Biodiversity is one of the important biological factors in determining water quality and maintaining the
ecological balance. In this study, there are 223 species of phytoplankton were identified, and they are as
follows: 88 species of Bacillariophyta and were at 44%,70 species of Chlorophyta and they were at 29 %, 39
species of Cyanophyta and they were at 16 %, 12 species of Euglenozoa and they were at 4 %, four species of
Miozoa and they were at 3 %, and, Phylum Charophyta and Ochrophyta were only eight and two species,
respectively and both of them were at 2%. The common phytoplankton recorded in the sites studied
include Nitzschia palea, Scenedesmus quadricauda, Oscillatoria princeps, and Peridinium

Water pollution is an issue that can be exacerbated by drought as increased concentrations of unwanted substances are a consequence of lower water levels. Polluted water that flows into natural marshlands leads to the deposition of pollutants in the interior of the marsh. Here we present evidence that the interior of the Central Marsh (CM) in southern Iraq suffers from higher levels of pollution than areas closer to the source of water entering the marsh (the Euphrates River). A 1.7m embankment that halts the flow of the Euphrates is only infrequently breached and so the CM is effectively the terminal destination of the waters (and their associated pollutants and agricultural waste) flowing from the West of Iraq.

A range of water

    Geodiversity is the variety within abiotic natural elements that include: rocks, minerals, landforms, soil types, and water resources. Recently ecologists and naturalists recognized that there is close relationship between geodiversity and ecosystems. Huwaiza marsh is located south eastern Iraq within Lower Mesopotamian plain. The main rock bed units which crop out north east of the studied area comprises many types of rocks: conglomerate, sandstone, mudstone, siltstone and claystone belong to Bai Hassan, Mukdadiya and Injana Formations. The general elevation of the area ranges around 5 meters (a. s. l.) near the marsh and increase northeast to more than 100 meters (a. s. l.) and the Land forms are: cuesta, oxbow lakes

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&gt

The study attempts to assess water quality in Abu-Zirig Marsh which used epiphytic Diatom community for assessing water quality. Many of Diatom indices {Trophic diatom index (TDI), Diatom index (DI), Generic diatom index (GDI) have been used to give qualitative information about the status of the freshwater ecosystem(good, moderate, high pollution). In this study, the epiphytic diatoms on both host aquatic plants Phragmites australis and Typha domengensis were collected from Abu-Zirig Marsh within Thi-Qar Province at three sites in Autumn, 2018 and winter, 2019. Epiphytic diatoms were Identified by the preparation of permanent slides method, some species of epiphytic diatom showed dominance such as Cyclotella menegh

Abstract. Al-Abbawy DAH, Al-Thahaibawi BMH, Al-Mayaly IKA, Younis KH. 2021. Assessment of some heavy metals in various aquatic plants of Al-Hawizeh Marsh, southern of Iraq. Biodiversitas 22: 338-345. In order to describe the degree of contamination of aquatic environments in Iraq, heavy metals analysis (Fe, Ni, Cr, Cd, Pb, and Zn) was conducted for six aquatic macrophytes from different locations of Al-Hawizeh Marsh in southern Iraq. The six species were Azolla filiculoides (floating plant), Ceratophyllum demersum, Potamogeton pectinatus, Najas marina (submerged plants), Phragmites australis, and Typha domingensis (emergent plants). The results indicate that cadmium, chromium, and iron concentrations in aquatic plants were above the

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 variati

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

The 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