Summary

In this study, non – diatom algal composition of ten selected spring

sites was studied which were situated around Safeen Mountain area within

Erbil Governorate on the monthly basis from September 2014 to June 2015.

Some water parameters were analyzed such as temperature, EC, TDS,

turbidity, pH, total alkalinity, total hardness, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, Cl-, SO4 2-,

SAR, NO2

-, NO3 -, PO4

3-, DO, BOD5, to evaluate water quality for drinking

purpose by using WQI.

Results of studied parameters during this investigation were: air

temperature has a wide range of fluctuation, it was ranged from 1 to 38 ºC,

and water temperature was varied from 14.4 to 21.5 ºC. EC, total dissolved

solids, turbidity and pH were ranged from 378 to 1072 ?S.cm-1, 241.9 to

388.9mg.l-1, 0.23 to 23.94 NTU and 7.03 to 9.09 respectively. The minimum

level of total alkalinity was 143 mg CaCO3.l-1, while the maximum value

was 378 mg CaCO3.l-1. Total hardness was between 127 mg CaCO3.l-1

during November and 577 mg CaCO3.l-1 during January.

On the other hand, results of major cations and anions revealed the

following records: calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium were ranged

between 30 – 164 mg.l-1, 12 – 68 mg.l-1, 3.471 – 223.9 mg.l-1 and 0.286 – 7.98

mg.l-1. Chloride ranged from 6 – 84 mg.l-1, sulphate ranged from 669 – 831

mg SO4.l-1. The SAR values ranged from 0.09 to 6.865 meq.l-1 with an

average value of 1.03 meq.l-1 Based on the sodium adsorption ratio (SAR)

all water resources were excellent for irrigation purpose.

The concentration of nitrite, nitrate and reactive phosphorus were ranged

from 0.061 to 2.212 ?g NO2 – N.l-1, 1.646 to 82.60 mg NO3 – N.l-1 and 0.01

to 1.81 ?g PO4 – P.l-1 respectively. Both of DO and BOD5 levels changed

from 2.3 to 10.1 mg. l-1 and 0.35 to 2.9 mg. l-1.

A total of 151 algal species were identified from 8 divisions, 9 classes,

24 orders, 37 families and 72 genera, the majority of them belonged to

Chlorophyta with 68 species ( 45.033%), followed by Cyanophyta with 46

species(30.463%), Euglenophyta with 18 species (11.92%), Chrysophyta

with 12 species (7.947%), Charophyta with 3 species occupied (1.987%),

Rhodophyta with 2 species (1.32%) and each of Cryptophyta and

Pyrrhophyta with one species occupied (0.662%). Among them

Komvophoron constrictum, Nephrocytium agardhianum, Tetrastrum

triangulare, Protoderma frequens, Spirogyra articulate, Cosmarium

pericymatium, Cosmarium sportella, Staurastrum lapponicum, Lepocinclis

fusiformis, Astasia curvata, Astasia klebsii, Anisonema acinus,

Petalomonas sp., Heteronema acus, Peranema trichophorum,

Mischococcus confervicola, Ophiocytium arbusculum, Ophiocytium

desertum, Vaucheria cruciata, Chilomonas paramaecium were recorded as

new to Iraqi algal flora.

Jaccard similarity index revealed the highest percentage between sites

1 and 3 reached to 27.6%. While the lowest similarity percentage reached to

(5.1%) between sites 5 and 7. In respect to phytoplankton productivity, the

maximum number was 208400 cell.l-1 recorded in April at site 6, while the

minimum number was 1082 cell.l-1 recorded in February at site 5.

The value of Water Quality Index based on (WHO, 2004) standard for

drinking purpose ranged from 79.95 to 127.97. The water quality status for

all sites fall under good category, except the site 3 and 9 falls under poor

category.