Abstract: This article aims at identifying the characteristics of water quality in Haizhou Bay and providing a reference for protection and management. Based on the data of environmental investigation carried out in 33 stations in December 2009, the stations were categorized according to the result of cluster analysis which was used to identify the similarities of the stations. The main pollution components and distribution characteristics of the sea water were examined with factor analysis. Spatial clustering analysis showed that the pollution status was greatly different in the northern and southern parts of Haizhou Bay. The stations could be divided into different types due to the influence from estuaries. The pollution types on the north side of Lianyungang Binhai New Area and the north side of Longwang estuary obviously differed from the other stations. Factor analysis showed that the first four components accounted for 47.4%, 16.4%, 13.9% and 9.1% of the total variance respectively, including Linhong estuary pollution impact (nutrient salts, copper, zinc), sediment disturbance of marine engineering activities (lead, copper, zinc), the combined effect of Linhong estuary and Lanshan harbor (dissolved oxygen, mercury) and certain regional pollution impact (chromium). The results indicated that the water quality of Haizhou Bay has an obvious spatial distribution. Therefore, for the station arrangement of marine environmental survey it should take into account the regional difference in order to fully reflect the environmental status of marine water quality.

Key words: Larix gmelinii, spatial distribution pattern, scale, Betula platyphylla