INVESTIGATION OF TEMPORAL CHANGE OF LAND USE IN ELMALI BASIN USING REMOTE SENSING AND GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS

The sustainable use of water and soil, which are indispensable for living things, is closely related to the concept of land use. While land use is becoming gradually modern as a necessity of the age, urbanization and industrialization are also gaining great importance. So much so that, in Turkey, where agriculture-based economy was emphasized until the 1980s, interest in exports of industrial products has increased in recent years and industrial investments especially in the Marmara region have increased considerably. This situation has increased job opportunities due to the industrialization developing in the region and has led to an increase in the population in parallel. The structure process has accelerated in order to meet the needs of the increasing population.Basin areas, which contain a wide variety of classes, are among the regions that are highly affected by these changes. Within the scope of the study, Elmalı Basin, which is used to supply potable and utility water to the province of Istanbul, was chosen as the study area. Within the scope of the research, the temporal change of the land use in Elmalı Basin has been investigated by using Landsat-8 satellite with a spatial resolution of 30 meters for the years 2013, 2015, 2018 and 2020 taking advantage of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) technologies. Classification was made with support vector machines, one of the controlled classification methods on satellite images, and the changes in land use were evaluated by comparing the images of working years.

ASSESSMENT OF THE VISIBILITY CAPABILITIES OF FOREST FIRE LOOKOUT TOWERS: THE CASE OF GEMLIK, BURSA, TURKEY

In Turkey, there are forest areas that are sensitive to fire in the first degree, especially along the coastline in the Marmara region and the Aegean and Mediterranean regions. As a result of forest fires, which is one of the biggest environmental disasters on forest resources, approximately 10000 hectares of forest area is damaged annually. One of the important elements of combating forest fires is early detection. In order to achieve this goal, the correct positioning of fire lookout towers is of great importance. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate visibility capabilities of forest fire lookout tower in Gemlik Forestry Enterprise Chief (FEC) located in the city of Bursa. Firstly, the visibility analysis was implemented using in ArcGIS 10.4.1 to evaluate the existing fire tower in the FEC, and then considering the potential fire lookout tower in the study area, the visible areas from both existing and new tower were determined. According to the results, while 63.55% of the study area was visible from the existing tower, this ratio increased to 77.39% when the second tower was added. When only the forest areas are evaluated, the existing tower could see 71.73% of the forest areas, while the visible forest areas have increased to 83.36% when the two towers were taken into account. It has been seen that the visibility capacities of existing towers and potential towers can be evaluated effectively by using GIS-based visibility analysis.

When did the North Anatolian fault reach southern Marmara, Turkey?

We dated syntectonic calcites on fault planes from the southern branch of the western North Anatolian fault (NAF) in northern Turkey using U-Th geochronology. We selected strike-slip faults that are kinematically related to the current regional strain field. The isotopic ages cluster around different periods during the past ~700 k.y. The most prominent cluster peak of 510.5 ± 9.5 ka (1σ) is consistent with the maximum cumulative strike-slip offset data and tectonic plate motions measured by GPS data, highlighting the fact that the present configuration of the NAF in the southern Marmara region started at ca. 500 ka or earlier. These new isotopic ages, combined with previous considerations of regional tectonics, reveal that faulting along the western NAF initiated primarily in the southern Marmara region at least a few hundred thousand years earlier than the timing suggested for the northern branch of the western NAF. This study presents an innovative approach to constrain the timing of initiation of currently active fault segments along the NAF in southern Marmara. U-Th geochronology of fault-hosted calcite thus has a wide application in determining absolute ages of fault episodes in wider shear zones along plate boundaries.

Identification and genetic characterization of Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae from sweet cherry in Turkey

Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae (Pss), which causes bacterial canker, is the most polyphagous bacterium in the P. syringae complex due to its broad host range. This pathogen is considered the major bacterial disease in cherry orchards. In this study, several samples were collected from infected sweet cherry trees in different locations of the Marmara region in Turkey between 2016-2018. Sixty-three isolates were identified as Pss by pathogenicity, LOPAT, GATTa, and MALDI-TOF MS tests. Total genomic DNA was extracted to confirm identity, followed by PCR amplification of syrB and cfl genes. Out of 63 isolates, 12 were randomly selected for Repetitive Element Sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR) and Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) analysis to gain insight into the relationships of those isolates. The cluster analysis of rep-PCR (ERIC-, REP- and BOX-PCR) could classify the isolates into two distinct clusters. Phylogenetic analysis was carried out to obtain the relation between isolates and the location.The MLST analysis of gyrB, rpoDp, rpoDs, and gltA genes allowed a clear allocation of the isolates into two separate main clusters. The relationship among the isolates were also evaluated by constructing a genealogical median-joining network (MJN). The isolates from six locations produced 11 haplotypes that were illustrated in the MJN. The results of this study proved that location could not be an indicator for showing the genetic diversity of Pss from cherry orchards. As the genetic variability of Pseudomonads has been demonstrated, the current study also showed high diversity among different isolates even within the populations. While more research is recommended, the results of this study contributed to a better understanding of the Pss evolutionary progress and genetic diversity of sweet cherry isolates.

