2nd INTERNATIONAL EURASIA CLIMATE CHANGE CONGRESS
EVALUATION OF ECOLOGICAL CHANGES OBSERVED IN KAZOVA (TOKAT) AND ITS SURROUNDINGS IN TERMS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
Yayıncı:
Van Yüzüncü Yıl Üniversitesi
The upward trend in global temperatures in the current century is causing problems of various nature and scale for all natural systems. However, the fact that the process of climate change is often slow and variable can make it difficult to understand the environmental disasters that these problems may cause. In particular, rural communities represent one of the groups that will be most affected by this process, yet they are the least aware of the climate change process and its impacts. In general, this study aims to concretize the environmental problems related to temperature and precipitation in the Kazova (Tokat) region and to understand to what extent rural residents can relate these problems to the climate change process. In the evaluation of the climatic characteristics of the study area, the observation data of Tokat and Turhal meteorological stations (1985-2023) were used as the basic data. Temperature and precipitation trends were analyzed by Mann-Kendall test; Z scores of the last 38 years of observations were calculated. 100 people were interviewed in 20 rural settlements and asked about the changes they observed in precipitation, temperature, vegetation, biodiversity and water resources in their environment. Environmental changes were associated with meteorological data and climate change and some of them were mapped with Arcgis 10.5 software. According to the observation data of Tokat and Turhal Meteorological stations (1985- 2023), the average annual temperature of Kazova region is 12.9 °C and the average annual precipitation is 431 mm. According to the Mann-Kendall test, the average temperature in Kazova tends to increase while the average precipitation tends to decrease. The Z scores of 39 years of observation data have increased positively in the last 10 years, with the highest deviation values reached in 2010, 2014 and 2018. In 2024, February, April and June were recorded as the hottest months and the hottest summer season in 39 years was experienced. According to the information obtained as a result of field studies, the flow characteristics of seasonal rivers in the region, vegetation periods of plants and ripening periods of agricultural products have changed. Significant differences have emerged in extreme weather events, precipitation regime and characteristics in the region. While 95% of the people interviewed confirmed environmental changes, 5% evaluated them as normal, and 30% did not associate the problems with climate change.