Analysis of the spatio-temporal variability of seawater quality in the southeastern Arabian Gulf

Nahla Mezhoud, Marouane Temimi, Jun Zhao, Maryam Rashed Al Shehhi, Mohamed Hosni Ghedira

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this study, seawater quality measurements, including salinity, sea surface temperature (SST), chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), Secchi disk depth (SDD), pH, and dissolved oxygen (DO), were made from June 2013 to November 2014 at 52 stations in the southeastern Arabian Gulf. Significant variability was noticed for all collected parameters. Salinity showed a decreasing trend, and Chl-a, DO, pH, and SDD demonstrated increasing trends from shallow onshore stations to deep offshore ones, which could be attributed to variations of ocean circulation and meteorological conditions from onshore to offshore waters, and the likely effects of desalination plants along the coast. Salinity and temperature were high in summer and low in winter while Chl-a, SDD, pH, and DO indicated an opposite trend. The CTD profiles showed vertically well-mixed structures. Qualitative analysis of phytoplankton showed a high diversity of species without anomalous species found except in Ras Al Khaimah stations where diatoms were the dominating ones.

Original languageBritish English
Pages (from-to)127-138
Number of pages12
JournalMarine Pollution Bulletin
Volume106
Issue number1-2
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 May 2016

Keywords

  • Phytoplankton species
  • Seasonality
  • United Arab Emirates
  • Water quality

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