Full Length Research Paper

Monthly variation of some physico-chemical and microbiological parameters in Biga Stream (Biga, Canakkale, Turkey)

Nurcihan Hacioglu* and Basaran Dulger

Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, 17100 Canakkale, Turkey.

*Corresponding author. E mail: nurcihan.n@gmail.com. Tel: (90)(286)2180018/1950.

Accepted 10 March, 2009

Water samples were collected from three different sites of the Biga Stream (Canakkale, Turkey) in the months of October 2007 – September 2008 for the analyzing of some physico-chemical and microbiological parameters of the stream. In the present investigation, the mean average value (mean ± SD) of the stream temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD₅), pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total coliform (TC) and faecal coliform (FC) were noted as 15.533 ± 0.199^oC, 8.332 ± 0.253 mg/L, 136.60 ± 2.51 mg/L, 7.5078 ± 0.0427, 869.93 ± 3.72 µS/cm, 39381 ± 7952 MPN/100 mL and 42500 ± 7072 MPN/100 mL, respectively. Based on results of comparison of data with WPCR, it is seen that waters of Biga Stream at the sites 1, 2 and 3 belonged to Class 4, for parameter BOD₅ and faecal coliform and belonged to Class 3 for parameter total coliform. We conclude that there is a great potential risk of infection of waters from the Biga Stream.

Key words: Biga Stream, biochemical oxygen demand, dissolved oxygen, total coliform, faecal coliform, physico-chemical and microbiological parameters.