Clemens Reimann

Patrice de Caritat

How large is the natural variation in concentration of the various elements in different media? How do the oft-cited "World average concentrations" in different media compare with actual analytical data? How low a detection limit do I need to attain if I want to analyse for an element in soils, sediments, water or plants? All these questions and many more can be answered by using this unique reference book. It collates data on the most important properties and uses of all naturally occurring chemical elements. It combines these with data obtained from actual analyses of different sample media (soil, stream sediment, stream water, ground water, plants, human body fluids). This combination of facts and actual data makes this book suitable for learning and teaching applied geochemistry as well.

Factsheets for the Geochemist and Environmental Scientist

Chemical Elements in the Environment

Manfred Birke

In Europe, ca. 1900 "mineral water" brandsare officially registered and bottled for drinking. Bottled waters isgroundwater and is in large parts of the continent rapidly developing into themain supply of drinking water for the general population.This book is the first state of the art overview of the chemistry ofgroundwaters from 40 European countries from Portugal to Russia, measured on1785 bottled water samples, equivalent to 1189 distinct bottled water brandsfrom 1247 wells in 884 locations plus an additional 500 tap water samplesacquired in 2008 by the network of EuroGeoSurveys experts all across Europe.In contrast to previously available compilations, all chemical data (containedon the enclosed CD) were measured in a single laboratory, under strict qualitycontrol with high internal and external reproducibility, affording a singlehigh quality, internally consistent dataset. More than 70 parameters weredetermined on every sample using state of the art analytical techniques withultra low detection limits (ICPMS, ICPOES, IC) at a single hydrochemical labfacility. Because of the wide geographical distributionof the water sources across 40 European countries, the bottled mineral,drinking and tap waters characterized herein may be used for obtaining a firstestimate of "ground- water geochemistry" at the scale of the EuropeanContinent, previously unavailable in this completeness, quality and coverage.The data published here allow for the first time to present a comprehensiveinternally consistent, overview of the natural distribution and variation ofthe determined chemical elements and additional state parameters of groundwaterat the European scale. Most elements show a very widerange, usually 3 to 4 but up to 7 orders of magnitude, of natural variation of their concentration. Data are interpreted in terms of their origin, considering hydrochemical parameters, such as the influence of soil, vegetation cover and mixing with deep waters, as well as other factors (bottling effects, leaching from bottles). A chapter is devoted to comparing the results from the bottled waters with those of European tap waters and previously published datasets. The authors also provide an overview of the legal framework, that any bottled water sold in the European Union must comply with. It provides a comprehensive compilation of current drinking water action levels in European countries, limiting values of the European Drinking/Mineral/Natural Mineral Water directives (1998/83/EC, 2003/40/EC, 2009/54/EC) and legislation in effect in 26 individual European Countries, and for comparison those of the FAO and in effect in the US (EPA, maximum contaminant levels [MCA]). The accompanying CD contains the extensive data sets, sample data (of 1189 different brands) and two previously published European water chemistry data sets.

Geochemistry of European Bottled Water

Peter Filzmoser

Rudolf Dutter

Robert Garrett

Few books on statistical data analysis in the natural sciences are written at a level that a non-statistician will easily understand. This is a book written in colloquial language, avoiding mathematical formulae as much as possible, trying to explain statistical methods using examples and graphics instead. To use the book efficiently, readers should have some computer experience. The book starts with the simplest of statistical concepts and carries readers forward to a deeper and more extensive understanding of the use of statistics in environmental sciences. The book concerns the application of statistical and other computer methods to the management, analysis and display of spatial data. These data are characterised by including locations (geographic coordinates), which leads to the necessity of using maps to display the data and the results of the statistical methods. Although the book uses examples from applied geochemistry, and a large geochemical survey in particular, the principles and ideas equally well apply to other natural sciences, e.g., environmental sciences, pedology, hydrology, geography, forestry, ecology, and health sciences/epidemiology. The book is unique because it supplies direct access to software solutions (based on R, the Open Source version of the S-language for statistics) for applied environmental statistics. For all graphics and tables presented in the book, the R-scripts are provided in the form of executable R-scripts. In addition, a graphical user interface for R, called DAS+R, was developed for convenient, fast and interactive data analysis. Statistical Data Analysis Explained: Applied Environmental Statistics with R provides, on an accompanying website, the software to undertake all the procedures discussed, and the data employed for their description in the book.

Clemens Reimann

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