Statistical Assessment of Water Quality Parameters for Pollution Source Identification in Bektaş Pond (Sinop,Turkey)

This study was carried out between September 2015 and August 2016 in four sampling sites. Water quality of the pond was examined according to sites and seasons, water quality classes were determined and pollution problems were revealed. In addition, the suitability of aquatic life forms has been determined. For these purposes, 21 physico-chemical and seven heavy metal parameters were investigated in the pond water. Pearson correlation, hierarchical cluster analysis, and principal component analysis were applied to test the relationships of all parameters and pollutant loads. According to the analysis results, the main pollution source may be non-point pollution, that is, agricultural pollution and soil leaching for this region. In future freshwater management, these temporal and spatial scale results indicate that water-monitoring schemes need to be scaled-sensitive to water management.