PRELİMİNARY DATA REGARDİNG ANTHROPOGENİC İMPACT ON THE MURAT RİVER (AĞRI REGİON)

The Murat River (in Turkish Murat Nehri, Murat Suyu or Murat Irmağı) is the eastern branch of the Euphrates and it springs near the small town Doğubeyazıt. Agri city is the capital of the region with same name and is located in eastern Anatolia; in year 2008 the population of this city was officially estimated to 91,817 inhabitants. There are not so much scientific papers regarding the Murat River, despite the great anthropogenic impact, especially in the urban area. The present papers renders the first results regarding the estimation of the the saprobity degree of the river based on ciliates communities; 19 ciliates species have been identified so far; most of them belong to the community that characterizes polisaprobic areas. This paper also presents the results of a questionnaire about environmental protection; the target group was composed of 200 students of Ağrı Faculty of Education, aged 19 -23. I thought that they have formed opinions on environmental issues. We used this target group starting from the assumption that the subjects were mature enough to have clear opinions about environmental issues.