Abstract
Coral reefs represent the most biodiverse ecosystem in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and these habitats support high fisheries productivity, an economic resource sector second only to oil, and a burgeoning ecotourism sector. Corals occur in all seven Emirates, with the highest coral diversity occurring on the east coast along the Sea of Oman and declining along a gradient from the Strait of Hormuz to western Abu Dhabi, reflecting the more extreme environmental conditions towards the southwestern Gulf. Coral reefs of the Emirates are among the most heat tolerant in the world, and as a result have come to represent an important natural asset for international science. However, impacts from coastal development and recent severe marine heat waves have pushed these robust corals past their physiological thresholds, and reefs have become heavily degraded in the past decade across much of the UAE. Active management intervention is needed to conserve and restore the important reef ecosystems to ensure these vibrant habitats are retained for the next generation.
You have full access to this open access chapter, Download chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
1 UAE Coral Reefs in a Global and Regional Context
Coral reefs extend across the tropics from the Tropic of Cancer to the Tropic of Capricorn (30 °N to 30 °S), mainly in shallow coastal areas. They are among the most diverse ecosystems on earth, covering less than 0.1% of the ocean yet containing over a quarter of all marine species—a level of diversity comparable to tropical rainforests (Hoegh-Guldberg et al. 2017). They are also important for humanity, providing coastal protection, food, and livelihoods to over 850 million people, nearly a tenth of the global population (Burke et al. 2011). They are also economically important and are classified as the most valuable ecosystem on earth on a per unit area basis (over US $35 million/km2/year), each year providing over US $9 trillion in goods and services globally, equating to nearly 8% of annual global GDP (de Groot et al. 2012; 2007 dollars; Costanza et al. 2014).
Over 6% of the world’s coral reefs (15,000 km2) occur in the Arabian region, largely made up by the extensive reef systems of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden (Souter et al. 2021). Northeastern Arabia is broken into two marine biogeographic provinces with very distinct environmental conditions: the Sea of Oman and the Arabian Gulf (see Chap. 4; Sheppard et al. 1992; Briggs and Bowen 2012). While environmental conditions in the Sea of Oman are more benign and therefore more suitable for coral growth, the sharp increase in depth near the coast and the generally sandy sea-bottom make much of the Sea of Oman coastline unsuitable for coral growth (Burt et al. 2016). As a result, while the environment supports high coral diversity (ca. 120 species), only a modest area (196 km2) is occupied by coral reefs across the Sea of Oman’s entire coast (Claereboudt 2019; Burt et al. 2021b). In contrast, coral reefs have far greater area of coverage in the Arabian Gulf, where shallow water (mean depth <30 m) and widespread availability of hard-bottom support 1482 km2 of reef habitat (Fig. 11.1) (Vaughan et al. 2019; Burt et al. 2021b). However, the shallow, semi-enclosed nature of the Gulf results in a marine environment that is characterized by extremes in salinity and temperature, particularly towards the southwest (see Chap. 4; Vaughan et al. 2019). As a result, while reefs are widespread, the diversity and complexity of reefs drops markedly with distance from the entrance of the Gulf. Approximately 70 coral species occur at the Strait of Hormuz (a third lower than in the wider Sea of Oman), dropping to around 50 species in the northwestern Gulf near Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, with the lowest diversity occurring in the southern basin along the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where 34 species have been reported (Sheppard and Sheppard 1991; Riegl et al. 2012; Bouwmeester et al. 2022). As a result of its young age, small size, high latitude (27–30 °N) and extreme environmental conditions, the Gulf contains only about a tenth of the coral diversity occurring in the wider Indo-Pacific, with only two regionally endemic coral species (Acropora downingi and Porites harrisoni) (Coles 2003). Reef complexity also varies with environmental conditions. True reefs, where corals grow on top of skeletal remains of older corals, only occur around the entrance of the Gulf at the Strait of Hormuz and around the offshore islands of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, while reefs of the southern Gulf near the UAE are best described as ‘coral carpets’, where individual coral colonies grow as a single layer directly on rocky substrates (Sheppard and Sheppard 1991; Carpenter 1997; Riegl et al. 2012).
2 Coral Distribution and Diversity in the Emirates
Corals reefs in the Emirates fall into several distinct assemblage types that are largely structured by the prevailing environmental conditions in the local marine systems. Each of these are discussed separately below.
2.1 East Coast Reefs
In the UAE corals only occur where rocky habitats emerge from the sands that dominate the sea-bottom on both coasts. On the Sea of Oman coast, these occur mainly as headlands and nearshore islands that push out past the gravel plains at the base of the Hajar mountains (Fig. 11.2). Areas with the most extensive coral growth occur at rocky promontories around Dibba, Al Aqah, Mirbah, and Khor Fakkan; no reefs occur south of Khor Fakkan due to the absence of rocky substrate on this sandy coast. Virtually all corals on the East Coast occur in a narrow band of just a few tens of meters from the shoreline due to the steep slope, with corals largely restricted to <15 m depth. The relatively benign environmental conditions here are more typical of the Indian Ocean and support the highest diversity of corals in the UAE, estimated at approximately 60 species, although this is likely an underestimate as comprehensive surveys (particularly of the large corals stands around Khor Fakkan) have not yet been published.
Coral reefs on the UAE’s east coast have largely escaped the impacts of coastal development that have affected many nearshore reefs on the Arabian Gulf coast (see below), and the deeper adjacent waters have historically buffered corals against marine heat waves. However, two major back-to-back disturbances in the late 2000s resulted in the first record of wide-scale coral loss in this area.
In 2007 Supercyclone Gonu struck reefs across the Sea of Oman with sustained winds of over 270 km/h and waves reaching 5 m height (Fritz et al. 2010). The resulting storm surge heavily impacted the UAE’s east coast, causing the loss of over half of coral from many reefs, with breakage and dislodgement particularly acute for the fragile branching corals (e.g. Acropora table corals and Pocillopora cauliflower corals) that had dominated these reefs (Fig. 11.3a) (Foster et al. 2008, 2011). Unfortunately, this was followed the next year by a severe harmful algal bloom (HAB) which caused oxygen-deprivation in waters across the northern portion of the UAE’s east coast (Dibba to Mirbah) that persisted for several months (Bauman et al. 2010). This long-term exposure to hypoxia caused mortality of >80% of corals in many areas (Fig. 11.3b), and the local extirpation of particularly sensitive coral species (Bauman et al. 2010; Foster et al. 2011).
Despite the dramatic impacts to the UAE’s northern east coast reefs in the late 2000s, recovery was underway within several years. Although there was only modest improvement in the total amount of coral on Sea of Oman reefs between 2009 and 2011 (Bento et al. 2016), juvenile colonies of table corals (Acropora), cauliflower corals (Pocillopora) and smooth cauliflower corals (Stylophora)—groups that had been particularly heavily impacted by earlier events—were observed in reef surveys performed in 2012 (Pratchett et al. 2017), indicating that recovery was underway. It generally takes 10–15 years for coral reefs to recover from a severe disturbance (Burt et al. 2008; Gilmour et al. 2013), suggesting that follow-up surveys of the coral reefs at these sites are warranted to determine the extent of recovery.
