Exotic Polychaetes of a Sewage Pollution Influenced Lagoon (cardak Lagoon, Turkish Straits)

Abstract

This paper includes three exotic polychaeta species, Hydroides dianthus (Verrill, 1873), Polydora cornuta Bosc, 1802, and Pseudopolydora paucibranchiata (Okuda, 1937), found during benthic samplings in Çardak Lagoon (Turkish Straits). The sampling was collected from the sandy and silty bottoms known to be polluted by sewage discharges. A total of 45 specimens of exotic polychaetes (H. dianthus: 1; P. cornuta: 4; P. paucibranchiata: 40) were found. The correlation values between the annual average values of the nutrients and the polychaeta abundance showed that the highest positive relationships with the abundance were between sand content, total phosphate, and pH. P. cornuta was the most observed species with a frequency index value of 75%, while H. dianthus was represented with a single species in the study area. Albeit the previous studies, P. paucibranchiata was observed most abundantly in the sampling station having low organic matter amounts. The study showed that opportunistic polychaetes observed in Çardak Lagoon mostly preferred organically poor sediments.