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.
The type of groundwater in the studied area is slightly brackish. In general, the dominant water type is calcium-sulfate. The reasons behind these different chemical groundwater types can be referred to the active ion exchange between the groundwater of the Dammam aquifer and Rus Formation. The groundwater of the Dammam unconfined aquifer is not suitable for human drinking in all the parameters properties. The groundwater class is fair in the Qasir Al-Ukhaider area, while the Shebcha area and Al-Salman area are poor class except the eastern part of Al-Salman area is very poor.
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The Yamama Formation was studied in three wells (Fh-1, Fh-2, and Fh-3) within Faihaa oil field, south Iraq. Thin sections were studied by using the polarizing microscope examination in order to determine microfossils and biozone. Thirty-five species of benthic foraminifera were recognized, including four index species. In addition, twelve species of calcareous green algae were recognized, including two index species. Other fossils that were recognized in Yamama Formation include Gastropoda, Bryozoa, Coral, Rudist, and Pelecypoda.
Six biozones were observed, which are Charentia cuvillieri sp. (Range Zone of Berriasian age), Psudochryalidina infracretacea
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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
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Since the appearance of COVID-19 disease as an epidemic and pandemic disease, many studies are performed to uncover the genetic nature of the newly discovered coronavirus with unique clinical features. The last three human coronavirus outbreaks, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 are caused by Beta-Coronaviruses. Horizontal genetic materials transfer was proven from one coronavirus to the other coronavirus of non-human origin like infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) of avian. Horizontal genetic materials transfer was also from non-corona viruses like astroviruses and equine rhinovirus (ERV-2) or from coronavirus-unrelated viruses, like influenza virus type C. However, SARS-CoV-2 is identical to SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. Interestingly, Wuhan ci
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The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on EOS/Aqua satellite provides diverse measurements of Methane (CH4) distribution at different pressure levels in the Earth's atmosphere. The focus of this research is to analyze the vertical variations of (CH4) volume mixing ratio (VMR) time-series data at four Standard pressure levels SPL (925, 850, 600, and 300 hPa) in the troposphere above six cities in Iraq from January 2003 to September 2016. The analysis results of monthly average CH4VMR time-series data show a significant increase between 2003 and 2016, especially from 2009 to 2016; the minimum values of CH4 were in 2003 while the maximum values were in 2016. The vertical distribution of CH4<
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Background: Temperatures and seasons have been suggested as environmental factors that influence fecundity in mammals. It has been reported that there is a link between human fertility and seasonal changes.
Objectives: The aim of the study was to assess whether the seassonal changes in tempreture, humidity, light intensity and light duration do influence fecundity and reproduction in the study group of Iraqi women who were from Baghdad.
Patients and Methods:This study was conducted on 1638 randomly selected womenn who were from Baghdad city and were normaly delivered at Al- Elwiyah Maternity Teaching Hospital during 2014. A detailed questionnaire form was filled through d
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Purification of fifteen NaCl samples from natural and different area in the middle and south of Iraq are prepared and studied the structural characteristics of samples by powder X-ray diffraction analysis at ð›Œ=1.542Ã…. The present work considered the specific activities of naturally occurring radioactive materials in salt samples, which are measured and analyzed using high resolution HPGe system. Also, the radiological parameters have been considered in this work. The average specific concentration (in Bq.kg-1) of the salt samples is found 16.864.92 for 226Ra, 5.972.05 for 232Th and 9.852.8 for 40K, respectively, which are below the national levels, 40Bq.kg-1, 30Bq.k
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A3D geological model was constructed for Al-Sadi reservoir/ Halfaya Oil Field which is discovered in 1976 and located 35 km from Amara city, southern of Iraq towards the Iraqi/ Iranian borders.
Petrel 2014 was used to build the geological model. This model was created depending on the available information about the reservoir under study such as 2D seismic map, top and bottom of wells, geological data & well log analysis (CPI). However, the reservoir was sub-divided into 132x117x80 grid cells in the X, Y&Z directions respectively, in order to well represent the entire Al-Sadi reservoir.
Well log interpretation (CPI) and core data for the existing 6 wells were the basis of the petrophysical model (
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