The main purpose of this research was to analyze the distribution and accumulation of metals in sediment cores of Gao-ping Canyon nearby areas. Enrichment factor (EF) and Sediment Quality Guidelines (SQGs) were also used to assess the pollution history, sources and extent of heavy metal pollution. The results revealed that copper and cadmium metal concentrations have not been contaminated significantly; while zinc and lead concentrations reached moderate degree of pollution, which exceeded guidelines of Low-SLG in Ontario and ERL in NOAA. The concentration of lead was higher than most found in Taiwan. Although chromium was found mild polluted, but attention should still be paid as those concentrations exceeded the values of Low-SLG¡BSevere-SLG and ERL. Comparing results from cores in Southern and Northern shelves of Gao-ping Canyon, the trend of heavy metal concentrations in Northern shelf rose gradually but had an apparent downward trend in surface mixed layer; while distinct variation with time was observed in Southern shelf.

In Taiwan, more than 20% of the major rivers are mildly to heavily pollute by domestic, industrial, and agricultural wastewaters due to the low hook-up rate of public underground sewerage systems in rural areas. Thus, constructed or engineered wetlands have been adopted as the major alternatives to cleanup polluted rivers. Constructed wetlands are also applied as the tertiary wastewater treatment systems to polish the secondary wastewater effluents to meet water reuse standards with lower operational costs. The studied Kaoping River Rail Bridge Constructed Wetland (KRRBCW) is the largest constructed wetland in Taiwan. It is a multi-function wetland and is used for polluted creek water purification and secondary wastewater polishment before they discharge into the Kaoping River. Although constructed wetlands are feasible for contaminated water treatment, wetland sediments are usually the sinks of organics and metals. In this study, water, sediment and macrophytes samples were collected from the major wetland basins in KRRBCW. The quarterly investigation (from 2007 to 2009) results show that more than 97% of total coliforms (TC), 55% of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and 30% of nutrients [e.g., total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP)] were removed via the constructed wetland system. However, results from the sediment analyses show that wetland sediments contained high concentrations of metals (e.g., Cu, Fe, Zn, Cr, and Mn), organic contents (sediment oxygen demand = 1.7 to 7.6 g O2/m2-d), and nutrients (up to 18.7 g/kg of TN and 1.22 g/kg of TP). Thus, sediments should be excavated periodically to prevent the release the pollutants into the wetland system and causing the deterioration of wetland water quality. Results of polymerase chain reaction (PCR), denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), and nucleotide sequence analysis reveal that an increase in microbial diversities in the wetland systems was observed. Results from the DGGE analysis indicate that all sediment samples contained significant amounts of microbial ribospecies, which might contribute to the carbon degradation and nitrogen removal. Gradually disappearing of E. coli was also observed along the flow courses through the natural attenuation mechanisms. The factor analysis of SPSS 12.0 shows that 17 water-quality items of the study site could obtain four to six principal components, including nitrate factor, phosphorus factor, eutrophication factor, organic factor, and environmental background factor, the major influencing components are nutrition factor and eutrophication factor. The ponds of the study site were classified into two or three clusters depend on in-and-out flow location. This study attempted to establish a forecasting model of wetland pollutants concentration through the time series (ARIMA), results show that the outcome of the B7 pond was better than others. Results indicate that the ARIMA model can be used to simulate the trend of treatment efficiency using the wetland system. Experience and results obtained from this study would provide solutions for water quality control. Thus, the wetland system has a significant effect on water quality improvement and is capable of removing most of the pollutants from the local drainage system before they are discharged into the downgradient water body. Other accomplishments of this constructed wetland system include the following: providing more green areas along the riversides, offering more water assessable eco-ponds and eco-gardens for public, and rORPabilitating the natural ecosystem. The Kaoping River Rail Bridge Constructed Wetland has become one of the most successful multi-function constructed wetlands in Taiwan. The experience obtained from this study will be helpful in designing similar natural treatment systems for river water quality improvement and wastewater treatment.

