Impact of Nutrient Load Coming From Göksu River on the Northeastern Mediterranean

Year 2021, Volume: 10 Issue: 3, 295 - 305, 22.09.2021

Ece Kılıç , Nebil Yücel

https://doi.org/10.33714/masteb.963649

Abstract

Even though North-Eastern Mediterranean (NE Med) is classified as oligotrophic, inshore areas are highly eutrophic due to the discharge of silicate and nitrate-rich surface waters. Aim of this study was to investigate the nutrient load coming from the Göksu River and to estimate its impact on the river domain using satellite images. Monthly, average nitrite (NO₂), nitrate (NO₃), ammonium (NH₄) and phosphate (PO₄) load found to be varying between 0.07-31.2 ton/month, 15-1226 ton/month, 0.5-539 ton/month, 1-267 ton/month, respectively. Satellite images showed that surface chlorophyll–a (chl-a) in the river downstream had an increase in both winter and spring seasons as a result of intense precipitation; while, primary production at the offshore regions was mainly impacted by winter mixing and summer stratification. The highest chl-a concentration was observed at the river impacted zone and decreased by more than two folds at the offshore regions. Increased NO₃ load observed during winter and spring leads to phytoplankton blooms in the river downstream. The high P content of Göksu River surface waters has increased the productivity at all seasons. As a consequence, correlation analysis showed significant relationship between surface chl-a concentration and PO₄-NO₃ load.

Keywords

Riverine input, Satellite image, Impact assessment, Turkey, Primary production

Thanks

We would like to thank NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Ocean Ecology Laboratory, Ocean Biology Processing Group; since, we used publicly available sea-viewing wide field of view sensor ocean color data. This article is a part of doctoral thesis statement namely “Göksu Nehri (Kuzeydoğu Akdeniz) Etki Alanı ve Civarında Pikoplankton (Heterotrofik bakteri, Synechococcus, Prochlorococcus)’un Yüzey Suları ve Su Kolonundaki Mevsimsel Dağılımı” which was conducted under İskenderun Technical University, Institute of Engineering and Science.

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