Terrigenous debris and mussel pollution — a differentiation based on trace element concentration by means of multivariate analysis

• Published in: Analytica chimica acta 1997-06, Vol.344 (3), p.251-259
• Main Authors: Favretto, L., Campisi, B., Reisenhofer, E., Adami, G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chemometrics; Differentiation; Heavy metal content; Multivariate analysis; Mussel pollution
• ISSN: 0003-2670; 1873-4324
• DOI: 10.1016/S0003-2670(97)00031-7

The total content of nine trace elements (Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Hg and Pb) of the soft edible part of mussels ( Mytilus galloprovincialis Lamarck) sampled in two different sites was considered. The first sampling site was located at the extremity of a pier near the sewage of Trieste in a polluted area of the Muggia Bay (Gulf of Trieste in the Northern Adriatic Sea), whereas unpolluted mussels were simultaneously sampled in the second one, i.e. a hatchery just off the southern extremity of the bay. The sampling was extended over a year and occurred with a frequency of nearly ten days. Both mussel groups had an equal sample numerosity ( n 1= n 2=43) and standard atomic absorption methods were used for all the trace elements. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was applied to this two-group sampling in order to test a possible differentiation between the polluted and unpolluted mussels. LDA gave in this two-group sampling a nearly complete separation of scores, whereas the bidimensional and tridimensional score plots, obtained by means of linear principal component analysis (LPCA), gave a certain degree of entanglement. The detrital origin of pollutants is also discussed.