ELAT (GULF OF AQABA) LITTORAL: LIFE ON THE RED LINE OF BIODEGRADATION

Abstract

ABSTRACT During the last three decades, intensive industrialization along the head of the Gulf of Aqaba has adversely affected the shallow water community, including the fringing coral reef. The main factors in this biodegradation and species extinction appear to be domestic and industrial effluents, dust from fertilizers from the harbor-loading station, and oil spills. In the last decade, tourism became a major negative factor, especially at the Elat Coral Reserve. The most prominent result of this deterioration is the depletion of the soft-bottom communities, with a serious decline in macro-infauna, such as echinoderms and some gastropod molluscs, and the dominance of nematodes and polychaetes on the polluted sites. The decline is also documented in the intertidal Tetraclita-Cellana community, which disappeared along with accompanying species. This has also been observed in the Coral Reserve. A similar decline is also seen in tidal fish populations of blennies, gobies, and singnathids. Pollution in the ...