(Click here for images from the Taurus mountains and Mediterranean riverine forest)
Photographs taken during vegetation surveys in the Konya plain and surrounding areas, and the Taurus mountains in 1999 and 2001:
Open oak park woodland growing in formerly grazed/coppicing area (on the road from Konya to Seydişehir)
Tree architecture and spacing in formerly grazed/coppiced oak park woodland
Wild pear (Pyrus) tree growing together with oak, in oak park woodland
Karadağ: west-facing rocky slope covered with oak and almond scrub
Karadağ: spiny wild almond shrub
Wild plum in protected forest area on Karadağ
Wild pear in protected forest area on Karadağ
Field boundaries with sparse trees and shrubs at Karadağ. Note the Astragalus shrubs in the foreground, just by the roadside, indicating intensive grazing
Karadağ: field boundaries with oak and plum trees
The effects of water extraction for irrigation, and global warming on the Konya plain wetlands
Lake Hotamiş in 1971 (photo courtesy of Gordon Hillman)
Boat carrying reeds in lake Hotamiş (1971; photo courtesy of Gordon Hillman)
General view of lake Hotamiş (1971; photo courtesy of Gordon Hillman)
General view of the Hotamiş lake from Pinarbaşi, at the foothills of Karadağ, in 1994. Note the dried up lake floor and the reed vegetation surviving nearby the spring-fed pool (photo courtesy of Seona Anderson)
View of the Pinarbaşi springs in 1999. By that time the pool had completely dried up
The dried floor of lake Hotamiş with remnant reed roots (1999)
Very shallow pools of saline water in lake Hotamiş were the only remaining water bodies in 1999, created by rainwater in shallow depressions and runoff from the surrounding uplands. They are also rapidly diminishing. No fishing activities are observed in the lake today
Reeds used as roofing material together with mudbrick, earth, shrubby bits and branches/twigs, in a pattern common to villages in this part of Central Anatolia. Photo from the village of Türkmencamili in the Çumra area
Almond-dominated woodland steppe nearby the village of Gökyürt, on the hills flanking the southern edge of the Konya plain
Gökyürt: Almonds growing together with hackberry trees
Hackberry tree at Gökyürt
Trees left standing amidst wheat fields in Gökyürt
Gökyürt: wood cut for fuel is piled up in open spaces nearby the village houses
Gökyürt: stripped poles (back) together with branches and bark pieces (front), the latter left over from timber preparation
© Eleni Asouti, 2006