Ž . Advances in Environmental Research 6 2001 2943 Spatial and seasonal variations of major, minor and trace elements in Antarctic seawater. Chemometric investigation of variable and site correlations Ornella Abollino a , Maurizio Aceto b , Carmela La Gioia a , Corrado Sarzanini a , Edoardo Mentasti a,  a Department of Analytical Chemistry, Uni  ersity of Torino, Via P. Giuria 5, 10125 Turin, Italy b Department of Science and Ad anced Technologies, Uni  ersity of East Piedmont, Corso Borsalino 54, 15100 Alessandria, Italy Abstract The concentrations of fourteen elements in seawater collected during the 1994 95 and 1995 96 Italian expeditions to Antarctica were determined by stripping voltammetry or atomic spectroscopy. The results obtained are discussed as a function of the sampling period and location. Heavy metal concentrations for samples collected during the 1993 94 campaign are also reported. Dissolved levels of major, minor and trace elements were found to decrease after pack ice melting because of water dilution and bioaccumulation, the latter being particularly relevant for heavy metal concentrations. The elaboration by chemometric multivariate techniques allowed identification of two groups of samples, respectively, collected before and after pack ice melting, and to find correlations among variables, such as alkaline-earth metals.  2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Seawater; Heavy metals; Traces, Pack ice; Chemometrics 1. Introduction The relative composition of seawater, at least for major and minor components, is approximately con- stant throughout the planet, despite spatial and tem- poral variabilities, owing to efficient water mixing mechanisms and to the action of biogeochemical cycles by which a balance between material input and output Ž . is maintained Libes, 1992; Stumm and Morgan, 1996 . Metals present in seawater can be divided into three  Corresponding author. Tel.: 39-011-6707625; Fax: 39- 011-6707615. Ž . E-mail address: mentasti@ch.unito.it E. Mentasti . Ž. Ž . groups, namely: i major components Na, K, Ca, Mg , Ž. with millimolar concentration levels; ii minor compo- nents such as Ba, Li, Sr, whose concentrations are in the moll 1 range; other minor components are B Ž . and Si; iii trace and ultratrace components, such as heavy metals, having concentrations from approxi- mately 10 9 M down to pmol l 1 . The aim of this paper is the investigation of major, minor and trace element content in the waters of the Ž . Ross Sea Antarctica . The virtual absence of anthro- pogenic activities makes Antarctica an ideal site to study the behaviour of chemical species in the environ- ment and the natural processes involving the hydro- sphere, atmosphere, lithosphere and biosphere. An- other reason for studying the Antarctic area is the 1093-019101$ - see front matter  2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Ž . PII: S 1 0 9 3 - 0 1 9 1 01 00068-X