Ecological assessment of East Hammar marsh, Iraq using a number of ecological guides

Abstract

The ecological status of the East Hammar marsh was evaluated by using a number of ecological guides: water qualityindex (WQI), Carlson trophic state index (TSI) and fish integrated biological index (F-IBI) during the period from November 2012 to October 2013. The results revealed that the annual value of WQI varied from 51.1 (marginal) for historical data before desiccation to 67.8 (fair) for data after inundation. The marsh was evaluated to be mesotrophic (TSI= 42.0). IBI scores were calculated from 16 separate assemblage metrics based on the fish species richness, species composition and trophic guilds. The ecological status of the marsh was found to be fair (F-IBI= 47.7) and was slightly better than the status of the marsh after 2-4 years of restoration activities. The rather low improvement in the situation of the marsh indicates that the environment is still fragile and requires the allocation of water share from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to restore marsh normality.