Our group has collaborated with a large group of researchers to better understand cynobacteria communities across Europe. Our paper analyzing cynobacterial toxins and their environmental drivers selected by Toxins among the best papers in 2020. We are happy to be a part of such large scale effort. You can read our paper here.
We undertook a substantial effort to establish the first advanced mesocosm facility of Turkey to conduct experimental ecology research on aquatic ecosystems. We will be conducting experiments on the effect of salinisation and eutrophication in face of climate change on the lake and wetlands of Anatolia in 2021 and 2021. These facilities are being constructed as a part of the Saline Lakes Project and will be functioning at both METU Ankara and Erdemli Campuses in collaboration with Erik Jeppesen, Meryem Beklioğlu and Zuhal Akyürek. We are looking forward to conducting state of the art experiments where we will be elucidating ecological dynamics many years to come.
The tanks to be used in the system have reached the mesocosm areas. In addition, the construction works of the Mesocosm experiment area in Erdemli campus started.
SGD Project Kick-off Meeting was held online on February 24, 2021. It was great to get toger-ther with all the members of the project team (researchers from Middle East Technical University, Hacettepe University, Akdeniz University and Louisiana State University) to discuss an exicting three years ahead. The meeting started with the overview, then the initial modeling studies and results for the residence times and water budgets were presented. Pilot studies and necessary logistics were discussed. The methodology to be applied for sea/groundwater sampling and radioisotope measurements was reviewed.
It was fantastic to see the project get off to such a strong start, and we have no doubt that the team will continue to succeed for the next three years!
For more information, check out the project website!
We presented our research on high latitude and altitude ecosystems in the online workshop “The Climate Change and Our Seas” which was conducted by Turkish Marine Research Foundation (TÜDAV) and Institute of Marine Sciences of Middle East Technical University (IMS METU). High latitude and altitude ecosystems are sentinels of climate change and facing dramatic ecosystems shifts. We highlighted the need for further research on Turkish high altitude ecosystems. We are grateful to TÜDAV to organize such a great event to bring different fields together.
You can watch the workshop on the TÜDAV’s YouTube channel:
Korhan Özkan got selected for Turkish Academy of Science (TÜBA) 2021 Young Scientist Awards (GEBİP). We are also pleased that our collaborator Erik Jeppesen was also got TÜBA International Academy Award. More information on the awards are here. Big congratulations to Korhan and Erik for their outstanding achievements. We are grateful to TÜBA and their support to our research.
Our team presented ongoing research on Antarctic Peninsula Food Webs in the SCAR Conference in 3-7 August 2020 and 4th National Polar Research Workshop on the 22nd of October 2020. In the online conference, 3 poster presentations were presented by Esra Mine Ünal, Saba Başkır and along with an oral presentation, by Korhan Özkan. We presented our studies on the food web structure and community composition, diatom stratigraphy and dietary DNA extraction for metabarcoding along the Antarctic peninsula, utilising surface sediment, sediment core and scat samples collected via the Turkish Antarctic Expedition Programme. Our research on Antarctic food web ecology is funded by TUBITAK 1001 programme.
Mustafa and Serhat conducted a field study in Konya Closed Basin to better understand the effect of water scarcicity on the ecology of lakes in arid landscapes. The fieldwork was held on Konya Closed Basin was completed between 21 and 27 June 2020, within the scope of the Saline Lakes Project. We sampled a total of 43 water bodies (22 were dams, and 21 were natural lakes) to understand their physico-chemical composition during the expedition.
A selection of photographs were exhibited in the Furuzan olşen Exhibition hall between 8-14 March of 2020. Photos were covering the stunning megafauna of the Antarctic, captured by Korhan Özkan during the Turkish Antarctic Expedition in 2019.
We finished our first expedition to Bolkar Mountains! We sampled the alpine lakes across the Bolkar Mountains range between the altitudes 2700-3300 m. We try to understand how these remote and isolated aquatic ecosystems respond to climate change and other anthropogenic disturbances. We conducted snap shot samplings as well as sediment cores for paleolimnology.
The expedition was conducted between 21st September 2019 and 25th September 2019. We aim at contributing to better understanding and protection of alpine lakes .
2019 Alpine Lakes Research Team: Keziban Kaynar, Korhan Ozkan, Serhat Ertugrul
