Restoration Assessment: I- Phosphorus and Nitrogen dynamics versus phytoplankton biomass in Al-Hawizeh marshland, Iraq
Author(s)
Sama Samir AlMaarofi , Ali Abdul Zahra Douabul ,
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Abstract
Inundation of the Mesopotamian marshlands, southern Iraq, brings the anticipation of restoring the destroyed habitat to life again. It is important from the restoration point of view to study the relationship between water quality parameters and marshland’s productivity. Al-Hawizeh, one of the three main marshlands of the Mesopotamia, has been studied intensively after re-flooding in April 2003. During the desiccation period, the marshland features three significant parts: never dried, semidried, and completely dried areas. The main goal of this study is to find whether the newly re-flooded marshes in Al-Hawizeh exhibit healthy nutrient dynamics in contrast to their primary production biomass.Water quality parameters and chlorophyll-a concentrations were monitored on a monthly basis from May 2006 to April 2007 ineight marshes in Hawizeh. The result indicates significant differences (P> 0.005) between the selected marshes in Al-Hawizeh, whichsuggest that Al-Hawizeh marshland system is not a one homogeneous ecosystem as used to be pre desiccation period. Also, there was a relationship between chlorophyll-a and both TP and TN concentrations;however, the relationship between chlorophyll-a and TN was stronger than TP. In conclusion, the overall water quality assessment suggests a good prospective recovery ability of the semi dried marshes and marshes has a river water input comparing to the completely dried marshes in Al-Hawizeh.
Keywords
Mesopotamian marshes, restoration assessment, water quality assessment; phosphorus variation, nitrogen variation, chlorophyll-a.
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