CDOM

CDOM

Subject: Science & tech

Context: Recently, the Ministry of Science & Technology has said that the reduced the anthropogenic activities during COVID-19 imposed lockdown period indicated by decreased Colored Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM) build-up and nutrients in the Mandovi Estuary.

Concept:

Dissolved Organic Matter (DOM)

• The dissolved organic matter is the largest reservoir of organic carbon in the aquatic environment.
• It can be greatly influenced by land use, which can ramp up or diminish organic matter loads to waterways.
• The forested lands can contribute more DOM than agricultural lands, but the nutrients bound in the material can be less bio-available than those from farm fields.
• The organic matter in waterways can be viewed as a mixture of things living and dead, including plant, microbial and animal products at various stages of decomposition.

Colored Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM)

• CDOM is interchangeably known as chromophoric dissolved organic matter or colored dissolved organic matter.
• The CDOM cover the parameter that can be measured in aquatic environments as a product of decaying material.
• CDOM is largely a subset of DOM, or dissolved organic matter.
• The decay releases organic substances, also called tannins that stain waters and can have effects on light absorption and other aspects of water quality.
• CDOM is closely related to fDOM or fluorescent dissolved organic matter, as fDOM refers to the fraction of CDOM that fluoresces.
• CDOM contributes to light absorption and may also help fuel bacterial respiration because of the large quantities of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus that it carries.