Study of influencing factors to chromophoric dissolved organic matter absorption properties from fluorescence features in Taihu lake in autumn

In order to identify the components of chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM), confirm the influence of components to the absorption coefficient of CDOM (a_CDOM), and estimate a_CDOM from fluorescence spectra, fluorescence and optical measurements of CDOM were carried out in November 2008. The results indicate that, the primary component of CDOM is humic-like. The secondary component is tryptophan-like, which is the product of phytoplankton and aquatic debris rather than the wastewater treatment drainaged from city. In this study, six fluorophores with multiple excitation-emission matrices (EEMs) peaks (A, B, C, N, M, T) were identified according to the parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC). The average contribution of each component to the CDOM is 19.93, 18.82, 16.88, 16.39, 12.26, and 15.72%, respectively. Red Shifted phenomenon will happen with the increase of fluorescence intensity for ultraviolet and terrestrially humic-like. Conversely, marine humic-like will appear Reverse Red Shifted with the increase of fluorescence intensity. The primary contributor to the shoulder value of CDOM’s absorption coefficient at 275 nm is phytoplankton productivity, followed by marine humic-like. The main contributors to the shoulder shape are UV humic-like and phytoplankton productivity, followed by marine humic-like and tryptophan-like. A strong correlation between CDOM absorption and fluorescence intensity at emission wavelength of 424 nm and excitation wavelength ranging from 280 to 360 nm was found. The absorption coefficient can be retrieved successfully from the same excitation wavelength’s fluorescence intensity by an exponential model.