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International Journal of Marine Science 2014, Vol.4, No.54, 1-10
http://ijms.biopublisher.ca
1
A Letter Open Access
Waterbirds Population, Species Diversity and Similarity Fluctuation in Relation to
Water Pollution in Miangaran Wetland in South of Iran
Behrouz Behrouzi-Rad
1
, Ardeshir Behrouzi-Rad
2
1. Deprtment of the Environment, College of Agricultural and Natural Resource, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz Branch, Ahvaz, Iran
2. Ardeshir Behrouzi-Rad, Dep. of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran
Corresponding author email
International Journal of Marine Science, 2014, Vol.4, No.54 doi: 10.5376/ijms.2014.04.0054
Received: 23 Jul., 2014
Accepted: 26 Aug., 2014
Published: 30 Sep., 2014
Copyright
©
2014 Behrouz and Ardeshir, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Behrouz and Ardeshir, 2014, Waterbirds Population, Species Diversity and Similarity Fluctuation in Relation to Water Pollution in Miangaran Wetland in
South of Iran, International Journal of Marine Science, Vol.4, No.54 1
-
10 (doi: 10.5376/ijms.2014.04.0054)
Abstract
The Miangaran (also called Izeh) marsh located in vicinity (1.5 Km) of Izeh city at Khouzestan province in south of Iran.
The wastewater (domestic sewage, urban-ran-off and industrial) of the Izeh city discharge into the south part of the Izeh marsh. The
aim of this study was to determine the effect of water quality by comparing the relative number and species richness and diversity of
marsh birds in south and north part of marsh, and to determine what landscape variables could be used to predict the relative number
and species richness of marsh birds. Determination of species diversity, richness, evenness, similarity, and number of waterbirds in
south part (more polluted part) and north part, as a (low-polluted part) of marsh were carried out from July to September 2011.
Eighteen species of migratory waterbirds were present in both south (more Polluted) and north (low-polluted) parts of marsh, but
total number of waterbirds in north part (4707 individuals) was twice more than south part (2110 individuals) in summer 2011.
Maximum similarity between bird communities in south and north part of marsh was 64.57% (0.77 Morista’s index) in September
2011 and Minimum similarity was 13.44% (0.07 Maritsa’s index) in August 2011. Species diversity and richness of north part were
more than south part of marsh, and were in range (10, 9, 11) and (14, 15, 15) species in July, August and September respectively. The
study revealed that averages of COD, biological oxygen demand, salinity, SO4 and temperature were in range (9.66-102 mg/L),
(50-55 mg/L), (0.96-1.6), (0.61-0.78mg/L), (20-21.6 siliceous) in north and south part of marsh in July, August, and September
respectively. The pH, EC, Turbidity, DO, BOD, COD, SO4, NO3, salinity and temperature of water in south part were a little more
than north part of marsh, but DO was inverse of other chemical parameters, and in north part was more than south part and were in
range (4.66 - 2.90mg/L). A little difference between averages of physicochemical parameters of water in two parts of marsh has been
cased significantly in number, species diversity, and richness of waterbirds in summer 2011.
Keywords
Pollution; Waterbirds; Population; Species Diversity; Similarity; Miangaran marsh
Introduction
Throughout the history birds migrating, many birds
migrate in response to biological requirement, such as
the need to find a suitable location for breeding and
raising their young, and to be in favorable area for
feeding at other times of the year [9]. In some cases,
these specific requirements are fulfilled in location
separated by distance of thousands of Kilometers [10].
In the other hands, several aspects of the ecology of
waterbirds make them useful as bio-indicators. Frist,
waterbirds have been shown to track environmental
variations, at short (months) and long (years) temporal
scales, and at both species and community level [1,
27]Second, because many species are top predators
and several contaminants often accumulate along the
tropic chain, such species may be used as indicators of
changes occurring at lower tropic level [7, 22]. And
third, either the waterbirds themselves or their prey is
exploited by humans (e.g. hunting and fisheries), so
that hunting bags of waterbirds may be indicative of
productivity in nesting or wintering areas (Miller et al.,
1998) or breeding parameters of birds may inform on
fish stock [14]. It is long time in the world that
studying on effect of water pollution on species
diversity and population of waterbirds is being done.
The application of species diversity and number of
waterbirds found on beaches as indicators of oil
pollution at sea has been reviewed in a number of
recent publications [13, 20]. Miangaran marsh is
among the most important habitats for migratory