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International Journal of Marine Science 2014, Vol.4, No.54, 1-10
http://ijms.biopublisher.ca
2
waterbirds in south of Iran [15]. South part of the
marsh polluted by wastewater of Izeh city directly.
Izeh city evacuate the wastewater directly in to the
south part of marsh. The pollutant factors of the
wastewater effect on waterbirds habitats, number and
species diversity, richness and similarity. We aim to
determine the effect of water quality in Miangaran
marsh on the relative number and species richness and
diversity of marsh birds, and to determine what
landscape variables could be used to predict the
relative number and species richness of marsh birds.
This information can be used to develop more
effective, long term conservation strategies, because
waterbirds are popular subjects for research and
monitoring, and long term datasets of waterbirds
count often provide a useful resource as indicator of
ecological change [18]. However, different waterbird
species undergo population fluctuations for different
reason, and a thorough knowledge of the ecology of a
given species in required if trends are to be interpreted
correctly.
1 Methods and Materials
1.1
Study Area
Miangaran (also called Izeh) marsh is placed in the
southwestern foothills of the Zagros Mountains, 125
km east-northern of Ahwaz at the north of Izeh city in
Khuozestan province in south of Iran (Figure 1) [28,
29]. Its altitude is 90 meter from sea level and its area
fluctuate 571 to 2102 hectare. Lowest depth of marsh
is 70 cm with 40 million m 3 of water in summer and
its highest depth when it is full of water is 3 meter
with 63 million m 3 of water in winter [7]. The
wetland is surrounded by foothills and there is no exit
way for water. It is a shallow fresh water marsh almost
entirely overgrown with emergent vegetation except
around of the edges where heavy grazing and
trampling by cattle maintain some areas of open water
[15]. Size marsh is fed by local runoff and spring at
the base of the nearby hills. Also wastewater of Izeh
comes directly through the south part of wetland from
conduit and it divides wetland to two parts: south part
(more-polluted) and north part (low- polluted) (Figure
1). On the other hand, it is important wintering area
for herons, egrets, gooses, Ruddy shelducks, surface
feeding ducks, diving ducks, coots, and common
crane [15, 29]. In summer there is no ducks and
number of herons and gulls are dominant. Several
species of waterfowl breed in small number, including,
Podiceps ctistatus, Himantopus himantopus
and about
10-20 pairs of
Ciconia ciconia
nest in the general area
(including over 5 pairs on telegraph poles in Izeh
town). Mid- winter waterfowl censuses have been
carried out by the Dep.of the Environment, in the most
years science 1975 [29], but there is not information
about water birds population and species diversity in
summer.
Figure 1 Location of water sampling and waterbirds count in
Miangaran marsh (Google map)
Note: = Location of water Sampling in north (31
o
53 ' 41 "
N 49
o
51 ' 42 " E) and south (32
o
52 ' 19 " N 49
o
51 ' 58 " E) part of
marsh. (1) North (2) South parts of marsh that water birds
counted. Walking and water bird counting routes