homira agah

Different studies conducted on the sediments of the Persian Gulf, strait of Hormoz and the Sea of Oman show that the amount of nickel as a toxic metal in these water bodies is more than its threshold effect level. In order to determine the risk of nickel for benthic organisms, the sediment samples of these water areas were subjected to sequential extraction and analysis in order to determine the bioavailability of nickel and subsequently the level of biological risks to benthic organisms.

In this study, the surface sediments of 5 stations in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman were analyzed in order to determine the total nickel concentration and determine the bioavailability of nickel during 6 successive extraction stages. Total nickel concentration was measured by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrophotometer (ICPMS) and nickel concentration, which was extracted during 6 stages were analyzed by Atomic Absorption analyzing instrument (Furnace).

The results showed that the concentration of nickel in the monitored stations varied between 96 and 113 mg/kg, which is more than the nickel threshold Effect Level (TEL: 15.9 mg/kg). The results of consecutive extraction in 6 stages showed that the concentration of stages 1 and 2 (accessible part of metals for benthic life) was lower than the detection limit of the instrument and their concentration can be neglected.

The amount of nickel in the third stage of extraction (bonding with oxide or hydroxides of iron and manganese) was much lower than the TEL (15.9 mg/Kg) and under environmental changes and redox conditions, the bioavailability of nickel will be lower than the TEL. The results showed that although the nickel pollution in the coastal sediments of the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman was more than the TEL; but due to the low exchangeable part, the current pollution is not considered a serious risk for the marine life.

In recent decades, the world has been facing with climate change and a shortage of fresh water, particularly in hot and dry regions. This investigation is based on document analysis and content analysis. The study categorizes and analyzes the available (albeit limited) resources to examine the legal situation of downstream countries from the perspective of water law and environmental law.This study deals with the principles and requirements related to international law to protect the rights of the beneficiaries of Border Rivers. Also this investigation attends the decisions issued by international courts in disputes related to Border Rivers with respect to water rights and environmental rights, in order to analyze the legal status of Border Rivers. This study aims to provide an analysis of the Aras River situation in terms of quantitative and qualitative damages affected by the activities of upstream countries. Based on existing studies, international courts have defended the right of downstream countries to secure their defined water rights under neighboring country agreements and to meet the standard needs of each person for a healthy life, particularly in situations where people in downstream countries are economically disadvantaged. Since Iran, as one of the downstream countries in the region, faces unique conditions in river currents, if no solution (such as reaching an agreement or resorting to international courts) is found to address the problems related to fresh water, the country will suffer irreparable human, environmental, and economic losses.

In this study, the concentration of total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) remaining in the sediments of Asaluyeh (a city in Fars province) that were polluted in the fall of 2021 due to gas condensate leakage was investigated. After the accident, soil from deeper layers was mixed with surface soil and rain washed some of the pollution deeper into the soil. Five months after these operations, the TPH level of the soil was measured. The results showed that the concentration of soil pollution in the study area was 356.5 µg/g, which corresponds to the lower end of the moderate pollution range.

In this study, the concentration of total oil pollution (TPH) remaining in the sediments of Asaluyeh (Khozi city of Fars province), which was polluted in the fall of 2021 due to gas condensate leakage, was investigated. After the accident, aeration and mixing of soil from depth to surface and also due to rain, washing of pollution from surface to deep of soils occurred. Five months after performing these operations, the TPH level of the soil was checked. The results showed that the concentration of soil pollution in the study area (356.5 μg/g) was in the lower ranges of the moderate pollution level.

