Ekoloji Issue 83 (2012)

ABSTRACT

It is known that roads have an ecological effect on wildlife, not only in negative but also in positive ways. Few studies provide information about the effect that roads have on bird population levels. In this study, we investigate the effect of roads on the breeding success, nest tree, and nest characteristics of the Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica). We compared the magpie breeding success of nesting along a paved highway with those along a dirt road. In addition, the nest and nest tree characteristics were measured for the two road types. We found that breeding success is significantly higher near highway than dirt road and that nests were wider and larger near dirt road than those near highway. According to our results, the magpie is positively affected by the highway. This may be explained by food supply and, more likely, by lower predator pressure.

Keywords: breeding success, Eurasian Magpie, nest characteristics, Pica pica, road effect

ABSTRACT

The assessment of heavy metal pollution in the sediment of the Southern Black Sea requires knowledge of pre-anthropogenic metal concentrations. The effects of anthropogenic activities on the accumulation of heavy metals, elements, and other compounds in the sediment were examined. The objective of this study is to investigate the levels of metals, organic carbon, carbonate, and chlorophyll degradation products in order to assess the extent of environmental pollution and to discuss the origin of these contaminants in the sediments of the Southern Black Sea. The heavy metals, metalloid, and elements were assessed by factor analysis. The results of the factor analysis have shown positive and/or negative correlations among Mo, Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni, Co, Mn, Fe, As, Sr, Cd, Sb, Bi, V, Ca, P, Cr, Mg, Ba,  Ti,  Zr,  Sn,  S,  Y,  Hg,  organic  carbon, carbonate, and chlorophyll degradation products and has indicated that heavy metals in the sediments of the Southern Black Sea have different anthropogenic and natural sources. Also, a sediment pollution assessment was carried out using the enrichment factor and geoaccumulation index. The Igeo accumulation index shows that the surface sediment of the Southern Black Sea is not contaminated with respect to Cu, Pb, Zn, Mn, Fe,  As, Sr,  Bi, V,  Cr,  Mg, Zr,  Y,  Sb, Sn, and Ni, but is moderately contaminated with respect  to Hg and Cd, and moderately to strongly polluted with respect to S and Mo. Despite total sedimentary concentrations above their pre-industrial background levels, Igeo shows that the surface sediments are unpolluted with respect to P, Ba, and Ti. The 14C age determinations have shown that surface sediments in stations KD2A and KD5A belong to AD 130-350 and AD 1000 respectively, indicating undersea landslides and turbidity fluxes in the Southern Black Sea are not rare because of the sharp slope in the topography of this region and high bottom transportation in certain places. The requirement of age determination is of great importance to assess the extent of the anthropogenic contribution to pollution.

Keywords: enrichment factor, factor analysis, geoaccumulation index, metal pollution, sediment

ABSTRACT

The water of Nif Brook (Izmir, Turkey) is polluted by industrial, domestic, and agricultural sources. As the water of the brook is used for domestic and industrial water supply as well as for irrigation, it is of great importance to know the toxicity potential for the natural populations. For this purpose the standard test protocol for the short term phytotoxicity test method OECD 201 Algal Growth Inhibition has been evaluated with cultures of green algae Desmodesmus (=Scenedesmus) subspicatus as the representative of the first trophic level. The test has been used to assess the toxicity of both water and sediment samples from the brook. Five sampling sites from the brook were selected considering the type of pollution sources. The water samples were tested with 10, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 % dilutions in a test medium. Extracts of sediment samples were assayed in three different concentrations (20, 40 and 100 mg/mL). The effects on the growth of D. subspicatus were evaluated by scoring cell numbers under the light microscope with a Neubauer haemocytometer counting chamber. According to the results, the water samples stimulated the algal growth (except station 1); although all sediment samples inhibited the growth of populations, in several grades.

Keywords: Algal growth inhibition test, desmodesmus (=scenedesmus) subspicatus, phytotoxicity, sediment toxicity, water toxicity

ABSTRACT

Keywords: Abundance, Caspian Sea, chlorophyll a, Phytoplankton, Southwestern

ABSTRACT

This study presents a model to estimate lake water temperatures using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) techniques. Lake Eğirdir was selected as the case study area because it is one of the important surface water resources in Turkey. Initially, the water temperature of the lake was determined using 44 stations by in-situ measurements. The relative humidity, air temperature, air pressure, and water depth parameters were used to develop the ANN models for estimating the water temperature of Lake Eğirdir. The parameter maps were derived by using GIS techniques. The developed ANN models were very effective in the estimating of water temperature for Lake Eğirdir. The best ANN model having an R2 of 0.949 and MSE of 0.075°C2 is based on the input parameters of, relative humidity, air pressure, and water depth. The results of the best ANN model were compared with the in-situ measurements and shows that the modeling results are compatible with the in-situ measurements of the lake water temperatures. Finally, the ANN method found was useful for estimating lake water temperature in which water temperature measurements are quite difficult, especially for large lakes, or to estimate missing water temperature data.