¡@¡@Sediment loads of Taiwan rivers have increased in recent years because of frequently recurring typhoons. In addition to the dry and wet seasons causing sever erosion and deposition of the riverbed, the long-term records from 1967 to 2009 of suspended sediment concentration and daily discharge observed by the Water Resource Agency in Taiwan Rivers were used in this study. ¡@¡@To understand the sediment deposition or erosion in the rivers, we need to find how the discharge and sediment load interact with each other under the natural and human influences. The hydrological data we used in this study were from Water Resources Agency¡¦s annual reports, including the Danshui River, the Lanyang River, the Zhuoshui River, the Beinan River, and the Gaoping River. ¡@¡@High turbidity happen when sediment concentration exceeds 40 g/L. Judging by this threshold, taking upstream stations of the Zhuoshui River for example, the Nei-Mao-Pu Station (1973-2009) reached this threshold 6 times, Bao-Shih Bridge Station (2004-2009) 19 times, and Yun-Feng Bridge Station (1995-2009) 19 times. But Yen-Ping Bridge Station (2004-2009), which is at the middle part of Zhuoshui River, has never reached the threshold, became the erosion rate and sedimentation rate are balanced here. Chi-Chou Bridge Station (2000-2009) at the downstream reached the threshold for 11 times too. ¡@¡@According to the river graded profile, in the Danshui River, obvious erosion occurred at the Liu-Kwei Bridge Station in 2000, the Po Bridge Station in 2001, and San-Hsia (2) Station in 2004 and 2007. In the Zhuoshui River, significant deposition took place at the Yun-Feng Bridge Station in 2006 and 2010. In the Gaoping River, deposition occurred at the A-Chyi-Ba Bridge Station in 2000, while erosion occurred at Liu-Kwei Station in 2001 and at the A-Chyi-Ba Bridge Station in 2007 and 2008. ¡@¡@Above results show that the major sediments are deposited upstream, forming a temporary sediment storage source region, such as at Li-Lin Bridge Station, Liu-Kwei Station, and Yun-Feng Bridge Station at the Gaoping River, all of which have reached the threshold when a typhoon comes. Investigating daily rainfall data from Taichung Weather Station in 2005, we find that besides typhoon influences, when the rainfall is exceeding 200 mm High turbidity events would occur in the Jhoushuei River. ¡@¡@According to our study, we find that most sediment deposits at the upper reaches, forming temporary sediment storages, so when a typhoon comes, we can see the sediment downstream is often mixed with the sediment coming from upstream storages. That is because the slope in the upper reaches is steeper, and heavy rain makes the temporary deposit easy to erode. On the contrary, the slope in the lower reaches is more gentle so it is easier for sediment to deposit, which is the reason why the stations at downstream often reach the threshold. When the extreme weather occurs, the temporary sediment storages along the entire river course become the source regions to release the sediment out to the sea.

The surface sediments off Southwestern Taiwan were collected during three different cruises in May 2009, November 2009, and March 2010, respectively. The concentrations of chlorophyll-a and phaeopigment, as well as benthic foraminifera species, were analyzed. The results show that the concentration of chlorophyll-a decreases with the distance from the shore, and the concentration of chlorophyll-a also decreases with increasing water depth. The concentration of phaeopigment seems to have no significant relationship with the water depth. The relationships between the concentrations of benthic foraminifera, chlorophyll-a, and phaeopigment are also not significant. Because samples were collected from different water depths on the continental shelf, slope and in a canyon, the oceangraphic setting therefore may be one of the main factors which influences the distribution pattern of benthic foraminifera. According to the EOF analysis, the water depth in sampling sites plays a very important role in terms of the distribution of living benthic foraminifera in this study. The distribution do not show significant difference between collecting seasons. Finally, the concentrations of the chlorophyll-a and phaeopigment decrease drastically in a downcore record. Quinqueloculina spp., an epifaunal foraminifer, shows a significant peak concentration in the depth of 5-6 cm downcore. Bioturbation probably was responsible for this change.

A constructed wetland was built in southern Taiwan in 2007 for local stream water purification and ecosystem improvement. The inflow rate was approximately 1,350 m3/day. The wetland influents were mainly from the local streams containing secondary wastewater from hog farms located in the upper catchment of the wetland and drainage water from the farmlands. The influent water contained organic contaminants and nutrients, which needed to be removed. The mean measured hydraulic loading rate, hydraulic retention time, water depth, and total volume of wetland system were 0.1 m/day, 5.5 days, 0.7 m, and 7,800 m3, respectively. In this study, water, sediment, and plant samples were collected and analyzed quarterly for each wetland basin during the two-year investigation period. Results show that more than 77% of total coliforms (TC), 78% of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), 88% of total nitrogen (TN), and 96% of ammonia nitrogen were removed via the constructed wetland system. Thus, the wetland system has a significant effect on water quality improvement and is able to remove most of the pollutants from the local stream through natural attenuation mechanisms. Results from the ecological investigation show that more than 50 different plant species and 45 different animal species were observed in the wetland system although this wetland had been created for less than four years. Except for stream water quality improvement and rehabilitating the natural ecosystem, this wetland also offered more water assessable eco-ponds and eco-gardens for public. This constructed wetland has become one of the most successful multi-function constructed wetlands in Taiwan.

