• The Korean Journal of Malacology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.51-63
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• 2013

To assess the effect of environmental factors on the sustainability of cultured production shellfish, we investigated the habitat characteristics of tidal flat (Namhae-po in Taean). We measured the physiochemical parameters (temperature, salanity, pH, dissolved oxygen and nutrients) and the geochemical characteristics (chemical oxygen demand, ignition loss, C/N ratio and C/S ratio). Surface sediments were collected from several site of tidal flat to examine the geochemical characteristics of both the benthic environment and heavy metal pollution. The grain size for research area of tidal flat were similar at the ratio of silt and clay in comparison with the other site of it. The C/N ratio was more than 5.0, reflecting the range arising from the mix of marine organism and organic matter. The C/S ratio (about 2.8) showed that survey area had anoxic or sub-anoxic bottom conditions. The enrichment factor (Ef) and index of accumulation rate (Igeo) of the metals showed that those research areas can be classified as heavily polluted, heavily to moderately polluted, or more or less unpolluted, respectively. Adult surf clam (Mactra veneriformis) density was highest at St. 2 (middle part of the Namhae-po), on the other hand, surf clam spat density was highest at St. 3 (lower part of the Namhae-po). Heavy rain, terrigenous suspended clay with fresh water from neighboring agricultural land, and severe high air temperature during summer could be thought as detrimental causes of spat and adult mortality in Namhae-po tidal flat. We suggested that the growth of shellfish in the tidal flat was effected by the various environmental conditions, so an improvement in the cultured method was needed.