While the extensive coral reefs of Khor Fakkan, further to the south, were also impacted by Cyclone Gonu, they escaped most of the impact of the HAB event that afflicted reefs to the north near Dibba and Mirbah. Although Cyclone Gonu did cause breakage and fragmentation of much of the complex table corals (Acropora) that dominated these reefs down to ~7 m depth (Maghsoudlou et al. 2008), this did not lead to local extirpation. Because each fragment is capable of adhering to the bottom and growing into a new individual, within several years many of the fragments had grown into new colonies. Given the rapid growth rates (10–15 cm/year) of table corals, anecdotal observations suggested that much of the table coral community had recovered across Khor Fakkan within several years.
More delicate soft corals such as Sinularia and Sarcophyton generally only occur on the UAE’s coast (Fig. 11.4), mainly around Khor Fakkan, and are largely absent on the UAE’s Arabian Gulf nearshore reefs, presumably due to the more severe environment there. Soft corals were also heavily impacted by Cyclone Gonu, with large areas heavily denuded by the storm surge. However, recovery of soft corals was rapid, with significant regrowth observed within 6 months (Maghsoudlou et al. 2008). Unfortunately, there has been no comprehensive monitoring program for Khor Fakkan’s reefs in the past, and quantitative data on trends in reef health are unavailable for these important reefs; development of such a program is highly warranted.
2.2 Reefs of the Gulf’s Northern Emirates
The distribution of corals along the UAE’s Arabian Gulf coast varies as a function of depth and availability of rocky bottom. Corals here are typically restricted to <10 m depth as a result of light limitation from the moderate turbidity of Gulf waters (Fig. 11.5) (Chap. 4; Grizzle et al. 2016). Where the sea-bottom slope is steep, as in Ras Al Khaimah, this restricts coral growth to the immediate coastline in areas where hard-bottom occurs (e.g. Ghalilah), although occasional coral colonies can be found on rocky outcrops offshore at depths exceeding 40 m (so-called mesophotic coral reefs (Fig. 11.6), about which little is known in the Gulf; Pyle and Copus 2019).
Coral reefs had previously occurred in a discontinuous narrow band approximately 500–1000 m from shore in each of the Gulf Emirates, and new reefs are still occasionally being documented today (e.g. a recently described nearshore reef in Umm Al Quwain; Grizzle et al. 2016). Historically, corals from these reefs had served as a major source of building materials in a unique trade industry that originated in the 1400s and continued through the early twentieth century before being supplanted by concrete (King 1997; Hawker 2006; Petersen 2012). Historic sites such as the Qasr Al Hosn in Abu Dhabi, the Al Hisn fort in Sharjah, and the >500 buildings that made up the village of Jezirat Al Hamra in Ras Al Khaimah (Fig. 11.7) all incorporated corals into their walls (Lorimer 1908; Fox et al. 2006; Petersen 2012), an ingenious solution to the lack of stone along the sandy coast of the early Emirates. Together, an estimated 45 km2 of reef was historically estimated to have occurred in this nearshore strip from Dubai through the northern Emirates (Grizzle et al. 2016).
Unfortunately, coastal dredging and reclamation since the 1980s have decimated the once extensive reefs in Dubai and the Northern Emirates, and the large reefs once documented adjacent to Jebel Ali, the Sharjah corniche and Jezirat Al Hamra have all been lost (Riegl 1999; Goudie et al. 2000; Burt et al. 2008; Sheppard et al. 2010). Any remaining reefs in the northern Emirates should be recognized as vestiges of what were much more widespread ecosystems just 50 years ago (Fig. 11.8).
2.3 Corals of the Capital and Western Region
Nearshore coral reefs were quite extensive in the capital area and western region up until the 1970s (Fig. 11.9), and even today the most extensive reef areas in the UAE occur across Abu Dhabi (79.5 km2, representing 60% of all coral reefs in the UAE) (Grizzle et al. 2016). Geologists supporting the nascent petroleum industry during the 1970s ‘oil boom’ have provided vivid descriptions and detailed aerial photographs of extensive coral reefs dominating the nearshore areas and tidal channels next to many of the familiar barrier islands surrounding the capital, including Saadiyat, Halat Al Bahraini, Dhabiya, Abu Al Abyad islands and in front of Abu Dhabi city itself (Evans et al. 1964; Kinsman 1964b; Kendall and Skipwith 1969; Murray 1970; Purser and Evans 1973). Descriptions of complex and extensive table coral reefs are common in the 1960s literature, with Kinsman (1964a) stating that, “…Trucial Coast reefs are composed dominantly of Acropora [table corals], even in very shoal areas which suffer maximum temperature changes”, while Evans et al. (1964) writes of the capital area that “…directly fronting the islands are coral reefs, predominantly of Acropora [table corals] with subordinate Platygyra [brain corals] and other massive corals… . The coral here is diffuse and occurs in patches, whereas on the steep walls of the ebb [tidal] channels the growth of the dominant coral, Acropora, is extremely prolific”.
Unfortunately, many of these once extensive reefs have been lost or heavily degraded as a result of channel dredging and land reclamation to support the early oil and port industries in the 1970s (Murray 1970; Carp 1976; Crisp 1976). Today the large nearshore reef that provided food to local communities on Abu Dhabi island for millennia sits under the footprint of the man-made Lulu Island and Mina Zayed, while navigation channel dredging led to complete loss of the table-coral (Acropora) dominated reefs that had fringed the shallow tidal areas around Reem and Mariyah Islands (Murray 1970).
Today, coral reefs do continue to exist in some nearshore locations in the Abu Dhabi emirate, with large reefs still occurring in front of Ras Ghanada, Saadiyat and Dhabiya (Burt et al. 2011; Grizzle et al. 2016), but the current coral communities are degraded relative to historic descriptions (e.g. the virtual extirpation of the Acropora table corals that had once been common (see Box 11.1) (Burt et al. 2011). Continuing pressure from coastal urbanization and industrialization represent a threat to their long-term persistence (Burt 2014).
Box 11.1 Table Corals (Acropora) as Bellwethers of Environmental Change
When the general public sees videos or photographs of coral reefs anywhere in the world, they are most likely looking at images of a shoal of bright and colorful reef fishes surrounding a stand of table corals—a group of corals belonging to the genus Acropora (Fig. 11.10). At least 12 species of table corals have been described for the UAE, although taxonomic uncertainty remains (Riegl et al. 2012), which includes the regionally endemic species Acropora downingi that once dominated reefs across the southern Gulf (Evans et al. 1964). Table corals represent one of the primary reef-building corals in the Emirates, with their long horizontal branches fusing into ‘tables’ that can reach over 3 m in diameter, with the fastest growth rates of any corals in the Emirates, estimated at 10 cm per year (Riegl 2002).
