Assessment of Water Quality in the Elbe River at Flood Water Conditions Based on Cluster Analysis,Principle Components Analysis,and Source Apportionment |
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| Authors: | Martina Baborowski Vasil Simeonov Jürgen W. Einax |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of River Ecology, UFZ‐Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Magdeburg, Germany;2. Faculty of Chemistry, University of Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria;3. Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany |
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| Abstract: | An assessment of water quality measurements during a spring flood in the Elbe River is presented. Daily samples were taken at a site in the middle Elbe, which is part of the network of the International Commission for the Protection of the Elbe River (IKSE/MKOL). Cluster analysis (CA), principal components analysis (PCA), and source apportionment (APCS apportioning) were used to assess the flood‐dependent matter transport. As a result, three main components could be extracted as important to the matter transport in the Elbe River basin during flood events: (i) re‐suspended contaminated sediments, which led to temporarily increased concentrations of suspended matter and of most of the investigated heavy metals; (ii) water discharge related concentrations of pedogenic dissolved organic matter (DOM) as well as preliminary diluted concentrations of uranium and chloride, parameters with stable pollution background in the river basin; and (iii) abandoned mines, i.e., their dewatering systems, with particular influence on nickel, manganese, and zinc concentrations. |
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| Keywords: | Chemometrics Heavy metals Large river Pollution transport Sediment |
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