Serologic and Molecular Detection of Mycoplasma gallisepticum in Layer Flocks in South Marmara Region of Turkey

Background: Due to the economic impacts of Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) infection in poultry, it is essential to have a fast, reliable and accurate diagnostic test to diagnose the infection. Aims: It was aimed to examine the presence of MG in the South Marmara Region of Turkey where extensive commercial layer flocks exist by RPA, ELISA and real-time PCR. Materials and Methods: In the study, 981 sera and 160 tracheal swab samples (20 swabs per each flock) obtained from eight layer flocks were examined for the presence of MG-antibody by RPA, ELISA, and the presence of MG by real-time PCR, respectively. Results: MG-seropositive flock rate was determined to be 100% by RPA. Twenty-three of the RPA positive sera in each flock LA, LB, LC, LD, LF, LG, and 17 RPA positive sera in flock LE (due to 17 positive RPA sera obtained) were examined for the presence of MG antibody by ELISA, and MG-seropositive flock rate was determined to be 87.5%. As a result of the examination of a total of 32 tracheal swab samples (20 swabs perflock/5 swabs=4 pooled samples, 8 flocksX4 pooled samples= 32 samples) for the presence of MG, real-time PCR positive flock rate was found to be 75%. Conclusion: To decide the flock whether it is infected or not and the initiate effective preventive measures against MG infection as soon as possible; serology should be applied simultaneously with bacteriology and/or PCR to prevent time loss due to shortcomings of serological tests used as primary screening test such as cross reactions, sensitivity and specificity problems.

Seismological and Engineering Characteristics of Strong Motion Data from 24 and 26 September 2019 Marmara Sea Earthquakes

An MW 4.5 earthquake took place on September 24, 2019 in the Marmara Sea. Two days after, on September 26, 2019, Marmara region was rattled by an MW5.7 earthquake. With the intention of compiling an ample strong ground motion data set of recordings, we have utilized the stations of Istanbul Earthquake Rapid Response and Early Warning System operated by the Department of Earthquake Engineering of Boğaziçi University and of the National Strong Motion Network operated by AFAD. All together 438 individual records are used to calculate the source parameters of events; namely, corner frequency, radius, rupture area, average source dislocation, source duration and stress drop. Some of these parameters are compared with empirical relationships and discussed extensively. Duration characteristics are analyzed in two steps; first, by making use of the time difference between P-wave and S-wave onsets and then, by considering S-wave durations and significant durations. It is observed that they yield similar trends with global models. PGA, PGV and SA values are compared with three commonly used ground motion prediction models. At distances closer than about 60 km observed intensity measures mostly conform with the GMPE predictions. Beyond 60 km their attenuation is clearly faster than those of GMPEs. Frequency-dependent Q models are developed for both events. Their consistency with existing regional models are confirmed.

Determination of the association of <i>GHR</i>/<i>AluI</i> gene polymorphisms with milk yield traits in Holstein and Jersey cattle raised in Turkey

This research was carried out to determine the effect of a specific single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) region in exon 10 of the growth hormone receptor (GHR) gene on milk production traits in Jersey and Holstein cows raised in Turkey. Milk samples were recorded as a test day milk yield (TDMY) and an adjusted based 305 d milk yield (305-DMY). Also, milk component traits were detected. Based on the scope of this study, a total of 748 dairy cows, including 305 Holsteins raised in the Marmara Region and 163 Holstein and 280 Jersey raised in the Black Sea Region, were genotyped for the GHR gene using the RFLP-PCR technique. Jersey cows carrying the GG genotype (5.24 %) were associated with higher fat content (P<0.05). Jersey cows with GG and AG also had a higher protein content (3.44 % and 3.38 %, respectively) (P<0.05). Similarly, the protein content was the highest in Holstein cows with the GG genotype (3.46 %) (P<0.01), whereas Holstein cows having AA genotypes displayed higher TDMY (24.64 kg/d) (P<0.05) and 305-DMY (8472.4 kg) (P<0.01). The estimated increase in milk protein and fat contents due to the G allele was 0.07 % and 0.22 % in the Jersey breed, respectively. On the other hand, allele A was highly related to an increase in protein yield and 305-DMY of 0.04 and about 675 kg in the Holstein breed, respectively. The GHR gene should be considered as a potential candidate gene in marker-assisted selection programs to improve the performance of milk and related traits in Turkey dairy cattle populations.