Multivariate soil pollution

The nature of study objectives in environmental research is often multivariate. Several pollutant patterns from different, sometimes unknown, sources may occur. The state of pollution of a sampling point, line, or area in any environmental compartment, whether atmosphere, water, soil, or biota, depends mostly on the nature of the different sources of pollution. Stack emissions are characterized by a multi-element pattern. Waste water effluents contain different contaminants, ranging from heavy metals to cocktails of organic compounds. 

Multivariate Statistical Evaluation and Interpretation of Soil Pollution Data... 

The following two examples [EINAX et al., 1990 KRIEG and EINAX, 1994] demonstrate not only the power, but also the limits of multivariate statistical methods applied to the description of polluted soils loaded with heavy metals from different origins. Case studies with chemometric description of soil pollution by organic compounds are also discussed in the literature. DING et al. [1992], for example, evaluated local sources of chlorobenzene congeners in soil samples by using different methods of multivariate statistical analysis. 

Terrado M, Barcelo D, Tauler R (2010) Multivariate curve resolution of organic pollution patterns in the Ebro River surface water-groundwater-sediment-soil system. Anal Chim Acta 657 19-27... 

In the following discussion an example is given of the multivariate characterization of soil metal status to distinguish pollution of soil layers from geogenic enrichments from the background. Further case studies and a deeper description are given in detail in the literature [KRIEG and EINAX, 1994],... 

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