Marsh Bulletin

Abstract
The marshes of southern Iraq range from in size from 8,000 to 30,000 km2
. Delivery of
freshwater to this system has been affected by the construction of water control structures both within
Iraq and in neighboring countries. In the early 1990s, the Government of Iraq drained a large portion
of this system and burned extensive stands of Phragmites. Less than 10% of these marshes were
functioning normally by 2000 (Partow 2001, Brasington 2002).
This review summarizes the existing data on water quality of this vast and unique ecosystem
prior to the Iraqi government’s decision to drain these marshes. These data come from numerous
graduate theses and other investigations not readily accessible by the scientific community. Water
quality variables considered included salinity, ionic composition, and a number of variables related to
nutrient status.
These data show that salinity has increased over time, adversely affecting agriculture in southern
Iraq. Dissolved oxygen concentrations have generally been high, waters are typically slightly alkaline,
and extensive submerged aquatic vegetation facilitates the settling of suspended solids. Nitrates are the
predominant form of inorganic nitrogen, and the concentrations were low compared to other water
bodies in Iraq. Nutrient limitation experiments indicated that the phytoplankton were nitrogen limited.

Common reed (Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin.ex Steud.) is one of the widely distributed
plant species on earth, and considered a highly biological and ecological valuable plant species. P.
australis of three Iraqi marshes (Huwaiza, Chebaish and East Hammar) after inundation was studied
from 2006 to 2007. Different main factors were studied for plant vegetation cover in the marshes
included water depth, electrical conductivity(EC), nutrient content in sediment and direct human
impact. Significant differences in maximal aboveground biomass among the three marshes were
observed, with positive correlation between increasing in water depth and nutrient content with plant
tall, cover percent and biomass production. The result showed that P. australis have acclimatization to
deep water with phenotypic plasticity through allocating more resources to stem weight and also by
producing taller stem

Abstract
Six fungal species were isolated for the first time in Iraq from surface sediment samples collected
from different sites along Shatt Al –Arab river and its creeks at Basrah, these fungi include three
hyphomycetes species:
Aspergillus campestris , Myceliophthora anamorph of Corynascus sepedonium,and
Tetracoccosporium paxianum, and three ascomycetes species: Emericellopsis glabra, Rhexothecium
globosum ,and Sphaerodes quadrangularis

Abstract
During a survey of the Copepoda of the southern Iraqi marshes, made between November 2005
– August 2008 , four calanoid copepods were identified which were not recorded before in the
Marshes. These are: Acanthodiaptomus denticornis (Wierzejski, 1887) (after Kiefer, 1978) ,
Arctodiaptomus (Rhabdodiaptomus) salinus (Daday, 1885) , Eudiaptomus vulgaris (Schmeil, 1898)
(after Kiefer, 1978) and Phyllodiaptomus irakiensis Khalaf, 2008 . The present article is the first of a
series of articles on the Copepoda of Iraqi marshes

Abstract
This study was carried out at the college of agriculture, Basrah university. Fifty blood samples
taken from carp (Cyprinus carpio) analyzed by Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) under
alkaline conditions at pH 9.8. The present study is aimed to provide the first insight into the genetic
constitution of carp based upon analysis of Transferrin. Five genetic types of transferrin were revealed
(Tf1Tf1, Tf2Tf2, Tf5Tf5, Tf3Tf2 and Tf1Tf5) in Carp controlled by four allelic genes of that locus
(Tf1, Tf2, Tf3 and Tf5). These fractions are controlled by co dominant autosomal genes according to
the Mendelian laws of inheritance. Differences in gene frequencies between alleles were observed.
The gene frequencies of Tf1, Tf2, Tf3 and Tf5 were 0.15, 0.51, 0.29 and 0.05, respectively. The
predominant genotype was Tf2Tf2 (44%) then Tf3Tf3 (22%). Transferrin was identified as highly
polymorphic protein markers which is a result of importance for future genetic characterization of the
carp

Abstract
The pathogenic bacterial isolated from (120) milk samples collected for mastitis cattle were
coagulase negative Staphelococcus sp, in 50(42%), samples, Streptococcus agalactia, in 40(33.3% )
and Staphelococcus aureus , in 30(25%) animals which infected with S. aureus had a cute infection.
we found the contamination of milk with goagulase negative Staphelococcs are the most frequent
bacterial infection in dairy cattle in farmers houses in basrah marshes. It mostly causes subacute
form of the disease. S. agalactia are the second causative agents.

More than 10 sites within marshlands were visited in three governorates in the south of Iraq.
Amara, Nasiriya and Basra, to make survey to study the occurrence of Mammals in the marshlands.
We tried in this present study to revive this filed particularly after more than 30 years without
information about mammals in Iraq. Because of nature of more species of mammals is nocturnal, we
followed their signs such as Tracks, Feces and Shelters to introduce them. This work is a part of
project named