Ecological risk assessment in protected areas: A sample of Alakır stream surface sediments

This study was carried out to determine the potential toxic element concentrations in Alakır Stream and to determine whether these concentrations create an ecological risk. There is no such comprehensive ecological risk research in the literature regarding the potential toxic element concentrations in the Alakır Stream. This research aims to fill this gap in the literature. In this context, ecological indices, multivariate statistical analyzes and GIS software were used. 12 samples of surface sediments were taken from the study area and 8 samples were taken from the bedrock in order to determine the background value. To determine the natural and anthropogenic concentrations of potential toxic element concentrations in the samples; Risk assessment was made using contamination factor, enrichment factor, modified contamination degree, modified ecological risk level, geoaccumulation level, potential ecological risk level and toxic risk level. According to the results of the evaluation, it was observed that the concentrations of As, Cd, Pb and Hg, especially of anthropogenic origin, were high at some points. It has been determined that the most important reason for these high values is agricultural activities. When a general evaluation was made for the research area, it was concluded that there was no ecological risk.