Modern Benthic Foraminiferal Diversity: An Initial Insight into the Total Foraminiferal Diversity along the Kuwait Coastal Water

Eqbal Al-Enezi,Sawsan Khader,Eszter Balassi,Fabrizio Frontalini

doi:10.3390/d12040142

Abstract

Kuwait territorial water hosts an important part of national biodiversity (i.e., zooplankton and phytoplankton), but very limited information exists on the overall diversity of benthic foraminifera. On the basis of the integration of publications, reports and theses with new available data from the Kuwait Bay and the northern islands, this study infers the total benthic foraminiferal diversity within Kuwait territorial water. This new literature survey documents the presence of 451 species belonging to 156 genera, 64 families, 31 superfamilies and 9 orders. These values are relatively high in consideration of the limited extension and the shallow depth of the Kuwait territorial water. Kuwait waters offer a variety of different environments and sub-environments (low salinity/muddy areas in the northern part, embayment, rocky tidal flats, coral reef systems, islands and shelf slope) that all together host largely diversified benthic foraminiferal communities. These figures are herein considered as underestimated because of the grouping of unassigned species due to the lack of reference collections and materials, as well as the neglection of the soft-shell monothalamids (‘allogromiids’).

Highlights

Checklists, lists of species, represent the baseline for the implementation of natural conservation biodiversity plans and are important inventories for wildlife management, species protection and biogeographical studies
The main objective of the present paper is to provide a checklist of recent benthic foraminiferal species and to infer the total biodiversity of this group of organisms in the Kuwait coastal marine areas on the basis of the available dataset published in the last fifty years, coupled with original data
The implementation of natural conservation plans requires an accurate knowledge of the ecosystem, biodiversity and ecosystem services

Summary

Introduction

Checklists, lists of species, represent the baseline for the implementation of natural conservation biodiversity plans and are important inventories for wildlife management, species protection and biogeographical studies Such inventories become even more essential in the context of global climatic change and in areas with a high degree of endemism or in those threatened by pollution. In this context, the Arabian Gulf, an extension of the Indian Ocean, is known for the largest reservoirs of petroleum, as well as for its unique oceanographical conditions and endemic biota adapted to extreme conditions. The rapid economic development and antropogenization of the Gulf coupled with the peculiar climatic features of the region and the relatively shallow and reduced size of the basin have led to a deterioration of natural habitats [3]

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