Using Aquatic Insects in Water Quality Assessment of Some Branches of Greater Zab River Within Erbil City, Iraqi Kurdistan Region Nihal S

American International Journal of Available online at http://www.iasir.net Research in Formal, Applied & Natural Sciences ISSN (Print): 2328-3777, ISSN (Online): 2328-3785, ISSN (CD-ROM): 2328-3793

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Using aquatic insects in water quality assessment of some branches of Greater Zab River within Erbil city, Iraqi Kurdistan Region Nihal S. Hanna and Yahya A. Shekha Department of Environmental Sciences, College of Sciences, University of Salahaddin, Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Iraq.

Abstract: Aquatic insects were used in water quality assessment of some branches of Greater Zab River within Erbil city Kurdistan region of Iraq. The benthic macroinvertebrates' samples collected at three sites during periods extended from April to November 2014 at monthly intervals. Generally, the sample of aquatic insect collected from studied sites contained at least 662 taxa, a total 25 species representing 9 families from 4 orders were identified, 18 of them were recorded for the first time in Iraq. From the site one a total of 172 taxa of aquatic insects were collected which belong to three orders, six families and fourteen species. Site two contained 187 taxa representing four orders, seven families and twenty species. Meanwhile, at the site three 176 taxa were collected in which belong to three orders, seven families and fourteen species. According to Shannon-Weiner index, species diversity ranged from 2.00 to 2.26 bits/ind. The highest diversity value recorded at site 1. While, the minimum diversity recorded at site 3. According to Jaccard similarity index the highest percentage of similarity occurred between sites 1 and 2and the low similarity observed between sites 2 and 3. Biotic Index (BI) used to assessing level of organic pollution of studied sites, the result showed that all the sites were enriched with organic pollution. Keywords: aquatic insect, water quality, Bekhal, Zar Gali, Khalan, biotic index

I. Introduction

Water is one of the most indispensable resources and is the elixir of life [1]. Fresh water has a great role in sustenance of life of human beings, other organisms of the environment and maintaining the balance of nature. Water resources are being used by human being for various purposes like agriculture, industries, hydropower, fisheries and recreational uses [2]. Therefore, quality of water is extremely important. The surface water quality is a very sensitive issue and is also a great environmental concern worldwide [3]. Aquatic insects are a group of arthropods that live or spend part of their life cycle in water bodies [4]. Most importantly, aquatic insects are a good indicator of water qualities due to their various environmental disturbances tolerant levels [5]. The concept of biological indicators using aquatic insects is based on their diversity, abundance and distribution in relation to the physical and chemical conditions of the habitats. Data provided by indicator organisms can be used to estimate the degree of environmental impact and its potential dangers for other living organisms [6]. Recently, biological methods have replaced or complementing physical and chemical measurements in assessing river conditions [7, 8 and 9]. Furthermore, the effects on biota are usually the final point of environmental degradation and pollution of rivers and thus are an important indication of ecosystem health [10]. Much of the traditional research on water quality in Iraqi Kurdistan Region focuses on physicochemical characteristics, but recent research has taken more of an interdisciplinary approach by including the relationships between water quality and biodiversity. The objective of the present work is to apply biotic index and understand how occurrence of sensitive and tolerant species of aquatic insects reflect status of water quality.

II. MATERIALS AND METHODS A. Study area Erbil province is the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan Region with about two million populations and situated in the northeast of Iraq. Its boundaries extended from longitude 43° 15¯ E to 45° 14¯ E and from latitude 35° 27¯ N to 37° 24¯ N [11].The climate most closely to Irano–Turanian type .The annual average rain fall of Erbil city is 440 mm. Erbil city is currently served by two types of water resources [12]. Greater Zab River is a large river (392 km) in Iraq. This river is one of the main tributary of the Tigris. It is originated mainly from mountainous area of Iran and Turkey [13]. During this study samples were collected in three sites which located at northeast of Erbil city within Soran district, marked as Bekhal (Maran) River (Site 1), Zar Gali Stream (Site 2) and Khalan River (Site 3). The studied sites are described as follow:

