Abstract

The region of Trakya is a place where excessive amount of fertilizer per unit area is used. Since fertilizers applied to the soil reach, either by draining or by erosion, the rivers, the ground water and finally the Sea of Marmara the ground water and most of the river waters are neither drinkable nor usable. In this study, seasonal distributions of certain pollutants in the streams and the economic losses were analyzed. The nitrate nitrogen and total phosphorus equivalent concentrations of chemical fertilizers and the economic losses for such fertilizers were calculated for the streams sampled monthly. According to the results of the study, a total of 368.4 mg l-1 nitrate nitrogen and 328.4 mg l-1 total phosphorus were carried from the study area to Marmara Sea. The chemical fertilizer quantities equivalent to those concentrations in total were 6810.2 ton NH4NO3 year-1 and 5528.9 ton TSP year-1.