STATISTICAL EVALUATION WITH DIOXIN PATTERNS IN DIFFERENT FISH SPECIES FROM THE RIVER ELBE, GERMANY.

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) were analyzed in muscle tissue from eels (Anguilla anguilla), bream (Abramis brama), ide (Leuciscus idus) and European chub (Leuciscus cephalus) from the river Elbe. By means of a statistical model, the data resulting from the chemical analysis was used to determine the relative congener distribution in order to obtain information about the spatial allocation of defined subpopulations of fish species, thus allowing them to be as- signed to different river sections. For the purposes of the statistical analysis the analytical uncertainty was taken into account by implementing the extended Horwitz function. Based on different datasets from eels a ‘normalization’ was found to have occurred in recent years. Short-lived anomalies in some congeners brought about the August 2002 flood event are no longer in evidence in the year 2003. Linking the data from fish, suspended particulate matter (SPM) and sediment possible relationships were postulated between relative changes in SPM and sediment congener patterns and those of the fish. For the bream, both temporal and spatial connections between the congener distributions for sediment and for this species could be established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]