Water, suspended particle and sediment samples from Gao-ping coastal water column were collected and measured to determine the spatial and temporal distributions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) during August 2010 and June 2011. In addition, principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical the cluster analysis (HCA) were performed with chemical fingerprinting to understand the possible sources of PAHs in Gao-ping coast. The correlations between PAHs and several factors such as salinity, temperature and organic carbon were also discussed in the present study. The total PAH concentrations (dissolved and particulate phase) at four sampling campaigns ranged from 2.09 to 45 ng/L. Concentrations of dissolved PAHs ranged from 2.0 to 39 ng/L and the highest average concentrations were found in November 2010 (10.0 ¡Ó 9.90 ng/L). The particulate PAHs ranged from 0.13 to 40 ng/L and the maximum concentration was found in the estuary in August 2010. The total PAH concentrations of sediment ranged from 125-648 ng/g, which were lower than the Effect Range Low (ERL) and Threshold Effect Level (TEL) values, suggesting that few adverse ecological effects would arise from the PAHs in Gao-ping canyon. Results from chemical fingerprinting, PCA and HCA indicate that PAHs in this area were from complex sources such as combustion, petroleum, diagenesis or biogenic sources. Sources of PAHs in dissolved phase were mainly from petrogenic and mixed sources, while particulate PAHs were mainly from a mixed source. However, sources of PAHs in November 2010 and February 2011 were mostly from mixed combustion, suggesting that the PAH concentrations in particulate phase might be affected by atmospheric transport. The results showed that perylene in Gao-ping coast and canyon was mainly from the biogenic source. A significant correlaction was found in PAH fingerprinting between the esturine particles and sediment, indicating that the sediments in Gao-ping canyon might mainly come from Gao-ping River. Correlation analysis showed a significant positive correlation between concentrations of suspended particle and PAHs, while a negative correlation was found between PAH concentrations and temperature. In addition, organic carbon showed a significant correlation with PAHs in sediment samples. The partition coefficients (Koc) values of PAHs were higher than the values from other literatures, suggesting that it might be attributed to soot carbon.

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), such as Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) or Hexachlorobenzene (HCB), released into water system. They will adsorb to particles, and incorporate into sediments. Thus the concentrations of PCBs and HCB in surface sediments provide information on recent contaminations. Besides, organisms in marine environment are influenced by the concentration in sediments, and so as the food chain. This study investigated the concentrations and characteristics of PCBs and HCB in surficial sediments of Kao-Ping Chi Estuary and nearby areas. The concentrations of PCBs and HCB in sediments were ranged from 1.432 to 6.681 (ng/g dry wt), and from 0.151 to 8.109 (ng/g dry wt¡^¡Awith an average of 3.219 and 1.978, respectively. Both of PCBs and HCB did not exceed the concentrations suggested by several sediment quality guidelines (SQGs). Compared with studies in other countries, the sediments in Kao-Ping coastal areas were more polluted by HCB. Neither PCBs nor HCB could correlate well with mean particle size or total organic carbon (TOC). The Toxic equivalents (TEQ) of dioxin-like PCBs and HCB were ranged from 0.014 to 0.061 pg-TEQ/g, and from 0.015 to 0.811 pg-TEQ/g, respectively. Using Principal Component Analysis, four possible principal components were found. These four principal components could account for 89.29% of the total variance. The first principal component was composed of highly chlorinated PCBs. The second principal component was composed of particle mean size and TOC. And the third and the fourth principal component were composed of di-, tri- PCBs and HCB. According to the factor score plot, the sample stations in this study could be divided into four groups. The first group was the stations that near the shore. The second group which contained stations were 4Km offshore. The third group contained stations with highly chlorinated PCBs. And the fourth group only contained one stations, D16. It was possible that there were other sources influenced station D16. In conclusion, the pollution in the surficial sediments was influenced by the distances from the pollutant sources and the particle size affected by tidal effect.

