Quality Assessment and Chemometric Evaluation of a Fluvio-Lacustrine System: Ruidera Pools Natural Park (Spain)

A systematic hydrochemical study of the endangered Ruidera Pools Natural Park (Central Spain) has been carried out. An alarming pollution state of the water, mainly caused by nitrate, was stated with values up to 62 mg L^-1 and 40% of all water samples showing nitrate concentrations higher than 50 mg L^-1. The groundwater was confirmed to be the origin of nitrate input into this hydrosystem. Multivariate statistical treatment of the analytical results for principal components, combined with hierarchical clustering of samples allowed us to describe the behaviour of this hydrosystem. From our findings, the pools can be classified in two main groups depending on the main source of the water input, which is either surface or groundwater. Simultaneously, a comprehensive study has been undertaken to achieve a characterization of sediments by analysing major components and heavy metal. From these analyses, no heavy metal pollution was found.