Effect of fish farming facilities on macrobenthic organisms associated with posidonia oceanica meadows

The study was planned to evaluate impacts of fish farming activity on Posidonia ocanica meadows their associated fauna. This study including three different seasons was carried on Engeceli Harbour during the period between September 2004 and May 2005. The meadow at impacted site was 300 meter far from the aquaculture facility and the other selected meadow, which was considered as a reference site, was located at distances more than 1 km from the farming. Temporal changes of macrofaunal species associated with Posidonia oceanica meadow were investigated to find out long term effects of fish farming activities.Within the framework of this study, phenological specifications of Posidonia oceanica meadows and some physico-chemical parameters such as pH, temperature, salinity, nutrients and organic carbon contents of the sediments were also examined. The samples were taken by SCUBA from the P. oceanica meadow situated at 0-5 m, 5-10 m and 10-15 m depth ranges.The statistical analyses showed that a significant difference was found between stations and seasons in terms of abundance and biomass of Mollusca. However, in Polychaeta, this difference was determined only among seasons. In this study associated macrofouna with Posidonia meadow did not show any important changes between two sellected sites. The dominant species belonging to the Polychaeta, Crustacea, Mollusca and Echinodermata were the common species for Posidonia oceanica medows.