Benthic macrofauna in Tunca River (Turkey) and their relationships with environmental variables

Abstract

The numerical and proportional distributions of benthic macroinvertebrates in Tunca (Tundja, Tundzha) River (Edirne/Turkey) were determined from July 2002 to June 2003 at monthly intervals at four different stations. It was found that the benthic macrofauna consisted of 63% Oligochaeta, 24% Chironomidae larvae, and 13% Varia by numbers. According to the Shannon-Wiener index, Tunca River had a diversity of 1.36; station 2 and September were found to have the highest diversity while station 4 and December to have the poorest. According to Bray-Curtis similarity index, stations 2 and 3 and April and May were found to be the most similar to each other while stations 1 and 4 and August and January were found to be the most different from each other for the dynamics of the benthic macrofauna. Also some physicochemical parameters of the water (water temperature, electrical conductivity, pH, dissolved oxygen, chloride, total hardness, NO 3 --N, NO 2 --N, sulfate, phosphate, biochemical and chemical oxygen demands) were analyzed. Pearson correlation index supported the relationships between the dynamics of organisms and physicochemical variables. The relation between the number of macroinvertebrates and pH (r = +0.57, P a 0.05) was direct proportional while the relation between the number of macroinvertebrates and NO 3 --N (r = -0.99, P a 0.05) was inverse proportional. Furthermore, the Chironomidae larvae of Bryophaenocladius muscicola and Mesosmittia flexuella were new records for Turkish Thrace region. High pH and supersaturated oxygen levels, hard water quality, second quality levels of NO 3 --N, BOD, COD and fourth quality levels of NO 2 --N as well as the density of 490 individuals m -2 for 124 taxa and the diversity of 1.36 showed that similar studies should be repeated periodically in Tunca to determine the future of the river.

The Aquatic and Semi-Aquatic Oligochaeta Fauna of Turkish Thrace

“…Also, the data on aquatic and semi-aquatic Oligochaeta from the previous printed studies which have been performed at Lake Terkos by Çamur-Elipek (2003) and at Tunca River by Kırgız et al (2005), Çamur-Elipek et al (2006) were discussed in the present study.…”

“…Tunca River (Kırgız et al, 2005;Çamur-Elipek et al, 2006) Lake Terkos (Çamur-Elipek, 2003) In the present study The Oligochaeta samples were identified to the possible lowest taxonomic level under stereobinocular microscope by using the literatures of Brinkhurst (1971Brinkhurst ( , 1978, Brinkhurst and Jamieson (1971), Brinkhurst and Wetzel (1984), Brinkhurst (1998), Milligan (1997), Sperber (1948Sperber ( , 1950, Timm (1999), Wetzel et al (2000).…”

“…Faunistic and ecological knowledge of oligochaetes in the Thrace Region of Turkey is still insufficient. There are a few studies about the taxonomy and distribution of Oligochaeta species of Turkish Thrace (Çamur-Elipek, 2003;Kırgız et al, 2005;Çamur-Elipek et al, 2006).…”

<strong>Aquatic Oligochaeta (Annelida) of Dam Lakes Çatören and Kunduzlar (Turkey) </strong>

“…These four species are reported to be tolerant of severe pollution and have been found in a stream degraded by industrial effluents (Maciorowski et al 1977;Harman 1979). Stylaria lacustris, Nais elinguis, Pristina jenkinae and Aulophorus furcatus were reported to occur in abundance in stony bottomed, muddy substratum, organically enriched streams and lakes in Turkey (Çamur-Elipek et al 2006;Arslan and Şahin 2006;Akbulut et al 2009). This fact can be explained by the euryoeic character of four naidine species, as reported by Pascar-Gluzman and Dimentman (1984) and Davis (1982).…”

Aquatic Oligochaetes Biodiversity in Turkey: Example of Lake Sapanca with Application of the Biotic Indices

“…Oligochaeta, a subclass of the Clitellata, are broadly distributed worldwide and frequently are the most abundant in many freshwater ecosystems and they are widely used for monitoring river and lake pollution. Despite, studies about freshwater oligochaeta have increased in recent years such as, [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6] regarding our knowledge of the freshwater oligochaeta fauna of Turkey, large areas still remain under-or even unexplored. Up to now, only 107 species (5 of them endemic) have been reported from different parts of Turkey.…”