Eutrophicated water fed through Mankyeong River and Dongjin River into the new Saemankeum Lakemight seriously affect the water quality and phytoplankton community in the lake. To obtain control reference data for the later studies on environmental changes due to the construction of the Saemankeum Sea Wall, we performed a monthly investigation on the physico-chemical properties of the water and phytoplankton community at 3 stations in the Mankyeong River Estuary over 14 months starting from September 1999. Water temperature ranged from $0.3{sim}32.9^{circ}C$ due to the typical seasonal variations in temperate on the coasts and salinity exhibited a wide annual range of $0.2{sim}33.7$ psu along with regular and huge hourly variations according to tidal cycles. Inorganic nutrients were supplied from rivers to the monitoring station and the whole lake. The average concentration of total-N, $6.99;mg{cdot}l^{-1}$, was higher than the water quality for agricultural use with peak values occurring in winter. Species composition showed a seasonal succession pattern, where a high diversity was observedin summer and autumn and vice versa in winter. Hourly variations of water properties in the "Mankyeong bridge" Station were quite regular and well in accordance with the daily tidal cycles. The different degree of sea water intrusion during the flood tide at each of the 3 stations exhibited a different range and variation pattern of water temperature and salinity throughout a day. Hourly changes in species composition were in harmony with the daily tidal cycles, resulting in extremely variable spatio-temporal variation.