In the light of regional physiographic characteristics and their effect on clay mineral composition of cohesive sediment (d<0.005mm), the cohesive sediments in the Changjiang River Estuary are found to come from different source regions, namely, the Changjiang River upstream of Jiangyin (CR,x₁), the Abandoned Yellow River Delta and northwestern Yellow Sea (AYRDYS, x₂), and the Hangzhou Bay and northwestern part of East China Sea (HBECS, x₃).