Assessment of Environmental Changes in the Iraqi Marshes by Index of Biological Integrity英文文献资料.docVIP

Journal of Environmental Protection, 2012, 3, 681-688 681 /10.4236/jep.2012.37080 Published Online July 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/jep) Assessment of Environmental Changes in the Iraqi Marshes by Index of Biological Integrity Azhar A. Al-Saboonchi , Haider S. Abid , Abdul Hameed M. Jawad Alobaidy , Bahram K. Maulood , 1 2 3 4 Ibrahem M. Abd 5 1 Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources, College of Agriculture, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq; 2 Department of Biology, Environmental Research Center, University of Technology, Nature Iraq, Sulaimani, Iraq. College of Science for Women, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq; Baghdad, Iraq; Email: azharalsaboonchi@, jawaddhy@yahoo.co.in 3 4 Twin Rivers Institute, American University of Iraq-Sulaimani, Sulaimani, Iraq; 5 Received March 23 rd , 2012; revised April 28 th th , 2012; accepted May 29 , 2012 ABSTRACT Preventing water flow through the marshes in southern Iraq was a policy of the previous regime in Iraq during 1990’s. This phenomena lead to tremendous structural changes in ecosystems, however after 2003 rehabilitation policy applied to the area was implementd in order to re-establish marshes ecosystems. In this study, a zooplankton Index of Biotic Integrity (Z-IBI) was measured for the first time in different sites in the Iraqi marshes. The following eight metrics were used: zooplankton ratio, relative abundance of Calanoid, relative abundance of Cyclopoid, relative abundance of Cladocera, relative abundance of Rotifera, biomass of tolerant species, biomass of sensitive species, and ratio of zoo- plankton biomass to phytoplankton biomass. Results of application of Z-IBI on the Iraqi marshes in this study indi