Table corals provide considerable three-dimensional complexity that support a diverse array of fishes using the colonies as shelter from predators, or even as a home (e.g. the coral-dwelling citron goby); they also provide shade to an understory of sub-dominant species such as brain and mound corals that are typically found in deeper low-light environments (Riegl 1999,2002).
Unfortunately table corals are highly sensitive to environmental stress, and are widely known to be among the first corals to suffer under pressures such as sedimentation, extreme temperatures and disease, which can decimate local populations (Loya et al. 2001; Dana and Margaret 2005; Burt et al. 2011; Clark et al. 2017; Riegl et al. 2018). If conditions remain benign for a period of 10–15 years after a mass die-off, their rapid growth rates can provide a capacity to recover (Burt et al. 2008; Gilmour et al. 2013). However, if recovery is ‘reset’ by more frequent disturbances, for example by recurrent bleaching events associated with marine heat waves that are becoming all-too-common under climate change, then the stock of remaining adults on reefs can crash or be so physiologically impaired that it affects reproductive output, resulting in loss of larvae to help replenish these reefs (Howells et al. 2016a; Burt and Bauman 2019). If this happens at regional scales, as it has in the Gulf in recent decades (Bauman et al. 2014; Bento et al. 2017; Pratchett et al. 2017), then this can result in a region-wide collapse of these species, with little hope for their return without active restoration interventions.
2.4 Offshore Reefs of the Southern Gulf
The southern basin of the Gulf is the only area of the UAE where substantial offshore coral reefs occur. These reefs mainly surround islands and shoals in Abu Dhabi waters, although the most diverse and extensive reefs occur at Sir Bu Nair island, which is governed by Sharjah but geographically sits 70 km offshore from the Abu Dhabi-Dubai border towards the center of the Gulf. The prevalence of offshore reefs in the southern basin is due to the shallow, low sloping bathymetry in the area which keeps much of the bottom in the well-lit photic zone, as well as the presence of large hard-bottomed shoals and offshore islands that occur where salt domes push up rocky substrate through the largely sand bottom (Riegl and Purkis 2012). This combination of features provides corals with hard substrate suitable for growth at a depth where sunlight can readily penetrate, and the offshore nature of these locations protects these reefs from the influence of urban-related pressures that typically affect nearshore areas (e.g. dredging, nutrient pollution; Riegl and Purkis 2012; Aeby et al. 2020). The presence of deeper waters surrounding many of the offshore islands has also been suggested to buffer these reefs during summer, as tidal currents push cool, deeper waters up into the shallows where corals occur, providing temporary respite from summer heat (Cavalcante et al. 2020; Bento et al. 2021).
Extensive fringing reefs occur adjacent to islands such as Sir Bu Nair, Delma and Arzanah (Burt et al. 2011; Riegl and Purkis 2012; Bento et al. 2021), and were known to have occurred at Sir Bani Yas island prior to widespread dredging and reclamation in the 1980s (Purser and Evans 1973). Sharjah’s Sir Bu Nair island, lying farthest out from land and surrounded by deep (>30 m) waters, today represents the best developed and most extensive coral reef ecosystem in the UAE’s Arabian Gulf waters (Fig. 11.11), in part because of its isolation but also because of its strictly enforced ‘no go’ protected area supported by the presence of military infrastructure on the island. Reefs here are dominated by table corals (Acropora) which makes up over half of all coral, with large stands typically occurring in shallow (<6 m) depths to the northwest and south of the island; with increasing depth these shallow-water specialists become less common and the community grades to one dominated by brain corals and mound corals (Merulinids and Poritids) that are more resilient to lower light (Bejarano et al. 2022). The coral reefs of Sir Bu Nair are considered to be extremely important as one of the only remaining source of table coral (Acropora) larvae that have potential to colonize and replenish the nearshore reefs along the Gulf coast of the UAE and, as such, their continued conservation is considered a high priority for the nation (Cavalcante et al. 2016; Riegl et al. 2018; Bento et al. 2021).
3 UAE Coral Reefs: A Globally Important Scientific Asset
Coral reefs are the most biodiverse ecosystem in the Emirates, and are also highly economically valuable, supporting fisheries productivity that is comparable to the most productive coral reefs on earth (Grandcourt et al. 2011). In addition to these local benefits, coral reefs of the UAE are also increasingly regarded as an important asset for global science, particularly around the implications of future climate change across the tropics (Burt et al. 2014, 2020).
Each summer the Arabian Gulf becomes the world’s hottest sea, and this is particularly true of the southern Gulf basin along the UAE’s Abu Dhabi coast where sea temperatures regularly exceed 36 °C (Coles 2003; Riegl and Purkis 2012). Such temperatures are upwards of 5 °C warmer than temperatures that would be lethal to corals in tropical regions such as the Caribbean and the Great Barrier Reef (Riegl et al. 2011), and represent conditions that are predicted to occur across much of the tropics by the end of the century as a result of climate change (Burt et al. 2020). As such, there has been dramatic growth of research on the UAE’s coral reefs in the past decade as scientists race to understand how local corals are able to cope with such extreme temperatures, and what the implications of these responses are for corals elsewhere in the world (Fig. 11.12) (Burt 2013; Vaughan and Burt 2016).
While the extreme summer temperatures in the southern Gulf have drawn the most attention, reefs here are also exposed to extreme cold in winter (<18 °C), high salinity (>44 PSU), high turbidity, and recurrent low oxygen exposure, each of which represent major stressors for coral (Coles 2003; Bauman et al. 2012; de Verneil et al. 2021). These extreme conditions do have costs for corals, as only a hardy subset of regional species is capable of surviving in the southern Gulf, where coral diversity is approximately half of that occurring in the Gulf of Oman and <10% of the diversity of the wider Indo-Pacific (Coles 2003; Bauman et al. 2012; Bento et al. 2016; Claereboudt 2019; Bouwmeester et al. 2021). Yet those species that are able to survive can be highly abundant in the southern Gulf, with dense coral communities often having coverage of live coral that rivals reefs of the east coast (Sheppard et al. 2000; Bento et al. 2016; Grizzle et al. 2016; Riegl et al. 2018).
Recent research has shown that a number of different mechanisms permit coral survival under the extreme environmental stress of the southern Gulf. Population genetics analyses on a locally abundant brain coral (Platygyra daedalea) has shown that corals rapidly colonized the Gulf following the flooding of the basin after the last glacial period, and in the final stages corals had colonized the modern UAE’s Gulf coast approximately 8000–6000 years ago (Smith et al. 2022). In the intervening millennia, the environment has acted a ‘filter’ for natural selection, resulting a preponderance of genes related to temperature and stress tolerance being fixed in the genome of local populations, such that they are now genetically distinct from populations outside of the Gulf (Smith et al. 2022). In addition to the coral animal itself, the UAE’s Gulf corals also host a unique species of thermally tolerant symbiotic algae (Cladocopium thermophilum) that dominates virtually all corals in the southern Gulf and is functionally absent in corals east of Ras Al Khaimah where conditions are less extreme (Hume et al. 2013, 2016, 2018). This coral-algae association is even retained across extreme seasonal cycles of temperature and through severe bleaching events, suggesting that this symbiosis is critical for coral survival in the southern Gulf (Hume et al. 2015; Smith et al. 2017; Howells et al. 2020). Together, the unique genetic adaptations of Gulf corals and their symbionts support the highest thermal tolerance and bleaching thresholds known anywhere on earth (Riegl et al. 2011; Howells et al. 2016b).
