Mesopotamia Environmental Journal

One hundred and sixty nine bacterial isolates were isolated from 64 soil and plastic waste samples from different municipal landfill regions in Baghdad city. Primary screening has been done for the bacterial isolates depending on bacterial growth (OD600nm) in low density polyethylene solid and liquid medium. Forty two isolates show high efficient to degrade LDPE powder, then secondary screening has been done depending on bacterial growth, color change in solid medium, and change in pH medium. Bacterial isolates Mw43, Tw53 and Shw51were given high ability to degrade LDPE strips. These three isolates have been identified as Pseudomonas fluorescens، Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter ursingii, respectively.

One locally microalga species Oscillatoria limnetica was isolated from the artificial canal around University of Babylon in Al-Hilla city. The isolated microalga species was cultivated in BG-11 media for biomass production and to test their ability to degrade glyphosate that is the widely used organophosphorus herbicide by high performance liquid chromotography analysis. HPLC appeared to be an effective technique to follow decrease of glyphosate in biodegradation process. Removal efficiencies of glyphosate were evaluated and compared. The results confirmed the high efficiencies of O.limnetica for the removal of the target contaminant. There were significant differences in the rate of glyphosate removal from the medium after 3, 5, 7, 14 and 35 days in all treatments. It was 97.5% after seven days at 5 mg/l treatment, 57.9% and 37.1% after fourteen days at 10 mg/l and 15 mg/l treatments, respectively and 99.9% after thirty five days at 20 mg/l treatment. Maximum removal efficiency percentages of isolated species were increased to reach their maximum in all treatments after thirty five days.

Coal ash, the residue formed after burning of coal, is of two types namely fly ash and bottom ash. Fly ash is the fine particles which are collected from flue gas and bottom ash is the residual solid. The fly ash and bottom ash consists of heavy metals and hence their disposal poses a great challenge. Fly ash and bottom ash are used as soil amendments to improve plant growth due to the presence of nutrients such as N, P, K, Ca, Mg, etc. They are great alternatives to dispose coal ash. Disposal of coal ash in landfills pose the risk of leachate formation and contamination of ground water. The present study explores a way to overcome the accumulation of heavy metals by the use of fungus Trichoderma viride. The bioremediation of fly ash and bottom ash result in the reduction of heavy metal levels and increase the concentration of nutrients such as N, P, K, and Mg. The untreated and treated coal ash was studied for their potential to promote plant growth in Vigna radiata and Vignamungo. The results of the study proved that 25% blending of treated ash with soil was beneficial. In conclusion, we have developed a process not only to use coal ash as an ecofriendly amendment for bio-fertilizers but also safe disposal of coal ash.

Biomass gasification is a proficient technology able to convert any kind of biomass into valuable products and can contribute extensively to renewable energy generation. Gasification is a form of thermal breakdown of biomass feed stocks, carried out at high temperature result in a gas known as producer gas which can be used for numerous purposes.Apart from all the advantages this technologies have some drawback related to process and products which results environmental pollutions, occupational health and safety hazards. The producer gas is needs to be cool before use depending upon the application and some byproducts are also released such as tar, ash, char, oils etc., which create specific problem in the environment require suitable treatment before discharged. The present study gives a review of health, safety and environmental issues with process and products of biomass gasification plant.

This research is interested in using the two species of fungi such as Aspergillus terreus and Asp. flavus for Biodegradation of Congo red dye as industrial and Carcinogenic dyes,The results showed that Asp. flavus was the more efficient from Asp. flavus in Biodegradation of the Congo red dye. The percentage of Bio decolonization about 46.89% during incubation at 72 hours, while when use Asp. terreus the percentage of Bio decolonization was about 34.59% during same time of incubation.

The food and feeding of four species of the young )0-group) fishes in Shatt al-Basrah were studied from February 2011 to April 2012. Twelve food groups were recorded during this study. Crustaceans (copepods, amphipods, shrimps and crabs) were the most important prey for tilapia (Tilapia zilli) and mosquitofish (Gumbosia affinis) (Relative Importance indices (% RII) = 82.7 and 40.2 respectively). Plant was the most important food for mullet ( Liza subviridis ) (86.8%). Plant and fishes were considered most important food for whitehead's thryssa ( Thryssa white headi ) ( 32.3% and 32.7% of the total RII respectively). Tilapia (T. zilli) clearly shows only significant overlap with (G. affinis ) ( Cλ= 0.76). The overall degree of dietary overlap among all the species was 41.7%. This information is when the complex association between fishes and identifying groups of species using similar resources.

An experiment was conducted during 2013-2014 growth seasons at the field of Agric. Coll., Babylon Univ., Iraq. , to study the effect of polyoxal (as poly hydro carboxylic applied on soil, i.e. 2 mg/l at the rate of 1L.m-1) and its interaction with foliar application of humic acid, organic ( N and Fe) and salicylic acid 0.5 mM at 4 and 6 leaf stages as well as control on alleviating soil salt stress on growth and yield of squash. Randomized complete block design with three replications was used. The results showed that : Adding polyoxal to the soil caused a significant increases in leaf number , leaf chlorophyll content , fruit yield and leaf content percentage of Nand P. Foliar application treatments caused a significant increase in leaves number per plants , chlorophyll content and N percentage compared to control but it had no significant effect on leaf P percentage. Humic acid had a significant effect on fruit yield.plant-1. The interaction had a significant effect on the studied parameters and polyoxal with humic acid was the best.

The present work aims to investigate the removal of Paraquat dichloride Pesticide from aqueous solutions by low cost ,neutral adsorbents, eco-friendly, highly efficient such as aquatic crustean shells under various activation experimental conditions, as an ideal alternative to the current expensive methods of removing pesticide from waste water. Preliminary studies showed that paraquate attained equilibrium at 2 hours in barnacle shell powder indicating to the relative adsorption increased with increasing solution concentration. The results were showed the removal percentage increase with increasing of heat treatment of the adsorbent media (barnacle shell powder).