Abstract
In this paper, we obtain tidal constituents and discuss observations of tidal and wind variations and its impact on water surface elevation at Zaki’s Reef; a fringing coral reef located in the Red Sea-Gulf of Suez. This manuscript focuses on investigating if tidal forces are playing a key role to keep the area’s unique coral reefs alive and well. Determining the reasons why coral species and community of organisms found here survive despite all stressors is critical, and such information may hold the key to the preservation of reefs elsewhere. Phase and amplitude for 35 tidal constituents were deducted from observations of water surface elevation at the study site (first of its kind). The main tidal constituents based on their amplitudes are: M2, N2, S2, K1, NU2, K2, 2Ns, L2, and MU2. The first five tidal constituents of the aforementioned list are enough to reproduce accurate predictions of tides at this location (R2 variance = 87.54% and RMS = 0.167). The Tidal Form number (0.07) at Zaki’s Reef indicates a fully semidiurnal dominated tidal regime. Moreover, the Sa and Ssa constituents obtained from nearby stations made no improvements on tidal prediction results. Spectral analysis results of the white noise (residuals) from observed water surface elevation are dominated by daily frequency, suggesting that local wind plays a key role in circulation at study site. Local wind generated southerly long-shore and year-round offshore wind stress with a mean of -0.36 & 0.35 , respectively. The persistent longshore and offshore currents help transport oil patches/spills, from the two nearby ports, away from the reef. Yet, offshore wind stress, pushing water away from the shore, may cause more exposure of the reef to extreme atmospheric conditions. We hypothesize that the repeated reef exposure to the combined effect of tides and offshore wind stress over many years may have played a key role in selecting and then enhancing corals ability, through training, to become more adaptable to those harsh conditions. Training of corals over the years, may have led to the dominance of only six species, out of 35 coral species known to exist in the gulf. Those heat-adopted dominant species can be used to stimulate and revive impacted coral sites elsewhere.
Highlights
Tidal motions of the Red Sea are important to the functioning of the coral reef located along its shores (i.e., Fringing or Marginal reefs)
The current study was driven mainly by scientific curiosity regarding the discovery of a fringing coral reef ecosystem that thrived at extremely high latitude
We integrated other environmental data collection to investigate, why this fringing coral reef is flourishing at such high latitude? Such information may hold the key to the preservation of reefs elsewhere
Summary
Tidal motions of the Red Sea are important to the functioning of the coral reef located along its shores (i.e., Fringing or Marginal reefs). Changes in water surface elevations due to tidal forces can be important to shallow fringing reef features and occasionally exposing resident corals to wave action and increasing the likelihood of drying out at low tides [2]. Fringing coral reefs have been extensively studied in the Gulf of Aqaba; yet, tidal forces and wind actions and their impacts on fringing coral reefs along the Red Sea are the least studied, in the Gulf of Suez ([3] [4] and [5]). The fact that only six coral species dominated the study site promoted us to investigate why those six at this location and what might be the reason(s) behind their survival in such an extreme environment?
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