Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fluorescent Dissolved Organic Matter
in Natural Waters
Khan M. G. Mostofa, Cong-qiang Liu, Takahito Yoshioka, Davide Vione,
Yunlin Zhang and Hiroshi Sakugawa
1 Introduction
Dissolved organic matter (DOM), of allochthonous and autochthonous origin, is
a heterogeneous mixture of organic compounds, with molecular weights rang-
ing from less than 100 to over 300,000 Da in natural waters (Hayase and Tsubota
1985
; Thurman
1985
; Ma and Ali
2009
; Mostofa et al.
2009a
). The DOM compo-
nents are involved into key biogeochemical processes such as global carbon cycle,
nutrient dynamics, photosynthesis, biological activity and finally as energy sources
in the aquatic environments (Mostofa et al.
2009a
,
b
; Hedges
1992
). Among the
