JOURNAL OF WETLAND ECOBIOLOGY
Year:2013 | Volume:5 | Issue:15|Papers Count:11

Sea turtles are considered of the critically endangered (CR) reptiles in the world. Several threaten factors affect the survival and regeneration of these species. Therefore, to support their survival, identification and management of factors which affect reptiles nesting are inevitable. Sea turtles spend one of the critical stages of their life, hatchery period, at the beaches, so identification of nesting sites and the factors influenced their hatching plays an important role for conserving these endangered species. Previous studies showed that slope, grain size, sediment temperature, shore vegetation and some of human manipulation is effective in nest location of these sea turtles. In this study slope, in the nest locations of Eretmochelys imbricata in Shib-deraz area (Shib-deraz habitat and shib- pavi) of the south Qeshm Island was investigated. This study was done in nesting season in 1391 along the 1.5 km from the sandy beach area. Suntu inclinometer was employed to measure the nest slopes, 32 nest locations from high water mark to the nests. Results showed that 37.34 % of sea turtles choose the slope class of 2-4 degree for the nest investment in this area.

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), has offered the Penman model (FAO-56PM) as a standard model to estimate reference evapotranspiration of crops. The lack of some climatological variables such as solar radiation, relative humidity and wind speed can be a major obstacle in estimating evapotranspiration by FAO-56PM. To overcome this problem, a series of relations and equations is used in the form of the Penman model. By considering these facts, assessment the accuracy and validity of this model in different regions, is important. In this study the equations for estimating the parameters of wind speed, relative humidity and solar radiation were used, and finally the potential evapotranspiration was estimated in the Aydoghmush basin. For this purpose, data of 5 climatological stations in Aydoghmush river basin was used. Comparing estimated and obtained evapotranspiration values, determined that there is a small difference between ETO values in both cases. In this study, the highest and lowest values of RMSE and MBE have been estimated from 0.227 to 0.971 and -0.271 to 0.724 respectively. According to the results it can be said that by using the computational data evapotranspiration values can be estimated with the greatest accuracy.

In this study, the concentrations of some heavy metals in surface sediments of Naiband marine national Park (the first marine national park of Iran) have been evaluated. Surface sediment sampling was done from July 2010 to March 2011. Sediment samples were collected from the tidal zone of Mangrove ecosystem in 5 different stations. At each station, sampling was repeated three times, and the sediments were digested by acid after drying. Concentration of Cd, Ni, Pb and Cu was measured by atomic absorption spectrophotometer, Varian 200 Perkin Elmer. Results showed that Cd, Ni, Pb and Cu concentration in the sediments were 0.2 (0.4-0.07), 40.1 (94.03-14.6), 52.23 (64.6-40.2) and 5.2 (8.01-2.8) mg/kg respectively. All metals concentrations of dry season were higher than the metals concentration of the rainy season. Data were analyzed using SPSS16 software. Muller geochemical indicators (Igeo) and (Ipoll) indices were used as pollution index to classifying of sediments quality. Based on these indicess, sediments were moderately polluted by Pb and unpolluted for the other metals. Also compare of the metals concentrations to Sediment Quality Guidelines (SQG) showed no metal pollution for Cd and Cu and moderate level of pollution for Ni and Pb.

Euglenoids Algae are mono cellular worldwide organisms that are usually found in freshwater habitats. Hoor-al-Azim or Hoor-al-Hawizeh is one of the most important wildlife and aquatic ecosystem that is shared between Iran (south west) and Iraq. It is part of Mesoptamian wetland that the various changes have during the last two decades had significant effects on the both structure and function of this wetland. In this study, identification and seasonal changes of Euglenophyta in Hoor-al-Azim wetland from April 2012 to March 2012 was investigated. The sample were taken monthly from four stations. Then samples fixed by Formalin 4%. Samples were identified by invert microscope. The frequency was also calculated. In this study a total of 18 species belonging to four genera, Euglena, Phacus, Trachelomonas and Lepocinclis was identified. The genus Euglena with 9 species had the highest number of species, as well as The winter season has the highest average density (1666 cells per liter) and spring with the lowest average density (333 cells per liter), respectively. Among all identified species, Lepocinclis texta with a total frequency of 42% and Euglena sp with a total frequency of 9% had the highest density than other species.