a) Site one (Bekhal River): Located southwest of Soran district about 8 kilometres (Km) far from its center. The marginal vegetation consists of few trees. The riverbed consists predominantly of sand and stones. Water depth is about 1 meter (m) and width about 11 m. Human activity here includes tourism. b) Site two (Zar Gali stream): Located northeast of Khalifan sub-district about 4.5 Km far from its center and 2 Km far from site one. The marginal vegetation consists of few trees, emergent vegetation and submerged vegetation. The riverbed consists predominantly of sand and stones. Mean water depth is about 0.5 m and width about 5 m. Main human activity included tourism. c) Site three (Khalan River): Located in the center of Khalan village which is about 15.5 Km far from Soran center. It’s form from the junction of Zar Gali stream and Bekhal River. The marginal vegetation consists of few trees. The riverbed consists predominantly sand and stones. Average water depth is more than 1 meter (m) and width about 14 m. Human activity here includes drinking, irrigation, fishing and mining. B. Sample Collection and Analysis Benthic macroinvertebrates' samples collected at three sites during periods extended from April to November 2014 at monthly intervals, sample collected at each site by collecting the rocks by using Surber sampler. The benthic invertebrate were isolated to the main taxonomic group, and preserved in vials with 4% formalin. Taxonomic identification of most samples was made to the generic level and some members to the species level through the taxonomic key of [14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19]. C. Indices: a. Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index (H) Used by the [20], the Shannon-Wiener Diversity index (H) is commonly used to calculate aquatic and terrestrial 풔 biodiversity. This index was calculated as 푯 = − ∑풊=ퟏ(푷풊) 풍풐품ퟐ(푷풊) where, “pi” is the proportion of individuals in the “ith” taxon of the community and “s” is the total number of taxa in the community. As the number and distribution of taxa (biotic diversity) within the community increases, so does the value of “H”. Evaluated numerous “H” values from many sources, suggested that values between 1 and 3 were indicative of moderate pollution. Values approaching 4 were typically of unpolluted streams, while values below 1 were indications of a stressed community affected by heavy organic pollution [21]. b. Jaccard´s similarity index Jaccard´s similarity index was used to compare the sampling locations and to determine which ones were similar in taxa composition. 풔푱 = 푪/(푨 + 푩 − 푪) × ퟏퟎퟎ, where: A= Number of species in community (A), B= Number of species in community (B) and C=Number of species common in both communities [22]. c. Biotic Index (BI) This index used to detect the level of organic pollution of stream, each taxon is allotted a quality value between 0 and 10 on the basis of occurrence in organically polluted water. The number of the individuals of each taxon is multiplied by the quality value and the products are summed. The total is then divided by the total number of individuals in the sample according to [22]. The formula for calculating the Biotic Index (BI) is: 푬 = ∑풏풗/푵, where n = number of individuals of taxon, v = quality value and N = total number of individuals. The tolerance values for aquatic insects for application in the Biotic Index collected from [20 and 23] (Table 1). The value of biotic index was then used to evaluate the water quality (Table 2). Table 1: tolerance values of aquatic insects’ species. Taxa Tolerance Taxa Tolerance Phylum Arthropoda Order Trichoptera Class Insecta Family Hydropsychidae Order Ephemeroptera Cheumatopsyche sp. 5 Family Baetidae Hydropsyche sp. 4 Baetis rhodani (Pictet, 1845) 6 Order Diptera Baetis tricaudatus (Dodds, 1923) 6 Family Chironomidae Baetis vernus (Curtis, 1834) 6 Subfamily Chironominae Family Caenidae Dicrotendipes sp. 8 Caenis horaria (Linnaeus, 1758) 6 Paratanytarsus sp. 6 Caenis macrura (Stephens, 1835) 6 Subfamily Orthocladiinae Caenis meosta (Bengtsson, 1917) 6 Eukiefferiella sp. 4 Caenis rivulorum (Eaton, 1884) 6 Nanocladius sp. 7 Caenis tardata (McDunnough, 1931) 6 Orthocladius carlatus (Roback, 1957) 6 Family Heptageniidae Parametriocnemus sp. 5 Subfamily Heptageniinae Subfamily Podonominae Rhithrogena semicolorata (Curtis, 1834) 0 Podonomopsis sp. 5 Rhithrogena sp. 0 Podonomus sp. 5 Family Leptophlebiidae Subfamily Tanypodinae Habrophlebia fusca (Curtis, 1834) 4 Monopelopia sp. 7 Family Oligoneuriidae Family Simuliidae Lachlania sp. 2 Subfamily Simuliini Order Odonata Simulium sp. 5 Suborder Zygoptera Family Euphaeidae Euphae yayeyamana (T. Kawai & K. Tanida, 2005) 4

