Zoobenthic fauna and seasonal changes of mamasin dam lake (Central part of Turkey)

This study was conducted at Mamasin dam lake of Aksaray between April 2002 and March 2003. Seasonal changes in the zoobenthic fauna as well as some physical and chemical parameters of lake were examined based on water samples collected from 4 stations selected in the lake. It was determined that zoobenthic organisms are composed of 86.23% chironomidae, 7.3% oligochaeta and 6.47% mollusca. Four species of chironomidae, 8 of oligochaeta and 5 of mollusca were detected. In respect to faunastic biomass, it was observed that zoobenthic organisms in the lake were maximum in autumn and minimum in spring. Some water quality parameters of 4 stations selected in the lake were measured. The evaluation of the data obtained from the stations and the previous studies revealed that the water quality of Mamasin dam lake is decaying as the pollution builds up and drawing near to the eutrophic level as the indicator species surfaced point out.