Download - Coral reefs in Saudi Arabia: 3.5 years after the Gulf War oil spill

Coral Reefs (1995) 14:271-273

�9 Springer-Verlag 1995 ~

Coral reefs in Saudi Arabia: 3.5 years after the Gulf War oil spill

H. P. Vogt*

Zentrum ftir Marine Tropen6kologie, Klagenfurter Strasse GEO, D-28359 Bremen, Germany

Accepted: 14 June 1995

Abstract. As a consequence of the 1991 Gulf War, 6-8 million barrels of oil were released into the marine environment and a total of 1.12 billion barrels were burned in the Kuwaiti oil fields. In order to detect delayed effects of the Gul f War pollution, six permanent transect lines were placed on Saudi Arabian offshore and inshore reefs. A comparison of three sets of video recordings taken between 1992 and 1994 indicated a significant increase in live coral cover. Therefore, it has been concluded that corals in Saudi Arabia survived the largest oil spill on record remarkably unscathed, with no visible signs of immediate or late effects up to 3.5 years after the Gul f War.

Introduction

The high latitude reefs of the Arabian Gul f occur in an environment with great extremes of temperature (Shinn 1976; Downing 1985; Coles and Fadlallah 1991), salinity and turbidity (Sheppard and Wells 1988). The corals exist close to their distribution limits in areas where winter water temperatures may fall below 14 ~ (Coles and Fadlallah 1991) and summer water temperatures may exceed 40 ~ (Roberts et al. 1993). In this harsh environment the largest oil spill on record was released potentially endangering the marine life. Another potential threat came f rom the shading effect of the plumes caused by the burning oil wells in Kuwait , which reduced the temperature to well below normal (Downing 1992; McCain et al. 1993). Large amounts of oil have frequently been reported in the vicinity of coral reefs (for review Loya and Rinkevich 1980, 1987), but so far only a few cases of coral damage have been reported (Jackson et al. 1989; GuzmAn et al. 1991). This study aimed to detect possible changes in

* P r e s e n t a d d r e s s : C e n t r e f o r t h e E s t a b l i s h m e n t o f M a r i n e R e s e r v e s i n

Negros Oriental, CEMRINO, P.O. Box 187, 6200 Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, Philippines

the live coral cover that may have occurred as delayed consequences of the Gul f War oil spill.

Material and methods

Between 1992-1994 six permanent transect lines, each 50 m in length, were recorded three times (June/July 1992, May/June 1993, June/July 1994) using a S-VHS video system. Two transect lines each were placed perpendicular to the shoreline of the islands of Karan and Jana and the peninsula of Abu All (Fig. 1). On each transect line 100 quadrats (each 50 x 50 cm) were placed and video recordings of all quadrats were taken with the transect line being in the centre. The video tapes were stopped whenever one quadrat was completely visible. The video images were used to count life forms and substrate types (Carleton and Done 1995) underneath five score points (Bludszuweit 1993). A maximum of 500 counts were obtained for one transect.

Data were analyzed for changes in live coral cover with the SPSS-programme using repeated-measures of analysis of variance (ANOVA) following the procedure described by Potvin et al. (1990). The compound symmetry of the variance-covariance matrix was automatically tested with the Mauchly's sphericity test. The strict Mauchly's criterion test rejected the symmetry assumption. However, the symmetry assumption was not violated as indicated by the Huynh-Feldt epsilon = 1.00 and the Greenhouse-Geisser Epsilon = 0.91. Because both epsilon values were close to 1.00 corrected values automatically computed by SPSS were used. The Helmert contrast was emploYed to detect significant differences between adjacent years.

Results

Mean live coral cover profiles among the three sites in Saudi Arabia were not significantly different. However, A N O V A indicated a significant change in the live coral cover over time (P<0.05). The Helmert contrast showed that adjacent years had significantly different live coral cover (P < 0.05). The significant change in live coral cover was equivalent to an increase of 6.9% between the summers 1992-1994 (Fig. 2).

