Assessing background levels of specific conductivity using weight of evidence.

ABSTRACT: There are many ways to estimate background levels, and many types of evidence may contribute to determining whether a water, air, or soil is at background. As a result, it is important to define background in each case and to weigh the available evidence to determine the best estimate of background. A weight-of-evidence approach is demonstrated that assesses whether the background SC is sufficiently similar in streams of Ecoregion 70 in West Virginia and Ohio. During planning, five relevant considerations were identified to assess background SC: physical properties, measured SC, spatial distribution of low SC sites, biological properties, and data relevance and reliability. For each consideration, diverse types of evidence were generated, evaluated, and synthesized using weight of evidence

SUBMITTER: Cormier SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7079169 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature