Response of Anatomical Characteristics of Nile Flower Eichhornia crassipes to Environmental Changes and their Impact on Tigris Water Quality

Abstract

The current study was conducted on the Tigris River in the distance between Qayyarah district of Nineveh province and Baiji district of Salahuddin province by five stations (Al-Gayyarah, Jisr Al-Shirgat, Asdeira, Al-Zuwia and Almsahag). Anatomical Characteristics of Nile flower Eichhornia crassipes were studied. Some qualitative properties of river water were studied. The results indicated that there were significant differences between the study stations in all anatomical characteristics of the plant, Significant differences were found in the different study stations in all the characteristics of the upper and lower skin of the leaves of the Nile flower plants, it is the dimensions of stomata and its index and the average dimensions of the cells of the upper and lower skin. For the stems of the Nile flower plants, anatomical characteristics showed significant differences with different study stations. Al- Mosahak station achieved the highest stomatal dimensions of 15 and 13 μm for length and width respectively. Al-Gayyarah station excelled in the highest averages of the stomata index and average length × width of normal cells with values of 14 and 32 × 15 μm respectively. The highest mean of the physical characteristics of the river water was 1407 mg / L of total dissolved solids at the Al-Zuwia station in December, 8.4 for pH at Al-Gayyarah and Jisr Al-Shirgat stations during January, and 1.4 mg / L for BOD5 in Al-Gayyarah station during March, 2.3 mg / L for total hardness at Asdira station in February, 1.02 mg / L of nitrate at Almsahag station in December, 1.231 mg / L for sulfate at Al-Gayyarah station in January, 2.38 mg / L for sodium at Al-Zauwia station in December, and 1.2 mg / L for potassium at Almsahag station in March.