14.2.1. Fresh-water ecosystems (community outreach)

In 2025, METU offered free educational activities for the local community on fresh-water ecosystems, focused on Lake Eymir and the Eymir–Mogan watershed.

Public lecture on lakes, land use and climate change (23 October 2025)

On 23 October 2025, EKOSAM's director, Prof. Dr. Meryem Beklioğlu, gave the talk 'Impacts of Land and Water Use, and Climate Change on Lake Ecosystems' in METU's Learn & Connect 5.40 lecture series at the Culture and Convention Centre. She explained how turning natural land into farmland, intensive water use and climate change are making Türkiye's lakes and ponds more fragile, affecting water quality and biodiversity, and presented approaches to ecological restoration. The recording was then made freely available online.

https://ekosam.metu.edu.tr/en/announcements/learn-connect-540-lecture-series

Pond creation and restoration workshop (8–10 April 2025)

EKOSAM, with the Nature-Based Solutions Association, BIOART and AMPHI, held a workshop on creating, restoring and maintaining ponds as nature-based solutions at the National Botanical Garden on 8 April 2025, followed by hands-on pond creation on 9–10 April 2025.

https://ekosam.metu.edu.tr/en/announcements/ponds-nature-based-solutions-workshop-pond-creation-restoration-and-maintenance

Public engagement at Lake Eymir

• The annual Plogging event around Lake Eymir, held since 2017, combines a run with litter collection and awareness of the lake's ecology.

• In 2025, METU EKOSAM's Director, Prof. Dr. Meryem Beklioğlu, explained in national media how heat waves, nutrient pollution and drought cause eutrophication and threaten lake ecosystems.

https://www.youtube.com/live/QCqeOZ5xH40