### **THE PRESSURES AND THE ECOLOGICAL QUALITY STATUS OF THE MARMARA SEA (TURKEY) BY USING MARINE MACROALGAE AND ANGIOSPERMS**

Ergün Taşkn1 , İbrahim Tan2 , Orkide Minareci1 , Ersin Minareci1 , Hakan Atabay2 , Çolpan Polat-Beken2 1Manisa Celal Bayar University, Faculty of Arts & Sciences, Department of Biology, Muradiye-Manisa, 45140, Turkey, ergun.taskin@cbu.edu.tr 2TÜBİTAK, Marmara Research Center, Environment and Cleaner Production Institute, Gebze-Kocaeli 41470, Turkey

**Abstract** – Marine benthic macroalgae and angiosperms are proposed as one of the biological quality elements to assess the ecological quality status of transitional and coastal waters by the European Water Framework Directive (WFD, 2000/60/EC).

In the present study, the *Mar*ine *F*loristic *E*cological *I*ndex (MARFEI) was tested to assess the impacts by using marine benthic macrophytes (macroalgae and angiosperms) and pressures by using the Macroalgae-Land Uses Simplified Index (MA-LUSI) in the Marmara Sea (Turkey). Sampling of benthic macrophytes was made from 0÷5 m depth at 29 different sites during the summer periods of 2017, 2018 and 2019. The study revealed good ecological status class (ESC) for 6 sites, moderate for 11 sites, poor for 8 sites and bad for 4 sites. MARFEI*eqr* showed a negative linear relationship with the pressure index MA-LUSI.

# **Introduction**

Marine benthic macrophytes (macroalgae and angiosperms) are proposed as one of the biological quality elements to assess the ecological quality status of transitional and coastal waters by the European Water Framework Directive [1]. Several macrophyte indices, i.e. the Ecological Evaluation Index [2, 3], the CARtography of LITtoral (CARLIT) [4], the Macrophyte Quality Index (MaQI) [5, 6], have been proposed for the Mediterranea Sea.

The Sea of Marmara being bordered by Turkish territory; displays both coastal and marine water features, connected to the Black Sea by the Istanbul (Bosphorus) Strait and to the Aegean Sea by the Çanakkale (Dardanelles) Strait. Recently, the *Mar*ine *F*loristic *E*cological *I*ndex (MARFEI) has been proposed especially for the Marmara Sea (Turkey) for the ecological quality classification of coastal waters [7].

In the present study, the *Mar*ine *F*loristic *E*cological *I*ndex (MARFEI) was tested to assess the impacts by using marine benthic macrophytes (macroalgae and angiosperms) and pressures by using the Macroalgae-Land Uses Simplified Index (MA-LUSI) in the Marmara Sea (Turkey).

632 FUP Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (DOI 10.36253/fup\_best\_practice)

Ergün Taşkın, İbrahim Tan, Orkide Minareci, Ersin Minareci, Hakan Atabay, Çolpan Polat-Beken, *The Pressures and the Ecological Quality Status of the Marmara Sea (Turkey) by Using Marine Macroalgae and Angiosperms,* pp. 632-638, © 2020 Author(s), CC BY 4.0 International, DOI 10.36253/978-88-5518-147-1.63

# **Materials and Methods**

Sampling of benthic macrophytes was made from 0÷5 m depth at 29 different sites during the summer periods of 2017, 2018 and 2019 as part of the national Integrated Marine Pollution Monitoring Programme (MoEU, Turkey) (Figure 1).

The material was collected by snorkeling from a 100 m x 100 m area per station [7], and specimens were preserved in 2÷5 % formaldehyde in sea water. Samples were studied using a light microscope (Nikon SE).

Physico-chemical parameters (salinity, temperature, pH, conductivity, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen), ortho-phosphate [8], and ammonium nitrogen [9] were also measured.

Land Uses Simplified Index (LUSI) is a method to assess the continental pressures (i.e. mariculture, sewage outfall, harbours, irregular fresh water inputs, sediment nutrient release, urban, commercial and industrial, agriculture) on coastal waters [10, 11]. This index has been developed by the Macroalgae Technical Group of the Mediterranean Geographical Intercalibration Group (MEDGIG), as called MA-LUSI (LUSI for shallow water macroalgal communities) [12].

Macrophytes (macroalgae and angiosperms) were classified into five ecological status groups: ESGI (IA, IB, IC; late-successional taxa such as *Cystoseira* spp., *Padina* spp., angiosperms, calcareous red algae, *Halimeda tuna*, etc.) and ESGII (IIA, IIB; opportunistic taxa such as filamentous *Ectocarpus* spp., *Ceramium* spp., *Cladophora* spp., and sheet-like green algae *Ulva* spp., etc.) [3, 7].

Figure 1 - Sampling stations in the Marmara Sea (Turkey). (1: Susurluk Ağz; 2: Bandrma; 3: Kapdağ; 4:Edincik; 5:Şarköy; 6: Tekirdağ; 7: Marmara Ereğlisi; 8: Küçükçekmece; 9: Tuzla; 10: Kavakldere; 11: Kaytazdere; 12: Hereke; 13: Yalova; 14: Armutlu; 15: Gemlik; 16: Yenikap; 17: Silivri; 18: Karabiga; 19: Edincik-Enerji Sa; 20: Lapseki; 21: M. Ereğlisi-Bat; 22: B.Çekmece; 23: Kadköy; 24: Değirmendere; 25: Eskihisar-MAM; 26: Çnarck; 27: Mudanya; 28: Susurluk-Doğu; 29: Adalar-İstanbul).

