The evaluation of ecological status in Tunca (Tundzha) River (Turkish Thrace) based on environmental conditions and bacterial features

It is inevitable that the running waters which are used for a lot of different activities like fishing, irrigation, domestic water usage are under threat because of the settlements, industrial or agricultural activities. To provide the sustainable usage of these ecosystems we have to know their current features and their balance under changing environmental conditions. In the present study, the ecological status of Tunca (Tundzha) River which is located on Turkish Thrace was evaluated based on environmental conditions and bacterial features of the river. For this aim, the research has been carried out at 5 different stations in the river between October 2010 and September 2011 at monthly intervals. Some environmental conditions (temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, salinity, chloride, turbidity, hydrogen sulfide, magnesium, calcium, total hardness, NO3-N, NO2-N, sulfate, orthophosphate, suspended solid substances, biological oxygen demand) and bacterial features (total coliform, fecal coliform, and Escherichia coli bacterial abundances) were examined performing at the same time samplings. Consequently, it was determined that the water quality of Tunca River has proper physicochemical conditions allowing surviving of living things, but bacteriological findings belonging to the river was not found proper for direct use of water by human. Also, the correlations were evaluated between the obtained environmental features and the bacteria by using Spearman’s index. While positive correlations were found between TMAB density and some environmental parameters (water-air temperature, EC, magnesium, nitrate nitrogen, sulfate, o-phosphate, and suspended solids); negative correlations were found between TMAB density and the other parameters (pH, hydrogen sulfide, calcium, total hardness, and BOD5).