Discussion

During the Gul f War the largest oil spill on record was released into the marine environment of the northern

272

• Kuwait ~ 1

~;~::;:, i : , ::~:;,~,?', e Jan8 I I'D.- ,iii ;iI "I!!.;; -~ I @~I !1 I!! 11 lt;l~;,=i~l ] i? Iii=I!I 1~;I' I iI,I~.~!~ II,

r I /]~ii I I 1:~:i1 ~l~'iI ii> r i l ! ~ l ~ i I i : I I : I ; I l i l l i , ~ ' J ur~yd ~-; !iiii.! rl : i !!I I i!i !1~ "iIiI~" ! 11s 11i i ~1; , i%!!11i ! i I~ !ii !i I l)'iii!il;iliili !G)~ i :]iilIi: i !1':" I i : i ii!:!i

iI(, D IIIi!111!1i !~I! )i~i@Iii i)!!i~i,i! !!i!~,1 !]~ !~'i:i) I : I =iii

!i,;;ilii -5:i (~,g

I I iii~: ~IIII;Ictt ~#21!i!f I i t i i ) i i : i ):, , ' !~ ( i t t i ' : ! f i 1 I # b%%,,~"

I i i= I i i : ; ; ; " ! i i : i i i ' ! i l i i l l i l i : I i i ! 1 i i IIII!@;iI~]!ili!111i)Ii~ '-! 1,:/;; lll~ii~'ill!~'L"ll!~'~;~'::~iiI:=}iiiIi; l l r" i , I~ ii;~ i 11i I Ii =i I J i; ii i]i i~ ~21 )s iI( i

i i i i , :~,. i i ! I i;,'ii Iii Iii~II~ii

Fig. 1. Location of the study sites in Abu Ali, Karan and Jana, Saudi Arabia

May 1992, Fadlallah et al. (1993a,b) observed no signs of impact on corals in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar. In November 1992, Roberts (1993) also conducted a coral reef survey at Karan, Jana and Abu Ali and found that the corals were healthy and that the fish communities were similar to those recorded before the war. In the present study, a comparison of six transects at three sites indicated a significant increase in live coral cover between the summers 1992-94. In line with the findings of Fadlallah etal. (1993a,b) and Downing and Roberts (1993a,b) Saudi Arabian reefs appeared to have relatively high coral cover values ranging between 36-58% (Fadlallah et al. 1993a) and 13-54% (Vogt 1994). The Saudi Arabian coral reefs showed no detectable impact of the Gulf War and live coral cover increased during the period of investigation.

Acknowledgements. I am grateful to Greenpeace International and to T. Henningsen, A. Melles and Dr. D. Nasr for their continuous support during the fieldwork. The study of the possible late effects was conducted in the framework of the Jubail Marine Wildlife Sanctuary- project funded partly by the CEC, contract number B7-5040192/06. I wish to express my gratitude for the great support I received by the project members, namely by Dr. F. Krupp and T. Miller. I am indebted to an anonymous reviewer for his constructive criticism and especially to A.R.F. Montebon for the statistical analysis and his comments on the manuscript.

References

4 5

4 0

8 2s

8 2o

= l S

5

0

'92

/

I I

'93 '94

s u m m e r months

Fig. 2. C~ live c~ c~ at three sites (Karan' Jana' Abu Ali) over the period 1992-1994. Bars indicate standard deviation of the mean

Gulf. No accurate calculations about the total amount are available, however most estimates range between 6-8 million barrels (McKinnon and Vine 1991; Downing 1992; Roberts et a l . 1993). Roughly the same amount was burned each day in the oil fields. The total emission up to November 1991, was estimated to be 1 i 12 billion barrels (Sadiq and McCain 1993).

Damage to Kuwaiti coral reefs were reported after the Gulf War (Fadlallah et al. t993a,b, Downing and Roberts 1993a,b). However, Price et al. (1994) concluded that the patchy nature and the limited extent of mortalities, together with the known history of coral kills, made it unlikely that Gulf War pollution was the primary cause. In

Bludszuweit G (1993) Comparative study on three leeward fringing reefs &continental islands in the lagoon of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Diplomarbeit, Minchen, Germany

Carleton JH, Done TJ (1995) Quantitative video sampling of coral reef benthos: large-scale application. Coral Reefs 14135-46

Coles SL, Fadlallah YH (1991) Reef coral survival and mortality at low temperatures in the Arabian Gulf: new species-specific lower temperature limits. Coral Reefs 9:231-237