Table 2: Evaluation of water quality using the Biotic Index [22]. Value Interpretation 0-2 Clean, unpolluted waters. 2-4 Water slightly enriched owing to naturally-occurring organic matter or high quality effluents containing a little organic matter. Chemically similar to 0-2. 4-7 Enriched waters, the higher the Biotic Index value the greater enrichment. Obvious increase in BOD and nitrogenous compounds in the water and rather wide diurnal fluctuations in dissolved oxygen are to be expected. 7-10 Polluted waters with great increases in the concentrations of substances associated with organic pollution.

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The aquatic insect fauna collected from studied sites contained at least 662 taxa, a total 25 species representing 9 families from 4 orders were identified, 18 of them were recorded for the first time in Iraq. From the site one a total of 172 taxa of aquatic insects were collected which belong to three orders, six families and fourteen species. Site two contained 187 taxa representing four orders, seven families and twenty species. Meanwhile, at the site three 176 taxa were collected in which belong to three orders, seven families and fourteen species. In general, the faunal assemblage of studied sites dominated by Ephemeroptera (twelve species) and Diptera (ten species) followed by Trichoptera (two species) and Odonata (one species). The most dominated families of Ephemeroptera were Caenidae represented by five species. This is due to fact that; streams are the center of mayfly abundance and diversity (especially small rocky streams with fewer large fish) [24]. Moreover, Chironomidae the family of Diptera which was represented by nine species belonging to four subfamilies, because Chironomidae can tolerate sudden changes in habitat conditions [25]. According to Shannon-Weiner index, species diversity ranged from 2.00 to 2.26 bits/ind. The highest diversity value recorded at site 1. While, the minimum diversity recorded at site 3 (Figure 1). Generally, diversities of sites 1 and 2 were higher; this may be attributed to higher human activity at site one sewage disposal to site 2 which enriched the water with nutrients and other ions that used as food from phytoplankton cells and aquatic insects dominated at this site. According to [26] organically enriched environments have a lower diversity, with few dominant species. Meanwhile, [27] reported that in many cases diversity at moderately polluted sites higher than that at clean sites.

2.26 2.16 2.40 2 2.20

2.00

1.80 Weiner index Weiner - 1.60

1.40 Shannon 1.20

1.00 1 2 3 Site

Figure 1: Aquatic insects’ diversity values by Shannon-Weiner index.

Jaccard similarity index (Table 3) revealed the highest percentage of similarity occurred between sites 1 and 3 reached to (69%). This probably related to number of identified taxa in the channels. On other hand, percentage of similarity between sites 1 and 2 a reached to (48%). While, the low similarity observed between sites 2 and 3 (35%).

Table 3: Jaccard similarity (%) between studied sites. Sites 1 2 2 48 3 69 35

Biotic Index (BI) used to assessing level of organic pollution of studied sites, the value of BI values ranged from 4.55 at site 3 to 5.93 at site 2 (Table 4). These values were classified waters as enriched, the higher the Biotic Index values the greater enrichment. (Figure 2) shows site 2 has the highest mean BI of two other sites, indicating the most degraded water quality of all sites [20].

Table 4: Biotic Index (BI) values at studied sites. site BI Interpretation

Enriched waters, the higher the Biotic Index value the greater enrichment. Obvious increase in BOD and 1 5.04 nitrogenous compounds in the water and rather wide diurnal fluctuations in dissolved oxygen are to be expected. Enriched waters, the higher the Biotic Index value the greater enrichment. Obvious increase in BOD and 2 5.93 nitrogenous compounds in the water and rather wide diurnal fluctuations in dissolved oxygen are to be expected. Enriched waters, the higher the Biotic Index value the greater enrichment. Obvious increase in BOD and 3 4.55 nitrogenous compounds in the water and rather wide diurnal fluctuations in dissolved oxygen are to be expected.

