Determination of Benthic Macroinvertebrate Fauna and Some Physicochemical Properties of Kanak Dam Lake (Şarkışla–Sivas)

Abstract

This paper aims to identify the benthic macroinvertebrate fauna and some physicochemical characteristics of Kanak Dam Lake located in Şarkışla, Sivas. For this, water and sediment samples weretaken from 4 stations of the lake between August 2016 to July 2017 at monthly intervals, and adetailed physicochemical analysis was carried out on these samples. While the identification ofbenthic macroinvertebrates was made to the lowest possible taxa (species, genus or families),some physicochemical characteristics of the lake water such as temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen, SO4, PO4, NO3-N, NO2-N, Mg, Ca, total hardness, salinity and Cl levelswere determined using various titrimetric and spectrophotometric methods. As a result, a total of30 taxa were identified and were classified as Oligochaeta, Chironomidae, Gastropoda and otherInsecta (Ephemeroptera, Trichoptera, Hemiptera (adult), Odonata, Plecoptera and larval Coleoptera). All the identified taxa were determined as the first records for the lake. While the temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen, chloride and sulfate levels were found to havethe first class quality according to Turkey’s water control regulations the NO3-N and NO2-N levelsin the lake were found to have the second and third class water quality, respectively. The total hardness of the lake water was found to be at lighthard water quality The Shannon Weiner diversity index for macrobenthic fauna of the dam lake was found to be 0.64 on average. The sampling stations and months were evaluated also statistically by using the Bray-Curtis Cluster Index in terms ofthe distribution of the benthic macroinvertebrates and physicochemical parameters.