Combining chemometric tools for assessing hazard sources and factors acting simultaneously in contaminated areas. Case study: “Mar Piccolo” Taranto (South Italy)

- Two chemometric techniques were used for hazard assessment of a highly polluted area.
- PCA define site-clusters with alike pollution pattern and pollutants of most concern.
- Factorial ANOVA evaluated the impact of additional factors acting simultaneously.
- Contamination pattern within area resulted highly influenced by synergistic effects.
- Combination of chemometric tools is suggested for a reliable hazard estimation.

Almost all marine coastal ecosystems possess complex structural and dynamic characteristics, which are influenced by anthropogenic causes and natural processes as well. Revealing the impact of sources and factors controlling the spatial distributions of contaminants within highly polluted areas is a fundamental propaedeutic step of their quality evaluation. Combination of different pattern recognition techniques, applied to one of the most polluted Mediterranean coastal basin, resulted in a more reliable hazard assessment. PCA/CA and factorial ANOVA were exploited as complementary techniques for apprehending the impact of multi-sources and multi-factors acting simultaneously and leading to similarities or differences in the spatial contamination pattern. The combination of PCA/CA and factorial ANOVA allowed, on one hand to determine the main processes and factors controlling the contamination trend within different layers and different basins, and, on the other hand, to ascertain possible synergistic effects. This approach showed the significance of a spatially representative overview given by the combination of PCA-CA/ANOVA in inferring the historical anthropogenic sources loading on the area.

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