Determining contamination sources in marine sediments using multivariate analysis

Abstract

The problem of identifying sources of anthropogenic pollutants in a local marine environment has been intensively studied during the last two decades. An approach is descibed for tracing anthropogenic pollutant sources, and for characterizing various geochemical and chemical processes related to contamination by anthropogenic heavy metals and surfactants in the marine coastal environment, which uses a multivariate technique of principal components analysis (PCA). This approach was applied to study two selected littoral ecosystems in the Gulf of Cádiz. The multivariate analysis approach can be used successfully for contamination source assessments. From this information, it was possible to identify current superficial sources of contamination and it might be possible to determine the areas where further toxicological testing is required.