The growing need for marine food resources and the entry of various pollutants, including heavy metals, into coasts and marines are major challenges humanbeings face with. For this purpose, in this study, the concentration of heavy metals in the muscle tissue of Mudskipper and sediments of Khuzestan coast was studied. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the concentrations of cadmium, zinc, and iron accumulated in the muscle tissue of Mudskipper between different stations (P <0.05). But, there is no significant correlation between the concentrations of As, Cd, Cr, Zn, Ni, and Fe in the sediments of different stations and their concentrations in the muscle tissue of Mudskipper (P> 0.05). The average concentration of As, Ni, and Cd in muscle tissue were higher than the WHO global standard (2004, Table 1). Also, the average concentration of Zn and Fe in fish muscle tissue was lower than the standard. Comparison of metal concentrations with the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) (2004, Table 2) showed that the concentration of Ni in the sediments of different stations is in intense pollution (more than 40 ppm). Based on other studies on this species, Mudskipper can be considered as an indicator of contamination, and the results of this study also show the effect of contaminated areas on the accumulation of heavy metals in muscle tissue. Therefore, it is better to undertake more studies to prevent the impact of pollutants, especially heavy metals on genetic erosion and the removal of this species from nature.

Quality and quantity assessment of scientific outputs is one of the important indicators of the national development of countries. The aim of this study was to determine the status of Iranian scientific outputs in the thematic area of the Caspian Sea in the Scopus database during 1970-2020.

This applied descriptive study was conducted using the scientometric methods. The study population was all scientific documents related to the Caspian Sea, which were indexed by Iranian researchers in Scopus using the keyword of “Caspian Sea” for the geographical area of Iran during 1970-2020. Data were analyzed using data analysis tools in Scopus, SPSS 21, and Excel. BibExcel and VOSviewer were applied to draw the scientific maps.

The results showed that 920 documents from Iranian researchers on the thematic area of the Caspian Sea were indexed in Scopus. The highest number of documents was indexed in 2013. Fazli with 34 articles was the most prolific author, the Tehran University with 170 articles was the most productive scientific center, and the Iranian Journal of Fisheries Sciences was the top journal with 67 articles. Iran had the most international collaboration with the United States, Malaysia, and Germany. The main research topics in the articles related to the Caspian Sea were “Agriculture and Biological Sciences” and “Environmental Sciences”. The highest occurrence keywords were Caspian Sea, Iran, Article, Nonhuman, Fish, Environmental Monitoring, and Controlled study. The study of the level of scientific participation of researchers showed that 93% of the studied scientific documents were compiled with the participation of 2 to 9 authors and with degree of collaboration of 0.93, collaboration index of 4.18, and collaboration coefficient of 0.66.

Although Iran has had good growth in terms of the number of published scientific documents in the thematic area of the Caspian Sea, Iran does not have very favorable conditions in terms of international participation and quality of articles.

This study is the first investigation to assess the variations of physical and chemical characteristics and biodiversity of planktons in offshore water column and chlorophyll-a and b, during the two monsoons at Chabahar Bay, to evaluate the water quality. To this end, 27 surface water samples in pre-monsoon (May, 2012) and totally 60 surface and deep water samples in post-monsoon (December, 2012) were collected from 9 and 10 stations at depths between 3.8 to 13.6 m in Chabahar Bay, respectively. The results showed that water salinity and pH with low variations were relatively higher in post-monsoon. The average of water alkalinity levels in pre- (2.42±0.02 mmol H+/kg) and post- (2.44±0.01 mmol/kg) monsoons were comparable to that of oceanic surface water (2-2.5 mmol H+/kg). In this study, 66 phytoplankton genus and species belonging to 13 groups were identified in pre-monsoon. Results demonstrated that nutrients were at higher levels inside the Chabahar Bay. Moreover, the physicochemical parameters of water samples were investigated and compared with international standards and data from other marine ecosystems. The results indicated that the water quality falls within the stipulated range of acceptability and sampling area can be classified as a good, stable, and healthy aquatic ecosystem.

