Abstract

The current study revealed to three genus of Rotifera: Branchionus, Euchlanis and Philodina that belong to two classes Monogonata and Bdelloidea that distributed among six wetland areas: Area 1(Al Zawraa Lake in Al Zawraa Park in Baghdad city), Area 2 (Hi Al Abaas, Road of Karbala, Baghdad, Karbala main drainage), Area 3 (Al Rawdatain, Karbala Al Hurr Tourist Road, Al Hussenia River), Area 4 (Al Jamalia, Baghdad Al Hurr Road, Karbala main drainage), Area 5 (Al Jamalia, Al Hurr Road, Al Hurr area, the intersection of Al Jamalia, Al Hussenia River), and Area 6 (Intersection of Al – Hurr Road Baghdad, Al Hussenia River). The results aimed to variations in population of Rotifers that may be due to variation in type of water. Each genus was studied its morphological description, some of its biological aspects and its prevalence compared with previous studies in Iraq.

Introduction

A rotifer as part of Microzooplankton, play a very important role in the production ecology of the aquatic ecosystem, and they are an important part of the fresh water zooplankton, being a major food source and with many species also contributing to the decomposition of soil organic matter (Beers et al., 1980). Rotifera means "Wheeld animals" appear to have wheels rotating about the tops of their heads under a microscope, (Segers, 2002, 2004). Phylum of Rotifera is divided into two classes, the Digononta and the Monogononta. The members of the class Monogononta constitute 90% of the known species; they have a species-specific trophus, Rotifer body possess three main features: a ciliated anterior end, called the corona; Jaws, called trophy; and a thicken body wall, called the lorica (Wallace et al., 2006) hence the identification of rotifers depends on the characteristics of the lorica, corona, and mastax (trophi) for plankton specimens. Rotifera have the highest breeding rate compared to all other multicellular types (Nogrady et al., 1993). The density of rotifera can increase if food and appropriate conditions to hit to 24,000 individuals per liter (Shiel et al., 1987). These are few compared with 500,000 individuals per liter, which is recorded in the water of a sewage system (Lubzens, 1987), despite these high densities, "1000 individuals" per liter.

It should be noted that the studies on a few wetlands in Iraq, including the study Sabri (1988) Rotifera in river Tigris, Sabri et al. (1989) studied the faunal composition of rotifera species in Tigris; Studied Mangalo et al. (1998) on the States in the Lake Qadisiyah Dam in northwestern Iraq, and study AlLami et al. (1999) of the Euphrates River States. Ali and Abdulla (1999) investigated the relationship between the rotifers biomass and the phytoplankton, and the study of Poltorak et al. (2001) of the states of Lake Tharthar, Habbaniya and Razzaza.

Then, the study of Ahmed et al. (2005) of the States of the Gulf States in the Shatt al-Arab, and the study of Ibrahim, (2005) of the Daghara and Diwaniya rivers. Ahmed and Mohamed, (2006) studied the Rotifera community in three marshes (Basrah, Amara and Nasiria). Rabee (2007) studied the biological diversity of the mammals in the Upper Euphrates. Ghazi & Ahmed, (2008) studied geopolitics in the region of Kerma Ali, and studied Rabee, (2010) the types of the statesmen in the channel Tharthar and the Euphrates River. Hammadi, (2010) revealed to an Ecological Study of the Rotifera of Shatt Al-Arab region.

The aim of current study to determine, first: the diversity of rotifers in the selected six wetland areas in middle of Iraq for the first time to complete the biodiversity of Rotifera in all wetland in Iraq. Second: the description, the distribution and the living aspect for each one.