Devastated by the combined impact of massive drainage works and upstream damming since the 1980's, Al-Hammar Marsh, Southern Iraq, has completely collapsed with 94 % of its land cover transformed into bare land and salt crusts by 2000. After a policy initiated to restore the Iraqi marshes again in 2003, the marsh recovered about half of its former area. As a part of the ecological recovery assessment of this newly inundated marsh, it is important to investigate the extend impact of desiccation after 3 years of inundation on water quality as the latter plays an important role in the restoration process of the marshes. Therefore, from a restoration point of view, major and trace element distribution and sourcing as well as seasonal variations were studied in the re-flooded marsh of Al-Hammar. First, the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment Water Quality Index [1] analyses applied revealed threatened or impaired water quality and conditions in the marsh that depart from natural or desirable levels. Second, multivariate statistical techniques such as Agglomerative Hierarchal Cluster Analyses (AHCA) that were used to analyze the data and identify the possible sources of water pollution in the marsh indicated that some elements such as Ca, SO4, Mg, TDS, Cl, Na, Co, and Ni are associated with natural sourcing while other elements such as Cd, Zn, Pb, and turbidity indicated a possible anthropogenic sourcing. Third, seasonal variations investigation displayed that the water quality is affected by natural seasonal processes such as evaporation and rainfall as well as biological activities. Dry season exhibited an increase in TDS, Ca, Mg, Na, Cl, SO4, and Cd due to the concentration by evaporation during the season compared to the dilution by rainfall during the wet season. In contrast, BOD and DO levels showed a considerable decrease in dry season owing to the poor water ability to hold oxygen at high temperature as a result of higher rate of microbial metabolism.
Concentrations and distribution of major, minor, and trace elements were
studied in thirteen sediment samples from Al-Hammar Marsh.
Multivariate statistical techniques such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA)
and Agglomerative Hierarchal Cluster Analysis (AHCA) as well as pollution
analysis such as Enrichment Factor (EF) were used to process the data and identify
the possible sources of elemental constituents in sediment samples.Results of
chemical analysis revealed that Major element mean concentrations were in the
order of Ca> Si> K> Mg> and minor elements were in the order of Al> Fe>S>Cl>
Ti> P>Mn> Sr> N and trace elements were in the order of Cr> Ni> Zr>V>Zn>
Myriophyllum spicatum distribution in Al-Burgga marsh, Hor Al-Hammar was described in relation to some of the physical-chemical properties for its habitat (water depth, light penetration, water temperature, water salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, Ca+2, Mg+2, reactive NO2=, reactive NO3-1, and reactive PO4-3) during 2011, seasonally. CANOCO ordination program (CCA) was used to analyse the data. Its vegetation cover percentage was with its peak at summer, its value was 90 %, while the lowest value was 20 % in winter. Statistically, Positive relationships for WT, sal., Ca+2, Mg+2, reactive NO2=, reactive NO3-1, and reactive PO4-3 with the vegetation cover percentage were observed. While, negative relationships for WD, pH, and DO with the ve
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Seasonally variations in Physio-chemical parameters of Al-Auda Marsh were investigated from November 2012 to July 2013. In this research examine pH, turbidity, EC, DO, BOD5 and Ca+2, Mg+2, NO2 , NO3 , PO4 , SiO3 ions. Six sites were randomly located and water samples. pH values varied from (7.3 ±0.0) in site 4 during autumn to (8.5±0.5) in site 6 during winter, EC values ranged from (2020±186) μ.s/cm in site 5 during autumn to (6390±875) μ.s/cm in site 6 during summer, mean turbidity data were found to vary from (6.5 ±1.8) NTU in site 4 in summer to (31.0 ±1.6) NTU in site 3 in autumn. DO highest mean value (10.9 ± 0.6) was for site 6 in autumn and the lowest value (6.5±0.9) mg/l for site3 in spring. In case of BOD5 highest and
... Show MoreThe fish assemblage in the East Hammar marsh was studied during December 2009 to May 2010. The fish fauna of the marsh consisted of 17 native, 23 marine (49%) and seven alien species. The dominant species were Liza abu (14.6%), Carassius auratus (13.4%) and Thryssa mystax (11.2%). The resident species formed 44.7%, occasional species 36.1% and seasonal species 19.2% of the total number of fish species. Fish species diversity index ranged from 1.28 to 2.61, richness from 1.98 to 4.50 and evenness from 0.45 to 0.78. Salinity ranged from 1.45 to 7.74‰. The increase in the proportion of marine species (49%) in the fish assemblage due to marine waters progress from Arabian Gulf had an impact on the values of ecological indices and the
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Al- Masab AL-Aam canal (or the Main Drain) is a vital strategic project in Iraq. It collects the drain water from the agricultural lands and drains to the Arabian Gulf via Shatt Al-Basra. Fifteen water samples were collected from different sites along the course of the Al- Masab Al-Aam canal southern sector extending from Nasiriyah Basra to evaluate the hydrochemical properties. The variation of the sediment’s texture along the southern sector was investigated. The results reflected that the sediment is characterized by the presence of sand, silt, and clay. It is noted that the amount of salt in the water increases during the summer when temperatures are rising, and consequently, the evaporation rate increases. Changes in the saturatio
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The object of the presented study was to monitor the changes that had happened in the main features (water, vegetation, and soil) of Al-Hammar Marsh region. To fulfill this goal, different satellite images had been used in different times, MSS 1973, TM 1990, ETM+ 2000, 2002, and MODIS 2009, 2010. A new technique of the unsupervised classification called (Color Extracting Technique) was used to classify the satellite images. MATLAP programming used the technique and separated Al-Hammar Marsh from other water features (rivers, irrigated lands, etc.) when calculated the changes in the water content of the study region. ArcGIS 9.3 (arcMAP, arcToolbox) were used to achieve this work and calculate area of each class.
An aggregate of 30 samples (water, sediments, and plants) was collected from Al-Chibayish Marsh, located in Dhi-Qar Governorate southern of Iraq to investigate the bioaccumulation and biomagnification in marsh plants (flora) and to assess the marsh plants pollution condition. The study was conducted by testing the macro elements, microelements, heavy metals, and organic compositions in water, sediments, and plants. Plant analyses revealed that the Salvinia natans plant species had the highest concentrations of macroelements Mg, Ca, Na, P, and N compared with other marsh plants and sediments. As a result, the cation binds itself to be more than one charged cationic site and this behaviour was observed in Salvinia natans sp. which has the
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The study area is part of the city of Samawa in Al Muthanna Governorate in southern Iraq. The study area is located to the west of Samawa city bounded by the north latitudes 31⁰11'-31o42' and east longitudes 44o58'- 45⁰16'and its groundwater resources are developed for supply and irrigation purposes. In order to evaluate the quality of groundwater in the study area, twenty three groundwater samples were collected and analyzed for physical and chemical parameters. Hydrochemical analysis showed that the groundwater of the study area is excessively mineralized and very hard. The increase in flow length of groundwater in the study area caused a change in water
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The current study aimed to assessing the water quality and discussing the hydrochemical characteristics and seasonal variation of surface water on the aspect of metals in Shatt-Al-Hilla, Babil Governorate, Central Iraq. Water samples were collected from eleven sampling sites of Shatt Al-Hila for wet season in March (18/3/2018), and a dry season in July (30/7/2018).
Surface water samples were analyzed for physiochemical parameters such as water temperature pH, EC, TDS, major ions (Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, SO42-, Cl-, and HCO3-), nutrients (NO3-, and PO43-) for both seasons and DO for one season
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