Seasonal variation for levels of nutrients in water from Southern Iraqi Marshlands after Rehabilitation 2003

Abstract

The levels of nutrients; Nitrites, Nitrates, Phosphates and Silicates were determined seasonally for the period Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn 2004 in water from eight sites ,1-Al-Tarabah,2-Umm Al-Ward in Al-Hawizeh marshes, 3- El-Harasheen,4-Al-Fartoos,5- El-Saddah along Al-Izz river in the Central marshes, 6- Al-Duboon, 7- Al-Nagarah and 8- Al Barghah in Al-Hammar marshes. Collected water samples from all stations were transferred to Marine Science Center labs for Chemical analysis. Compared to nirates, the recorded nitrites were low in the range 0.001-1.300 µg at N-NO2-/l, while nitrates characterized by high valuesspecially in stations 1 and 2 and during winter which were in the range 1.939-42.200 µg at N-NO3-/l. Phosphatelevels were high in Al-Haweizh marshes while Al-Hammar marsh was characterized by high levels of silicates which were in the range 58.1-146.811 µg at Si-SiO2/l. These differences were explained on the basis of thenature of the area and quality of the soil.