Benthic algae are the most productive organisms in aquatic ecosystemms and they’re the main source of food for benthic organisms and some fish’s larvae. The aim of this study was the Identification and study of abundance of Epipleon algaecolonies in Shadegan international wetland. Samples collected in the one year period, from April 2010 to March 2011 according to the U.S. EPA method. 18 genius of Epipleon were identified in this study. The most frequent taxa respectively were Bacillariophyceae and Cyanophyceae, because of their high tolerance to the environmental conditions. The most important genius of Bacillariophyceae were Navicula, Nitzchia and Synedra and dominant genius of Cyanophyceae was Oscillatoria that indicating their presence in the waters with medium quality. The total mean number of Epipleon was 9555/m2 in the study area. The highest frequency of Bacillariophyceae and Cyanophycea was observed in autumnand Doragh region. According to One way ANOVA analytical method, there is no significant difference between the frequency of Epipleon genius in the different regions (P>0.05) however a significant difference was shown in the months (P<0.05). Cluster analysis showed more than75 percent similarity for 15 genius of algea and approximately 60% similarity between Doragh and Malh. Due to high salinity, Doragh and Malh, were in one group and Rgbh and Eetaysh made another group because of their similarity for little salinity.

This study was done from April 2005 to March 2006 for the purpose of investigation of diversity and density of water birds in international wetland of Koolab of Kiashahr and Sefidrud estuary and also for comparing the current status of wetlands with international criteria in 1354. A total of 81 species of waterbirds from 16 families and 6 orders were recorded in three parts of this wetland (Kiashahr wetland, 22 Bahman Wetland and Sefidrud estuary). They consisted of 47 percent waterfowls and 53 percent waders. Diverse families, belonged to Scolopacidae (19 species), Anatidae (14 species) and Lariidae (14 species), respectively. Also, Anatidae species comprised the largest population of this wetland. Most birds were counted in winter and lowest in spring. The highest diversity observed in 22 Bahman wetland. The species diversity in 22 Bahman wetland was similar with Kiashahr wetland (J=5.14) and in terms of population; 22 Bahman wetland and Sefidrood estuary showed highest similarity (R=92.3). Grey Pelicans (Pelecanus crispus), was the only endangered world's birds witch recorded in the wetlands. Comparing the results of this study with Ramsar convention criteria indicates that the Koolab wetland of Kiashahr and Sefidrud estuary for the terms of criteria 2 and 3 of Ramsar convention, only had the criterion 2a. Compared to the 1970s, the quality of this international wetland has been declined for waterfowl bird’s life. Hence; it is proposed as a damaged wetland in Montero list (MR).

Drought as an important natural phenomenon with a large spatial extension causes considerable damages to different economical parts of our country every year. Therefore, drought monitoring and zoning temporally and spatially should be considered as an essential principle in planning for the country. In this study the Sistan Plain drought severity has been examined using PN, SPI, DPI and RAI indices in order to choose the best index for monitoring the drought in the study area and to investigat the impact of the drought on Hamoun wetlands. The results showed PN index with correlation coefficient of 1 is the better index to expression of drought conditions relative to other indices. Also according to the results, the drought was the main reason of dried up the Hamoun Lake and has been caused many harmful impacts on the natural, physical and socio-economic environments of Sistan plain.

Caspian Pond Turtle of Khouzestan Province belongs to Geoemydidae family of pond turtles and Mauremys caspica siebenrocki subspecies. This species have seen in fresh water habitats such as main rivers in this province. In this study which was continued from winter 2010 to fall 2010, for morphometric study of Caspian pond turtle in Khouzestan province, 44, 54 and 36 samples of Caspian pond turtle collected from Dez, Karoun and Karkhe rivers respectively. Generally, 107 samples from all of the samples were female and 27 samples of them were male. The ratio of male samples to female samples in these rivers was 1 to 4. Also the samples which were captured in Summer, Fall and Spring were 63, 46 and 25 respectively. According to the results of Kolmogorov Smirnov Test, among 12 morphometric characteristics of Caspian turtle only two characteristics, CCL and CCW showed unormal distribution (P-value<0.05) and in other characteristics, normal distribution were seen.