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Macrobenthos in the central Arabian Gulf: a reflection of climate extremes and variability

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Abstract

The arid subtropical ecosystem of the central Arabian Gulf was used to explore the combined effects of low primary productivity, high salinities, and variable temperatures on the composition and structure of benthic macrofauna at 13 sites encircling the Qatar Peninsula in winter and summer (or late spring) of 2010 and 2011. The low abundance, biomass, and remarkably high species turnover may be a reflection of the oligotrophic, thermally variable, hypersaline coastal environment. The number of species and within-habitat diversity was lowest in the highest salinities but increased with finer-grained sediments and lower salinity. A remarkable temporal variation in species composition observed may reflect insufficient primary production to sustain new populations recruited from the seasonal exchange of water from the adjacent Sea of Oman. Low abundances accompanied by continued replacement of species may be a “new model” for extremely arid conditions associated with global warming.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) for field work support (NPRP 08-497-1-086), as well as Canadian Healthy Oceans Network (CHONe) and Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology for supporting data analysis and manuscript preparation (MOST 103-2119-M-002-029-MY2). We also thank captain and crew of the R/V “Mukhtabar Al Bihar” and the Qatar University Environmental Studies Center laboratory staff and technicians for their work at sea and conducting chemical and biological analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Oceanography, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Chih-Lin Wei

  2. Department of Marine Biology, Texas A&M University at Galveston, Galveston, TX, USA

    Gilbert T. Rowe & Antonietta Quigg

  3. Environmental Studies Center, Qatar University, Doha, State of Qatar

    Mohsin Al-Ansi, Ibrahim Al-Maslamani, Ibrahim S. Al-Ansari & Ismail Al-Shaikh

  4. Department of Biological and Environmental Science, Qatar University, Doha, State of Qatar

    Yousria Soliman

  5. Central Environmental Laboratory, Ministry of the Environment, Doha, State of Qatar

    Nehad Nour El-Din & Mohamed A. Abdel-Moati

  6. Department of Oceanography, University of Hawaii, Manoa, HI, USA

    Clifton Nunnally

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  1. Chih-Lin Wei
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  2. Gilbert T. Rowe
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  3. Mohsin Al-Ansi
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Wei, CL., Rowe, G.T., Al-Ansi, M. et al. Macrobenthos in the central Arabian Gulf: a reflection of climate extremes and variability. Hydrobiologia 770, 53–72 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-015-2568-7

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