Recruitment of marine biota onto hard and soft artificially created subtidal habitats in Sabah Al-Ahmad Sea City, Kuwait

• Published in: Marine pollution bulletin 2013-07, Vol.72 (2), p.351-356
• Main Authors: Jones, David A., Nithyanandan, Manickam
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Aquatic Organisms - physiology; Artificial habitats; Benthos; Biodiversity; Biota; coastal water; community development; Conservation of Natural Resources - methods; Coral Reefs; dredging; Ecosystem; Environmental Restoration and Remediation - methods; habitats; Kuwait; Patterns; Recruitment rates; remediation; sand; species diversity; surveys; Water Movements; water pollution
• ISSN: 0025-326X; 1879-3363
• DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2012.11.001

► Surveys of artificial soft benthos allows estimation of recruitment rates for benthos. ► Species richness equivalent to that in the open sea may be achieved in 4years. ► Richness is further enhanced by provision of mixed habitat and local seed sources. ► Abundance of biota in soft benthos reaches levels seen in open sea within 1year. ► Community structure takes 2–4years to reach the structure seen in open sea benthos. Remediation of coastal habitats from impacts such as dredging and excavation in Gulf coastal waters is hampered by a lack of information on natural recolonisation rates and recruitment patterns of subtidal biota. For soft substrate habitats recovery information is only available for severely polluted sites where recovery takes many years (Jones et al., 2008). Construction of the Sabah Al-Ahmad Sea City provides a unique opportunity to follow benthic recruitment and community development on a range of artificially created benthic habitats over time. The three phases completed were each flooded by the sea separately and annual ecological surveys allow comparison of colonisation patterns and community development rates over time. Species diversity similar to that seen in comparable natural open sea habitats is reached within 2–5years for mixed sand/rock biota, but longer (2–6years) for sand biota. Biotic abundance exceeds open sea levels within 1–2years due to settlement of opportunistic species. Coral recruitment occurred within 3years. Present data provides a reference point for recovery rates into none polluted benthic habitats for the Gulf.