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NUTRIENT SCALING FOR ASSESSING EUTROPHICATION: THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SIMULATED NORMAL DISTRIBUTION
Author(s) -
Stefanou Petros,
Tsirtsis George,
Karydis Michael
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
ecological applications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.864
H-Index - 213
eISSN - 1939-5582
pISSN - 1051-0761
DOI - 10.1890/1051-0761(2000)010[0303:nsfaet]2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - eutrophication , ecology , nutrient , environmental science , distribution (mathematics) , scaling , biology , mathematics , mathematical analysis , geometry
A statistical methodology based on probabilistic procedures is proposed for assessing eutrophication. A simulated normal distribution was developed for nitrate concentrations, based on the information derived from two data sets. The first one is characteristic of oligotrophic conditions, and the second of eutrophic conditions. The distribution parameters were calculated from the raw data without distorting their information by applying transformations or any other drastic data manipulation. A standard normal distribution was derived and was evaluated in a case study. The proposed distribution can be used to define eutrophication scales, assign critical values, and test any nitrate concentration data for the evaluation of the trophic conditions of the area in which they were collected.