4 Climate Change and the Future of Coral Reefs in the Emirates
Paradoxically, while the UAE is home to some of the most heat tolerant corals on earth, it may be one of the first nations to experience the functional loss of coral reefs as a result of climate change. This is because while these corals do have adaptations allowing them to exist in the most extreme temperatures known on earth, they already live very close to their physiological limits and, as a result, can be easily pushed across this threshold during bleaching events in unusually warm summers (Fig. 11.13) (Lincoln et al. 2021).
As a whole, the Gulf is warming at over twice the rate of the global oceans, and this is leading to the occurrence of more frequent and severe marine heat waves (Riegl et al. 2018; Lachkar et al. 2021). Historically, coral bleaching events were first reported for the UAE’s Gulf reefs in the early 1980s, followed by severe back-to-back events in 1996 and 1998 which resulted in the loss of over 90% of corals from reefs in Abu Dhabi and Dubai (Fig. 11.14) (Riegl 1999, 2002). This was followed by more than a decade of benign temperatures, which allowed corals to recolonize degraded areas and coral coverage to return to mid-1990s levels in many locations by the late 2000s (Sheppard and Loughland 2002; Burt et al. 2008). Recurrent marine heat waves occurred again in 2010, 2011 and 2012, though temperatures were not as extreme as earlier and only a fifth of corals were estimated to have been lost following these three events (Riegl and Purkis 2015). Unfortunately, one of the most severe marine heat waves ever recorded in the Gulf occurred in 2017, when nearly three-quarters (73%) of corals were killed across the southern Gulf (Burt et al. 2019), with the summers of 2020 and 2021 also characterized by unusually extreme periods of elevated temperatures (data on coral losses during this period are still being developed). As a result, coral reefs of the UAE’s Gulf coast are now heavily degraded both in terms of the amount of live coral, as well as in terms of the overall community structure, with formerly-dominant table corals (Acropora) now largely extirpated from coastal reefs.
The coral reefs of the UAE’s east coast and those offshore in the Gulf, such as Sir Bu Nair island, have historically managed to escape the impacts of earlier bleaching events, largely due to the presence of deep, cool water in the surrounding environment that buffered these reefs from extreme temperatures. This came to an end in the summer of 2021 when an extended period of low winds resulted in elevated temperatures, particularly at shallow depths. Surveys conducted at Shark Island in Khor Fakkan in early September 2021 showed near complete mortality of table corals down to ca. 6.5 m depth and severe bleaching of most coral species occurring at Martini Wall (Fig. 11.13d); surveys at Sir Bu Nair island several weeks later showed widespread bleaching of this last remaining stand of table corals for the UAE’s Gulf waters, although mortality appeared to be less extreme than in Khor Fakkan (Fig. 11.13f). Analyses are currently underway to determine the extent of coral loss and shifts in species that may have occurred as a result of this event, but algal overgrowth has become much more common than in the past (Fig. 11.15).
The occurrence of these recent bleaching events across the Emirates represents a profound existential threat to the continued persistence of coral reef ecosystems for the nation (Fig. 11.16). The total amount of coral on most reefs in the UAE has declined by at least half and often over three-quarters since the late 2000s (Bento et al. 2016; Burt et al. 2019).
Recovery of the UAE’s coral reefs will be contingent on two processes: vegetative growth and settlement of sexually produced larvae. While vegetative growth from surviving adults is possible, most coral species in the UAE are extremely slow growing (<1 cm/year), meaning that regrowth of pre-2010 coral coverage would take several decades without disturbance—an unlikely scenario given the frequency of recent marine heat waves (Howells et al. 2018; Burt et al. 2019). In addition, several sensitive groups such as table corals (Acropora) have been largely extirpated from most reefs (Riegl et al. 2018), meaning vegetative regrowth from surviving colonies will not be possible for these taxa. The news is not much better for the potential of sexually produced larvae to aid the recovery of the UAE’s increasingly degraded reefs (Fig. 11.17). The substantial declines in coral abundance in recent years means that the standing stock of adults with reproductive potential has declined considerably and bleaching-induced stress has likely impaired fecundity for at least some species, reducing reef-level reproductive output (Howells et al. 2016a; Burt et al. 2019). Reefs further offshore or in surrounding nations have also been heavily impacted by bleaching events since 2017, suggesting that rescue from larvae produced further afield is also unlikely (Burt et al. 2021b). Recent surveys for recently-settled coral spat and juveniles bear this out, with studies reporting suppressed larval coral settlement after bleaching events (Burt and Bauman 2019), with extremely low levels of juvenile settlement overall compared with reefs in other regions (Bauman et al. 2014; Bento et al. 2017). Worryingly, formerly common coastal species such as table corals (Acropora) have all but disappeared from the juvenile communities on the Arabian Gulf coast of the UAE (Bauman et al. 2014; Burt and Bauman 2019), although they have continued to be observed on reefs in Fujairah as well as the offshore island of Sir Bu Nair in the Gulf (Pratchett et al. 2017; Bento et al. 2021). Overall, these results suggest that we are witnessing a major transition of coral reef ecosystems in the UAE, particularly on nearshore reefs in the Gulf, where coral communities are characterized by much lower abundance and diversity of corals than in history, with limited capacity for successful natural recovery.
5 Improving the Future Trajectory of UAE Reefs
While recent bleaching-induced impacts suggest that the important coral reef ecosystems that line the Emirates’ coast are in a vulnerable state, there are actions that can be taken to reverse this trajectory and enhance their recovery going forward.
The UAE has taken increasing steps to conserve various marine ecosystems, including reefs, through the establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), with MPAs now covering 12% of the nation’s coastal and marine zones (5 in the Sea of Oman and 10 on the Arabian Gulf coast) and two-thirds of this area established in the short period since 2010 (IUCN 2022). In addition, the establishment of new MPAs is being supported by an evolving understanding of the location and nature of marine ecosystems through recent marine habitat mapping efforts (Grizzle et al. 2016; Lamine et al. 2020; Mateos-Molina et al. 2020), allowing identification of gaps in current protection so that future MPAs could prioritize conservation of key reefs (Mateos-Molina et al. 2021). These efforts are laudable and should continue, but should also be enhanced through the development of a national coral reef monitoring program to support such initiatives. While a well-established long-term reef monitoring program exists in Abu Dhabi (e.g. Burt et al. 2011, 2019), only periodic ‘snapshot’ surveys have occurred in other emirates (e.g. Bento et al. 2016; Grizzle et al. 2016). It is impossible to manage a system which is not understood, nor is it possible to assess the efficacy of any management efforts (e.g. MPA establishment) without detailed monitoring programs. This clearly represents a ‘low hanging fruit’ that would aid understanding of trends in coral community health, the impact of any intervention measures, and the identification of which areas are most essential for management and conservation efforts (be it based on biodiversity, vulnerability or other factors) at national scales. Such a monitoring program would strongly aid the development of ecosystem-based management and marine spatial planning approaches that are increasingly being promoted in the Emirates and surrounding nations (Fanning et al. 2021; Burt et al. 2017; Ben-Romdhane et al. 2020; Mateos-Molina et al. 2021), and should be considered a priority for adoption.
