RESUMO

The group of metals, including Li, Be, Na, Mg, K, Ca, Mn, Co, Cu, Rb, Sr, Cs, Ba, Tl, and Pb, and the sum of light (La, Ce, Pr, Nd, and Sm) and heavy (Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Er, Tm, Yb, and Lu) rare-earth elements, the content of which correlates with the growth of Chironomus riparius larvae, was determined in bottom sediments using the method of piecewise regression. The methods of the multidimensional statistical analysis and the appendix of the theory of indistinct sets, in particular, desirability functions were used. It has been shown that the metals of the first two groups of the Mendeleyev Table explain 79.5% of the variations of the change in larvae dimensions. The intervals of the concentrations of the general forms of chemical elements corresponding to the optimal growth of Chironomus riparius larvae were determined on the basis of the Harrington scale and function.