5.93

5.04 6 4.55

BI 3

0 1 2 3 Site

Figure 2: Biotic index values at studied sites. VI. References [1] Kumar, M. and Kumar, R. (2013). Assessment of Physico-Chemical Properties of Ground Water in Granite Mining Areas in Goramachia, Jhansi, UP, India. International Research Journal of Environment Sciences. 2 (1): 19-24. [2] Janeshwar, Y.; Pathak, R. K. and Eliyas, K. (2013). Analysis of Water Quality using Physico-Chemical Parameters, Satak Reservoir in Khargone District, MP, India. International Research Journal of Environment Sciences. 2 (1): 9-11. [3] Singh, K. P.; Malik, A. And Sinha, S. (2005). Water quality assessment and apportionment of pollution sources of Gomti River (India) using, multivariate statistical techniques- a case study. Analytica Chemica Acta. 538: 355-374. [4] Popoola, K. O. and Otalekor, A. (2011). Analysis of Aquatic Insects’ Communities of Awba Reservoir and it’s Physico- Chemical Properties. Reserve J. Environ. Earth Sci. 3(4): 422-428. [5] Arimoro, F. O. and Ikomi, R. B. (2008). Ecological integrity of upper Warri River, Niger Delta using aquatic insects as bioindicators. Ecological indicators. 9: 455-461. [6] Wahizatul, A. A.; Long, S. H. and Ahmad, A. (2011). Composition and distribution of aquatic insect communities in relation to water quality in two freshwater streams of Hulu Terengganu, Terengganu. J.of Sustainability Sci. and Management. 6 (1): 148- 155. [7] Karr, J. R. (1991). Biological integrity: a long-neglected aspect of water resource management. Ecological Application. 1: 66-84. [8] Resh, V. H.; Norris, R. H. and Barbour, M. T. (1995). Design and implementation of rapid assessment approaches for water resource monitoring using benthic macroinvertebrates. Austral. J. Ecol. 20: 108-121. [9] Wright, J. F. (1995). Development and use of a system for predicting macroinvertebrates in flowing waters. Austral. J. Ecol. 20: 181-197. [10] Barbosa, F. A. R.; Callisto, M. and Galdean, N. (2001). The diversity of benthic macroinvertebrates as an indicator of water quality and ecosystem health: a case study for Brazil. J. Aquat. Ecos. Health and Management. 4: 51-60. [11] Shalash, A .H .A.( 1966). The Climate of Iraq. Baghdad .Univ. Co. Op. Printing press work soc. Amman, Jordan, P.85. [12] Zohary, M. (1950). The flora of Iraq and its phytogeographical subdivisions. Dept. Agr. Iraq. Publ. 31: 1-201. [13] Susa, A. (1960). Iraqi geographic index. Diar Al-tamadun press, Baghdad. 61p. [14] Edmonson, W. T. (1959). Freshwater biology. 2nd Ed. John Wiely and Sons, Inc. 1248pp. [15] Macan T. T. (1979). A key to the nymphs of the British species of Ephemeroptera with notes on their ecology. 3rd Ed. Freshwater Biological Association, Sci. Pub. No. 20. 79pp. [16] Quigley, M. (1977). Invertebrates of Streams and Rivers: A key to Identification. Edward Arnold Pub. UK. 84pp. [17] Hartmann, A. (2006). Key to Odonata (Dragonflies and Damselflies) of Hindu Kush−Himalayan Region. Kathmandu University Dhulikhel, Nepal. [18] Madden, C. P. (2010). Key to genera of larvae of Australian chironomidae (diptera). Museum Victoria Sci. Repo. 12: 1-31. [19] Bolton, M. J. (2012). Ohio EPA supplemental keys to the larval Chironomidae (Diptera) of Ohio and Ohio Chironomidae checklist. Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Division of Surface Water, Columbus, Ohio. 111pp. [20] Mandeville, S. M., (2002). Benthic macroinvertebrates in freshwaters-taxa tolerance values, Metrics, and Protocols. Soil & Water Conservation Society of Metro Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

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