Elemental Analysis of River Water from Transylvania, Romania, by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry and Chemometrics

ABSTRACT

The objectives of this study were to determine metals in water samples obtained from three main rivers from Transylvania in two seasons and to apply chemometric methods for further interpretation. Inductive coupled plasma–mass spectrometry was used for these analyzes. Chemometric techniques, including analysis of variance, Pearson correlation, cluster analysis, and principal component analysis were applied for assessing variation in the results. Analysis of variance highlighted elements that were influenced by increased river flow in the wet season, and Pearson correlation established a positive correlation between elements. Cluster analysis showed a number of sample points in two main clusters according to their loading. Principal component analysis extracted five main components with each characterized by specific metals. These results are useful in monitoring studies because the river management plan may be improved by reducing the number of sampling points and monitoring parameters to those that are representative of each river basin.

KEYWORDS:

• Analysis of variance
• cluster analysis
• inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry
• Pearson correlation
• principal component analysis
• Transylvania river basin