University of Basra Organizes Training Course on Aquatic Plants
The Marine Sciences Center at the University of Basra organized a training course titled
*Aquatic Plants and Their Impact on the Aquatic Environment*
The course aimed to familiarize participants with the types of aquatic plants and their environmental importance, equip them with the ability to assess their positive and negative impacts on aquatic systems, and enable them to propose measures for their sustainable management.
The course, taught by Dr. Jihad Makki Hamid and Dr. Iman Abdullah Abdul-Aali,
a classification of aquatic plants—floating, submerged, and rooted—along with examples of each and their roles in improving water quality, producing oxygen, and absorbing pollutants (phytoremediation), as well as their roles as shelter and food for aquatic organisms and in supporting biodiversity, and their negative impacts resulting from excessive growth, the formation of harmful blooms, oxygen depletion, and obstruction of navigation and irrigation, while also addressing related phenomena such as eutrophication and invasive species, and outlining methods of monitoring, management, and control (mechanical and biological removal).