Reef management and conservation interventions must also be accompanied by active reef restoration efforts. Given the worrying state of larval settlement and the degraded state of many reefs in the Emirates, natural recovery is unlikely to occur in the near-term (Burt et al. 2019). Reef restoration sciences have improved markedly in the past two decades (Bayraktarov et al. 2019; Boström-Einarsson et al. 2020), and development of new approaches such as aquaculture-based nurseries, selection and propagation of thermally-tolerant genotypes, and implementation of techniques to utilize sexually-produced larval out-plants (as opposed to fragments derived from vulnerable and scarce wild colonies) all offer novel approaches that could showcase the UAE as a leader in the reef restoration field on a global stage. The above approaches will not be able to ameliorate the temperature trends resulting from climate change, but they will allow a program to focus on those species and individual genotypes with the highest likelihood of success, particularly when combined with a monitoring program that helps identify those areas where such restoration efforts are likely to have the most success. It should be noted that artificial reefs are not surrogates for natural reefs and often serve to exacerbate the issues they are often designed to resolve (Bartholomew et al. 2022; Burt et al. 2021a), and therefore should not serve as part of the reef management toolkit for the Emirates.
In addition to having local value, the coral reefs of the UAE also represent an important asset for coral reefs on a global stage (Burt et al. 2014, 2020). The local prevalence of corals pre-adapted to temperatures anticipated to occur across most of the tropics by the end of the century cannot be overstated. Currently researchers across the globe are racing to enhance the thermal tolerance of corals through ‘assisted evolution’ approaches, where several generations of corals are subject to experimentally induced temperature stress with the goal of enhancing the thermal tolerance of later offspring (van Oppen et al. 2015; Anthony et al. 2017). An alternative approach that side-steps the need for time consuming multi-generational experiments would be through the adoption of cross-breeding approaches that utilize the standing genetic stock of coral populations already adapted to extreme thermal stress such as those in the UAE. Recent work in the Emirates has shown that cross-breeding of heat-tolerant Gulf corals with thermally naïve coral populations in the Indian Ocean resulted in the cross-bred offspring having survival at extreme temperatures that was comparable to pure-bred Gulf corals and that was up to 84% higher than pure-bred offspring from thermally-naïve populations (Howells et al. 2021). These findings highlight the tremendous importance of UAE reefs as a scientific asset and as a resource that could help mitigate against climate change in other regions. The conservation of this unique natural asset should be given high priority.
6 Conclusions
Coral reefs represent one of the most important natural assets of the United Arab Emirates, from the perspective of biological diversity, economic value and for their value to global scientific research. While coral reefs are a relatively young ecosystem to a large part of the nation along the Arabian Gulf coast, these corals have experienced a ‘trial by fire’ that has winnowed out weaker species and individuals, leaving a remarkably robust and thermally tolerance assemblage lining the shores. While the reefs of the east coast and offshore in the Gulf may not exhibit the remarkable stress tolerance of those along the western shores, they contain some of the most diverse and relatively pristine coral communities in the nation. Despite their importance, coral reefs across the Emirates have undergone substantial decline in recent decades, and the reefs today represent just a vestige of what occurred in recent memory. Whether these amazing ecosystems continue on the path they are currently on, or take a new trajectory to recovery towards their former grandeur will largely be depending on UAE government institutions taking bold steps to restore and conserve these ecosystems for the benefit of its future citizenry.
References
Aeby GS, Howells E, Work T, Abrego D, Williams GJ, Wedding LM, Caldwell JM, Moritsch M, Burt JA (2020) Localized outbreaks of coral disease on Arabian reefs are linked to extreme temperatures and environmental stressors. Coral Reefs 39:829–846. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-020-01928-4
Allen Coral Atlas (2022) Imagery, maps and monitoring of the world’s tropical coral reefs. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3833242
Anthony K, Bay LK, Costanza R, Firn J, Gunn J, Harrison P, Heyward A, Lundgren P, Mead D, Moore T, Mumby PJ, van Oppen MJH, Robertson J, Runge MC, Suggett DJ, Schaffelke B, Wachenfeld D, Walshe T (2017) New interventions are needed to save coral reefs. Nat Ecol Evol 1:1420–1422. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0313-5
Bartholomew A, Burt JA, Firth LB (2022) Artificial reefs in the Arabian Gulf: benefits, challenges and recommendations for policy-makers. Reg Stud Mar Sci:1–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rsma.2022.102723
Bauman AG, Burt JA, Feary DA, Marquis E, Usseglio P (2010) Tropical harmful algal blooms: an emerging threat to coral reef communities? Mar Pollut Bull 60:2117–2122
Bauman A, Feary D, Heron S, Pratchett MS, Burt J (2012) Multiple environmental factors influence the spatial distribution and structure of reef communities in the northeastern Arabian Peninsula. Mar Pollut Bull 72:302–312
Bauman A, Baird A, Burt J, Pratchett MS, Feary D (2014) Patterns of coral recruitment in an extreme environment: the southern Persian Gulf (Dubai, United Arab Emirates). Mar Ecol Prog Ser 499:115–126
Bayraktarov E, Stewart-Sinclair PJ, Brisbane S, Boström-Einarsson L, Saunders MI, Lovelock CE, Possingham HP, Mumby PJ, Wilson KA (2019) Motivations, success, and cost of coral reef restoration. Restor Ecol 27:981–991. https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.12977
Bejarano I, Orenes-Salazar V, Bento R, García-Charton JA, Mateos-Molina D (2022) Coral reefs at Sir Bu Nair Island: An offshore refuge of Acropora in the southern Arabian Gulf. Mar Pollut Bull 178:113570. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.113570
Ben-Romdhane H, Jabado RW, Grandcourt EM, Perry RJO, Al Blooshi AY, Marpu PR, Ouarda TBMJ, Ghedira H (2020) Coral reefs of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: analysis of management approaches in light of international best practices and a changing climate. Front Mar Sci 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00541
Bento R, Hoey AS, Bauman AG, Feary DA, Burt JA (2016) The implications of recurrent disturbances within the world’s hottest coral reef. Mar Pollut Bull 105:466–472. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.10.006