Keywords: ANN, GIS, Lake Egirdir, water temperature, Turkey

ABSTRACT

Environmental wastes increase more and more as a result of household and industrial waste production and landfill sites for those wastes are decreasing progressively. Environmental pollution would also be prevented by use of these wastes in various construction materials or structures. In this study, the effects of recycled concrete (RC) on the properties of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) are investigated. For this purpose, RC was added to asphalt concrete in 10, 20, 30 and 40 percent by weight of aggregate. The Marshall Stability (MS), flow, resilient modulus (RM), and creep tests were applied to the specimens. MS and flows slightly decreased with the addition of RC. RM values for 10 percent RC was higher than the Control Specimen (CS) and the others. RM values decreased with increasing RC. RC specimens showed increases in terms of creep stiffness compared with CS. In addition, RM test results for different test conditions are evaluated by the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) method. The results of the ANN model of RM with a coefficient of determination of 0.98 conformed very closely to those obtained by the experimental results. Consequently it can be used as an aggregate in RC concrete and the modelling can be made by means of ANN. In this way instead of being an environmental pollution, concrete waste can be used as a construction material in the context of the sustainable environment

Keywords: asphalt, concrete, reuse, sustainable environment

ABSTRACT

In the present study, effects of cadmium on protein and glycogen synthesis of parasitoid Pimpla turionellae (Hymenoptera:Ichneumonidae) were investigated. The amount of total protein synthesized by insect significantly affected by cadmium from the day of 20th. Protein amount decreased in all concentrations of Cd compared to control at this day. 30th day, the amount of protein in insects fed on diet with the lowest Cd concentration increased, while the highest concentration decreased significantly. The amount of glycogen synthesized by insect affected by Cd from the day of 10th, and showed increases compare to control. Glycogen amount of insects fed on diet containing 0.10 and 0.50 mg Cd significantly increased on day 20th. This increase was observed in only high concentrations of cadmium (0.50 and 1 mg Cd) on day 30th. These changes observed P. turionellae under the heavy metal stress are more significant for observing the effects of heavy metals on beneficial species use as biologic control agents and be able to use for bioindicator to heavy metal contamination.

Keywords: Cadmium, glycogen, heavy metal, Pimpla turionellae, protein

ABSTRACT

The aim of this research which was done in Yeniçağa Lake (Bolu) was to determine some heavy metals (Cr, Cd, Mn, Pb) in water, sediments and crayfish (Astacus leptodactylus ). Exosceleton, gills, hepatopancreas, abdominal muscle of crayfish were analysed and the significance of accumulations in the crayfish tissues was searched for these heavy metals. The accumulation in gills for these heavy metals is higher than the other tissues at the significant level of 95%. It was detected that Mn had higher accumulation in these heavy metals. The level of Cd and Pb in muscle tissue was more than 4 times level of Turkish food codex which was published by Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and European Union’s regulations (EC) for crayfish and crustaceans. Mn which did not have maximum legal limit for any foods the reason of being essential, was compared with drinking water criteria of Ministry of health. Mn accumulation in muscle tissue is determined 380 times higher than drinking water limits. Cr accumulation is lower than 12-13 μg/g limit. In the water Cd, Cr, Mn, Pb 35 μg/L, 42 μg/L, 183 μg/L, 19 μg/L and in the sediments Cd, Cr, Mn, Pb 0,8 μg/g, 92,8 μg/g, 1143 μg/g, 16 μg/g respectively was found. The water of lake is compared with Ministy of Environment’s water pollution regulations for these heavy metals and Cd 4th class, Cr, Mn, Pb 2nd class are appointed for water criteria. The result of this research show that accumulations of these heavy metals in water, sediment and crayfish in Yeniçağa Lake (Bolu) are harmfull for ecosystem and people’s health.

Keywords: Crayfish, heavy metal, sediment, water, Yenicaga Lake

ABSTRACT

The overall harmful effects of particulate matter on human health depend on the exposure time and the chemical and physical properties of the particulate. There is a high exposure to fine particulates near the micro environments with heavy traffic in cities. The airborne particulate matter is consisted of fine particles (PM2.5), coarse particles (PM10) and black smoke particles sourced from different sources. In past, the black smoke method was widely used to measure the airborne particles. It is known that there is a relation between the darkness of the smoke stain and elemental carbon particles. Therefore nowadays black smoke is accepted for an indicative of primary particles sourced by combustion, secondary inorganic particles and coarse particles. The persistent strong association between adverse health outcomes of air pollution sourced traffic and the black smoke has recently prompted the World Health Organization to re-evaluation of black smoke. Black smoke can be in high concentrations especially near roads depending on the number of diesel motor vehicles.
In this study, the 24 hour samples of particulate matter in different size (PM10, PM2.5 and PM1) were collected in densely traffic area in Istanbul and the reflectance of filters was investigated by black smoke optical method. The sampling was conducted between October 2009 and March 2010 in Yenibosna. The sampling station was 25 meters away from the D100 motorway. PM concentrations and the reflectance of the dust collected on glass fiber filters were examined. It has been estimated that the average concentration of PM10, PM2.5 and PM1 are 98.6±64.81, 55.4±29.5 and 32.3±25.3, respectively. The daily PM concentrations were variable and the mean PM10 and PM2.5 concentration exceeded by far the daily tolerant limits in episode days. The strong relation (r=0.89) between black smokes which is the cursor of elemental carbon sourced diesel motor vehicles and fine particles were determined.

Keywords: airborne particles, black smoke, elemental carbon, Istanbul, reflectance, traffic

ABSTRACT

Within the scope of this work, 30 brands of bottled water sold in the Izmir Province of Turkey, were investigated for the levels of 6 trace metals (Al, Cr, Cu, As, Cd, and Pb) important for public health and drinking water quality. Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used for the analysis of the trace metals. The highest metal ion concentrations obtained in the analyses of the samples was found to be 102.99 μg Al/L, 1.80 μg Cr/L, 40.22 μg Cu/L, 11.36 μg As/L, 0.08 μg Cd/L, and 2.79 μg Pb/L. The concentration levels revealed in this work were compared to the maximum concentration levels allowed by the WHO and other international standards, and as a result, a water sample of one brand, from the natural waters of Izmir, contained a total arsenic level (11.36 μg As/L) exceeding national and international standards.

Keywords: Bottled water, trace metal (Al, Cr, Cu, As, Cd, Pb), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), Izmir (Turkey)