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Pattern Recognition on X-ray Fluorescence Records from Copenhagen Lake Sediments Using Principal Component Analysis

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Abstract

Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed on chemical data of two sediment cores from an urban freshwater lake in Copenhagen, Denmark. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) core scanning provided the underlying datasets on 13 variables (Si, K, Ca, Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Rb, Cd, and Pb). Principal component analysis helped to trace geochemical patterns and temporal trends in lake sedimentation. The PCA models explained more than 80 % of the original variation in the datasets using only two or three principal components. The first principal component (PC1) was mostly associated with geogenic elements (Si, K, Fe, Rb) and characterized the content of minerogenic material in the sediment. In the case of both cores, PC2 was a good descriptor emphasized as the contamination component. It showed strong linkages with heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Pb), disclosing changing heavy-metal contamination trends across different depths. The sediments featured a temporal association with contaminant dominance. Lead contamination was superseded by zinc within the compound pattern which was linked to changing contamination sources over time. Principal component analysis was useful to visualize and interpret geochemical XRF data while being a straightforward method to extract contamination patterns in the data associated with temporal elemental trends in lake sediments.

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Acknowledgments

We hereby thank Barbara Wohlfarth, Malin Kylander, and Ludvig Löwenmark for supporting and assisting XRF core scanning at the Department of Geological Science, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden. The comments and suggestions of an anonymous reviewer were greatly appreciated.

The project is financed by Geocenter Denmark.

Conflict of Interest

No conflict of interest exists for any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 10, 1350, Copenhagen K, Denmark

    Norman Schreiber, Aart Kroon & Thorbjørn J. Andersen

  2. Department of Food Science, Section of Spectroscopy and Chemometrics, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 30, 1958, Frederiksberg, Denmark

    Emanuel Garcia

  3. Center for Herd-oriented Education, Research and Development (HERD), Department of Large Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Grønnegaardsvej 2, 1870, Frederiksberg, Denmark

    Emanuel Garcia

  4. Center of GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, 1350, Copenhagen K, Denmark

    Peter C. Ilsøe & Kurt H. Kjær

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  1. Norman Schreiber
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Correspondence to Norman Schreiber.

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Schreiber, N., Garcia, E., Kroon, A. et al. Pattern Recognition on X-ray Fluorescence Records from Copenhagen Lake Sediments Using Principal Component Analysis. Water Air Soil Pollut 225, 2221 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-014-2221-5

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