Date

2012

Author

Filiz, Nur

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Periphyton biomass on artificial strips was observed monthly to see the impacts of nutrient differences on periphyton and periphyton-macroinvertebrates interaction. The experiment was conducted for four months in a mesocosm which were runned at six countries at the same time and with the same steps. Eight enclosures at two meters depth were used that four of them had high nutrient level and the other four had low nutrient level. Sediment, macrophyte, fish, plankton, benthic invertebrates and water were added at the same time and with the same way in all of the countries. Periphyton growth which formed on artificial 32 cm2 strips for June, July, August and September were brushed to filtered mesocosm water and dry mass, ash free dry mass, phosphorus content and chlorophyl-a concentrations were measured. Grazer pressure on the periphyton was observed with a laboratory experiment for July, August and September months. At the end of the mesocosm experiment macrophytes and fish were harvested. Macrophytes’ dry mass and fish’ abundance were measured. Moreover at the end of the experiment epiphyton was also measured. Three kajak cores were taken from sediment for macroinvertebrates at the end of the experiment and identified. All physical features of mesocosm enclosures and PVI data were recorded for every 2 weeks. Periphyton biomass was higher concentrations in HN enclosures than LN tanks. Only dry mass of periphyton biomass showed the opposite because of the marl deposition in LN tanks. This finding was also reinforced by epiphyton samples which was taken at the end of the experiment. LN enclosures had the more abundance of macroinvertebrate. The groups we found in sediment which had big grazer effect on periphyton such as gastropods and Chironomidae. Grazer experiment showed that grazer effect on periphyton increased in time. Although this raise, periphyton growth also increased in LN enclosures with nutrient increasing. This may be indicate that nutrient effect has a stronger effect than grazer pressure on periphyton. As it is explained before in the beginning of the experiment all of the conditions were the same except nutrient level. Thus, bottom-up effect changed the top-down control and at the end of the experiment we saw the more periphyton less macroinvertebrate and more fish in HN tanks while the opposite was seen in LN tanks.

Subject Keywords

Periphyton., Invertebrates., Mesocosm.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12614911/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/21865

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis