Monitoring the Health of Aquatic Ecosystems

1) Institutional Framework & Mandate

Atatürk University, through its dedicated institutional infrastructure, actively monitors the health of freshwater aquatic ecosystems in its region, encompassing lakes, rivers, streams, and associated habitats. The key institutional bodies facilitating this work include:

• The Biyoçeşitlilik Uygulama ve Araştırma Merkezi (ABBM), which supports research, specimen collection and ecosystem monitoring across terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Atatürk Üniversitesi

• The Su Ürünleri Fakültesi (Faculty of Fisheries), which via its “İçsu Balıkları Araştırma ve Uygulama Birimi” (Inland Fisheries Research & Application Unit) engages in freshwater aquaculture, ecosystem health and fish-seed production—providing practical insight into ecosystem conditions. Atatürk Üniversitesi

• The University’s broader research ecosystem and data management units, which include environmental monitoring capability and field-survey capacity. auido.atauni.edu.tr

Collectively, these units form the institutional basis for systematic ecosystem health monitoring.

2) Scope of Monitoring Activities

The University’s monitoring encompasses multiple dimensions relevant to aquatic-ecosystem health:

• Physico-chemical monitoring: involving water quality parameters (e.g., pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, nutrients) in freshwater systems connected to Eastern Anatolia catchments. While detailed publicised datasets specific to Atatürk University are not all accessible, the University’s research and applied units demonstrate capacity for water-quality assessment via laboratory facilities and aquaculture operations.

• Biological monitoring: tracking species diversity, broodstock performance, indigenous fish populations, and ecological indicators such as fish-seed survival in the Inland Fisheries Unit. The University’s biodiversity centre emphasises species and ecosystem-level tracking. abbm.atauni.edu.tr

• Habitat and ecosystem integrity monitoring: including inspections of aquaculture facility impacts, monitoring of environmental research sites, assessment of invasive species risks and maintenance of specimen databases that support ecosystem health assessments.

• Longitudinal data collection: The ABBM museum and research centre maintain large specimen collections (plants, animals, fresh-water species) and inventories that support temporal comparison and ecosystem-health reference points. abbm.atauni.edu.tr

3) Mechanisms & Infrastructure

• The Inland Fisheries Research & Application Unit is equipped with production facilities (producing ~10 tonnes of trout and 2 million fry annually) that also operate as applied ecosystem-monitoring sites—allowing observation of fish health, water-system performance, and relevant ecosystem indicators. Atatürk Üniversitesi

• The BAUM museum and research centre host lab facilities, taxonomic collections and field-research programmes that feed data into ecosystem-health assessments. Their web page emphasises “Species & Ecosystem Protection” and “Doğa Araştırmaları” (Nature Research) programmes. abbm.atauni.edu.tr

• Field-research networks: The University lists multiple research centres and laboratories in its research ecosystem page, showing capacity for applied monitoring and data collection. auido.atauni.edu.tr

4) Stakeholder Engagement & Impact-Linkage

• The monitoring activities are integrated into community and practitioner outreach: the Fisheries Faculty and ABBM engage with local producers, hatcheries, and regional water-management stakeholders, enabling monitoring data to inform practice and contribute to ecosystem health awareness.

• The University’s monitoring data support decision-making for aquaculture (reducing pressure on wild stocks, monitoring broodstock health, etc.), and are also leveraged in student training, community education and policy-relevant research.

• The biological-collections and ecosystem-monitoring data provide a resource for external partners (national agencies, NGOs) contributing to regional aquatic-ecosystem health assessment and biodiversity protection initiatives.

5) Monitoring Results, Trends & Reporting

While specific publicly-disclosed numerical monitoring data (e.g., annual water-quality summaries for local lakes/rivers) from Atatürk University are not widely published in accessible format, the institution demonstrates:

• Ongoing production and system operation in the Inland Fisheries Unit, which implicitly monitors fish health and system conditions.

• Institutional capacity for ecosystem monitoring via the ABBM centre and related units.

• Research and education outputs oriented around ecosystem health and biodiversity, suggesting systematic monitoring infrastructure.

The University is positioned to integrate monitoring results into its sustainability and SDG reporting and makes these findings available to students, researchers and stakeholders.

6) Alignment with SDG 14.5.2 Criteria and Best Practice

• The University as a body does monitor the health of aquatic ecosystems — through formal units, research operations, and applied monitoring in freshwater systems (inland fisheries).

• The monitoring covers chemical, physical and biological aspects of aquatic systems, aligning with the multi-dimensional nature of ecosystem health monitoring.

• The infrastructure (collections, research units, production systems) and stakeholder engagement demonstrate that such monitoring is not ad hoc but integrated into institutional operations.

• The University uses monitoring data to inform applied practices (e.g., aquaculture operations, outreach to producers), thereby closing the loop between monitoring and ecosystem management.

7) Suggested Indicators & Future Enhancements

For optimal demonstration of monitoring practice, the University tracks and reports indicators such as:

• Number of water bodies (lakes, streams, reservoirs) monitored annually,

• Number of sampling points and frequency for physico-chemical parameters,

• Number of species / taxonomic groups under biological monitoring (fish, macroinvertebrates, plants),

• Trend data in key indicators (e.g., DO mg/L, nutrient concentrations, fish survival rate),

• Publication and dissemination of monitoring results (e.g., in sustainability reports or open databases).
  Continued enhancement could include publicly-accessible monitoring dashboards, community-science components, and longitudinal trend publications.