The greatest soda-water lake in the world and how it is influenced by climatic change

Global warming resulting from increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the local climate changes that follow affect local hydrospheric and biospheric environments. These include lakes that serve surrounding populations as a fresh water resource or provide regional navigation. Although there may well be steady water-quality alterations in the lakes with time, many of these are very much climate-change dependent. During cool and wet periods, there may be water-level rises that may cause economic losses to agriculture and human activities along the lake shores. Such rises become nuisances especially in the case of shoreline settlements and low-lying agricultural land. Lake Van, in eastern Turkey currently faces such problems due to water-level rises. The lake is unique for at least two reasons. First, it is a closed basin with no natural or artificial outlet and second, its waters contain high concentrations of soda which prevent the use of its water as a drinking or agricultural water source. Consequently, the water level fluctuations are entirely dependent on the natural variability of the hydrological cycle and any climatic change affects the drainage basin. In the past, the lake-level fluctuations appear to have been rather systematic and unrepresentable by mathematical equations. Herein, monthly polygonal climate diagrams are constructed to show the relation between lake level and some meteorological variables, as indications of significant and possible climatic changes. This procedure is applied to Lake Van, eastern Turkey, and relevant interpretations are presented

Lightning fatalities and injuries in Turkey

A database of lightning-related fatalities and injuries in Turkey was constructed by collecting data from the Turkish State Meteorological Service, newspaper archives, European Severe Weather Database, and the internet. The database covers January 1930 to June 2014. In total, 742 lightning incidents causing human fatalities and injuries were found. Within these 742 incidents, there were 895 fatalities, 149 serious injuries, and 535 other injuries. Most of the incidents (89 %) occurred during April through September, with a peak in May and June (26 and 28 %) followed by July (14 %). Lightning-related fatalities and injuries were most frequent in the afternoon. Most of the incidents (86 %) occurred in rural areas, with only 14 % in the urban areas. Approximately, two thirds of the victims with known gender were male. Because of the unrepresentativeness of the historical data, determining an average mortality rate over a long period is not possible. Nevertheless, there were 31 fatalities (0.42 per million) in 2012, 26 fatalities (0.35 per million) in 2013, and 25 fatalities (0.34 per million) in 2014 (as of June). There were 36 injuries (0.49 per million) in each of 2012 and 2013, and 62 injuries (0.84 per million) in 2014 (as of June)

Kuraklık stresi sırasında fasülye çeşitlerinde apoplastik ve simplastik alanlardaki çözünen madde konsantrasyonu osmotik regülasyona katkı sağlar

The present study investigates changes in the inorganic ions, proline, and endogenous abscisic acid (ABA) contents of the apoplastic and symplastic compartments of leaves from drought-tolerant (Yakutiye) and droughtsensitive (Zulbiye) cultivars of the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Drought stress caused a decrease in leaf water potential and stomatal conductance in both cultivars. Concentrations of proline in the drought-tolerant and droughtsensitive cultivars increased in response to drought stress in both compartments. The symplastic K+ concentration decreased in both cultivars. However, the opposite trend was observed concerning K+ concentrations in the apoplastic areas. While the symplastic Na+ concentrations significantly decreased in the drought-tolerant cultivar, the apoplastic Na+ concentrations increased during drought stress. However, Na+ concentrations did not significantly change in either of the compartments in the drought-sensitive cultivar. The Ca2+ concentrations in the sensitive cultivar significantly decreased in both compartments during drought stress. In the tolerant cultivar, the Ca2+ concentration significantly increased in the symplast but decreased in the apoplast. Cl- concentrations in the tolerant cultivar did not significantly change in either compartment. In the sensitive cultivar, the Cl- concentration increased in the apoplastic area but decreased in the symplastic area. In addition, while the symplastic sap of the leaves exhibited a constant pH value, it diminished in the apoplast during drought stress. Symplastic and apoplastic ABA concentrations significantly increased in both cultivars. It might be said that inorganic ions (especially Na+, K+, and Ca2+) and ABA concentrations changed between the apoplastic and symplastic spaces to contribute to osmotic adjustment under drought stress. In addition, the drought-tolerant cultivar showed a much higher capacity to maintain osmotic adjustment between the symplast and the apoplast. © TÜBİTAK