Speaker
LAMBE BARANDOVSKI
Description
We will present results from the application of moss biomonitoring technique to investigate trace elements depositions in the air in the Republic of Macedonia. Since 2002, four moss surveys have been conducted and samples of the terrestrial mosses Homolothecium sericium and Hypnum cupressiforme were collected at 72 sites, evenly distributed over the territory of the country, in accordance with the sampling strategy of the European moss survey program. More then 40 elements on every set of samples, were determined by instrumental epithermal neutron activation analysis, atomic absorption spectrometry and atomic emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma.
During the last survey, measurements of the natural radioactivity dose rate were made, at the same locations where the samples were collected and correlation of the measured dose rate and content of some elements in mosses were investigated.
A variety of statistical analysis methods can be performed on the collected data. Different statistical techniques, both in descriptive statistics and inferential statistics are crucial for analyzing the results. Short review of several statistical methods will be given: Fundamental sampling and data description, Estimation problems, Hypothesis testing, Simple and multiple linear regression, Analysis of variance techniques, Correlation analysis, Factor analysis and Nonparametric statistics.
Environmental data can be analysed mostly by descriptive analysis, parametric and non parametric analysis, normality of datasets, Box-Cox transformation etc. Factor analysis can be used to identify and characterize different pollution sources.
