mu\textrm{g}$/g dry in summer within the range of 0.33∼11.36 $\mu\textrm{g}$/g dry. The range of total sulfide (H$_2$S) was from no detect(ND) to 3.30 mg/g dry in spring. And water content showed the annual mean value of 43.6% within the range of 23.6∼54.9%. The source of organic matter by COD/IL and COD/sulfide ratio in Deukryang Bay had been producted by primary producer in sea water areas except the areas effected by small stream, domestic and animal wastes. And the analytical results of PCA was able to be divided into three different regions. The former was characterized by the shallow depth and authigenic organic matter from phytoplankton in northwest area and northeastern inner bay, the secondary was done by deeper depth and allochthonous one from lands in southeast area and eastern entrance of bay, and the latter was done by authigenic one from the farm of seaweeds such as, sea cabbage, sea mustard etc in western entrance of bay. But a study on the relationship between sulfide and COD concentration in the northeastern inner bay which was characterized by the water stagnation will to take much more studying including major constituents of organic matter in the future.