Bento R, Feary DA, Hoey AS, Burt JA (2017) Settlement patterns of corals and other benthos on reefs with divergent environments and disturbances histories around the northeastern Arabian peninsula. Front Mar Sci 4:1–12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00305
Bento R, Cavalcante G, Mateos-Molina D, Riegl B, Bejarano I (2021) Recruitment and larval connectivity of a remnant Acropora community in the Arabian Gulf, United Arab Emirates. Coral Reefs. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-021-02187-7
Boström-Einarsson L, Babcock RC, Bayraktarov E, Ceccarelli D, Cook N, Ferse SCA, Hancock B, Harrison P, Hein M, Shaver E, Smith A, Suggett D, Stewart-Sinclair PJ, Vardi T, McLeod IM (2020) Coral restoration—a systematic review of current methods, successes, failures and future directions. PLoS One 15:e0226631. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226631
Bouwmeester J, Riera R, Range P, Ben-Hamadou R, Samimi-Namin K, Burt JA (2021) Coral and reef fish communities in the thermally extreme Persian/Arabian Gulf: insights into potential climate change effects. In: Rossi S, Bramanti L (eds) Perspectives on the marine animal forests of the world. Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp 63–86. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57054-5_3
Bouwmeester J, Ben-Hamadou R, Range P, Al Jamali F, Burt JA (2022) Spatial patterns of reef fishes and corals in the thermally extreme waters of Qatar. Front Mar Sci 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.989841
Briggs JC, Bowen BW (2012) A realignment of marine biogeographic provinces with particular reference to fish distributions. J Biogeogr 39:12–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2011.02613.x
Burke L, Reytar K, Spalding M, Perry A (2011) Reefs at risk revisited. World Resources Institute, Washington, DC
Burt J (2013) The growth of coral reef science in the Gulf: A historical perspective. Mar Pollut Bull 72:289–301
Burt J (2014) The environmental costs of coastal urbanization in the Arabian Gulf. City Anal Urban Trends Cult Theory Policy Action 18:760–770. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2014.962889
Burt JA, Bauman AG (2019) Suppressed coral settlement following mass bleaching in the southern Persian/Arabian Gulf. Aquat Ecosyst Health Manag 23(2):166–175. https://doi.org/10.1080/14634988.2019.1676024
Burt J, Bartholomew A, Usseglio P (2008) Recovery of corals a decade after bleaching in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Mar Biol 154:27–36
Burt J, Al-Harthi S, Al-Cibahy A (2011) Long-term impacts of bleaching events on the world’s warmest reefs. Mar Environ Res 72:225–229
Burt J, van Lavieren H, Feary D (2014) Persian Gulf reefs: an important asset for climate science in urgent need of protection. Ocean Challenge 20:49–56
Burt J, Coles S, van Lavieren H, Taylor O, Looker E, Samimi-Namin K (2016) Oman’s coral reefs: A unique ecosystem challenged by natural and man-related stresses and in need of conservation. Mar Pollut Bull 105:498–506. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.11.010
Burt JA, Ben-Hamadou R, Abdel-Moati MAR, Fanning L, Kaitibie S, Al-Jamali F, Range P, Saeed S, Warren CS (2017) Improving management of future coastal development in Qatar through ecosystem-based management approaches. Ocean Coast Manag 148:171–181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2017.08.006
Burt J, Paparella F, Al-Mansoori N, Al-Mansoori A, Al-Jailani H (2019) Causes and consequences of the 2017 coral bleaching event in the southern Persian/Arabian Gulf. Coral Reefs 38:567–589. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-019-01767-y
Burt J, Camp E, Enochs IC, Johansen JL, Morgan KM, Riegl B, Hoey AS (2020) Insights from extreme coral reefs in a changing world. Coral Reefs 39:495–507. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-020-01966-y
Burt J, Bartholomew A, Firth L (2021a) Policy and management considerations for artificial reefs in the Arabian Gulf. Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi Found Policy Res Policy Pap 51:1–31. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.25898.49605
Burt J, Range P, Claereboudt M, Al-Mealla R, Salimi P, Salimi M, Ben-Hamadou R, Bolouki M, Bouwmeester J, Taylor O, Wilson S (2021b) Chapter 4. Status and trends of coral reefs of the ROPME Sea Area. In: Souter D, Planes S, Wicquart J, Logan M, Obura D, Staub F (eds) Status of coral reefs of the world: 2020. ICRI-GCRMN, Lausanne, pp 1–13
Carp E (1976) United Arab Emirates: report of a survey of marine habitats carried out during 3–15 February 1975 promotion of the establishment of marine parks and reserves in the Northern Indian Ocean, including the Red Sea and Persian Gulf: papers and proceedings of the regional meeting held at Tehran, Iran, 6–10 March 1975. IUCN, Gland, pp 107–114
Carpenter K (1997) The corals and coral reef fishes of Kuwait. Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait
Cavalcante GH, Feary DA, Burt JA (2016) The influence of extreme winds on coastal oceanography and its implications for coral population connectivity in the southern Arabian Gulf. Mar Pollut Bull 105:489–497. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.10.031
Cavalcante G, Vieira F, Mortensen J, Ben-Hamadou R, Range P, Goergen E, Campos E, Riegl B (2020) Biophysical model of coral population connectivity in the Arabian/Persian Gulf. Adv Mar Biol 87(1):193–221. Academic. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.amb.2020.07.001
Claereboudt MR (2019) Chapter 2—Oman. In: Sheppard C (ed) World seas: an environmental evaluation, 2nd edn. Academic, London, pp 25–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-100853-9.00002-6
Clark TR, Roff G, Zhao J-x, Feng Y-x, Done TJ, McCook LJ, Pandolfi JM (2017) U-Th dating reveals regional-scale decline of branching Acropora corals on the Great Barrier Reef over the past century. PNAS 114:10350–10355. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1705351114
Coles S (2003) Coral species diversity and environmental factors in the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman: a comparison to the Indo-Pacific region. Atoll Res Bull 507:1–19
Costanza R, de Groot R, Sutton P, van der Ploeg S, Anderson SJ, Kubiszewski I, Farber S, Turner RK (2014) Changes in the global value of ecosystem services. Global Environ Change 26:152–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.04.002
Crisp DJ (1976) Prospects of marine science in the Gulf area—the background paper Marine sciences in the Gulf area: UNESCO Technical Papers in Marine Science 26. UNESCO Division of Marine Science, Paris, pp 19–38
Dana EW, Margaret WM (2005) Coral disease outbreak: pattern, prevalence and transmission in Acropora cervicornis. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 301:119–128
de Groot R, Brander L, van der Ploeg S, Costanza R, Bernard F, Braat L, Christie M, Crossman N, Ghermandi A, Hein L, Hussain S, Kumar P, McVittie A, Portela R, Rodriguez LC, ten Brink P, van Beukering P (2012) Global estimates of the value of ecosystems and their services in monetary units. Ecosyst Serv 1:50–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2012.07.005
