Songül Altınsaçlı

Diversity, spatiotemporal distribution, abundance, species composition and habitat preferences of Ostracoda in Akbük and Akdeniz coastal mesosaline lagoons (Muğla, the South Aegean Region, Turkey)

Abstract Akdeniz and Akbuk lagoons are part of a shallow coastal ecosystem of great aesthetic and ecological importance, located in Muğla Province in the southern Aegean region of Turkey. In the present study, four expeditions to collect ostracods from these lagoons were conducted in May, July, October, and November of 2008. Benthic samples were obtained monthly and several environmental factors were recorded simultaneously in situ. The ecological preferences of the ostracods were monitored, and qualitative and quantitative samples were collected from three sites in Akdeniz lagoon and two sites in Akbuk lagoon. Three ostracod taxa (Cyprideis torosa, Loxoconcha elliptica and Cytherois fischeri) were identified from the Akdeniz lagoon sampling sites and one species (Cyprideis torosa) from the Akbuk lagoon sampling sites. We present and analyze the dominance and distribution of ostracod assemblages and their relationships to environmental factors: temperature, dissolved oxygen, percentage oxygen saturation, pH, redox potential, salinity, and electrical conductivity) using classification and ordination techniques. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) is used to characterize the relationship between ostracods and the environmental variables. Approximately 82% of the correlation between the community composition and environmental variables was explained by the first axis of the CCA ordination for the Akdeniz lagoon. The study revealed that the distribution and population density of ostracod species depends on the physicochemical properties of the environment. The reason for this is that Cyprideis torosa and Loxoconcha elliptica are euryhaline species.

Distribution, diversity and some ecological characteristics of ostracods (Crustacea: Ostracoda) in Gökçeada (Imbros) Island (Northern Aegean Sea, Turkey)

Abstract The aim of this study was to determine the environmental factors affecting distribution and diversity of ostracods (Crustacea: Ostracoda) in the inland waters of the northern Aegean Sea island of Gökçeada (Imbros), Turkey. Over a period of one year, sampling of ostracods was performed in order to estimate the composition, richness, and diversity of the ostracod assemblages from the Gökçeada Island. A total of 18 ostracod species were identified from 28 sampling sites during the course of the study. In both winter and summer seasons, Heterocypris salina (Brady, 1868) and Cyprideis torosa (Jones, 1850) were the most abundant species. Heterocypris salina and Ilyocypris gibba (Ramdohr, 1808), were the most common species. The total number of ostracods was highest in the summer (June). During the study, the freshwater temperature varied between 10 and 29°C, while salinity varied between 0.1 and 41.4‰ the values of pH and dissolved oxygen ranged from 7.1 to 8.4 and 5.4 to 7.9 mg L−1, respectively. The diversity of the ostracods was calculated using the Shannon–Weaver diversity index. The highest diversity (H’ = 3.427) was at macrophyte-rich sampling site 8, the lowest diversity (H′ = 0) was at macrophyte-poor sites 15, 17, 19, and 22. The numbers of cosmopolitan (10 species) and widespread ostracods (2 species) were higher than those of non-cosmopolitans. A close relationship exists between distribution of ostracod species and the physicochemical features of waters and typology of water resources, considering that most of the water resources on the island are fountains and their troughs and that their waters have similar physicochemical properties.

The freshwater ostracod Potamocypris producta (Sars, 1924) new for Turkey (Ostracoda: Cyprididae)

KATILMI , Y. & S. KIYAK (2008): Checklist of Cynipidae of Turkey, with a new genus record. – Journal of Natural History 42: 2161-2167. KATILMI , Y. & S. KIYAK (2009): The oak gallwasp Aphelonyx persica: a new record from Turkey, with some new host records. – Phytoparasitica 37: 95-97. KIYAK, S., T. KILIÇ, & Y. KATILMI (2008): A contribution to the knowledge of the Cynipini (Cynipidae: Hymenoptera) fauna of Turkey. – Munis Entomology and Zoology 3: 523-535. MELIKA, G. & G. N. STONE (2001): A new species of cynipid gall wasp from Turkey (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae). – Folia Entomologica Hungarica 62: 127-131. MELIKA, G., G. N. STONE, S. E. SADEGHI & J. PUJADE-VILLAR (2004): New species of cynipid gallwasps from Iran and Turkey (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Cynipini). – Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 50: 139-151. NIEVES-ALDREY, J. L. (2001): Fauna Iberica Hymenoptera Cynipidae. – Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Madrid, 636 pp. STONE, G. N., R. J. ATKINSON, A. ROKAS, G. CSOKA & J. L. NIEVES-ALDREY (2001): Differential success in northwards range expansion between ecotypes of the marble gallwasps, Andricus kollari (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae): a tale of two lifecycles. – Molecular Ecology 10: 761-768. STONE, G. N., G. MELIKA & G. CSOKA (in press): The oak gallwasps of the Western Palaearctic; ecology, evolution and taxonomy. 2 volumes. – The Ray Society London.