Ecological Quality Ratio (EQR) between 0 and 1 was obtained by the formulation of MARFEI (bad=0÷0.20; poor=0.20÷0.40; moderate=0.40÷0.60; good=0.60÷0.80; high=0.80÷1) [7]. The relationship between pressures and MARFEI*eqr* values has been calculated using the MA-LUSI index.

Formula: MARFEI*eqr*= (4\*%IA+3\*%IB+2\*%IC)/(1\*IIA+0,5\*IIB).

### **Results**

Physicochemical properties were found as average for three years in the coasts of the Marmara Sea as pH 8.28, temperature 26.17 °C, salinity ‰ 22.29, oxygen 5.84 mg/L, turbidity 2.51, conductivity 34739 µS, orthophosphate 3.56 µg/L, and ammonium nitrogen 34 µg/L. Phosphate was especially found as high in the monitoring sites Hereke, Gemlik, Kavakldere, Küçükçekmece, and these sites are affected by anthropogenic impact, and poor or bad ecological quality. The green algae *Ulva* and *Cladophora*, the red algae *Ceramium* and *Polysiphonia* are found dominantly. The highest value of ammonium nitrogen was measured in Kavakldere (97 µg/L).

The results of the pressures data (MA-LUSI index), MARFEI*eqr*, and ecological status class (ESC) of the sampling stations are given in Table 1. The study revealed good ecological status class (ESC) for 6 sites (Kapdağ, Edincik, Şarköy, Edincik-Enerji Sa, and Marmara Ereğlisi-Bat), moderate for 11 sites (Bandrma, Tekirdağ, Marmara Ereğlisi, Yalova, Armutlu, Karabiga, Eskihisar-MAM, Çnarck, Mudanya, Susurluk-Doğu, and Adalar-İstanbul), poor for 8 sites (Susurluk-Ağz, Tuzla, Kavakldere, Kaytazdere, Yenikap, Silivri, Kadköy, and Değirmendere) and bad for 4 sites (Küçükçekmece, Hereke, Gemlik, and Büyükçekmece) (Table 1 and Figure 2).

Figure 2 - The Ecological Quality Ratio (EQR) of the sampling sites in the Marmara Sea (Turkey) by the MARFEI index.


Table 1 - The Ecological Quality Ratio by MARFEI*eqr*, ecological status class (ESC), and pressures data (MA-LUSI index) in the Marmara Sea (Turkey). (B: Bad, P: Poor, M: moderate, G: Good)

Figure 3 - Relation between the MARFEI*eqr* index and pressure data (MA-LUSI index) in the Marmara Sea (Turkey).

The MARFEI*eqr* index values and pressures data (with MA-LUSI index) was tested, and a negative correlation (R2 =0.46) was found between pressures and impacts in the sampling sites (Figure 3).

### **Discussion**

The Marmara Sea is high marine traffic area moderately affected by anthropogenic disturbances (i.e. urban, industrial) [7]. The Marine Floristic Ecological Index (MARFEI) was proposed to assess the ecological status class of the coastal waters for the Marmara Sea in 2018, and 25 sites were studied, and the good ecological status class (ESC) for one site (İntepe), moderate for 11 sites (Eceabat, Şarköy, Marmara Ereğlisi, Üsküdar, Yalova, Armutlu, Mudanya, Erdek, Paşaliman Island, Karabiga, and Lapseki), poor for 10 sites (Çanakkale, Gelibolu, Tekirdağ, Silivri, Küçükçekmece, Büyükçekmece, Gemlik, Susurluk River-Boğaz, Prices Islands, and Bandrma) and bad for 3 sites (Kocaeli, Hereke, and Haliç) were classified by MARFEI [7]. In the present study, six sites (Kapdağ, Edincik, Şarköy, Edincik-Enerji Sa, and Marmara Ereğlisi-Bat) are found as the good ecological status class.

Recently, the Ecological Evaluation Index (EEI-c) was tested to assess the impact by using marine benthic macrophytes (macroalgae and angiosperms) in the Turkish marine waters, and the sampling was made from 56 stations which are 15 stations from the Marmara Sea [13]. In the study, revealed high ecological status class (ESC) for one site (Şarköy), good for 5 sites (Kapdağ, Edincik, Tekirdağ, Armutlu, and Marmara Ereğlisi), moderate for 2 sites (Yalova, and Kaytazdere), poor for 6 sites (Susurluk-Ağz, Bandrma, Küçükçekmece, Tuzla, Kavakldere, and Gemlik) and bad for one site (Hereke) [13]. Because of the sampling effort of the two indice (MARFEI and EEI-c) in the same time, the results of the present study are similar to EEI-c results.

# **Conclusion**

The Marine Floristic Ecological Index (MARFEI) can be used to assess of the ecological status class (ESC) of the coastal and transitional waters in the Marmara Sea (Turkey). However, MARFEI is a destructive method to assess of the ESC, and it is needs more time to describe the taxa, and need experts.

### **Acknowledgements**

The present study, was carried out with the project called "Integrated Pollution Monitoring in Turkish Seas (ÇŞB/ÇEDİDGM-TÜBİTAK/MAM; 2017-2019)" supported by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization of Turkey.

### **References**