Downing N (1985) Coral reef communities in an extreme environment: the Northwestern Arabian Gulf. Proc 5th Int Coral Reef Cong, Tahiti, 1985, 6:343-348

Downing N (1992) Kuwaits' coral reefs: what future after the Gulf War? Proc 7th Int Coral Reef Syrup 2:959-968

Downing N, Roberts C (1993a) Impact of the Gulf War Reef on the coral reefs on Kuwait: results of the November/December survey. Report to the IUCN the World Conservation Union

Downing N, Roberts C (1993b) Has the Gulf War affected coral reefs of the Northwestern Gulf?. Mar Pollut Bull 27:14%156

Fadlallah H, Eakin CM, Allen KW, Estudillo RA, Rahim SA, Reaka- Kudla M, Earle SA (1993a) Reef coral distribution and repro- duction, community structure and reef health (Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait): results of the Mt. Mitchell cruise, May 1992. ROPME, pp 1-28

Fadlallah YH, Eakin CM, Allen KW, Estudillo RA, Rahim SA, Jaubert J, Al-Sofyaul A, Reaka-Kudla, M, Earle SA, Randall J, Kayal S, Cava F (1993b) Assessment of coral reef ecosystems in the ROPME sea area following the 1991 Gulf War oil spill Abstr Results of the Mt. Mitchell Cruise, May 1992. ROPME

Guzm~m HM, Jackson JBC, Well E (1991) Short-term ecological consequences of a major oil spill on Panamanian snbtidal reef corals. Coral Reefs t0:1-12

Jackson JBC, Cubit JD, Keller BD, Batista V, Burns K, Caffey HM, Caldwell RL, Garrity SD, Getter CD, Gonzalez C, Guzmfin HM, Kaufmann KW, Knap AH, Levings SC, Marshall MJ, Steger R, Thompson RC, Weil E (1989) Ecological effects of a major oil spill on Panamanian coastal marine com-munities. Science 243:37-44

273

Loya Y, Rinkevich B (1980) Effects of oil pollution on coral reef communities. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 3:167-180

Loya Y, Rinkevich B (1987) Effects of hydrocarbons on corals. Human impacts on corn reefs: facts and recommendations. Salvat B (ed) EPHE, pp 91-102

McCain JC, Beard DW, Fadlallah YH (1993) The influence of the Kuwait oil well fires on seawater temperature in the Western Arabian Gulf. Mar Pollut Bull 27:79-84

McKinnon M, Vine P (1991) Tides of war. London, England Potvin C, Echowicz M J, Tardif S (1990) The statistical analysis of

ecophysiological response curves obtained from experiments involving repeated measures. Ecology 71(4): 1389-1400

Price AGR, Downing N, Fowler SW, Hardy JT, Le Tissier M, Mathews CP, McGlade JM, Medley PAH, Oregoni B, Readman JW, Roberts CM, Wrathall TJ (1994) The 1991 Gulf War. Environmental Assessments of IUCN and Collaborators. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland

Roberts C (1993) Impact of the Gulf War on the coral reefs of Saudi Arabia: results of the November 1992 survey. Report to the World Conservation Union IUCN: 1-18

Roberts CM, Downing N, Price ARG (1993) Oil on troubled waters: impact of the Gulf War on coral reefs. In: Ginsburg RN (ed) Global aspects of coral reefs: health, hazards and history. University of Miami, pp 35-41

Sadiq M, McCain JC (1993) The Gulf War aftermath, Kluwer Academic Publisher, Dordrecht

Sheppard CRC, Wells SM (eds) (1988) Coral reefs of the World 2: Indian Ocean, Red Sea and Gulf. IUCNtUNEP. Nairobi, Kenya

Shinn EA (1976) Coral reef recovery in Florida and the Persian Gulf. Environ Geol 1:24t-254

Vogt H (1994) Status of the corm reefs after the Gulf War. In: The status of coastal and marine habitats two years after the Gulf War oil spill. Abuzinada AH, Krupp F (eds) Courier Senckenberg 166: 61-66

Download - Coral reefs in Saudi Arabia: 3.5 years after the Gulf War oil spill

Top Related