Shifting environmental baselines in the Red Sea.
The Red Sea is among the world's top marine biodiversity hotspots. We re-examined coastal ecosystems at sites surveyed during the 1980s using the same methodology. Coral cover increased significantly towards the north, mirroring the reverse pattern for mangroves and other sedimentary ecosystems. Latitudinal patterns are broadly consistent across both surveys and with results from independent studies. Coral cover showed greatest change, declining significantly from a median score of 4 (1000-9999 m(2)) to 2 (10-99m(2)) per quadrat in 2010/11. This may partly reflect impact from coastal construction, which was evident at 40% of sites and has significantly increased in magnitude over 30 years. Beach oil has significantly declined, but shore debris has increased significantly. Although substantial, levels are lower than at some remote ocean atolls. While earlier reports have suggested that the Red Sea is generally healthy, shifting environmental baselines are evident from the current study.
Environment Department, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK; School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK. Electronic address: andrew.price@warwick.ac.uk.
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Price
Presidency of Meteorology & Environment (PME), P.O. Box 1358, Jeddah 21431, Saudi Arabia.
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Ghazi
emapsite, Masdar House, 1 Reading Road, Eversley, Hants RG27 0RP, UK.
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Tkaczynski
School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.
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Venkatachalam
HUTA Environmental Works Ltd., P.O. Box 1830, Jeddah 21441, Saudi Arabia.
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Santillan
HUTA Environmental Works Ltd., P.O. Box 1830, Jeddah 21441, Saudi Arabia.
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Pancho
emapsite, Masdar House, 1 Reading Road, Eversley, Hants RG27 0RP, UK.
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Metcalfe
emapsite, Masdar House, 1 Reading Road, Eversley, Hants RG27 0RP, UK.
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Saunders
D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa / Q000145:classification* / Q000254:growth & development; D044822:Biodiversity; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D057894:Coral Reefs; D003625:Data Collection; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D019156:Indian Ocean
Coral reefs; Ecosystem health; Rapid environmental assessment; Red Sea