Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure ISSN:2288-8527(Online) 응용생태공학회 논문집

Spatial variations of physicochemical and microbiological variables were examined to understand spatial heterogeneity of those variables in intertidal flat. Variograms were constructed for understanding spatial autocorrelations of variables by a geostatistical analysis and spatial correlations between two variables were evaluated by applications of a Cross-Mantel test with a Monte Carlo procedure (with 999 permutations). Water content, organic matter content, pH, nitrate, sulfate, chloride, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), four extracellular enzyme activities (β-glucosidase, N-acetyl-glucosaminidase, phosphatase, arylsulfatase), and bacterial diversity in soil were measured along a transect perpendicular to shore line. Most variables showed strong spatial autocorrelation or no spatial structure except for DOC. It was suggested that complex interactions between physicochemical and microbiological properties in sediment might controls DOC. Intertidal flat sediment appeared to be spatially heterogeneous. Bacterial diversity was found to be spatially correlated with enzyme activities. Chloride and sulfate were spatially correlated with microbial properties indicating that salinity in coastal environment would influence spatial distributions of decomposition capacities mediated by microorganisms. Overall, it was suggested that considerations on the spatial distributions of physicochemical and microbiological properties in intertidal flat sediment should be included when sampling scheme is designed for decomposition processes in intertidal flat sediment.