Heavy metals are one of the most important environmental issues, due to their toxicity and resistance. In this study, the concentration of heavy metals (Alomunium, iron, mangenise, chromium, vanadium, nickele, zinc, arsenic, lead, cobalt, and cadmium) in surface sediments of Chabahar Bay was determined by using ICP OES to assess the risk of the metals for aquatic environment. The sampling stations were consisted of Posm, desalination plant, Konarak, Ramin, the entrance of Chabahar Bay and a reference station. The concentration of arsenic in the sediments of sampling area, especially at deeper parts of Ramin and coastal parts of Posm and Konarak, was 2.5 to 3 times ghier than threshold effect level (TEL), except for deeper parts of Posm. The results of this study showed that the concentrations of chromium (except for Ramin 2 and Tss 2), aresenic cadmium and nickel (except for Tiss 2) were 1-2.5, 1-5, 1-4 times higher than their threshold levels and international guidelines (NOAA و ISQGs), respectively. The results of this research showed that the dominant source of heavy metals in the sediments of sampling area was natural; except for cadmium and chromiumwhich originated from anthropogenic sources. However in some stations anthropogenic sources ffected on the concentration of some elements such as arsenic, lead and nickel.

The scientific journals are a valid method for communication of update information and a link among various fields of science through citation. The aim of this study was to investigate the citation of the articles of 28 issues published in Scientific and Research Journal of Oceanography (JOC). This study investigated the citation of 290 articles published in JOC through citation analysis during 2010-2016. The data were analyzed using Excel. Among 7512 citations of 290 published articles, the most citations belonged to journals (66.99%) and then to books (18.95%). Citation mean and authors' self-citation were 26.50 and 4.66% for each article, respectively. Collaborative contribution of men in published articles (73.96%) was more than that of women (26.05%). The most cited authors of Persian and English articles were Roshan Tabari and Ismail. The most cited Persian and English journals were "JOC" and "Aquaculture Nutrition", respectively. Collaboration degree of authors was 93.45% in JOC. Latin journals had the highest half-life with 13 years and 7 months. Although this journal has an acceptable pattern in terms of collaboration among authors and usage of Latin resources, the high half-life of the cited references, particularly Latin journals indicates that the officials of journal must take appropriate measures for usage of up-to-date references by authors.

The aim of this study is investigating Iranian marine science outputs based on Science Citation Index-Expanded published by the Thomson Reuters and determination of the co-authorship Iranian marine researchers related to scientific outputs between 1992 to 2013 on three water bodies Caspian Sea, Persian Gulf and Oman Sea.
Scientometrics indicators were used. The data were extracted in plain text format from SCIE, analyzed using HistCite software and counted in MS office Excel program.
Findings: The results of this study demonstrated that 749 scientific documents were recorded in the SCI by Iranian marine researchers during 1992-2013, which are consisted of 323, 368 and 58 documents relevant to the Caspian Sea, Persian Gulf and Oman Sea, respectively. The highest participation rate belonged to the documents with three or five authors, While the highest co-authorship rate (99%) in the three water bodies occurred in 2013. Our study on the three water bodies data based on Bradford’s and Lotka’s laws indicated the rejection of Lotka’s laws and confirming Bradford’s rule. Among the three water bodies during the study period, the Caspian water basin allocated the highest authors (819) and authors with highest publications (17 papers). Our findings demonstrated that Malaysian and German authors took the leading position of participation (48%) with Iranian researchers in scientific marine productions. Iranian Journal of Fisheries Sciences allocated the highest number of Iranian marine science output in comparing with other studied journals.
The literature and co-authorship factor on the Caspian Sea, Persian Gulf and Oman Sea have grown exponentially during the sutdy period.

Total organic carbon has a major influence on both the chemical and biological processesthat take place in sediments. Algal bloom is one of the organic carbon levels in aquatic ecosystems. In 2009 algal bloom occurred in the Hormozgan province and prolonged for months, which finally setteled down in 2010. In this study the variations of total organic carbon (TOC), organic matter (TOM) and total nitrogen (TN) contents, and the carbon-nitrogen ratio in superficial sediments collected from 33 stations at the Strait of Hormuz were investigated. Sampling was performed at the depths of 14 to 59 meters in spring of 2010 after sinking algal bloom in the area.The TOC content in the surface sediments revealed values in the range of 0.5 up to 3.5 % (mean 2 %, median 2.2 %, standard deviation 1.3%). The values generally highlighted a gradient increasing with distance from the Strait of Hormoz. According to the standards of Environmental Protection Agency of United State, the organic carbon concentrations in the analyzed sediments were in the range of sediments with low to medium organic carbon level. Organic matter levels were in the range of 4.4 to 10 % (mean 7.3 %). Statistical analysis demonstrated that there were no significant differences between the stations. According to Pearson correlation, total organic matter and organic carbon had significant correlation with each other (R2=0.81, P=0.01). Results showed that deeper parts had relatively higher organic carbon level (R2=0.66, P=0.05).Our investigation showed that the accumulation pattern of organic carbon depended on the grain size of the sements. The stations with higher percent of silt and clay had higher organic carbon. The results revealed that organic carbon level has increased in resent years, which can influence on the potential of methylation and accumulation of metals in sediment. In this study the TOC/TN ratio for 33 sediments were between 3 and 8, which demonstrated that the source of organic carbon could be related to the recent algal bloom.

