ZOOBENTHIC MAKROFAUNA IN LAKE BUYUKCEKMECE AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES

Abstract

In this study, qualitative and quantitative distributions of benthic macroinvertebrates collected monthly from Lake Buyukcekmece were investigated between June 2004 and November 2005. Five stations were selected for sediment sampling with Ekman dredge. Each sampling includes two subsamples. During sampling, some of the physico-chemical variables such as depth, water temperature, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, pH, salinity, NO2-N, NO3-N, PO4-P and total hardness were analyzed. Total of 43 taxa in 8 groups were determined. The present study showed that larval chironomids comprising 55.32% abundance of total specimens are the biggest part of benthic macroinvertebrates. It is followed by oligochates and the other group comprising 23.03% and 21.65% abundance, respectively. According to Spearman correlation analyses, relationship between the number of inviduals and some physicochemical variables such as temperature, depth and turbidity of the lake was determined statistically significant. Additionally, Jacckard and Sorenson similarity indices displayed high similarities between, station 2 and station 5 while stations 3 and 5 were found to be the most different from each other for the zoobenthic macrofauna.