| Abstract: | ABSTRACT: Atmospheric deposition can be a significant source of phosphorus to South Florida's aquatic system. Deposition samples are often contaminated to varying degrees by bird droppings or other foreign materials. This study attempted to use statistical and other methods to detect and remove the outliers in the rain-borne total phosphorus concentration data. Some outliers in the data were identified using field notes derived from visual inspection of the samples. Outlier detection statistics based on a simple linear regression were then used for additional data screening. As a result of these analyses, about 35 percent of the observed values were identified as outlying data which needed to be removed prior to further data analyses. Based on detected outliers in the data from 15 monitoring sites, a lumped cutoff value of 130 4mUg/L was determined. This lumped cutoff value may be useful for further quality control and analyses of the data from the region. |
