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International Journal of Marine Science 2014, Vol.4, No.12: 108-118
http://ijms.sophiapublisher.com
108
Research Article Open Access
Seasonal Variations of Sediment and Water Quality Correlated to Land-Based
Pollution Sources in the Middle of the Black Sea Coast, Turkey
Levent Bat
1,
, Oylum Gökkurt Baki
2
1. Sinop University, Fisheries Faculty, Department of Hydrobiology TR57000 Sinop, Turkey
2. Sinop University, Vocational School of Environmental Health Program TR57000 Sinop, Turkey
Corresponding author email:
leventbat@gmail.com
International Journal of Marine Science, 2014, Vol.4, No.12 doi: 10.5376/ijms.2014.04.0012
Received: 24 Nov., 2013
Accepted: 29 Dec., 2013
Published: 22 Jan., 2014
Copyright
©
2014 Bat and Baki, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Bat and Baki, 2014, Seasonal Variations of Sediment and Water Quality Correlated to Land-Based Pollution Sources in the Middle of the Black Sea Coast,
Turkey, International Journal of Marine Science, Vol.4, No.12: 108-118 (doi: 10.5376/ijms.2014.04.0012)
Abstract
The environmental pollution parameters were analyzed at the surface sediment and water samples collected from the
untreated discharge basin of Sinop coasts of the Black Sea. On the sediment samples, redox potential, water content, organic matter
content and porosity percentages and pH analyses and on the water samples, DO, salinity, BOD
5
, TSS, T (
℃
), pH, conductivity,
NO
2
-N, NO
3
-N, silicate and organic matter analyses were measured. Water content (%) and porosity (%) of the surface sediment
were found in the ranges of 62.9 to 0.1 and 58.9 % to 0.76, respectively. As the pH values of the sediment samples varied in the
ranges of 7.23 to 9.4, its organic matter content varied in the ranges of 2.6 to 0.11 %. Results indicated that, there was a domestic
pollution at the sediment layer of some sampling stations and water according to some physico-chemical parameters at class
2-slightly/moderately polluted water, or very polluted class 4 water class. According to the Environment Law-Water Pollution
Control Legislation, Land-Based Water Quality Classification, generally, it has polluted water and the origin of this pollution is
mainly domestic. The pollution loads of the water body also appeared at where were discharged untreated water, sediment layer and
water content, especially with its high organic matter content.
Keywords
Surface sediment; Wastewater; Land-based pollution; Sinop Coasts; Black Sea
1 Introduction
The Black Sea is located between the latitudes, 40°55′
and 46°42′ and the longitudes 27°27′ and 41°42′E. It is
a semi-closed inland basin from the oceans surrounded
by the countries of Russia, Romania, Bulgaria,
Ukraine, Georgia and Turkey. The Black Sea is
connected to the Mediterranean through the narrow
and shallow Bosphorus strait which is 32 m deep and
total length of 31 km, to the South and connected with
the Sea of Azov through the shallow Kerch strait to
the North (Özsoy
et al.,
1986; Balkas
et al.
, 1990).
The Black Sea has historically been one of the most
biologically productive regions in the world (Bat
et al.,
2011; Bat
et al.,
2013a). The oceanography of the
Black Sea has been relatively well studied and
documented in the literature. The same, however,
cannot be said for documentation of the levels of
marine pollution and the regions that are affected by
various activities, especially in coastal areas (Balkas
et
al.
, 1990; Bat
et al.,
2012a; Bat
et al.,
2013b). The
Black Sea receives large quantities of unregulated and
unplanned fresh water with drawl for irrigation
purposes, hydro and thermal generation and the use of
coastal areas for permanent human settlements, and
the many untreated industrial and agricultural wastes
drain into the sea via rivers (Bat
et al.,
2013c). This
variety of activities has had detrimental effects on the
health of the Black Sea (Akdoğan, 1991; Bat
et al.,
2012b).
Sinop is located on the southern coast of the Black Sea,
Turkey. There were 8 stations for water samples
monthly and 7 stations for sediment and benthic
samples seasonally. The stations determined according
to discharge points and potential discharge points and
clean areas in coastal marine environment. The
samples collected from these areas where Dis Liman
and Iç Liman of Sinop Peninsula at the Black Sea
coast of Turkey (Figures 1 and 2.).
2 Methodology
Sediment samples collected four times and water
samples were collected monthly in 2006–2007. The 4
sampling stations were chosen in a way to include
hotspots of pollution around Sinop city such as
domestic wastewater discharge areas and in this study
3 stations were chosen in way clean areas. Descriptions
of coastal sampling sites are given in Table 1.