Continental shelves connect land and the ocean and also play a major role through time in the storage and re-distribution of terrigenous sediments to the ocean. Most of the sediments which origin in land and very shallow waters are deposited on the continental shelf. Sediment entrainment and movement in the coastal ocean are dominated by the combined effect of waves and currents within the benthic boundary layer. Our study intends to examine the relation between currents, waves and acoustic echo intensity in a wave-current boundary layer. The site of the study was located southeast off Kaohsiung Harbor entrance in southern Taiwan on the inner shelf. Between April 16 and May 1, 2004, a tetrapod was deployed with an upward-looking ADCP (Aquadopp Profiler), a CTD with an OBS (XR-420). Another downward-looking ADCP was mounted at 2 m above bed (mab). The interval of the data collection was one hour. Water samples were pumped in seven time-segments (4 in the neap tide, 3 in the spring tide) through the experimental period at 1 and 0.5 mab, respectively for suspended sediment concentration (SSC) analysis in the laboratory. Aquadopp Profiler not only records 3-D current data but also measures the echo intensity (EI). The echo intensity is proportional to the amount of backscattering particles in the water column. The acoustic intensity could be a useful reference for the total concentration of the suspended particles. Our preliminary findings indicate strong tidal control on the dynamics of suspended particles in the benthic boundary layer. The wave field is also modified by the tidal. The form number of the observed tides is 1.87, which indicates mixed tides with a predominantly diurnal component. The data were analyzed using empirical orthogonal (eigen) function (EOF) analysis. The results indicate that the tidal current dominated the alongshore current. Its period is 24.67 hours. The echo intensity are dominated by the current shear velocity. The observations show that the maximum thickness of wave boundary layer and wave-current boundary layer at the experiment site is about 0.9 cm and 1.24 cm respectively. Cross-correlation analysis results among the roughness length, the thickness of wave boundary layer, and the thickness of wave-current boundary layer show that the roughness length correlates negatively to the thickness of both boundary layer. The data were analyzed by spectrum analysis. The results indicate that wave boundary layer were dominated by the low frequency current. The wave-current boundary layer and the roughness length were dominated by the semidiurnal tides.

Cores and sediment traps collected from Kao-ping Canyon were used to reconstruct historical record of PAHs contamination and find out the possible sources, distributions, trends and flux of PAHs. The sedimentary record of PAHs shows that the average concentration of total PAHs was 310 ng/g dry wt. (264¡ã364 ng/g) which was lower than coasts of the other countries. According to diagnostic ratios and statistical analysis, we identify sources of PAHs and suggest that all up-cores were dominated by petrogenic sources, but all down-cores except for C980 and S1 were tended to pyrogenic or mixed sources. In contrast, both C980 and S1 were showed higher perylene/£UPAHs (%), which suggests that biogenic sources dominate in C980 and S1. In comparison with sediment quality guidelines (SQGs), the PAHs concentrations of all sediment cores weren¡¦t exceeded the criteria, which suggests that no evident adverse biological effects exist caused by PAHs in Kao-ping Canyon. It shows that the transition from coal to petroleum fuel use corresponding to the total concentrations of PAHs decrease recorded during 1893-1935 period in the sediment core. A PAHs concentration peak also recorded during the World War ¢º, 1893-1935. Because of increase of importing fossil fuel and the growth of heavy industrials in Kao-Ping area, the total concentrations of PAHs were shown evidence of increase again since 1950s in the core from Kao-ping Canyon. The average PAHs flux in the upper and lower mooring deployed in Kao-ping Canyon were 66 and 108 £gg/m2/d, respectively, which were higher than coasts of the other countries. The PAHs sources of sinking particles were dominated by petrogenic sources which were as similar sources as all up-cores.

Sound propagation in very shallow water is one of the issues of the ocean acoustic. Because of close distance to the shore and short range to the bottom, the building of sound propagation model in shallow water is much more difficult than in deep water. Even though, the increasing needs of upper-sea construction engineering and near-shore surveillance make this subject more and more important. This study is to build a high sensitive underwater recording system, use it to collect data and to find out which parameters affect the sound propagation in very shallow water most. The study contains underwater recording system construction, shallow water recording experiment and comparison of OASES simulation results and the collective data. The system is constructed with two ITC6050C hydrophones and data acquisition devices. After several tests of reliability, the system is put in the sea area about 10 m depth. And the two hydrophones were moored 1 m above the bottom and 2.5 m below sea surface separately. The experiment use a moving fishing boat motor noise as sound source and the experimental results are shown as the spectrogram of sound field. The computer simulation uses OASES modules to simulate the experimental area and Pekeris waveguide propagation as the theoretical environment of very shallow water. By comparing the simulation results and the collective data ,the study finds out that the major parameters of sound propagation in the experimental area are the pressure sound speed and the depth of the sound source.