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.
Three seismic instantaneous attributes (phase, frequency, and variance) were utilized on 3D-seismic poststack migrated data, covering 617.31 km2, integrated with data of two wells (Du-1 and Du-2) in Dujaila oil field, southeast of Iraq. They gave good results in detecting reef buildups and confirmed the existence of the stratigraphic hydrocarbon trap that was not obvious in the conventional seismic amplitude sections. They display several seismic criteria in attribute sections for recognizing reef buildups and hydrocarbon accumulation, such as phase reversal, low frequency, and high amplitude variance. The seismic attributes emphasized that the stratigraphic trap of reef rudist buildups with hydrocarbon content is con
... Show More
(2)
This study estimated seven heavy metals (Fe, Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni, Cd, Cr) in water (dissolved and particulate phase), sediments and some aquatic organisms including two species from aquatic plants (Ceratophyllum demersum&Phragmites australis); one species of clam (Psedontopeses euphratics) and two species from fish (Oreochromis aureus& Leuciscus vorax)in four sites within Mashroo AL- Musayyib channel project/ branch of Euphrates river, Babylon , medial of Iraq . This aims to show the concentration of these elements, their fate and the mechanisms of their transmission through the food chain in this lotic aquatic system ; also in addition to examining some physicochemical properties of ri
... Show More
(5)
(1)
This study focused on the soil of the Al-Khassa Sub Basin, thirty-four soil samples were collected from different areas of land use and differences in human activity.
Physicochemical properties of the soil were examined Hydrogen Potential (pH), Organic Matter (O.M), Loss Of Ignition (L.O.I), Total Organic Carbon (TOC), Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) and Total Hydrocarbon (THC).
Hydrogen Potential (pH) showed that the soil is alkaline above seven with a mean 7.98.
Organic Matter (O.M) of the study area with a mean 1.28 % and high value found in Agricultural areas.Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) with a mean 42.64 (cmol/kg) that is proportional to the granular size of the soil that silty c
... Show More
(2)
This study aims to evaluate the performance of the sewage treatment plant in Al- Diwaniya, one of cities in the southern part in Iraq. This evaluation could be used to facilitate effluent quality assessment or optimal process control of the plant. The influent reaching the plant is considered a medium to strong in strength with BOD5/COD ratio in the range 0.23 and 0.69 which can be considered an easily degradable sewage by the biological processes performed by the activated sludge unit. The quality of the effluent was found to be higher than the Iraqi standards for disposal to water bodies. The BOD5/COD ratios of the treated sewage varied over a wide range as low of 0.13 to 1.48 indicating operational problems in the plant. Regressio
... Show MoreBacterial contamination of AL-Habania reservoir was studied during the period from February 2005 to January 2006; samples were collected from four stations (AL-Warrar, AL-Theban regulator, middle of the reservoir and the fourth was towards AL-Razzaza reservoir). Coliform bacteria, faecal Coliforms, Streptococci, and faecal Streptococci were used as parameters of bacterial contamination in waters through calculating the most probable number. Highest count of Coliform bacteria (1500 cell/100ml) was recorded at AL-Razaza during August, and the lowest count was less than (300 cell/100ml) in the rest of the collection stations for all months. Fecal Coliform bacteria ranged between less than 300 cells/100ml in all stations for all months to 700 c
... Show More
In this paper the wind data that is measured for 12 months (January to December 2011) at Al-Hay district of Wasit province, southern IRAQ country has been analyzed statistically. The wind speed at heights of 10 m above ground level was measured for every 10 minutes interval. The statistical analysis of wind data was performed using WAsP software which is based on Weibull distributions. The Weibull shape and scale parameters is obtained and used in this paper statistics. The achieved results demonstrated that the study area has Annual Mean Energy Production (AMEP) about 219.002 MWh. The computations have been performed on 70m hub‟s height of the turbine and on Earth surface roughness length (0.0, 0.03, 0.1, 0.4, 1.5) m respectively.
This study aims to evaluate the performance of the sewage treatment plant in Al-Diwaniya, one of cities in the southern part in Iraq. This evaluation could be used to facilitate effluent quality assessment or optimal process control of the plant. The influent reaching the plant is considered a medium to strong in strength with BOD5/COD ratio in the range 0.23 and 0.69 which can be considered an easily degradable sewage by the biological processes performed by the activated sludge unit. The quality of the effluent was found to be higher than the Iraqi standards for disposal to water bodies. The BOD5/COD ratios of the treated sewage varied over a wide range as low of 0.13 to 1.48 indicating operational problems in the plant. Regression ana
... Show More
(1)
During a period of two years, from January 1995 till December 1996, the first survey on fish parasites in Bahr Al-Najaf depression, mid Iraq, was achieved. A total of 6992 fishes, belonging to 11 species, were collected and inspected for external and internal parasites. These fishes were infected with three protozoans (Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, Trichodina domerguei and Myxobolus pfeifferi), two monogeneans (Dactylogyrus cornu and Gyrodactylus elegans), two digenetic trematodes (Clinostomum complanatum and Ascocotyle coleostoma), one nematode (Contracaecum sp.) and one acanthocephalan (Neoechinorhynchus iraqensis). Five fish species were recorded as new h
... Show MoreHepatitis E (HE) is an inflammation of the liver caused by hepatitis E virus
(HEV) infection. Iraq is one of the Asian countries with high incidence and
prevalence of hepatitis. In this paper, HE prevalence will be determined in Al-
Muthanna province /Iraq. Commercially available Micro-ELISA for marker of
hepatitis E (HEV IgM, Foresight, USA) kit was used to test (270) patients for HEV
IgMantibodies. Also (10) blood samples from normal healthy individuals were used
as normal control in this study. Among the (270) analyzed serum samples, a total of
(72) samples (26.66 %) were found to be positive for anti-HEV IgM antibodies, and
all these patients were tested for confirmatory test at central public health
labora
This field experiment, was conducted to investigate a comparison of two methods for harvesting potatoes: mechanical and handy when using moldboard and chisel plow for primary tillage and three different distances for planting tubers in the rows 15, 25, and 35 cm in silt clay loam soil south of Baghdad. The factorial experiment followed a randomized complete block design with three replications using L.S.D. 5 % and 1 %. Mechanical harvest recorded the best valid potato tubers at 88.78 %, marketable yield of 31.74 ton. ha-1, efficiency lifted 95.68 %, tubers damage index 28.41, speeding up the harvesting process and reducing time and effort. Handy harvest gave the least damage to potato tubers, 6.02 %, and unlifted potato tubers, 4.32 %. Howe
... Show More