Chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) variability over the continental shelf of the northern Bay of Bengal

SummaryThe present paper dealt with the annual dynamics of the absorption coefficient of chromophoric dissolved organic matter at 440 nm {aCDOM(440)} during February 2015 to January 2016 in the continental shelf of northern Bay of Bengal (nBoB) for the first time. Sea surface salinity (SSS), chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), total suspended matter (TSM) were also analyzed. It was hypothesized that CDOM should exhibit significant spatial and temporal variability in this region. aCDOM(440) and spectral slope ranged between 0.1002 m−1-0.6631 m−1 and 0.0071 nm−1-0.0229 nm−1 respectively during the entire study period. Higher values of aCDOM(440) were observed in the near shore stations and gradually decreased towards the offshore. Significant seasonal variability of aCDOM(440) was observed between the monsoon and non-monsoon seasons (p < 0.05). Thus the framed hypothesis was successfully accepted by means of the present study. The CDOM was mainly found to be of allochthonous character in this region. aCDOM(440) portrayed a significant negative linear relationship with SSS (R2 = 0.80; p < 0.05) implying conservative mixing of marine and terrestrial end members. However, examining the spatial variability of the relationship, it was observed that this relationship was significant only in the nearshore stations. While examining the seasonal variability of this relationship, it was found to be most significant during the monsoon (R2 = 0.81; p < 0.05). Thus it was inferred that whenever the SSS gradient was higher, the relationship between aCDOM(440) and SSS was found to be most significant.