Report for the year 2022 and future activities

SOLAS ‘Turkey’compiled by: ‘Dr. Nazlı Olğun Kıyak’This report has two parts:- Part 1: reporting of activities in the period of January 2022 - Jan/Feb 2023
- Part 2: reporting on planned activities for 2023 and 2024.
The information provided will be used for reporting, fundraising, networking, strategic development
and updating of the live web-based implementation plan. As much as possible, please indicate thespecific SOLAS 2015-2025 Science Plan Themes addressed by each activity or specify an overlap
between Themes or Cross-Cutting Themes.
1 Greenhouse gases and the oceans;
2 Air-sea interfaces and fluxes of mass and energy;
3 Atmospheric deposition and ocean biogeochemistry;
4 Interconnections between aerosols, clouds, and marine ecosystems;
5 Ocean biogeochemical control on atmospheric chemistry;Integrated studies of high sensitivity systems;
Environmental impacts of geoengineering;
Science and society.
IMPORTANT: This report should reflect the efforts of the SOLAS community in the entire country
you are representing (all universities, institutes, lab, units, groups, cities).
First things first…Please tell us what the IPO may do to help you in your current and future
SOLAS activities. ?

Mucilage Problem in the Marmara Sea (Turkey).
Related to SOLAS Theme 3: Atmospheric deposition and ocean biogeochemistry and Science andSociety
Marine mucilage outbreaks occurred in the Sea of Marmara in 2021 which severely affected themarine ecosystem. The thick mucilage blankets with different colors became a public concern
due to the toxicity potential related to pathogens that accumulate in prolonged presence ofmucilage. Extensive mucilage outbreaks occurred in the Sea of Marmara in 2021 with an increasing
intensity in the spring season. Intense and kilometers long yellow-grey-brown mucilage patches wereobserved in the surface seawater. This mucilage event in the Marmara Sea was the first after theless intense mucilage event occurred in 2007-2008.

Figure 2: Examples of mucilage appearances shown with the field photographs from different sitesin İzmit Bay, Marmara Sea (Turkey) (Tuzcu-Kokal et al., 2022).
The mucilage assemblages in the Marmara Sea were observed as suspended marine mucilage inthe water column and floating on the surface sea as grayish, brownish and yellowish strings andsheets that is intensely accumulated in the coasts and several harbors (Fig 1). Marine mucilage
production in the Sea of Marmara was recorded as between 0-30 m of water depths. The intensity ofmucilage gels were so high that caused catastrophic deaths of marine animals and several severe
impacts on the fisheries, marine transportation and tourism. The water column presence of themucilage patches were intense that the affected the optical properties of the water column with asignificant reduction of the sunlight in the photic zone.
Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change of the Republic of Türkiye had taken
actions for cleaning the mucilage accumulations in the coasts and in the open sea, due to dense
mucilage accumulations which caused toxic environment for both marine life and also for social life.
Also a ‘Marmara Action Plan’ was published and several special issues projects were funded by theThe Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK), the Ministry and theUniversities.
Increased collaborations with SOLAS scientists on the Mucilage Problem is needed to understandthe causes and results of the organic gel accumulations.
Citation: Tuzcu-Kokal A., Olgun N., Musaoğlu N., 2022. 194: 585. Detection of Mucilage
Phenomenon in the Sea of Marmara by Using Multi-Scale Satellite Data, Environmental Monitoringand Assessment, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-10267-6

PART 1 - Activities from January 2022 to Jan/Feb 2023
1. Scientific highlight
Describe one scientific highlight with a title, text (max. 300 words), a figure with legend and fullreferences. Please focus on a result that would not have happened without SOLAS, and we aremost interested in results of international collaborations. (If you wish to include more than one
highlight, feel free to do so).
Scientific Highlight: Aerosol Nutrient Sources and Impacts on Ocean Biogeochemistry.
Related to SOLAS Theme 3: Atmospheric deposition and ocean biogeochemistry

