Submarine Environmental Characteristics of Porewater around Deok-Jeok Island, Yellow Sea

황해 덕적도 주변 해양 공극수의 환경특성

Distribution patterns of the chemical species, contained or dissolved in the sediments and porewater, were studied from the submarine environments around Deok-Jeok Island, Yellow Sea. The sediments in the study area are predominantly composed of medium to coarse sands, and consequently of very low organic carbon (0.003%) -0.26%o dry weight sediments). As opposed to the strong enrichment of porewater with nutrients and heavy metals in the ordinarily muddy, organic-rich sediillents, the porewater enrichment is not intense in this sandy, organic-poor sediments: porewater phosphate is enriched to the maximum of only seven (average two) times over that in the bottom water. Concentrations of the heavy metals dissolved in porewater show a bit greater enrichment than the nutrient: Zn shows the lowest enrichment (7 times that of the bottom water) and Mn the highest (450 times that of the bottom water). However, these enrichments of the chemical species in porewater are the natural consequences of decomposition of the organic matter in sediments, and still fall short in the magnitude of those in the muddy, organic-rich sediments. Mining of the sands in the study area may pose a threat to the seawater quality as it causes a large scale porewater discharge to the bottom water. The additional supply of the nutrients by this discharge may develop an eutrophic state and, in consequence, an excessive nitrification of the water column. Since the residence times of the nutrients are much longer than those of the heavy metals, a long-term monitoring of the concentration changes in the porewater nutrients is very important to assess the potential deterioration of the seawater associated with the sand mining in the study area.