Current status of coral reefs in the United Arab Emirates: Distribution, extent, and community structure with implications for management

Grizzle, Raymond E.; Ward, Krystin M.; Alshihi, Rashid; Burt, John A.

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.10.005

Cited by 53 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…The two sites, UAQ1 (25°32′35.6′′N 55°35′29.9″E) and UAQ2 (25°34′06.6″N 55°34′11.3″E) are located 5 km and 2.5 km from the entrance of the lagoon respectively and are dominated by poritids and merulinids. Full descriptions of the coral communities are reported elsewhere 36 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Symbiont community stability through severe coral bleaching in a thermally extreme lagoon

Smith

Vaughan

Ketchum

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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Coral reefs are threatened by climate change as coral-algal symbioses are currently living close to their upper thermal limits. The resilience of the algal partner plays a key role in determining the thermal tolerance of the coral holobiont and therefore, understanding the acclimatory limits of present day coral-algal symbioses is fundamental to forecasting corals’ responses to climate change. This study characterised the symbiont community in a highly variable and thermally extreme (Max = 37.5 °C, Min = 16.8 °C) lagoon located in the southern Persian/Arabian Gulf using next generation sequencing of ITS2 amplicons. Despite experiencing extreme temperatures, severe bleaching and many factors that would be expected to promote the presence of, or transition to clade D dominance, the symbiont communities of the lagoon remain dominated by the C3 variant, Symbiodinium thermophilum. The stability of this symbiosis across multiple genera with different means of symbiont transmission highlights the importance of Symbiodinium thermophilum for corals living at the acclimatory limits of modern day corals. Corals in this extreme environment did not undergo adaptive bleaching, suggesting they are living at the edge of their acclimatory potential and that this valuable source of thermally tolerant genotypes may be lost in the near future under climate change.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Symbiont community stability through severe coral bleaching in a thermally extreme lagoon

Smith

Vaughan

Ketchum

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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“…Ascidians are relatively common members of the benthic community on reefs in the Musandam (R. Bento, unpubl. data), particularly compared to reefs in the southern Gulf or Sea of Oman where they are virtually undetected in benthic surveys (Burt et al, 2011;Grizzle et al, 2016). Given their short pelagic duration and limited larval swimming ability, ascidians generally have a relatively localized dispersal (Shanks et al, 2003;Weersing and Toonen, 2009), suggesting that the high abundance of colonial ascidians observed on Musandam settlement plates likely relates to their high abundance in the wider reef community.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Settlement Patterns of Corals and other Benthos on Reefs with Divergent Environments and Disturbances Histories around the Northeastern Arabian Peninsula

2017

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Larval supply is a principal factor determining the establishment, structure, and diversity of sessile benthic assemblages on coral reefs. Benthic reef communities in north-eastern Arabia have been subject to recurrent disturbances in recent years, and subsequent recovery will be, in part, driven by variation in the supply of available colonists. Using settlement tiles deployed seasonally over 1 year at eight sites encompassing three environmentally divergent regions (southern Arabian Gulf, the Musandam Peninsula in the Strait of Hormuz, and the Sea of Oman) we assessed spatial and seasonal variability in settlement of benthic reef organisms. There was strong spatial variation in composition of new colonists among regions, mainly driven by the high abundance of coralline algae in the Arabian Gulf, colonial ascidians on the Musandam Peninsula and barnacles in the Sea of Oman. Seasonal differences in composition of new colonists were less important than regional differences, with seasonal variation in settlement not consistent among regions. The number of corals settling to the tiles was low compared to those reported for other regions, with mean densities ranging from 0 corals m −2 year −1 in the Sea of Oman to 30 (± 0.6 SE) and 38 (± 0.5 SE) in Musandam and the Arabian Gulf, respectively. Peak coral settlement abundance in the Gulf occurred in summer and autumn and in Musandam in spring (averaging 82 and 70 settlers m −2 year −1 , respectively, during the peak settlement season). This work provides the first record of large-scale spatial and seasonal patterns of settlement in north-eastern Arabia and provides valuable information on the supply of settlers available to recolonize heavily disturbed reefs in this region. The extremely low rates of coral settlement suggest that these marginal reefs are likely to be extremely slow to recover from on-going and future disturbances.

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“…A principal focus of percent cover from 3 standard benthic categories HC, DC and DCA of its functional roles as a key builder of reef structure and a key provider of complex, rigid habitat for much another reef biodiversity especially for herbivore fish diversity [25,34]. Cover by substrate type was evaluated from 11 sites underwater photographic transects (UPT) [35,36,37] of 50 m length. The digital photograph was taken parallel on quadrat transect modification by [38] with dimension 58 x 44 cm at a height of 1.20 m, with approximately 1 m of distance between each photo.…”

Section: Characterization Of Habitat Complexitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The UPT using Nikon D90 underwater digital camera mounted, for a total of 50 photos per site and 550 total photos for this study. The analysis of each photo 4 E3S Web of Conferences 47, 04009 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20184704009 SCiFiMaS 2018 was carried out using the software CPCe 4.1 (Coral Point Count with excel extension) [39] to estimate the percent cover of dominant benthic categories at each reef sites (live coral, dead coral with algae, and recently dead coral) [37].…”

Section: Characterization Of Habitat Complexitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Responses of Herbivorous Fishes on Coral Reef Cover in Outer Island Indonesia (Study Case: Natuna Island)

et al. 2018

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Abstract. Coral reefs are one of the most highly productive marine ecosystems, with the largest transfer of energy attributed to the trophic interaction between herbivores and algae. Rapid demographic growth, leading to transmigration to small islands such as Natuna Island where located on outer Island Indonesia.The aim of the present study is to test for significant associations between herbivore fish species traits and Habitat complexity was derived from coral reef cover. Method to record each observed herbivore fish species with UVC (Underwater Visual Census) using SCUBA diving equipment along modification line transects. A total of 39 different fish species belonging to 3 families" herbivore fish were identified. Total biomass of herbivorous fish correlated with Dead Coral Algae (DCA). Biplot of the first two axes for the nonmetric multidimensional a scaling (NMDS) analysis for family and grazer showed the dominance of herbivore fish grazer.

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Current status of coral reefs in the United Arab Emirates: Distribution, extent, and community structure with implications for management

Cited by 53 publications

References 33 publications

Symbiont community stability through severe coral bleaching in a thermally extreme lagoon

Symbiont community stability through severe coral bleaching in a thermally extreme lagoon

Settlement Patterns of Corals and other Benthos on Reefs with Divergent Environments and Disturbances Histories around the Northeastern Arabian Peninsula

Responses of Herbivorous Fishes on Coral Reef Cover in Outer Island Indonesia (Study Case: Natuna Island)

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