Vulnerability of the marine ecosystem to climate change impacts in the Arabian Gulfdan urgent need for more research
AUTHORS: A. Ben-Hasan, V. Christensen. ABSTRACT: Climate change, represented by ever-rising ocean temperatures, is a mounting threat to the marine ecosystem and its services. This is most evident in the longitudinal and depth related migrations of the ectothermic species. Although the impacts of climate change on the marine ecosystem of the Arabian Gulf are expected to be exacerbated -- owing to its semi-enclosed basin that limits species range shift, extreme environmental conditions, overfishing, and pollutiond very few studies have been carried out to evaluate such impacts. Here, we conduct a systematic review of literature over the period 1950-2018 to assess the status of knowledge about climate change impacts on the Arabian Gulf's marine ecosystem and fisheries resources. We found that this region suffers a significant research gap in this critical subject, with only a handful of studies that explicitly addresses the effects of climate change. Our finding raises an urgent need for initiating long-term monitoring programs, along with establishing effective transboundary institutions to advance the current knowledge in climate change. Published by Elsevier - Global Ecology and Conservation. Volume 17, January 2019. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
Vulnerability of the marine ecosystem to climate change impacts in the Arabian Gulfdan urgent need for more research.pdf
