PM08 Sediment Quality Assessment
Exhibit Hall
8:00 AM - Monday
(PM116) Comparison of different approaches for integrating data from a Sediment Quality Triad study.
Abessa, D1, 2, Carr, R3, 4, Sousa, E2, 1 UNESP, São Vicente, SP, Brazil2 IOUSP, São Paulo, SP, Brazil3 Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, TX, USA4 USGS, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
ABSTRACT- The Sediment Quality Triad (SQT) has been widely used in environmental assessments, and different methods to integrate chemical, ecotoxicological and ecological data have been developed. However, different authors have used different integrative approaches, which makes it difficult to compare results from different studies. In this study we choose to apply the following methods to integrate the data obtained from a SQT conducted in Santos, Brazil: analyses of each set of data separately, ratio-to-mean (RTM) triangles, multiple correlations, multi-dimensional scaling (MDS), ordinations and factorial principal component analysis. Results obtained by correlations, ordinations and factorial analysis had good agreement, and aided the interpretation of which variables influenced the benthos and how benthos, toxicity and contamination were related. The isolated analyses of each component and the RTM method also showed good agreement. Both approaches were useful to rank the collection sites according to degradation levels, allowing critical, clean and moderately impacted sites to be differentiated. Because the SQT is based on a weight of evidence approach, it seems reasonable that the use of several integrative approaches would be helpful in interpretation of the data.
Key words: Methods, Sediment Quality Triad, Brazil