A Study of Phytoplankton Communities and Related Environmental Factors in Euphrates River (between Two Cities: Al-Musayyab and Hindiya), Iraq

Abstract

The phytoplankton communities and related physical-chemical features of the Euphrates River at its middle region inside Iraqi territory were studied during the study period from October 2011 to September 2012. Samples were taken from Al-Musayab district extending to Al-Hindia district. The phytoplankton community (quantitative, qualitative and Chlorophyll-a) have been studied, in addition to many environmental parameters such as temperature, pH, electric conductivity (EC), Salinity (‰), TDS, TSS, dissolved oxygen, BOD 5. A total of 105 phytoplankton taxa belonging to Bacillariophyta (69), Chlorophyta (19), Cynophyta (12), Euglenophyta (3), and Dinophyta (2) were recorded within the present study period. Some algal genera dominated mostly in the study period and sites such as Scendesmus, Melosira, Cymbella, Diatoma, Navicula, Nitiazschia and Syndera. A statistical analysis was done using the canonical correspondence analysis (CCA).

Quality, Quantity and Origin of PAHs (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons) in Lotic Ecosystem of Al-Hilla River, Iraq

“…In current work, TOC (%) ranged (0.4%-2.2%) and the lowest values were recorded on Site 3 might be due to few human activities and lack of flow of sewage at this site throughout the study period. The highest values were in Site 6 [41]. There is an obvious relation between PAH and TOC observed in the current study that indicates the positive relation between TOC and PAHs [62,63].…”

“…The highest values of air and water temperatures were recorded in July 2010 at Sites 6 and 1, respectively, while the temperature of air and water through the study period was always above 5 o C. Temperature affects water physical properties [39]. The present results for both air and water temperatures were influenced by the clear changeable seasonal climate in Iraq [40,41]. Al-Hilla River had been characterized as a fast flowing river in comparison with other Iraqi River [42].…”

“…pH values were 7.6-8.8, this indicated alkaline which is a common features in Iraqi inland water [42,43]. Higher concentration of total hardness might be due to high evaporation rates during summer season and the availability of cations [39] might be also due to high precipitation and thus high soil leaching and high present velocities [41]. The present study indicates that the diluting effects of precipitation and rising water discharge of studied river were the reasons of lower values of hardness, and it matched with other studies [42,43].…”

Ecological Study of Epiphytic Diatoms on Two Submerged Aquatic Macrophytes in Tigris River, Iraq

“…Epiphytic algae attaches to their hosts in various forms such as encrusting, basal, mucilage, long or short stalk, and pad forms (10). Due to the sensitivity of the benthic algae, they are used as bioindicators to gauge the aquatic environmental conditions (28). The present study aimed to account for epiphytic diatoms on two species of host macrophytes in Tigris River and to fill the knowledge gap in epiphytic diatoms in Wasit province south of Iraq for the first time.…”

Taxonomic characterization of a brackish water, bloom-forming Peridiniopsis species (Peridiniales, Dinophyceae) from Iraq

“…To date, the records of dinoflagellates in Iraq are scarcely documented (Kell and Saad 1975;Maulood et al 1993Maulood et al , 2013Salman et al 2013). Meanwhile, according to the last checklist of algal flora in Iraq (Maulood et al 2013) the occurrence of Peridiniopsis species has never been previously recorded in any Iraqi water environment.…”