**2. Aquatic ecosystem status in Mesopotamia**

A part from general climatic and non-climatic impacts on the environment in the region, fertile crescent or even the whole of Mesopotamia had recently also faced serious water shortages and desertification [1, 18, 16–21]. **Figure 1**(**A-C**).

The establishment of hundreds of dams in Iran and Turkey also changed river flow direction in both countries, leading to the degradation of freshwater in the region and the desiccation of wetlands in Kurdistan or even the whole of Iraq [18, 20, 22–28]. Besides that deforestation is quite evident as the remaining forest area had fallen to only 10% in contrast to before 1961 in the Kurdistan region of Iraq [20, 29].

Much water in Iraq has been and still is wasted naturally through the direct flow to the gulf or evaporation. Such status is definitely because of a lack of a water harvesting system, almost absence of a good irrigation plan, and finally, imperfect water management and administration. The most obvious outcome of such environmental impact is the desiccation of southern Iraqi marshes by more than 65% over the last 50 years [3, 5–7, 12, 13, 15, 17–20, 24–26, 29–47].

The environment program of the United Nations in 2018 indicated that Iraq is losing every year around 25.000 hectares of arable land [47]. However, continuous degradation of the fertile crescent is expected in years to come if no consideration or precaution and action have been taken.

Lower plant studies [Pteridophytes (ferns), Bryophytes (mosses), or Green Thallophyte (algae)] and their role in environmental changes and impact are quite *A Case Study to Evaluate the Environmental Impact of Aquatic Lower Plants in Mesopotamia… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108974*

#### **Figure 1.**

*Area under investigation: (A) showing ancient Mesopotamia, (B-C) recent political map all three above maps were taken from Google: Link: Mesopotamia fertile crescent map - Bing images***.**

evident in a different part of the world as it was and still is the concern for many scientists [11, 14, 48]. However, such studies in Mesopotamia including Iraq, so far, seem to be confined to classification, habitat, and taxonomy, whereas their role in

environmental integrity, climate change, environmental monitoring, and ecological indicators as well as biodiversity and their association with other vegetation remain vague and need much more investigation in this part of the world.
