We joined the summer school which was conducted by Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Society (EkoEvoDer). Korhan Özkan gave a lecture about major concepts in ecology which were related to community ecology, species environment relationships, species-species interactions. The seminars are going on till the evening of April 28. We are happy to be a part of this great organization. You can watch the lectures on EkoEvoDer YouTube Channel.
Tekin presented our recent work on Konya Closed Basin, which has been facing dramatic water loss, in the Shallow Lakes Conference, 2021. Our study describes the decadal changes in size and salinity of lakes, and also dramatic decline of waterbirds and fish abundance and species richnes in lakes in the Konya Closed Basin, Turkey, which are mainly associated with climate change and increasing water abstraction for agriculture. The study is a joint effort of our Saline Lakes project team along with many other contributors and describes the critical changes the basin has undergone on the recent years.
Fou our presentation:
Our group has collaborated with a large group of researchers to better understand cynobacteria communities across Europe. Our paper analyzing cynobacterial toxins and their environmental drivers selected by Toxins among the best papers in 2020. We are happy to be a part of such large scale effort. You can read our paper here.
We presented our research on high latitude and altitude ecosystems in the online workshop “The Climate Change and Our Seas” which was conducted by Turkish Marine Research Foundation (TÜDAV) and Institute of Marine Sciences of Middle East Technical University (IMS METU). High latitude and altitude ecosystems are sentinels of climate change and facing dramatic ecosystems shifts. We highlighted the need for further research on Turkish high altitude ecosystems. We are grateful to TÜDAV to organize such a great event to bring different fields together.
You can watch the workshop on the TÜDAV’s YouTube channel:
Korhan Özkan got selected for Turkish Academy of Science (TÜBA) 2021 Young Scientist Awards (GEBİP). We are also pleased that our collaborator Erik Jeppesen was also got TÜBA International Academy Award. More information on the awards are here. Big congratulations to Korhan and Erik for their outstanding achievements. We are grateful to TÜBA and their support to our research.
Our team presented ongoing research on Antarctic Peninsula Food Webs in the SCAR Conference in 3-7 August 2020 and 4th National Polar Research Workshop on the 22nd of October 2020. In the online conference, 3 poster presentations were presented by Esra Mine Ünal, Saba Başkır and along with an oral presentation, by Korhan Özkan. We presented our studies on the food web structure and community composition, diatom stratigraphy and dietary DNA extraction for metabarcoding along the Antarctic peninsula, utilising surface sediment, sediment core and scat samples collected via the Turkish Antarctic Expedition Programme. Our research on Antarctic food web ecology is funded by TUBITAK 1001 programme.
A selection of photographs were exhibited in the Furuzan olşen Exhibition hall between 8-14 March of 2020. Photos were covering the stunning megafauna of the Antarctic, captured by Korhan Özkan during the Turkish Antarctic Expedition in 2019.
