Lake Tuz was when the second-largest lake in Turkey. Lake Tuz is a saline lake (Tuz is Turkish for “salt”) situated on the Central Anatolia plateau, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) south-southeast of Ankara. Prior to 2000, Lake Tuz normally included adequate water in August for the lake to be considered irreversible. In between 2001 and 2016, water covered less than 20 percent of the lake in every August (other than 2015) as dry spells ended up being more frequent and extreme. Prior to that time, Lake Tuz usually included water even throughout periods of drought.
Lake Tuz is a saline lake (Tuz is Turkish for “salt”) located on the Central Anatolia plateau, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) south-southeast of Ankara. It is fed by groundwater that comes from the Northern Taurus Mountains and travels through Konya Plain and Obruk Plateau bubbles up into Lake Tuz via springs. Other sources of water consist of two major streams, and rain that primarily falls in the spring. The lake has no outlet.
Water here has actually become progressively scarce. Aydin-Kandemir( formerly at Ege University) and coworkers chose to take a look at how Lake Tuz has altered in current decades, and to what extent the modifications have actually been affected by climatological conditions such as drought. To find out, they began by categorizing lakes different surface types– water, salt, and marsh– using false-color images obtained each August between 1985 and 2016 by Landsat satellites.
The images utilized in the study resembled the false-color image above, gotten on August 9, 2021, with the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8. Shortwave infrared, near-infrared, and red light (OLI bands 6-5-4) were used to differentiate the different surface types; in this view, water appears dark blue, salt is teal, and marshes are brown.
1988– 2020
Next, the Landsat images were converted into maps demonstrating how the spatial level of salt, marsh, and water has changed. The maps above reveal the lake every few years; they are a subset of the annual maps published by the scientists in their paper.
Prior to 2000, Lake Tuz usually consisted of enough water in August for the lake to be considered permanent. At its max, throughout the humid years of 1988 and 1996, water spanned 93 percent and 58 percent of the lake, respectively.
“The presence of permanent water in the southwestern and western parts of the lake was vital for breeding and feeding species such as flamingos due to the fact that the germs they eat were concentrated in this part where the salinity is lower,” Aydin-Kandemir said.
In between 2001 and 2016, water covered less than 20 percent of the lake in every August (except 2015) as droughts ended up being more frequent and extreme. Aydin-Kandemirs present research study shows that more recently, extraordinary meteorological drought has actually devastated Lake Tuz considering that 2019.
“In July 2021, the state was even worse, and there was nearly no water, which resulted in the mass death of baby flamingos that pertained to the lake this year,” Aydin-Kandemir said.
The patterns led the scientists to wonder why the lake had become more conscious dry spell after the year 2000. Before that time, Lake Tuz typically included water even during durations of dry spell. However something changed.
Aydin-Kandemir kept in mind that Lake Tuzs decline accompanied the “excessive use of groundwater and surface-water resources feeding the lake.” Some streams were rerouted to water farming, and some were dammed to satisfy the water needs of the surrounding provinces. And as surface water dwindled throughout intense dry spell, people turned to the groundwater that historically fed the springs.
“The future is quite unpredictable for the lake,” Aydin-Kandemir stated. With drought conditions anticipated to become more extreme, individuals may continue to extract water at present levels. “The lake is not expected to reach the 1988-water location in the future,” she included.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, utilizing Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and information courtesy of Aydin, F., Erlat, E., & & Türkes, M. (2020 ).
August 9, 2021
Once the second-largest lake in Turkey, it now hardly ever spans an area much bigger than a puddle.
Lake Tuz was when the second-largest lake in Turkey. Flamingos gathered there to feed and nest. Individuals checked out to witness the lakes seasonal color changes and to high in the mineral rich water, mud, and salt.
Now, the lake rarely spans an area much bigger than a puddle. In some summer seasons it completely dries up. “Lake Tuz is unfortunately in threat of desiccation,” said Fulya Aydin-Kandemir, a researcher at the Hydropolitics Association of Turkey, and external lecturer at Akdeniz University.
