Detection and monitoring of MC-LR and MC-RR in the artifical irrigation ponds at Oltu district

Abstract

Although it is defining as natural organic pollutant, surface water resources which are frequently exposed to Harmful Algae Blooms (HABs) due to the increasing nutrient loading in recent years, the increase in temperature caused by climate change and the increase in surface run-off caused by extreme rainfall as a result of the risk of the increasing concentrations of algal toxins into drinking water. Although HABs have caused the problem of eutrophication in surface waters especially at hot seasons in the past decades due to the water pollution, increasing surface water temperatures with climate change cause this problem to extended periods out of season and to be permanent for the year. Therefore, studies including the detection and monitoring of algal toxins are gaining importance in order to observe HAB events at their source. As global temperature increases, HAB events have spread to regions that have even cold climates. Consequently, Microcystin-LR (MC-LR) and Microcystin-RR (MC-RR), which are the main indicators of HAB events in surface waters were aimed to detect and monitor at the artificial ponds designed for agriculture and animal husbandry purposes in Oltu District of Erzurum Province which has cold climate, for the first time in this study.Microcystins (MCs) concentrations were measured in the samples taken from ponds in four seasons for one year, by LC-MS/MS and; water temperature and pH values were also determined simultaneously. The relationship between the MC-LR and MC-RR distributions and, the pH and temperature were calculated by Pearson Correlation Coefficient (r).