«Бингёл» Комитаса

Like Mount Ararat and Lake Van, the image of Bingyol as a divine part of the lost fatherland has always been haunting Armenian minds; it has been praised by such gusans and ashooghs as Jivani, Shahen, poets of all times Avetik Isahakian, Hovhannes Shiraz, etc.

Chewing Louse Species (Phthiraptera: Amblycera, Ischnocera) on Roadkill Wild Birds in Van Province: Five New Species in Turkey

Background: The present study was conducted to identify the lice species in birds that were struck and injured or killed by motor vehicles along the highway surrounding Lake Van, which is located between Van and Bitlis provinces in Turkey. Methods: The bird feathers were inspected using a macroscope. The isolated lice were placed in tubes containing 70% alcohol and were made translucent by 10% KOH. They were then glued using Canadian balsam and identified under light microscopy. Result: Of the 102 birds collected, 40 (40.8%) birds were infested with at least one louse species. In infested birds, 14 individual lice from 11 species were identified. Of these, Coloceras damicorne (Nitzsch, 1866), Columbicola claviformis (Denny, 1842), Ricinus serratus (Uchida, 1926), Philopterus coarctatus (Scopoli, 1763), Upupicola upupae (Schrank, 1803) were identified in birds for the first time in Turkey.

Usefulness of Coulomb Static Stress Changes in Earthquake Hazard Studies: An Example from the Lake Van Area, Eastern Turkey

It has been globally documented over different tectonic environments that Coulomb static stress changes caused by a mainshock can promote or demote stresses along the neighboring faults and thus triggers or delays following seismicity. In the present study Coulomb stress changes of the earthquakes in the Lake Van area are calculated using available data and the likely source faults. The calculated stress change maps demonstrate that the large earthquakes in the Lake Area are mostly stressed by the preceding earthquakes, suggesting earthquake rupture interactions. It is further suggested that Coulomb stress maps could be used for constraining the likely locations of the future large earthquakes and in the earthquake hazard mitigation studies.

‘I Have Made a Highway of Biainili’:

After emerging in the Lake Van Basin of Turkey, the Urartian kingdom expanded its territory across Eastern Anatolia, Northwestern Iran, and Armenia between the late 9th and early 7th century BC. The high altitude of these regions and the climatic conditions, especially long and harsh winters with heavy snowfall, likely forced the Urartian monarchy to establish a reliable network of communication: new roads and new settlements along these roads were established between the capital city Tušpa and other parts of its territory. This study presents a reassessment of the archaeological and textual evidence on Urartian routes used for military campaigns, settlements located along these routes, ancient road remains and means of transportation.

Growth and reproduction properties of endemic Capoeta kosswigi and Barbus ercisianus in the Deliçay Stream (Van, Turkey)

In this study, the growth and reproductive characteristics of Capoeta kosswigi Karaman, 1969 and Barbus ercisianus Karaman, 1971, which are endemic to the Lake Van Basin, in Deliçay (Van) were investigated. A total of 309 C. kosswigi and 288 B. ercisianus specimens were caught by electrofishing between April and August 2018. The fork length of C. kosswigi and B. ercisianus ranged from 3.7-26.1 cm and from 4.3-22.7 cm, and the total weights ranged from 0.6-227.4 g and from 1.2-140.0 g, respectively. The most intensive catching was in C. kosswigi population of 5.0-6.9 (27.5%) cm and 0-19.9 (67.0%) g in the groups, and 12.0-13.9 (24.7%) cm and 0-9.9 (23.3%) g groups in B. ercisianus. Condition factor was determined as 1.305±0.008 (0.798-1.886) in C. kosswigi and 1.158±0.006 (0.864-1.559) in B. ercisianus. The length-weight relationships were calculated as W = 0.01435 × L2.952 (r2 = 0.996) for C. kosswigi and W = 0.01276 × L2.959 (r2 = 0.994) for B. ercisianus. The M:F ratio was calculated as 1:0.15 in C. kosswigi and 1:0.64 in B. ercisianus. It was established that C. kosswigi attained sexual maturity when they reached to 11 cm fork length for males, 18 cm fork length for females. Maturation of B.ercisianus individuals occurred at 9 cm fork length in males and 12 cm fork length in females. The spawning in C. kosswigi was observed from 1st week of May to 2nd week of July, and in B. ercisianus from 1st week of May to 1st week of August. It may be suggested that minimum catching size must be 20 cm fork length for C. kosswigi and 15 cm fork length for B. ercisianus.

Microbial community of soda Lake Van as obtained from direct and enriched water, sediment and fish samples

Soda lakes are saline and alkaline ecosystems that are considered to have existed since the first geological records of the world. These lakes support the growth of ecologically and economically important microorganisms due to their unique geochemistry. Microbiota members of lakes are valuable models to study the link between community structure and abiotic parameters such as pH and salinity. Lake Van is the largest endroheic lake and in this study, bacterial diversity of lake water, sediment, and pearl mullet (inci kefali; Alburnus tarichi), an endemic species of fish which are collected from different points of the lake, are studied directly and investigated meticulously using a metabarcoding approach after pre-enrichment. Bacterial community structures were identified using Next Generation Sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. The analysis revealed that the samples of Lake Van contain high level of bacterial diversity. Direct water samples were dominated by Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, and Bacteroidota, on the other hand, pre-enriched water samples were dominated by Proteobacteria and Firmicutes at phylum-level. In direct sediment samples Proteobacteria, whereas in pre-enriched sediment samples Firmicutes and Proteobacteria were determined at highest level. Pre-enriched fish samples were dominated by Proteobacteria and Firmicutes at phylum-level. In this study, microbiota members of Lake Van were identified by taxonomic analysis.