Impact of geographical factors on Coastal Tourism between İğneada and Kastro Bay, Thracian Black Sea coast, Turkey

This study discusses the relationship between tourism and geomorphologic features, climatic comfort and natural vegetation cover in the coastal region from İğneada to Kastro Bay on the Black Sea. From the point of view of climatic comfort, Thermo-Hygrometric Index (THI) values indicate that May, June, September and October are favorable for coastal tourism while in the months of July and August temperatures are too hot. SSI index values indicate that comfort levels prevail for most people in June and September although the weather can be perceived by some people as cool. In July and August, when the temperatures are higher, the climate is comfortable part of the time, but it is rather hot and sticky. Despite climatic comfort conditions not being suitable for long-duration coastal tourism in the Kıyıköy-İğneada area, the floristic richness of the area and presence of longose forests offer many opportunities in terms of ecotourism. There are also numerous lakes and streams presenting unique possibilities for a variety of so-far unexploited tourism activities. Geomorphologically, uncontaminated sandy beaches and coastal spits as well as sheltered bays such as Kastro Bay are among the important assets of the area in terms of coastal tourism

Ecological risk evaluation of sediment core samples, Lake Tortum (Erzurum, NE Turkey) using environmental indices

This study aimed to determine the vertical distribution of heavy metals in a 72 cm-long core sample from Lake Tortum in order to shed light on the implications of potential ecological risks. Analysis was based on the use of environmental indices such as the Integrated Pollution Load Index (PLI) and Potential Ecological Risk Index (PER). Results reveal that, except for Pb, Mn and Hg, the lowest concentrations of heavy metals occur at a core depth of between 2 cm and 20 cm for Cu, Zn, Ni, Fe, As, Cd, Cr and Al. The highest concentration was found at sampling intervals of 36 cm and 50 cm, with the exception of Pb, Mn, Hg and Ni. The PLI values from bottom to top are less than 1 while the level with the nearest value to the background value lies at a depth between 24 cm and 26 cm. The PER index results suggest a low ecological risk level for Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni, Mn, Fe, As, Cr, and Al; however, Cd and Hg constitute an ecological threat to the lake ecosystem

Physico-Chemical Features and Subsurface Nature of Coastal Dunes on Bozcaada Island, NW Turkey

We studied the composition, vegetation cover, wind regime characteristics and subsurface nature of a coastal dune field on the west coast of Bozcaada Island, NW Turkey. Performing Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) technique, we determined that dune sands with a thickness of ~11-13 m cover the underlying Miocene basement, as confirmed by an abrupt increase in resistivity as from lithological boundary. The results demonstrate that foredune terraces and ridges differ from swales from various points of view. The foredune sands are characterized by average contents of over 82% medium to fine-sized angular sands, especially quartz (85%), based on X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) data, CaCO3 (1.15%) and organic matter (0.19%). On the other hand, swales are composed on average of 59% medium to fine sands, a mixture of silt and clay (13%), very coarse sands and small-size gravels (28%). In addition to the different grain size distribution, swale sediments have conspicuously lesser amounts of SiO2 (78%), higher amounts of CaCO3 (5.6%) and organic matter (0.8%). Wind climatology analysis showed the predominance of a northerly (mainly NNE) near surface wind circulation over Bozcaada throughout the year with high wind speeds of maximum 7.4 m/s. Nevertheless, the existing sand transport and associated development of foredune forms and blowouts in the dune field relates considerably to the bimodal distribution of northerly winds (NNW and NNE). Although the coastal dune area is capped by a variety of dune plants, blowout development is highly active, in particular, on the northeast section of the dune field