Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Books and Book Chapters
Environmental Setting and Temporal Trends in Southeastern Gulf Coral Communities
Book Title
Coral Reefs of the Gulf
ORCID ID
0000-0002-6003-9324
Document Type
Book Chapter
ISBN
978-94-007-3008-3
Publication Date
3-5-2012
Editors
Bernhard M. Riegl, Sam J. Purkis
Keywords
Coral Reef, Coral Cover, Coral Density, Coral Community, Algal Turf
Description
[Chapter Abstract] The majority of coral reefs are found in tropical environments between 25°N and 25°S, where typical seawater temperatures and salinities are between 18°C and 31°C and 34–37 ppt, (Kleypas et al. 1999; Veron 1986). The marine environment of the southeastern Arabian Gulf is singularly harsh; the coral communities in this high-latitude region (i.e. between 24°09′N and 25°40′N) are exposed to natural conditions that exceed threshold limits of corals elsewhere in the world, with temperature ranges between 14°C and 36°C (Kinzie III 1973; Shinn 1976) and salinities above 40 ppt. Less than one-third of the scleractinian species that are found in the neighboring Gulf of Oman have adapted to survive in the Arabian Gulf (e.g. Acropora spp., Porites spp., faviids and siderastreids) (Riegl 1999; Coles 2003; Rezai et al. 2004; Claereboudt 2006). Other benthic taxa that are common in the Gulf of Oman but are absent from the Arabian Gulf include the coral genera Montipora, Pocillopora, and Goniopora spp., fungiids, oculinids, alcyonaceans, and massive sponges. The adaptations of some taxa to extremes of temperature and salinity and the exclusion of other taxa are of interest to scientists studying the impacts of global climate change on coral reefs and other marine organisms.
DOI
10.1007/978-94-007-3008-3_4
Publisher
Springer, Dordrecht
First Page
51
Last Page
70
Disciplines
Marine Biology
NSUWorks Citation
Foster, Kristi; Greg Foster; Ashraf S. Al-Cibahy; Suaad Al-Harth; Sam J. Purkis; and Bernhard M. Riegl. (2012). Environmental Setting and Temporal Trends in Southeastern Gulf Coral Communities. In Bernhard M. Riegl, Sam J. Purkis (Eds.), Coral Reefs of the Gulf .
Additional Information
The authors thank the following for support related to the work presented herein: Dolphin Energy; Emirates Wildlife Society in association with the World Wide Fund for Nature (EWS-WWF); National Coral Reef Institute (NCRI), Florida, USA; Environmental Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD); Supreme Council for the Environment and Natural Resources (SCENR), Qatar; Dibba Marine Centre of the Ministry of Environment and Water; Dibba-Fujairah Municipality; Fujairah Municipality, and Fujairah Marina Club. Integral team members during the field work associated with this project include Dr. Christophe Tourenq (EWS-WWF), Maral Shuriqi (Fujairah Municipality), Ebrahim Baqla (EAD) and Debra Rein. All reef images in this chapter are single frames taken from underwater videos shot by Dr. Greg Foster.
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.