Evaluation of changes in spatial pattern of metals pollution in surface water using multivariate analysis: case study an urban basin from Buenos Aires, Argentina

ABSTRACT

The goal of this paper was to analyze changes in the spatial pattern of metals in water and determining the factors that may be associated with that distribution using the asymmetric eigenvector maps and redundancy analyses in the Matanza Riachuelo river (MRR), Argentina. Data from 2008 and 2014 of metal concentrations (As, Cd, Cu, Cr, Ni, and Pb), water quality parameters and land cover variables from 38 samplings sites in the MRR were collected. The results obtained showed that the general spatial pattern of distribution of all the metals analyzed did not differ between both years and that the water flow was a factor that structured the distribution of metals in the river. The present study showed the utility of using these multivariate analyses to assess the dynamics of the spatial distribution of a group of metals in an urban basin.

KEYWORDS:

• Metals in water
• spatial variation
• AEM
• RDA
• polluted urban basin

Acknowledgements

We are especially grateful to ACUMAR for the data provided that were used to perform the analysis of this paper, and to Pamela Tripodi for your help in the chemical analysis. We would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers, Dr. Diego Hancke and Victoria Eusevi for reading and providing useful comments on drafts of the manuscript.

Financial support was provided by Universidad de Buenos Aires, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET, Argentina) and Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires; Universidad de Buenos Aires.