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Application of structural equation modeling in analyzing the ecological changes in coastal waters

In order to understand the relative impact from natural and anthropogenic sources, Principal Component Analysis - Structural Equation Modeling (PCA-SEM) was used to analyze the phytoplankton dynamics in coastal waters of Taiwan. PCA was used to analyze the changes of the water quality, followed by constructing of conceptual model which incorporated with biological data, and finally verified by SEM. Three study sites were selected: Chang Hua coastal waters, Kaohsiung mud dumping waters and the adjacent waters of Kaohsiung Nansing project. These sites represent the ordinary coastal water ecosystem of western Taiwan, off-shore ocean with one defined pollution sources, and anthropogenic impacted water area, respectively. The results showed that in Chang Hua coastal waters, river input and seasonal change were the primary factors effecting phytoplankton change. Water temperature was the main reason of phytoplankton changes, followed by the influence of dissolved organic matter in Kaohsiung mud dumping site. Whereas waters near Kaohsiung Nansing project, cooling water from Daling power plant coupled with the change of nutrients and heavy metal concentrations, as well as oil pollution, were the major causes of phytoplankton variation. The goodness-of-fits were good for the three models in this study, revealing that PCA- SEM is suitable to analyze the environmental changes of the costal waters of Taiwan. Logistic methods used in this study are also good for the study of benthic or fish community, and are suitable to apply on environmental impact assessments.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0102112-144328
Date02 January 2012
CreatorsChou, Wei-rung
ContributorsGuo-Ping Chang-Chien, Wei-Hsien Wang, Chen-Shan Kung, Yang-Yih Chen, Lee-Shing Fang, Juu-En Chang
PublisherNSYSU
Source SetsNSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive
LanguageCholon
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0102112-144328
Rightsunrestricted, Copyright information available at source archive

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