Shifting environmental baselines in the Red Sea

•Without periodic monitoring, environmental change can easily occur, undetected.•We examined ecosystem health at 61 Red Sea sites assessed in the 1980s.•Coral cover declined markedly, mirroring increased coastal construction.•Although beach oil declined, shore debris has increased significantly.•Muc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Marine pollution bulletin Vol. 78; no. 1-2; pp. 96 - 101
Main Authors:	Price, A.R.G., Ghazi, S.J., Tkaczynski, P.J., Venkatachalam, A.J., Santillan, A., Pancho, T., Metcalfe, R., Saunders, J.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 15-01-2014 Elsevier
Subjects:	Animal and plant ecology Animal, plant and microbial ecology Animals Anthozoa - classification Anthozoa - growth & development Applied ecology Biodiversity Biological and medical sciences Conservation of Natural Resources Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife Coral Reefs Data Collection Ecosystem health Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution Environmental Monitoring Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology General aspects Indian Ocean Marine and brackish environment Parks, reserves, wildlife conservation. Endangered species: population survey and restocking Rapid environmental assessment Red Sea Sea water ecosystems Synecology Indian Ocean Red Sea ISW, Red Sea Coral reefs Red Sea Ecosystem health Rapid environmental assessment Marine environment Ecosystem Coral reef Environmental monitoring Environmental protection Environment quality
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Summary:	•Without periodic monitoring, environmental change can easily occur, undetected.•We examined ecosystem health at 61 Red Sea sites assessed in the 1980s.•Coral cover declined markedly, mirroring increased coastal construction.•Although beach oil declined, shore debris has increased significantly.•Much of the Red Sea remains healthy but negative changes over 30years are evident. 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 (1000–9999m2) to 2 (10–99m2) 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 30years. 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.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0025-326X 1879-3363
DOI:	10.1016/j.marpolbul.2013.10.055