This paper deals with the subdivision of the LingDingYang Estuary of the Pearl River Estuary (South China at the South China Sea) using geostatistical methods. The division obtained is characterised by the dominating components and interpreted in terms of ruling environmental conditions. The mathematical procedures used are regionalised classification via hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis. While regionalisation determines areas characterised by different sedimentological and geochemical parameters, principal component analysis identifies the influencing factors in the different parts of the estuary. Three main subareas within the LingDingYang Estuary were discriminated. Here, marine-influenced regions can be clearly separated from those determined by the geological catchment area and the ones dominated by river discharge. The samples for this work were taken during cruises in 2004 and 2005.

This work has been integrated into a German–Chinese cooperation project between the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research (Warnemünde, Germany) and the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology (Guangzhou, China).