Journal of Ecosystem & Ecography
Open Access

Research Article

Seasonal Variations of Zooplankton in Al-Hammar Marsh-Southern Iraq

Shaker G Ajeel¹, Ali AZ Douabul^2* and Mohammad F Abbas¹

¹Department of Marine Biology, Marine Science Centre, University of Basrah, Iraq

²Department of Marine Environmental Chemistry, Marine Science Centre, University of Basrah, Iraq

*Corresponding Author:

Ali AZ Douabul
Department of Marine Environmental Chemistry
Marine Science Centre
University of Basrah, Iraq
Tel: +9644278344
E-mail: adouabul@mscbasra.org

Received Date: November 06, 2015; Accepted Date: November 12,2015; Published Date: November 18, 2015

Citation: Ajeel SG, Douabul AA, Abbas MF (2015) Seasonal Variations of Zooplankton in Al-Hammar Marsh-Southern Iraq. J Ecosys Ecograph 5:173. doi:10.4172/2157-7625.1000173

Copyright: © 2015 Ajeel SG, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Zooplankton samples were collected seasonally from three stations in the south of Al-Hammar Marshes southern Iraq by Plankton net (0.090 mm mesh-size and 40 cm mouth aperture) during 2011. Physical and chemical parameters of the water were studied such as, water temperature, salinity, pH and dissolved oxygen. The population density of zooplankton ranged between 717 ind /m3 at third station (Al-Sallal) in winter to 1209879 ind/m3 at first station (Al-Mashab) in Spring. The important groups of zooplankton in the study area were Cirriped larvae (88.5%), and Cladocera (10.6%). The highest value of average density of Cirriped larvae and Cladocera was recorded in spring.

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