The international GavKhoni wetland is one of the most valuable wetlands in Iran with unique habitat characteristics. For this reason it was added to the list of international wetlands during the Ramsar site on 23th June 1975. The wetland is located in the distance of 130 km, East of Isfahan province at a height of 1470 meters above sea level. Due to having specific habitat characteristics, the international GavKhoni wetland is considered as one of the major attractions of the country from ecotourism point of view. Hence it is necessary to have applied research for reinforcement this habitat.In this study the international GavKhoni wetland was assessed to determine the Tourism Climate Index using GIS. In the first step the data of seven climate parameters relevant to the international GavKhoni wetland in between 1976 to 2005, were collected monthly from 11 synoptic stations of Isfahan province. Then the data was converted using TCI model and subsequently the maps were combined in the GIS media to prepare the distribution maps of TCI during 12 months for the wetland. Based on Tourism Climate Index, our results demonstrated that climatic situation for tourism in the months of April, May, September and October are excellent for ecotourism.

The concentrations of trace metals in hair of fishermen from the Persian Gulf region were assessed to detect the relationships between element levels in hair and potential factors influencing these relationships. The hair of 19 fishermen were sampled from six stations in the Persian Gulf (Abadan, Deylam, Bushehr- Nirogah, Dayyer, Lengeh and Bandar Abbas in Khuzestan, Bushehr and Hormozgan provinces) and analyzed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry inductively (ICP-MS) and Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption Spectrometer to detect the trace metals and mercury levels, respectively. In this study we did not find significant correlation between fish diet and hair element levels, except for mercury (r=0.74, P=0.01). Our results demonstrated that the average concentrations of Cr, As and V in different stations were almost comparable, while the accumulation of Cu, Zn, Pb and Co in hair samples from Lengeh were much higher than those of other regions. Statistical analysis demonstrated that a positivly strong significant correlation (p<0.05) existed between V, Cr, Co, Cu and Zn concentrations in the human hair, which might have been originated from similar sources. The accumulation levels of Cd, Cu and Cr in our results were much lower than the corresponding accepted levels. The hair samples contained arsenic in high concentrations, as against arsenic level in normal healthy hair. Ninty percent of detected Pb levels were below 110 μg g-1 as dangerous level. Among the detected elements in hair, Pb, Ni and As could be used as marker of environmental exposure.

In this study, concentration of 17 elements, including As, Ba, Cd, Co, Cu, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn, Ca,Fe, Mg, Na, P, S, Si, as well as methylmercury in 31 surface sediments were assessed. The sampling stations were Gulf of Golestan, Miankale Island, Babolsar, Nowshahr and Anzali, which represented the most important harbors in the Golestan, Mazandaran and Gilan provinces in the southern parts of the Caspian Sea, respectively. Mercury and methylmercury concentrations in the surface sediments ranged from 10 to 44 and from levels below detection limit to 0.41 ng. g-1 d.w, respectively. The fraction of methylmercury accounted from 0.3 to 2.4 % of the total mercury content. Organic carbon contents varied from 0.26 % to 1.50 %. In this study, element concentrations in the sediments did not exceed the sediment quality guidelines and posed no environmental concerns, with the exception of nickel, which was in the moderate pollution range.