Ecological assessment of Burç Reservoir’s surface water (Turkey) using phytoplankton metrics and multivariate approach

Abstract

The present study was aimed to elucidate relationships between phytoplankton species and stressors using multivariate approaches and assess the environmental condition of Burç Reservoir's surface water using phytoplankton metrics from September 2018 to August 2019 according to implementations of the Water Framework Directive. Burç Reservoir had a characteristic of a warm monomictic pattern. Phytoplankton functional groups (E, F, J, L O , L M , MP, P, S1, T, and W1) were found in the reservoir. A significant difference was found in total biovolume values changed from 2.28 mm 3 /L in November 2018 to 0.51 mm 3 /L in February 2019. The first two axes of canonical correspondence analysis explained 99.2 % of relationships between stressors and phytoplankton assemblages. Explanatory factors such as electrical conductivity (EC), nitrate (NO3-N), total nitrogen (TN), water temperature, calcium (Ca +2 ), precipitation, total organic carbon (TOC), ortho-phosphate (o-PO4), and total phosphorus (TP) significantly drove the spatiotemporal distribution of phytoplankton. Weighted average regression resulted that phytoplankton species such as Gymnodinium saginatum, Snowella lacustris, Ceratium hirundinella, and Pseudanabaena limnetica were closely associated with high TP, while Fragilaria capucina, Navicula trivialis, Cymbella aspera, Ulnaria biceps, Nitzschia palea, and Pseudopediastrum boryanum closely related to the EC. Carlson's trophic state index indicated that Burç Reservoir mainly has a eutrophic characteristic with the assessment of chlorophyll a, total phosphorus, and Secchi disk depth, while it had a euhypertrophic according to the OECD classification. Results of the modified PTI-phytoplankton trophic index (mean = 2.37), the Med-PTI Mediterranean phytoplankton trophic index (mean = 1.96), and the Q assemblage index (mean = 2.58) indicated a moderate ecological status of BurçReservoir. The present study confirmed that phytoplankton assemblages are closely integrated with the environmental condition of Burç Reservoir, which could be assessed by using the PTI and Med-PTI.

Limno‐assessment of phytoplankton composition in relation to environmental conditions of lakes in Antalya River Basin

“…The MPTI had a higher correlation coefficient value than the Med‐PTI in the Antalya River basin due to variations in their approaches. The PTI was reported previously in 1795 lakes in 20 European countries (Phillips et al., 2013), 12 lentic ecosystems of Western Mediterranean basin (Çelekli & Lekesiz, 2021), 32 lakes in 11 European countries (Thackeray et al., 2013), various lakes in the Aras River basin (Çelekli et al., 2020), 313 Swedish lakes (Zhao et al., 2019), and Burç Reservoir in the southeast Anatolia (Çelekli & Özpınar, 2021).…”

“…The health of aquatic ecosystems can be assessed by estimating phytoplankton number and structure (Çelekli & Lekesiz, 2021;Zhu et al, 2021). Studies have been conducted in Anatolia on the phyto-assessment of lentic ecosystems and the interpretation of interactions between stressors and phytoplankton (Çelekli & Özpınar, 2021;Sevindik et al, 2017), but these studies have not been conducted at the river basin scale except by Toudjani et al (2018) and (Çelekli & Lekesiz, 2021). They used phytoplankton assemblages to evaluate the various aquatic ecosystems (brackish and freshwater lakes and reservoirs) in the Western Mediterranean basin, Turkey (Çelekli & Lekesiz, 2021).…”

Ecological indicators and biological resources for hydrocarbon rhizoremediation in a protected area

“…The presence of U. ulna and U. biceps in sample ST3 is notable, since U. ulna is recognized as highly resistant and tolerant to water pollution (Celekli and Öztürk, 2014;Dalu et al, 2015;Noga et al, 2016). On the other hand, U. biceps was retrieved in waters with high electrical conductivity (Celekli and ÖZPINAR, 2021) and phosphate concentration (Celekli and Öztürk, 2014). A series of experiments on diatom sensitivity to herbicides showed that U. ulna and U. biceps are resistant to high atrazine concentrations (Chakandinakira et al, 2019).…”