Ecosystems provide humans with services that include benefits from food, fresh water, climate regulation, and socio-economic assets. The Mesopotamian marshlands are among the largest wetlands in the Middle East and they provide various benefits. However, ecosystem services of the Marshlands are consistently undervalued in national economic analysis and decision making. This study focusses on the Central Marshes, the first National Park in Iraq, and is the first attempt at valuing a series of ecosystem services from a valuable natural ecosystem in Iraq. We adopted the Toolkit for Ecosystem Services Site-Based Assessment (TESSA) for the determination of biophysical and economic values of services at the site level. Data on key ecosystem se

Aquatic Oligochaetes community in the Iraqi southern marshes, Al- Hawiezah, Al-Chibayish and Al-Hammar, have been studied for the period from July 2006 to June 2007. Two sites within each marsh, in addition to a reference site located at Shatt Al-Garma, have been chosen for sample collection using Ekman dredge. The results revealed that the highest average annual density was 16800 individual / m2 recorded in Al-Hawiezah marsh, while in Al-Chibayish and al-Hammar marsh the density did not exceed 5111 individual/m2. In contrast, the density of Oligochaetes recorded in Shatt Al-Garma was about 10500 individual / m2. The highest monthly density was recorded in April 2007.The highest local percentage occurrence was 96% recorded in Al-Hawiezah ma

This study included a survey and review of the scientific names of the marsh insects (aquatic and surrounding it) for the purpose of unifying and updating the database. The survey reveals 109 species under 77 genera that belong to 32 families and 7 orders as follow: Coleoptera (44 species), Diptera (7 species) Ephemeroptera (2 species), Hemiptera (14 species), Hymenoptera (11 species), Lepidoptera (2 species) and Odonata with 29 species. Information of specimens' collection for each species, synonyms and geographical distribution were provided.

This study included a survey and review of the scientific names of the marsh insects (aquatic and surrounding it) for the purpose of unifying and updating the database.
The survey reveals 109 species under 77 genera that belong to 32 families and 7 orders as follow: Coleoptera (44 species), Diptera (7 species) Ephemeroptera (2 species), Hemiptera (14 species), Hymenoptera (11 species), Lepidoptera (2 species) and Odonata with 29 species.
Information of specimens' collection for each species, synonyms and geographical distribution were provided.

Groundwater is an important resource that can be used for various purposes. Various factors can change the chemistry of the GW, such as the chemical composition of an aquifer as well as the leaching of human waste into groundwater. The study area is a barren land covered by some sabkhas, in addition to some agricultural fields. The study aims to assess groundwater quality for drinking purposes using the Water Quality Index. The groundwater is chemically heterogeneous and has a wide quality range from very poor to excellent. Evaporation appears to be the controlling factor among the other shallow waters, while relatively deep water is related to rock-soil dominance. Rocks, land use and land cover have helped control the groundwater q

The Mesopotamian marshlands faced a massive destruction from many years and this lead to effect to ecosystem. In this study a survey was made on the physical chemical and heavy metals characteristics and microbiological analysis of AL Chibaish marsh during the two months. Water analyses revealed unacceptable values for almost all physiochemical and biological properties, according to WHO standard limits for drinking water. Almost all major ions and heavy metal concentrations in water showed a distinct decreasing trend at the marsh outlet station compared to other stations. In general, major and minor ions, as well as heavy metals exhibit higher concentrations in location 1 than in location 3. The concentrations of heavy metals in water show

Birds of prey (Raptors) are top predator avian species that many migrate annually through Mesopotamian marshes in southern Iraq toward their wintering grounds in Arabia and Africa, while others are breeding residents; however, information on their current status is scarce. From January 2016 to April 2019, a total of 20 field expeditions were conducted in the geographical zone of the Mesopotamian marshes, wetlands of international importance. The survey covered the Central Marshes, Al-Hammar and Hawizeh Marsh. One of the objectives of the field surveys is to list the raptors species that wintering and/or migrating through the Mesopotamian marshes and to understand their current spatial and temporal distribution. In the present study, a to

This study is concerned with the recent changes that occurred in the last three years (2017-2019) in the marshes region in southern Iraq as a result of the changes in the global climate, the study included all the water bodies in the five governorates that are located in the southern regions of Iraq (Wasit, Maysan, Dhi-Qar, Qadisiyah and Basrah), which represent the marshes lands in Iraq. Scenes of the Landsat 8 satellite are used to create a mosaic to cover the five governorates within a time window with the slightest difference between the date of the scene capture, not to exceed 8 days. The results of calculating the changes in water areas were obtained using the classifier support vector machine, where high accuracy ratios were recorded