Multivariate statistical approach to identify significant sources influencing the physico-chemical variables in Aerial Bay, North Andaman, India.

Aerial Bay is one of the harbor towns of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the union territory of India. Nevertheless, it is least studied marine environment, particularly for physico-chemical assessment. Therefore, to evaluate the annual spatiotemporal variations of physico-chemical parameters, seawater samples collected from 20 sampling stations covering three seasons were analyzed. Multivariate statistics is applied to the investigated data in an attempt to understand the causes of variation in physico-chemical parameters. Cluster analysis distinguished mangrove and open sea stations from other areas by considering distinctive physico-chemical characteristics. Factor analysis revealed 79.5% of total variance in physico-chemical parameters. Strong loading included transparency, TSS, DO, BOD, salinity, nitrate, nitrite, inorganic phosphate, total phosphorus and silicate. In addition, box-whisker plots and Geographical Information System based land use data further facilitated and supported multivariate results.