Citation: Hamilton, D.S., Perron, M.M.G., Bond, T.C., Bowie, A.R., Buchholz, R.R., Guieu, C., Ito,A., Maenhaut, W., Myriokefalitakis, S., Olgun, N., Rathod, S.D., Schepanski, K., Tagliabue, A.,
Wagner, R. and Mahowald, N.M. (2022) Earth, Wind, Fire, and Pollution: Aerosol Nutrient Sourcesand Impacts on Ocean Biogeochemistry. Annual Review of Marine Science 14, 303-330.
SOLAS National Contact Dr. Nazlı Olgun attended the SOLAS Open Science Conference in 2019
in Sapporo Japan. The travel expenses of Nazlı Olgun was covered by SOLAS. During theconference, new collaborations were established which leaded a paper on Annual Reviews journal(Fig. 2). The review paper brought together existing literature, experimental evidence of impacts,and new atmospheric nutrient observations and evaluated the contribution and spatiotemporalvariability of nutrient-bearing aerosols from desert dust, wildfire, volcanic, and anthropogenic
sources, including the organic component, deposition fluxes, and oceanic impacts.

Figure 2: (Hamilton et al., 2022). The regions with a higher likelihood of ash deposition (green) aredefined based on the low-altitude wind direction and the frequency of volcanic ash layers found inoceanic sediment cores during the Quaternary (Straub & Schmincke 1998). Figure adapted fromOlgun et al. (2011).
2. Activities/main accomplishments in 2022 (e.g., projects; field campaigns; workshops andconferences; model and data intercomparisons; capacity building; international
collaborations; contributions to int. assessments such as IPCC; collaborations with socialsciences, humanities, medicine, economics and/or arts; interactions with policy makers,companies, and/or journalists and media).
Project:
Possible Influence of atmospheric micro/micro nutrients on mucilage events in the Sea ofMarmara, 2022, TÜBİTAK Mucilage Project 121G005, Coordinator Dr. Mustafa Koçak, Middle
East Technical University.
The aim of the project is to assess the influence of atmospheric fluxes of macro and micro nutrientsto the primary productivity and the mucilage formation observed in the Sea of Marmara byobtaining atmospheric samples as well as evaluate the effect of macro and micro nutrients on thephytoplankton abundance, possible mucilage bearing species and relationship between nutrients

by microcosm experiments adding macro and micro nutrients to the surface water samples fromthe Sea of Marmara (Fig. 3). Atmospheric bulk and aerosol samples will be obtained from İstanbul
while Marmara surface waters will be taken to carry out macro and micro nutrient addition
experiments (microcosm) for winter and spring. Experiments and measurements will be performedin IMS-METU DEKOSIM laboratories. It will be exhibited how much of the observed primary
production in surface water of Sea of Marmara supported by atmospheric macro and micro
nutrients input via calculating fluxes for atmospheric macro and micro nutrients. On the other hand,with the aid of addition experiments, polysaccharides levels will be related with the remainparameters to elucidate possible mucilage bearing phytoplankton as well as zooplankton species
and feedback mechanism with macro and micro nutrients.

Figure 3. Scheme summarizing the controls on the marine biogeochemistry including atmosphericchemistry and climate (Mustafa Koçak, TÜBİTAK Project 121G005).

Project:
Assessment of spatial and temporal changes in the Marmara Sea marine primary
productivity by using satellite data and sediment bio-geochemistry, 2020-2023, TÜBİTAKProject #119Y269, Coordinator. Dr. Nazlı Olgun, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey.

