In this paper we describe the use of modified passive capillary samplers (PCSs) to investigate the water isotope variability of snowmelt at selected sites in Slovenia during winter 2011/2012 and during winter 2012/2013. First, PCS with 3 fibreglass wicks covering approximately 1 m2 were tested to determine sample variability. We observed high variability in the amount of snowmelt water collected by individual wick (185 to 345 g) and in the isotope composition of oxygen (δ18O −10.43‰ to −9.02‰) and hydrogen (δ2H −70.5‰ to −63.6‰) of the collected water. Following the initial tests, a more detailed investigation was performed in winter 2012/2013 and the variability of snowmelt on the local scale among the different levels (i.e. within group, between the close and more distant groups of wicks) was investigated by applying 30 fibreglass wicks making use of Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA) and a balanced hierarchical sampling design. The amount of snowmelt water collected by an individual wick during the whole experiment was between 116 and 1705 g, while the isotope composition varied from −16.32‰ to −12.86‰ for δ18O and from −120.2‰ to −82.5‰ for δ2H. The main source of variance (80%) stems from the variability within the group of wicks (e.g. within group) while other sources contribute less than 20% of the variability. Amount weighted samples for the 2012–2013 season show no significant differences among groups, but significant differences for particular sampling events were observed. These investigations show that due to the variability within the group of wicks, a large number of wicks (> 5) are needed to sample snowmelt.
To this day five Gobio gobio subspecies in northern, western and central Anatolia, in Turkey have been classified. Some subspecies were described based on 2-4 specimens by B a t t a l g i l (1942, 1944), L a d i g e s (1960), B ă n ă r e s c u & N a l b a t (1973), B ă n ă r e s c u (1992), B ă n ă r e s c u (1999). In this study, Gobio gobio specimens from the type localities of various running waters and lakes of norht, norhwest and central Anatolia were collected and ANOVA (analysis of variance), cluster analysis and canonical discriminant analysis were applied to fifty variables (eight meristic and forty-two metric characters derived from thirty-four measured or counted variables) to show the main differences between them. From these statistical analyses, Gobio gobio specimens were placed in one of three groups: G1 Beyşehir Lake; G2 Sakarya River Basin, Gerede and Melendiz Stream; G3 İnsuyu Stream, southwards from Tuz Lake. Measurements Standard length/Head height (SL/hH), Head length/Head height (C/hH), Standard length/Head length (SL/C), Predorsal distance/Postdorsal distance (pD/poD), Standard length/Postdorsal distance (SL/poD) and Standard length/Predorsal distance (SL/pD) were important characteristics for distinguishing the populations of Gobio gobio.