Salinity-driven decadal changes in phytoplankton community in the NW Arabian Gulf of Kuwait

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
Turki Al-SaidA F Al-Baz

Abstract

Evaluation of hydrological data obtained between 2000 and 2013 from a time series station in Kuwait Bay (station K6) and an offshore southern location (station 18) off Kuwait showed drastic increase in salinity by 6 units. We tested the hypothesis that increased salinity impacted phytoplankton community characteristics in these semiarid waters. The Arabian Gulf receives seasonal freshwater discharge in the north via Shatt Al-Arab estuary with a peak during March-July. A north to south gradient in the proportion of the freshwater exists between station A in the vicinity of Shatt Al-Arab estuary and station 18 in the southern offshore area. At station A, the proportion of freshwater was the highest (25.6-42.5%) in 1997 but decreased to 0.8-4.6% by 2012-2013. The prevailing hyperhaline conditions off Kuwait are attributed to decrease in the river flow. Phytoplankton data showed a decrease in the number of constituent taxa in the last one decade from 353 to 159 in the Kuwait Bay and from 164 to 156 in the offshore area. A shift in their biomass was caused by a decrease in diatom species from 243 to 92 in the coastal waters and from 108 to 83 in the offshore areas with a concomitant increase of smaller algae. Mutivariate agglomerati...Continue Reading

References

Nov 7, 1999·Die Naturwissenschaften· Subba Rao DV Nageswara Rao CV
Oct 12, 2001·Nature·M SchefferB Walker
Dec 17, 2009·Marine Pollution Bulletin·Charles SheppardKhadija Zainal
Jan 8, 2011·Environmental Monitoring and Assessment·Saif UddinAhmed Khabbaz
Jul 11, 2014·Nature·Tim M Conway, Seth G John

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