Una evaluación crítica del análisis cluster para identificar sedimentos contaminados en la Ría de Vigo (NW España)

  1. Nombela, M.A 1
  2. Vilas, F. 1
  3. Rubio Armesto, Belén 1
  1. 1 Universidade de Vigo
    info

    Universidade de Vigo

    Vigo, España

    ROR https://ror.org/05rdf8595

Journal:
Ciencias marinas

ISSN: 0185-3880 2395-9053

Year of publication: 2001

Volume: 27

Issue: 2

Pages: 175-208

Type: Article

DOI: 10.7773/CM.V27I2.467 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: Ciencias marinas

Abstract

The indiscriminate use of cluster analysis to distinguish contaminated and non-contaminated sediments has led us to make a comparative evaluation of different cluster analysis procedures as applied to heavy metal concentrations in subtidal sediments from the Ría de Vigo, NW Spain. The use of different cluster algorithms and other transformations from the same departing set of data lead to the formation of different clusters with a clear inconclusive result about the contamination status of the sediments. The results show that this approach is better suited to identifying groups of samples differing in sedimentological characteristics, such as grain size, rather than in the degree of contamination. Our main aim is to call attention to these aspects in cluster analysis and to suggest that researchers should be rigorous with this kind of analysis. Finally, the use of discriminant analysis allows us to find a discriminant function that separates the samples into two clearly differentiated groups, which should not be treated jointly.