The Seasonal Fish Diversity of Aliağa, a Heavy Industry Zone on the Turkish Coast of the Aegean Sea

Abstract

The stress on the marine environment caused by industrialization in developing economies is indisputable. The Aliağa region, which has unique features such as being heavily influenced by industrialization and having different types of marine habitats was preferred as a monitoring point. By determining the current status of fish density and diversity, the focus was on obtaining data that could allow future comparisons. Without the seasonal variability, 39 fish species representing 14 families were identified, with two abundant families: ten species in both Sparidae and Labridae. The greatest fish diversity was recorded respectively in the spring, summer and autumn. Abundant species were Boops boops with 19.3%, Chromis chromis (17.4%), Spicara smaris (15.0%) and Atherina boyeri (12.5%) in total abundance. A total of 1.89 individuals/m² that weighed 20.43 g/m² were identified in the study period.

Keywords

• Biodiversity
• Fish
• Industrialization
• Visual census

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