Correction of stream quality trends for the effects of laboratory measurement bias

Water Resources Research
By: , and 

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Abstract

We present a statistical model relating measurements of water quality to associated errors in laboratory methods. Estimation of the model allows us to correct trends in water quality for long-term and short-term variations in laboratory measurement errors. An illustration of the bias correction method for a large national set of stream water quality and quality assurance data shows that reductions in the bias of estimates of water quality trend slopes are achieved at the expense of increases in the variance of these estimates. Slight improvements occur in the precision of estimates of trend in bias by using correlative information on bias and water quality to estimate random variations in measurement bias. The results of this investigation stress the need for reliable, long-term quality assurance data and efficient statistical methods to assess the effects of measurement errors on the detection of water quality trends.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Correction of stream quality trends for the effects of laboratory measurement bias
Series title Water Resources Research
DOI 10.1029/93WR01708
Volume 29
Issue 11
Year Published 1993
Language English
Publisher American Geophysical Union
Description 14 p.
First page 3821
Last page 3833
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