Distribution and abundance of some crustacean in Shatt Al- Arab River.

Abstract

A study of bases on the density and the biomass of six species of crustacean from the intertidal and sub-tidal region of Shatt Al-Arab were achieved in the period from July 1997 to May 1998. These are Atyaephyra desmaresti mesopotamica, Al-Adhub 1987, Elamenopsis Kampi, Calman, the crab Sesarma boulengeri, the amphipoda parhyala basransis, Salman, isopoda Spharoma annandalei annandalei, Annina mesopodamica ,the density recorded for the mentioned species are ranged as follow: 8-128, 4-242, 0-300, 262-682, 35-515 and 211-230 ind./m2 respectively. While the biomass recorded are ranged as follow: 0.14-1.18, 0.01-1.49, 0-13.2, 0.05-0.02, 1-1.78 and 0.91-4.2 gm/m2 respectively. We were compared our result with previous records which have been done by various authors during the (1980-2000). It was noticed that there were a decline in densities of the crustaceans and some of them were totally absent for certain period of time, these indicated considerable change that had occurred in the environment of Shatt Al-Arab.