de Verneil A, Burt JA, Mitchell M, Paparella F (2021) Summer oxygen dynamics on a southern Arabian Gulf coral reef. Front Mar Sci 8:1676. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.781428
Evans G, Kinsman DJJ, Shearman DJ (1964) A reconnaissance survey of the environment of recent carbonate sedimentation along the trucial coast, Persian Gulf. In: van Straaten LMJU (ed) Developments in sedimentology. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 129–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0070-4571(08)70477-1
Fanning LM, Al-Naimi MN, Range P, Ali A-SM, Bouwmeester J, Al-Jamali F, Burt JA, Ben-Hamadou R (2021) Applying the ecosystem services - EBM framework to sustainably manage Qatar’s coral reefs and seagrass beds. Ocean Coast Manag 205:1–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2021.105566
Foster K, Foster G, Tourenq C, Shuriqi M (2008) Spatial and temporal recovery patterns of coral reefs within the Gulf of Oman (United Arab Emirates) following the 2007 cyclone disturbance. In: Proceedings of the 11th international coral reef symposium, 7–11 July 2008, Ft Lauderdale, FL, pp 731–734
Foster K, Foster G, Tourenq C, Shuriqi M (2011) Shifts in coral community structures following cyclone and red tide disturbances within the Gulf of Oman (United Arab Emirates). Mar Biol 158:955–968
Fox JW, Mourtada-Sabbah N, al-Mutawa M (2006) Heritage revivalism in Sharjah (Chapter 15). In: Globalization and the Gulf. Routledge, Oxon, UK, pp 266–287
Fritz HM, Blount CD, Albusaidi FB, Al-Harthy AHM (2010) Cyclone Gonu storm surge in Oman. Estuarine Coast Shelf Sci 86:102–106
Gilmour JP, Smith LD, Heyward AJ, Baird AH, Pratchett MS (2013) Recovery of an isolated coral reef system following severe disturbance. Science 340:69–71. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1232310
Goudie AS, Parker AG, Al-Farraj A (2000) Coastal change in Ras Al Khaimah (United Arab Emirates): a cartographic analysis. Geograp J 166:14–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4959.2000.tb00003.x
Grandcourt EM, Al-Cibahy A, Al-Harthi S, Bugla I (2011) The abundance, status and bio-economic production potential of coral reef fisheries resources in Abu Dhabi (technical report for project 02-20-0002-11 & 02-21-0006-11). Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Grizzle RE, Ward KM, AlShihi RMS, Burt JA (2016) Current status of coral reefs in the United Arab Emirates: Distribution, extent, and community structure with implications for management. Mar Pollut Bull 105:515–523. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.10.005
Hawker RW (2006) Tribe, house style, and the town layout of Jazirat al-Hamra, Ras al-Khaimah, UAE. Proc Semin Arabian Stud 36:189–198
Hoegh-Guldberg O, Poloczanska ES, Skirving W, Dove S (2017) Coral reef ecosystems under climate change and ocean acidification. Front Mar Sci 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00158
Howells E, Remi N, Bauman AG, Mustafa Y, Watkins KD, Burt JA (2016a) Species-specific trends in the reproductive output of corals across environmental gradients and bleaching histories. Mar Pollut Bull 105:532–539. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.11.034
Howells EJ, Abrego D, Meyer E, Kirk NL, Burt JA (2016b) Host adaptation and unexpected symbiont partners enable reef-building corals to tolerate extreme temperatures. Glob Change Biol 22:2702–2714. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13250
Howells EJ, Dunshea G, McParland D, Vaughan GO, Heron SF, Pratchett MS, Burt JA, Bauman AG (2018) Species-specific coral calcification responses to the extreme environment of the southern Persian Gulf. Front Mar Sci 5:1–13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2018.00056
Howells EJ, Bauman AG, Vaughan GO, Hume BCC, Voolstra CR, Burt JA (2020) Corals in the hottest reefs in the world exhibit symbiont fidelity not flexibility. Mol Ecol 29:899–911. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15372
Howells EJ, Abrego D, Liew YJ, Burt JA, Meyer E, Aranda M (2021) Enhancing the heat tolerance of reef-building corals to future warming. Sci Adv 7:eabg6070. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abg6070
Hume B, D’Angelo C, Burt J, Baker AC, Riegl B, Wiedenmann J (2013) Corals from the Persian/Arabian Gulf as models for thermotolerant reef-builders: Prevalence of clade C3 Symbiodinium, host fluorescence and ex situ temperature tolerance. Mar Pollut Bull 72:313–322. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2012.11.032
Hume B, D’Angelo C, Smith E, Stevens J, Burt J, Wiedenmann J (2015) Symbiodinium thermophilum sp. nov., a thermotolerant symbiotic alga prevalent in corals of the world’s hottest sea, the Persian / Arabian Gulf. Sci Rep 5:1–8
Hume BCC, Voolstra CR, Arif C, D’Angelo C, Burt JA, Eyal G, Loya Y, Wiedenmann J (2016) Ancestral genetic diversity associated with the rapid spread of stress-tolerant coral symbionts in response to Holocene climate change. PNAS 113:4416–4421. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1601910113
Hume BCC, D’Angelo C, Burt JA, Wiedenmann J (2018) Fine-scale biogeographical boundary delineation and sub-population resolution in the Symbiodinium thermophilum coral symbiont group from the Persian/Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. Front Mar Sci 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2018.00138
IUCN U-Wa (2022) Protected planet: The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) and World Database on Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (WD-OECM). UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge, UK
Kendall C, Skipwith P (1969) Geomorphology of a recent shallow-water carbonate province: Khor Al Bazam, Trucial Coast, Southwest Persian Gulf. GSA Bull 80:865–892. https://doi.org/10.1130/0016-7606(1969)80[865:Goarsc]2.0.Co;2
King G (1997) The history of the UAE: The eve of Islam of the Islamic period perspectives on the United Arab Emirates. Trident Press, London, pp 74–94
Kinsman DJJ (1964a) Reef coral tolerance of high temperatures and salinities. Nature 202:1280–1282
Kinsman DJJ (1964b) The recent carbonate sediments near Halat El Bahrani, trucial coast, Persian Gulf. In: van Straaten LMJU (ed) Developments in sedimentology. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 185–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0070-4571(08)70485-0
Lachkar Z, Mehari M, Al Azhar M, Lévy M, Smith S (2021) Fast local warming is the main driver of recent deoxygenation in the northern Arabian Sea. Biogeosciences 18:5831–5849. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-5831-2021
Lamine EB, Mateos-Molina D, Antonopoulou M, Burt JA, Das HS, Javed S, Muzaffar S, Giakoumi S (2020) Identifying coastal and marine priority areas for conservation in the United Arab Emirates. Biodivers Conserv 29:2967–2983. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-020-02007-4
