Nusret Karakaya

Evaluating the impact of climate change on groundwater resources in a small Mediterranean watershed.

Western Mediterranean Region of Turkey is subject to considerable impacts of climate change that may adversely affect the water resources. Decrease in annual precipitation and winter precipitation as well as increase in temperatures are observed since 1960s. In this study, the impact of climate change on groundwater resources in part of Köyceğiz-Dalyan Watershed was evaluated. Evaluation was done by quantifying the impacts of climate change on the water budget components. Hydrological modeling was conducted with SWAT model which was calibrated and validated successfully. Climate change and land use scenarios were used to calculate the present and future climate change impacts on water budgets. According to the simulation results, almost all water budget components have decreased. SWAT was able to allocate less irrigation water because of the decrease of overall water due to the climate change. This resulted in an increase of water stressed days and temperature stressed days whereas crop yields have decreased according to the simulation results. The results indicated that lack of water is expected to be a problem in the future. In this manner, investigations on switching to more efficient irrigation methods and to crops with less water consumption are recommended as adaptation measures to climate change impacts.

Large interannual variability in net ecosystem carbon dioxide exchange of a disturbed temperate peatland

Peatland ecosystems play an important role in the global carbon (C) cycle as significant C sinks. However, human-induced disturbances can turn these sinks into sources of atmospheric CO2. Long-term measurements are needed to understand seasonal and interannual variability of net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE) and effects of hydrological conditions and their disturbances on C fluxes. Continuous eddy-covariance measurements of NEE were conducted between August 2010 and April 2014 at Yenicaga temperate peatland (Turkey), which was drained for agricultural usage and for peat mining until 2009. Annual NEE during the three full years of measurement indicated that the peatland acted as a CO2 source with large interannual variability, at rates of 246, 244 and 663 g Cm(-2)yr(-1) for 2011, 2012, and 2013 respectively, except for June 2011, and May to July 2012. The emission strengths were comparable to those found for severely disturbed tropical peatlands. The peak CO2 emissions occurred in the dry summer of 2013 when water table level (WTL) was below a threshold value of -60 cm and soil water content (SCW) below a threshold value of 70% by volume. Water availability index was found to have a stronger explanatory power for variations in monthly ecosystem respiration (ER) than the traditional water status indicators (SCW and WTL). Air temperature, evapotranspiration and vapor pressure deficient were the most significant variables strongly correlated with NEE and its component fluxes of gross primary production and ER.

Using Eddy Covariance Sensors to Quantify Carbon Metabolism of Peatlands: A Case Study in Turkey

Net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of carbon dioxide (CO2) was measured in a cool temperate peatland in northwestern Turkey on a continuous basis using eddy covariance (EC) sensors and multiple (non-)linear regression-M(N)LR-models. Our results showed that hourly NEE varied between −1.26 and 1.06 mg CO2 m−2 s−1, with a mean value of 0.11 mg CO2 m−2 s−1. Nighttime ecosystem respiration (RE) was on average measured as 0.23 ± 0.09 mg CO2 m−2 s−1. Two best-fit M(N)LR models estimated daytime RE as 0.64 ± 0.31 and 0.24 ± 0.05 mg CO2 m−2 s−1. Total RE as the sum of nighttime and daytime RE ranged from 0.47 to 0.87 mg CO2 m−2 s−1, thus yielding estimates of gross primary productivity (GPP) at −0.35 ± 0.18 and −0.74 ± 0.43 mg CO2 m−2 s−1. Use of EC sensors and M(N)LR models is one of the most direct ways to quantify turbulent CO2 exchanges among the soil, vegetation and atmosphere within the atmospheric boundary layer, as well as source and sink behaviors of ecosystems.

Monitoring and validating spatio-temporal dynamics of biogeochemical properties in Mersin Bay (Turkey) using Landsat ETM+.

The objective of this study was to devise and validate simple models for estimating spatio-temporal dynamics of seven optically (in)active biogeochemical properties in Mersin Bay using Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) data and GIS. Spatio-temporal dynamics of Secchi depth (Sdepth), dissolved oxygen (DO), nitrite nitrogen (NO2-N), nitrate nitrogen (NO3-N), silicate (SiO4), 5-day biological oxygen demand (BOD5), and chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) were estimated using best-fit multiple linear regression (MLR) models as a function of Landsat 7 ETM+ and ground data in 2007 and 2008, latitude, longitude, and day of year. Validation of the MLR models against Landsat and ground data in 2005 led to r values ranging from 0.39 for NO2-N (P = 0.008) to 0.79 for Sdepth (P < 0.001). Parsimonious MLR models built in this study appear to be promising for monitoring and predicting spatio-temporal dynamics of optically (in)active water quality characteristics in Mersin Bay.