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.
This paper deals the prediction of the process of random spatial data of two properties, the first is called Primary variables and the second is called secondary variables , the method that were used in the prediction process for this type of data is technique Co-kriging , the method is usually used when the number of primary variables meant to predict for one of its elements is measured in a particular location a few (because of the cost or difficulty of obtaining them) compare with secondary variable which is the number of elements are available and highly correlated with primary variables, as was the&nbs
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The aim of this study is to investigate the sedimentation environments and diagenetic processes of the Ibrahim Formation (Oligocene-early Miocene) in Zurbatiya, eastern Iraq. The Ibrahim Formation is comprised mostly of clayey micrite and skeletal grains composed of planktonic foraminifera, calcispheres, radiolaria, and benthic foraminifera. Glauconite and pyrite were documented in some restricted zones of this formation; they reflect quiet and reducing conditions. Radiolaria were identified in Late-Oligocene which was not known previously at this age regionally in carbonate formations of the Arabian Plate (AP). Mudstone, wackestone, and planktonic foraminiferal wackepackstone are the main microfacies that are affected by dissolutio
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This research studies the petrography, mineralogy and diagenetic history of the Sarmord Formation at Sulaimani and Erbil Governorates in Northeastern Iraq. The Sarmord Formation consists mainly of alternated yellowish to bluish gray bedded marly limestone with yellowish gray soft marl beds. Petrographic investigations of the marly limestones were based on 270 thin sections and show that the skeletal grains include bioclasts, foraminiferas, radiolarians, calcispheres, echinoderms, ostracods and cephalopods. The groundmass is composed of micrite with light brown to gray colors, rich in organic materials and iron oxides. The X-ray diffraction analysis of the marls revealed that the abundant clay minerals in the Sarmord Formation ar
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Reconstruction project management in the cities of Mosul, Anbar, and Tikrit, in Iraq still faces major obstacles that impede the comprehensive performance of these projects. It is thus necessary to improve the arising challenge estimation in the implementation of reconstruction projects and evaluate their components: time, cost, quality, and scope. This study used the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to prioritize major and minor criteria in the influential causes of challenges and formulate a mathematical model to help decision-makers estimate them. Using the Super Decisions software, the final results indicated that changes in scope reached 40.8%, which is the greatest difficulty, followed by changes in cost at 27.6%, changes in
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The shape dimensions and characteristics of pollen grains and seeds have importance in distinguish among species. Therefore, the present study included morphological characteristics of pollen grains and seeds for eight species belonging to eight genera of the family Brassicaceae and these species are: Alliaria petiolata (M.Bieb) Cavara et Grand, Aubrieta parviflora Boiss, Cardamine hirsuta L., Crambe orientalis L., Eromobium aegyptiacum (Spreng.) Schweinf.et Asch.ex Boiss., Parlatoria cakiloidea Boiss., Sterigmostemum sulphureum (Banksetsol.) Bornm. Neotorularia torulosa (Desf.) Hedge & J. Leonard. The pollen grains were studied in morphological and full measurements were taken, the study showed that the majority of the pollen grai
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The Cretaceous Balambo Formation from three sections in Kurdistan Region of Northern Iraq was studied. The selected sections are located in the Zagros Fold -Thrust Belt. Eleven rock samples were analyzed by means of the organic geochemical method, Bitumen extraction method, and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry to determine the bitumen and hydrocarbon content, kerogen types, origin of organic matter, thermal maturity level, and depositional environment. The analyzed samples are considered to have an excellent potential in Baranan-1.G1 and Sazan sections, with poor to fair potential in Baraw section. The Baranan-1.G1 source rocks are of type II kerogen (oil prone), whereas Sazan and Baraw samples are of type II/III (oil/ gas prone). De
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The genus Latrodectus Walckenaer, 1805 (Araneae: Theridiidae) is a worldwide distribute genus (Graudins et al., 2001), it includes a group of species commonly referred to as widow spiders. It's considered a taxonomically complex genus as the status of several forms had not been properly evaluated and specific boundaries are not well defined or understood (Levi, 1959; 1967; Garb et al., 2001), therefore, in multiple cases, populations has been uncritically referred to as different taxa. Discriminating between Latrodectus species using morphology has always been problematic (Levi, 1983), it is difficult taxonomically and readily separated from members of other Theridiid genera (Mirshamsi, 2005). The Genus Asagena Sundevall, 1833 was revalidat
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