Marine primary production (phytoplankton) is the first and largest chain of the marine ecosystem.
Increase in the nutrient concentrations can cause phytoplankton blooms which affect the water
quality, zooplankton and fish. Today, Marmara Sea is under a great damage due to pollution.
Phytoplankton blooms that form red or turquoise colors is a phenomenon commonly recorded in
the Sea of Marmara. It is however still not clearly understood whether these algal blooms are usual
blooms or is there an important change in the bloom frequency due to eutrophication/ pollution.
Seawater chlorophyll-a (chl-a) are the most common parameter used in evaluating the primaryproduction. However, chl-a concentrations from discrete water sampling locations are unable torepresent entire sea basin. Remote sensing data and methods can provide fast and reliable
information on chl-a for large water bodies. In this study, chl-a distributions in the Marmara Sea will
be studied with high spectral satellite data for the first time. In addition, it is aimed to determine thechl-a changes over the past 20-years using several satellite data (OLCI, SLSTR, VIIRSN, MODISAqua, MERIS, SeaWiFS). In situ chl-a measurements will be compared with the ‘satellite derived
chl-a’ data for ground truthing. Usual phytoplankton blooms (e.g. the spring, summer blooms) andunusual (episodic) blooms will be investigated in terms of their occurrence frequencies, total
durations, chl-a concentrations and possible sources of reason (Fig. 4).
Primary productivity in the Marmara Sea had changed several times in geological-scales due topaleoceanographic and paleoclimate changes. However, high resolution changes in the nutrientand primary production in the past 1000-years has not been studied so far. In this study, we will
investigate the nutrient and primary productivity changes in the last 1000 years in high timeresolution (~50 years). Marine sediment cores from Tekirdağ and Çınarcık basins that were taken
within the framework of MARsite Project will be used for dating (210Pb and 14C), sediment proxyparameters such as ‘organic production’ (TOC, biogenic barium, phytoplankton, pigments, Ca, Sretc.), ‘nutrient’ (δ15N), paleoceanographic (δ18O, δ13C) and pollution (PAH, heavy metals). So that, it
will be possible to better understand to what extent the industrialization and pollution impacted theMarmara Sea ecosystem compared to the changes in the longer time-scales. The outputs of thisproject can provide valuable data and methods for monitoring the ‘environmental status’ of theMarmara Sea.

Figure 4. Sentinel 3 OLCI chl-a maps of Marmara Sea, Turkey (14.06. 2022, 15.06. 2022, 16.06.
2022 and 25.09.2022).

Project
Establishing the Infrastructure of the Pollution Monitoring System Specific to the Sea ofMarmara by Using Information Technologies, 2022, funded by TÜBİTAK Mucilage Project#121G142, Coordinator Prof. Dr. Nebiye Musaoğlu, İstanbul Technical University, Turkey).
The mucilage recently seen in the Marmara Sea leading to significant environmental problems has
clearly caused the deterioration of the marine ecosystem. The land-sea interaction will be
examined, mucilage-covered areas will be determined from satellite images and the relationshipand spread of these areas will be examined with bathymetry and current directions (Fig. 5). Thus, afeasible monitoring and control infrastructure model (mechanism) will be developed when apossible future mucilage threat will be experienced. Moreover, high resolution data will be provided
with a thermal camera attached to the UAV, and its usability in inspection will be tested in an area
where temperature changes are frequently detected from satellite images. An infrastructure system
in which all the produced results are evaluated together will allow the sharing, analysis and use ofdata by different institutions. In a workshop to be held at this stage, the opinions of the experts
working on the subject and possible stakeholders will be taken and the system design will becreated in line with these views and mutual discussions. Within the scope of the project, the utilityof the project will be demonstrated in practice with the training to be given to both the Ministry ofEnvironment and Urbanization and to related institutions and local governments such as
municipalities.

Figure 5: Marmara Sea Dranige Map in gray and surface currents in red (N. Musaoğlu, TÜBİTAKProject #121G142.

