14.5.2. Monitoring the health of aquatic ecosystems
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14.5.2. Monitoring the health of aquatic ecosystems
In 2025, METU monitored the health of the aquatic ecosystems on and around its campuses.
Lake Eymir high-frequency monitoring
A real-time automatic monitoring station at the deepest point of Lake Eymir, set up in 2015 under the EU COST NETLAKE action, measures water temperature, depth, turbidity, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, pH, chlorophyll-a, cyanobacteria and dissolved organic matter every 10 minutes, together with weather data. Researchers visit the lake every week to maintain the station.
Lakes Eymir and Mogan field monitoring
Under the METU–GAP Mogan and Eymir lakes ecological monitoring and restoration programme, EKOSAM carries out field sampling every 15 days, annual fish surveys and annual surveys of submerged plants.
At each visit the team samples the deepest point of each lake, measuring depth, water clarity, light and physical parameters every half metre and collecting water for nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen, silicate), chlorophyll-a, suspended solids, phytoplankton and zooplankton, with separate samples from the shore zone; flow and water quality are also measured at the lakes' inflows and outflows (Gölbaşı, Kışlakçı and the Eymir outflow; Sukesen, Yavrucuk, Çölovası and the Mogan outflow). Once a year, standardised multi-mesh nets survey the fish community, plant cover is mapped along fixed transects with GPS, and bottom samples are taken for macroinvertebrates. The programme, run by METU's Limnology Laboratory since 1997 and by EKOSAM since March 2019, is the longest uninterrupted lake-monitoring programme in Türkiye.
https://ekosam.metu.edu.tr/tr/eymir-ve-mogan-golleri-uzun-donemli-ekolojik-izleme-programi
Mediterranean (Erdemli Time Series)
The METU Institute of Marine Sciences measures physical parameters weekly at eight stations from the shore to 200 m depth off Erdemli, and samples chemical and biological parameters monthly.
Developing better monitoring methods
EKOSAM is also improving how freshwater ecosystems are monitored. Through TRANSPONDER (2024–2027, Biodiversa+), it is helping to build a standard European protocol for monitoring pond biodiversity, with automated methods and a simplified version for citizen monitoring, and through TuzluSıcakÖtrofik (TÜBİTAK 1001, started 2025) it monitors water quality and plankton weekly in 48 experimental mesocosms in Ankara and Erdemli to see how salinity, warming, and nutrient pollution change lake health.
At sea, a TÜBİTAK 3501 project at METU (2022–2025) measured for the first time the capacity of the Mediterranean and the Sea of Marmara to buffer the rise in atmospheric CO₂, which drives ocean acidification, using a common sampling plan for both seas, and is producing high-resolution maps of their buffering capacity to show regional differences.
With a UK partner, METU's Department of Environmental Engineering ran AI-LAKE (April 2024 – March 2025), which developed artificial-intelligence models with data up-sampling for monitoring lakes in Türkiye where measurements are sparse.
https://ekosam.metu.edu.tr/tr/transponder
https://ekosam.metu.edu.tr/tr/tubitak-1001-tuziusicakotrofik