Marsh Bulletin

Khora, Hamdan and Abu-Flus have been selected to determine the root length density on Shatt
Al-Arab River bank . The types of vegetation are murran (Paniam repens ), bardi (Typha
domingensis)and khwesa (Vallisneria spiralis) .Natural moisture content, weight density , plasticity
index, shrinkage limit , grain size distribution and Maximum Shear resistance were determined .
Besides the erodibility coefficient and erosion rate, the shear stress of flow on the bank toe and safety
factor of the bank stability were calculated for the period between October 2007 to December 2008.
The results showed that there are noticeable variations in geotechnical properties between the
sites that chosen for this study . Also, this study proved that the root length density values in the bank
toe are 0.049-0319 cm.cm-3
, 0.147-0.516 cm.cm-3
and 0.221-0.688 cm.cm-3
for murran , bardi and
khwesa plants respectively. The values of maximum shear resistance caused by the roots are 9.0 - 20.0
Pa , 14.0 - 29.0 Pa and 20.0 -37.0 Pa in soil vegetated by murran , bardi and khwesa plants
respectably ,while this values in the unvegetated soils was 4.2 Pa , 9.0 Pa and 8.0 Pa in site 1, site 2
and site 3 respectively.The safety factor of soil reached up to 1.29 , 1.67 and 1.89 in soils that
vegetated by murran , bardi and khwesa plants respectively, while these values in all of unvegetated
soil were below the 1.00 unite.
The results of this study have concluded that the density and distribution of roots within a
River bank play an important role in River bank erosion and stability, and the shear resistance of
cohesive soils that vegetated by plants can not be a unique criterion for erodibility estimation, also the
cohesion that measured by Coulomb equation in vegetated soils is not represented the true cohesion of
soil, but it is apparent (true cohesion combined with additional cohesion by roots ).

Twenty sediment samples were taken from ten sites in the southern marshes of Iraq and analyzed
for the presence of fungi by three isolation methods. The dilution technique yielded the highest
number of genera identified (32 genera). Phenol and acetic acid treated sediments yielded 17 and 16
genera respectively. Phenol treatment method was more selective for ascomycetous fungi yielded the
isolation of 12 genera.Sixty seven species assigned to thirty seven genera in addition to sterile mycelia
were identified. The isolates were assigned to 43 mitosporic fungi, 20 species of ascomycetes and 4
species of zygomycetes. The most frequent species were in decreasing order: Aspergillus terreus,
A.niger, Acremonium kiliense, Sterile mycelia, Graphium putredinis, Preussia dispersa, A. fumigatus,
Dichotomomyces ceipii and Rhizopus sp., our findings were compared with those from similar survey
on mycobiota in sediments in several parts of the world

Three species of trematodes, genus Clinostomum Leidy, 1856 were described from three different
species of piscivorous birds (viz. C. complanatum Leidy, 1856 from grey heron Ardea cinerea and
from small white Bittern Ardeola ralloides,
C. dasi Bhalerao, 1942 from Bittern Botaurus stellaris and Clinostomum sp. from each of A. cinerea
and A. ralloides). Birds were captured from East Al-Hammar marsh, south of Iraq during DecemberFebruary 2004 and December 2005. The genus Clinostomum and its three species were recorded and
described as adult for the first time in Iraq

The presence of organic pollutant in aquatic systems poses a serious threat to
environmental health. Surface sediment collected from Shatt Al-Hilla (branch of Euphrates
River, a few kilometers southern Al-Musayab town)/Iraq, in 1995 for studying levels,
distribution and origin of some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs). The concentration
of naphthalene, acenaphthylene, acenaphthene, fluorene, phenanthrene, anthracene,
fluoranthene, pyrene, (Benz(a) anthracene + Chrysene) and Benzo(b) fluoranthene were
measured in five stations. The total of these compounds ΣPAHs were ranged from 26.668 to
900.042 ng/g (dry weight). There were significant differences between various sites of the
study area. The highest is in the area adjacent to high way traffic across the river and all
studied PAHs resulted from pyrogenic and petrogenic origin.

The extensive use of pesticides on crops and overfishing illegally by fisherman in recent years in
the south of Iraq, causing serious problems on non-target organisms leading to a number of
pathological and disturbed biochemical alterations. Effect of chlorpyriphos pesticides on glycogen,
lipid and protein contents of the viscera, mantle and foot at the end of 48 h and 96h of LC50 of the
sub-lethal concentration (0.01, 0.06 ) mg / l, on the freshwater snail Bellamya bengalensis was
studied. Significant differences were noticed at the different tissues contents to the both concentrations
at 24h and 96h

The present study includes toxicity experiments carried out under laboratory conditions for
24- and 48- hours periods by using renewal toxicity test system to determine the comparative
toxicities of three types of aromatic hydrocarbons{hydroxylated aromatic hydrocarbon (phenol and β–
naphthol), azaarenes (quinoline and acridine) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (naphthalene and
phenanthrene)} to several species of molluscs found in Shatt Al–Arab river. These species of molluscs
are snails,Lymnaea auricularia,Theodoxus jordani,Physa acuta,Melanopsis nodosa,and Melanoides
tuberculata and bivalves,Corbicula fluminea and Corbicula fluminalis. The toxicity experiments show
that the more toxic aromatic compounds to species of molluscs is phenanthrene and the less toxic is
quinoline. In each of these types of aromatics,the compound with the greater number of aromatic rings
always exert a greater toxicity to species of molluscs.
The order of sensitivity of molluscs tested to aromatic hydrocarbons are as follows : L.
auricularia> P. acuta > M. nodosa > T. jordani > M. tuberculata > C. fluminalis > C. fluminea . The
overall acute effects of hydrocarbons on the species of molluscs tested are abnormal
activities,narcosis and anesthesia,the loss of ability to react to the external cue,rapture the tissues and
die