Urmia Lake (also known as Oroumieh Lake) is a shallow terminal lake located in northwest Iran and one of the largest permanent lakes in the Middle East. Due to its biodiversity it has been designated as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO and a National Park under the 1971 Ramsar Convention. At present, the entire lake’s watershed is threatened due to drought and abrupt decline of the lake’s water le...

PURPOSE Carotenoids are of great interest in many scientific disciplines because of their wide distribution, diverse functions and interesting properties. The present report describes a new natural source for carotenoid production. METHODS Halorubrum sp., TBZ126, an extremely halophilic archaeon, was isolated from Urmia Lack following culture of water sample on marine agar medium and incubati...

drought as a climatic phenomenon affected many different environmental issues and generally is associated with the decreasing in average precipitation. evaluation and monitoring of the drought is a fundamental step in proper programming of water resources management. regarding the recent conditions water scarcity in the urmia lake basin, assessment of the drought index in this region is inevita...

In a survey on the biodiversity of Penicillium species in soils of the National Park of Urmia Lake (NW Iran), eight Penicillium isolates were isolated as members of the section Citrina. Based on a combination of cultural and morphological criteria, the isolates were identified as Penicillium anatolicum, P. sanguifluum,and P. sizovae. The identity of each species was further confirmed using sequ...

the lake urmia and its satellite wetlands have been selected as a demonstration site for the united nations development program / global environment facility / department of environment conservation of iranian wetlands project. this project aims to demonstrate reduction of the major threats of this wetland protected area coordinated through an integrated management plan. a choice experiment was...

BACKGROUND Hedgehogs are small, nocturnal mammals which become popular in the world and have important role in transmission of zoonotic agents. Thus, the present study aimed to survey ectoparasite infestation from April 2010 to December 2011 in urban and suburban parts of Urmia and Tabriz Cities, Northwest of Iran. METHODS A total number of 84 hedgehogs (40 females and 44 males) were examined...