Lincoln S, Buckley P, Howes EL, Maltby KM, Pinnegar JK, Ali TS, Alosairi Y, Al-Ragum A, Baglee A, Balmes CO, Hamadou RB, Burt JA, Claereboudt M, Glavan J, Mamiit RJ, Naser HAA, Sedighi O, Shokri MR, Shuhaibar B, Wabnitz CCC, Le Quesne WJF (2021) A regional review of marine and coastal impacts of climate change on the ROPME Sea area. Sustainability 13:13810. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132413810
Lorimer JG (1908) Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman, and Central Arabia. Superintendent Government Printing, Calcutta
Loya Y, Sakai K, Yamazato K, Nakano Y, Sambali H, Van Woesik R (2001) Coral bleaching: the winners and the losers. Ecol Lett 4:122–131
Maghsoudlou A, Araghi PE, Wilson S, Taylor O, Medio D (2008) Status of coral reefs in the ROPME sea area (The Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, and Arabian Sea) status of coral reefs of the world: 2008. Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network and Reef and Rainforest Research Center, Townsville, Australia
Mateos-Molina D, Antonopoulou M, Baldwin R, Bejarano I, Burt JA, Garcia-Charton JA, Al-Ghais SM, Walgamage J, Taylor OJS (2020) Applying an integrated approach to coastal marine habitat mapping in the north-western United Arab Emirates. Mar Environ Res 161:105095. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2020.105095
Mateos-Molina D, Ben Lamine E, Antonopoulou M, Burt JA, Das HS, Javed S, Judas J, Khan SB, Muzaffar SB, Pilcher N, Rodriguez-Zarate CJ, Taylor OJS, Giakoumi S (2021) Synthesis and evaluation of coastal and marine biodiversity spatial information in the United Arab Emirates for ecosystem-based management. Mar Pollut Bull 167:112319. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112319
Murray JW (1970) The Foraminifera of the hypersaline Abu Dhabi lagoon, Persian Gulf. Lethaia 3:51–68. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1502-3931.1970.tb01263.x
Petersen A (2012) Coastal Settlement in South-East Arabia during the Islamic Period. In: Potts DT, Hellyer P (eds) Fifty years of Emirates archaeology. Motivate, Dubai, pp 203–211
Pratchett MS, Baird AH, Bauman AG, Burt JA (2017) Abundance and composition of juvenile corals reveals divergent trajectories for coral assemblages across the United Arab Emirates. Mar Pollut Bull 114:1031–1035. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.11.036
Purser BH, Evans G (1973) Regional sedimentation along the Trucial Coast, SE Persian Gulf. In: Purser B (ed) The Persian Gulf. Springer, Berlin, pp 211–231. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-65545-6_13
Pyle RL, Copus JM (2019) Mesophotic coral ecosystems: introduction and overview. In: Loya Y, Puglise KA, Bridge TCL (eds) Mesophotic coral ecosystems. Springer, Cham, pp 3–27. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92735-0_1
Riegl B (1999) Corals in a non-reef setting in the southern Arabian Gulf (Dubai, UAE): Fauna and community structure in response to recurring mass mortality. Coral Reefs 18:63–73
Riegl B (2002) Effects of the 1996 and 1998 positive sea-surface temperature anomalies on corals, coral diseases and fish in the Arabian Gulf (Dubai, UAE). Mar Biol 140:29–40
Riegl B, Purkis S (2012) Environmental constraints for reef building in the Gulf. In: Riegl BM, Purkis SJ (eds) Coral reefs of the Gulf: adaptation to climatic extremes. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 5–32. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3008-3_2
Riegl B, Purkis S (2015) Coral population dynamics across consecutive mass mortality events. Glob Change Biol 21:3995–4005. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13014
Riegl BM, Purkis SJ, Al-Cibahy AS, Abdel-Moati MA, Hoegh-Guldberg O (2011) Present limits to heat-adaptability in corals and population-level responses to climate extremes. PLoS One 6:e24802
Riegl BM, Benzoni F, Samimi-Namin K, Sheppard C (2012) The hermatypic scleractinian (hard) coral fauna of the Gulf. In: Riegl B, Purkis S (eds) Coral reefs of the Gulf: adaptation to climatic extremes. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 187–224
Riegl B, Johnston M, Purkis S, Howells E, Burt J, Steiner S, Sheppard C, Bauman A (2018) Population collapse dynamics in Acropora downingi, an Arabian/Persian Gulf ecosystem-engineering coral, linked to rising temperature. Glob Change Biol 24:2447–2462. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14114
Sheppard C, Loughland R (2002) Coral mortality and recovery in response to increasing temperature in the southern Arabian Gulf. Aquat Ecosyst Health Manag 5:395–402
Sheppard C, Sheppard A (1991) Corals and coral communities of Arabia. Fauna Arabia 12:3–170
Sheppard C, Price A, Roberts C (1992) Marine ecology of the Arabian region: patterns and processes in extreme tropical environments. Academic, Toronto
Sheppard CRC, Wilson SC, Salm RV, Dixon D (2000) Reefs and coral communities of the Arabian Gulf and Arabian Sea. In: McClanahan T, Sheppard C, Obura DE (eds) Coral reefs of the Indian Ocean: their ecology and conservation. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 257–292
Sheppard C, Al-Husiani M, Al-Jamali F, Al-Yamani F, Baldwin R, Bishop J, Benzoni F, Dutrieux E, Dulvy N, Durvasula S, Jones D, Loughland R, Medio D, Nithyanandan M, Pilling G, Polikarpov I, Price A, Purkis S, Riegl B, Saburova M, Namin K, Taylor O, Wilson S, Zainal K (2010) The Gulf: A young sea in decline. Mar Pollut Bull 60:13–38
Smith EG, Vaughan GO, Ketchum RN, McParland D, Burt JA (2017) Symbiont community stability through severe coral bleaching in a thermally extreme lagoon. Sci Rep 7:1–9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-01569-8
Smith EG, Hazzouri KM, Choi JY, Delaney P, Al-Kharafi M, Howells EJ, Aranda M, Burt JA (2022) Signatures of selection underpinning rapid coral adaptation to the world’s warmest reefs. Sci Adv 8:eabl7287. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abl7287
Souter D, Planes S, Wicquart J, Logan M, Obura D, Staub F (2021) Executive summary. In: Souter DPS, Wicquart J, Logan M, Obura D, Staub F (eds) Status of coral reefs of the world: 2020. GCRMN, Lausanne, pp 14–19
van Oppen MJH, Oliver JK, Putnam HM, Gates RD (2015) Building coral reef resilience through assisted evolution. PNAS 112:2307–2313. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1422301112
Vaughan GO, Burt JA (2016) The changing dynamics of coral reef science in Arabia. Mar Pollut Bull 105:441–458. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.10.052
Vaughan GO, Al-Mansoori N, Burt J (2019) The Arabian Gulf. In: Sheppard C (ed) World Seas: an environmental evaluation, 2nd edn. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-100853-9.00001-4
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
Copyright information
© 2024 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Burt, J.A. (2024). Coral Reefs of the Emirates. In: Burt, J.A. (eds) A Natural History of the Emirates. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37397-8_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37397-8_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-37396-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-37397-8
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)