• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.549-556
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• 2017

Rivers continuously transport terrestrial organic carbon matter to the estuary and the ocean, and they play a critical role in productivity and biodiversity in the marine ecosystem as well as the global carbon cycle. The amount of terrestrial organic carbon transporting from the rivers to ocean is an essential piece of information, not only for the marine ecosystem management but also the carbon budget within catchment. However, this phenomenon is still not well understood. Most large rivers in Korea have a well-established national monitoring system of the river flow and the TOC (Total Organic Carbon) concentration from the mountain to the river mouth, which are fundamental for estimating the amount of the TOC flux. We estimated the flux of the total terrestrial organic carbon of five large rivers which flow out to the Yellow Sea, using the data of the national monitoring system (the monthly mean TOC concentration and the monthly runoff of river flow). We quantified the annual TOC flux of the five rivers, showing their results in the following order: the Han River ($18.0{\times}10^9gC\;yr^{-1}$)>>Geum River ($5.9{\times}10^9gC\;yr^{-1}$)>Yeongsan River ($2.6{\times}10^9gC\;yr^{-1}$)>Sumjin River ($2.0{\times}10^9gC\;yr^{-1}$)>>Tamjin River ($0.2{\times}10^9gC\;yr^{-1}$). The amount of the Han River, which is the highest in the Korean rivers, corresponds to be 4% of the annual total TOC flux of in the Yellow River, and moreover, to be 0.6% of Yangtze River.