3. Top 5 publications in 2020 (only PUBLISHED articles) and if any, weblinks to models,datasets, products, etc.
Özşeker, K., Erüz, C. and Terzi, Y. (2022) Evaluation of toxic metals in different grain size fractionsof sediments of the southeastern Black Sea. Marine Pollution Bulletin 182.
Alkan, A., Serdar, S., FİDan, D., AkbaŞ, U., ZengİN, B. and KiliÇ, M.B. (2022) Spatial, temporal,and vertical variability of nutrients in the Southeastern Black Sea. Chemosphere 302.
Ozturk, T., Matte, D. and Christensen, J.H. (2022) Robustness of future atmospheric circulation
changes over the EURO-CORDEX domain. Climate Dynamics 59, 1799-1814.
Akçay, F., Bingölbali, B., Akpınar, A. and Kankal, M. (2022) Trend detection by innovative polygon
trend analysis for winds and waves. Frontiers in Marine Science 9.
Taşkln, E. and Çaklr, M. (2022) Marine macroalgal flora on the Aegean and the Levantine coasts ofTurkey. Botanica Marina 65, 231-241.
Gürkan, Y. and Yüksek, A. (2022) Microplastics in Turkish Straits System: A Case Study of theBays and Straits. Turkish Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 22.
Bilgili, L., Çetinkaya, A.Y. and Sarı, M. (2022) Analysis of the effects of domestic waste disposal
methods on mucilage with life cycle assessment. Marine Pollution Bulletin 180.
Ozbayram, E.G., Akcaalan, R., Isinibilir, M. and Albay, M. (2022) Insights into the bacterial
community structure of marine mucilage by metabarcoding. Environmental Science and Pollution
Research 29, 53249-53258.
Tuzcu-Kokal A., Olgun N., Musaoğlu N., 2022. 194: 585. Detection of Mucilage Phenomenon in theSea of Marmara by Using Multi-Scale Satellite Data, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment,
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-10267-6
4. Did you engage any stakeholders/societal partners/external research users in order to coproduce knowledge in 2022? If yes, who? How did you engage?
An atmospheric sampling site was built in 2022 in a High School Campus located near the Istanbul
Bosporus in Beşiktaş in Istanbul (Istanbul Technical University High School İTÜ MTAL).
Atmospheric sampling site was built within the context of TÜBİTAK #121G005 project focusing on
the atmospheric nutrient inputs in the Marmara Sea (METU-ITU collabration). High school students
gain knowledge on atmospheric inputs into the marine environments and atmospheric sampling.

PART 2 - Planned activities for 2023 and 2024
1. Planned major national and international field studies and collaborative laboratory andmodelling studies (incl. all information possible, dates, locations, teams, work, etc.).
Modelling studies on the circulation of Marmara Sea will be carried on (Dr. Mehmet Ilıcak, Istanbul
Technical University, Turkey)
Meteorological and oceanic controls on the mucilage formation (PhD study, Istanbul TechnicalUniversity).
A new ‘Biogeochemistry Laboratory’ is going to be established in Eurasia Institute of Earth
Sciences in Istanbul Technical University. This will provide a new infrastructure for geochemical
studies on seawater and atmospheric chemistry.
Satellite data and molecular biology studies will be carried on (İTU-UHUZAM Center).
2. Events like conferences, workshops, meetings, summer schools, capacity building etc.
(incl. all information possible).
A new research center ‘Climate Change and Sustainable Development Application and ResearchCenter’ has been established in Marine Sciences Institute in Middle East Technical University.
A workshop is planned in context with TÜBİTAK 119Y269 project with a focus on marine primary
productivity in the Marmara Sea. The collaborators Istanbul Technical University, İstanbulUniversity, Marmara University and Middle East Technical University.
3. Funded national and international projects/activities underway.
Assessment of spatial and temporal changes in the Marmara Sea marine primary productivity byusing satellite data and sediment bio-geochemistry, 2020-2023, TÜBİTAK Project #119Y269,Coordinator. Dr. Nazlı Olgun, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey.

4. Plans / ideas for future national or international projects, programmes, proposals, etc.
(please indicate the funding agencies and potential submission dates).
A project proposal on the Marmara Sea was submitted to Republic of Türkiye Ministry ofEnvironment, urbanization and Climate Change in 2023.

5. Engagements with other international projects, organisations, programmes, etc.

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