Impact of Hindiya Dam on Copepoda Diversity in Euphrates River, North of Babylon Province, Iraq

Abstract

The study was the first trial to evaluate the effect of the Hindiya Dam on the Euphrates copepods diversity during January to December 2019. The copepod density average was decreased clearly at downstream the dam compared with dam site. Nauplii showed the highest percentages relative abundance while Macrocyclops albidus albidus was the lowest. Thirty-eight taxa were recorded, including 9, 4, 2, 1 and 22 taxa of Calanoida, Harpacticoida, parasitic cyclops, nauplii, and Cyclopoda, respectively. The average values of species richness index declined from 0.83 at site 1 to 0.62 at dam downstream. Copepods were considered as a distributed richness. Site 4 with 5 had the lowest similarity (49.99%), whereas the highest Jaccard index percentage (92.5%) was between sites 1 and 4. The average values of Shannon-Weiner index ranged from 0.788- 0.96 bit/ind at up and downstream dam, respectively. The dam is considered as moderate to unbalance according to uniformity index. Constant taxa decreased from 6 on upstream to 4 downstream dam. It was concluded that the change in hydrological conditions from current water in site 1 to limnetic basins in site 2, then back to current water at sites 3, 4 and 5 downstream dam had a significant impact on the spatial composition of the copepod community.