The Outbreak of Red Tides in the Coastal Waters off Kohung, Chonnam, Korea: 1. Physical and Chemical Characteristics in 1997

Physical characteristics and nutrient distributions in seawater were investigated to understand the mechanism of red tide outbreak in coastal waters off Kohung area. To identify any physical and chemical differences before, during and after the red tide outbreaks, 6 times of field observations have been carried out from May to October, 1997. We found that major environmental properties of the seawater in the study area were determined not by the local meteoric conditions or nearby-land influences, but by the intrusion of seawater from offshore. In particular, extreme environmental variations in seawater were found during the period of red tide outbreak from August to September. Before the red tide outbreak, high concentrations of DIN(Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen)were found in seawater, but they decreased during the outbreak. Whereas no significant variations of DIP(Dissolved Inorganic Phosphate) were found. For the water mass in the semienclosed northern part of the study area, local nutrient sources originated from nearby-lands were estimated to cover 70% of total DIN input, but the rest part of the water mass in the study area, sporadic intrusion of offshore water mass could account for the major source of DIN supply. An offshore water mass influenced by Yangtze river effluent was suggested as one of the candidates with its high nitrate contents, high seawater temperature and low salinity. A red tide related phytoplankton, Gyrodinium impudicum, was found in seawater on the 21th day of August and, on the same day, a unique water mass with high temperature and extremely low salinity suddenly appeared in the study area. On the 22th day of September, after one and half month duration of red tide we found that red tide had disappeared simultaneously with the intrusion of new water mass with different characteristics.